Kill Your Darling

Fright that sticks with you like sticky tape even during the light of day.

It is partially an author’s job to make the reader relate to the main character and/or narrator, but Chapman takes that job on as a calling. Reading this book is to live in the head of main character Glen Partridge who tells us the story of his son Billy who was senselessly killed by suffocation with duct tape. I was impressed by this book and Chapman’s story telling as always, but I realised how profound an imprint it was making on me when in the full happy light of day I was wrapping a birthday gift and the sound of pulling out Scotch tape gave me goose bumps as I subconsciously related it to this book, Billy’s demise, and Glen’s purgatory of trying to process the loss of his son. When a story gets into your own personal space scaring you in the joyful light of day, then that’s a scary read and makes sense why many consider Chapman to be the best Horror author alive today. Regardless of the horrifying tale told, this book could be adored as a psychological study of processing grief and what it is like to live with it. And also an exemplary work of meta-fiction on the process of writing and how we come to understand our subject by writing and the power of creation. In conclusion, it should be said that that since Carver popularized the “zero sum ending” many authors have failed to work to end stories in a compelling way, not Chapman, thankfully he ends this story in a compelling way like he does in his other novels. If you have read other Chapman works definitely add this one to your list, and if you haven’t then definitely go read as many as you can find including this one. They are good clear through to the ends.