Smothermoss by Alisa Alering

Pauline Morgan

Sometimes it is difficult to know where the boundaries between genres lie. While the intelligent reader is looking for well-crafted prose, good characters and an interesting plot, publishers seem to want to put books into categories. Smothermoss is one of those books that crosses genres.

            Compared to now, this is a historical novel as it is set in 1980’s America. Sheila is part of the poorer demographic – she and her family are only just getting by. Her mother works for a minimum wage at the local asylum. They share the dilapidated house with Sheila’s much younger sister, Angie, and her grandmother’s elderly sister. As her mother works long hours, Sheila has most of the responsibility for looking after the old woman.

            There is crime here, too. Two women, hiking along the Appalachian, are brutally murdered. Initially, it is thought that it is an escapee from the asylum, but all patients are accounted for. Twelve-year-old Angie becomes obsessed with the case and weaves the killer into her fantasies.

            Angie doesn’t have any friends. Because of her home circumstances and lack of running water, she is avoided and told she smells. She has a lively imagination, and she compensates by inventing stories. She sees herself as a secret agent hunting down Russian spies. In her mind, the two hikers have obviously been killed by a Russian spy. The fact that there is a military base not far away adds fuel to her inventiveness. She also carries a pack of file cards with her, on which she draws images. Sometimes she secretes a card about the house and when something happens, like the death of her great-aunt, she believes that the cards have predicted it. Angie is a feral child.

            At seventeen, Sheila has a different problem. She believes she has a rope around her neck, the end of which trails down her back. This is a rope that only she can see, and it is her burden. It is perhaps a symptom that she is struggling with her sexuality.

            There are surreal elements in this novel with the mountain they live in the shade of, taking on a character of its own, almost becoming alive. Only the reader can decide if the events described are real, or products of the minds of Sheila and Angie.

            As all the elements come together, the overall effect is one of subtle horror. It is not just what had happened to the hikers, but in the lives of the characters. It is a book that is well written and seductive to read.