Subcutanean 36619

Aaron a Reed
Completed 2/24/2022, Reviewed 2/24/2022
3 stars

This is a weird horror novel, but more interestingly, it’s a permutation novel.  Every copy is different, with different words, sentences, even whole scenes.  So this review is for copy 36619.  The basic premise is pretty inventive.  The basement of a house is a coming together of parallel universes and two college students try to traverse it.  The prose is good and the characterization is really good.  The main character is gay and trying really hard not to be in love with his best friend.  It covers a lot of issues as he reflects on his past, but never detracts from the plot.  This self-published book was nominated for a 2021 Lambda Literary Award.

Orion, aka Ry or Ryan, and his best friend Niko have recently moved into a big house their senior year of college along with quite a few other students.  Ry finds a passageway to a basement through his bedroom floor.  He and Niko explore it a bit, finding it appears to be much larger than the house, with long halls, empty rooms, and lit sconces.  Their curiosity grows and they return to the basement over and over, going farther and farther in.  One day, they find a kitchen deep in the basement with a locked fridge.  But when they come out the other side of it, they seem to be back in the kitchen.  Soon they realize that they’ve entered another universe with little details that are different.  Quickly they start to get headaches and realize they must soon find their way back to their own world.  But that turns out to be a little more difficult than they expected.

Not a traditional horror novel, it’s sort of a cross between a haunted house and a science fiction-y parallel universe.  The horror comes from the guys not being able to find their way back, as well as running into their doppelgangers from the other universes.  Not all are as sweet and average as they are.  Some are zombie like, walking around rather aimlessly.  Others are more coherent, just mirror images of themselves.  And then there are the violent ones, the doppelgangers who have gone crazy from being trapped in the basement and not finding their way back to their own worlds.  The real horror lies in the possibility of never finding the correct universe they need to be in and being lost forever.

I liked both Orion and Niko.  Orion is completely uncomfortable with himself: with his appearance, emotions, his sexuality, and his feelings toward Niko.  He tries to bury everything deep inside himself so he doesn’t have to deal with anything.  The book does take place a few decades ago, in a little more realistically difficult time to be gay.  Niko is a lot more self-assured, though he’s more aimless in life.  He changes his major every quarter, has a tenuous relationship with his traditionally Greek family, and is basically a rather typical young straight college guy.  Still the two fit each other like hands in gloves.  

I really liked the book for the most part.  The introduction to the basement was creepy at first, then was a little boring for a while.  It felt like the author couldn’t keep the level of tension up through the exploration of different hallways and doors.  But then when they get trapped in the alternate universe, it really takes off.  Shortly after that, the doppelgangers appear to them consciously and it gets very creepy again.  I give the book three stars out of five.