BROOD X

TITLE - BROOD X

WRITTEN BY - JOSHUA DYSART [ILLUSTRATED BY M. K. PERKER]

GENRE - CRIME FICTION

PUBLISHED BY - TKO ROGUE 

PUBLICATION DATE - AVAILABLE NOW 

 

In ‘50s America, seven desperate men are tasked to build a bomb shelter in a remote forest clearing amidst a vast swarming of cicadas. As accidents and deaths occur, they start to suspect each other whilst nature itself becomes an increasing threat to them…

Wow! What an original and visceral thrill this book is! Set in the McCarthy era so communism is a shadowy presence, and so is the racism and anti-semitism endemic of that age; an allegory for the suspicion that brews in the construction site. There is a vivid passage that describes the cicadas emerging from the earth in a seething mass, a metaphor for the American fear of “Reds under the beds”. Soon the bugs are flying everywhere and singing in a deafening cacophony, their mating ritual driving the men mad in different, destructive ways. 

Author Joshua Dysart doesn’t have many pages in which to flesh out the characters, and he doesn’t need them either. Each character, their background, appearance and temperament, is vividly drawn. The pacing is spot on as the men go from nervous mutual tolerance to full-blown suspicion of each other - this is a headlong ride to oblivion, as profound as it is horrific. 

In many ways, “Brood X” is a “locked room mystery”, albeit a rather twisted one that Poirot couldn’t imagine in his worst nightmares. This is a short book, more of a novella than a full novel, and is better for it. Told in the present tense, it has a concise, direct power and I was sucked into the story very quickly thanks to Joshua Dysart’s exceptional writing. Gory in parts, Dysart’s descriptive skills are often too much to handle. Atmospheric b&w line drawings by M. K. Perker pepper the text, adding a haunting visual dimension to the story. The ending, just like everything that has happened in the story up to that point, is a tragic gutter-punch. 

“Brood X” is an unforgettable masterpiece; read it in one sitting, then read it again. Just read it.