American Elsewhere

Starred review from November 19, 2012
Bennett (The Troupe) gives the idealized image of the American dream a pan-dimensional twist with this alien invasion tale, part Bradbury and part L’Engle with a dash of Edward Scissorhands. Mona Bright, a former cop with a tragic past, inherits her long-dead mother’s house in Wink, N. Mex., a picture-perfect hamlet built as a support community for a government lab conducting experiments in quantum physics. As Mona pieces together a history that bears no resemblance to the childhood she remembers, Bennett’s epic narrative unveils a chronicle of dysfunction masked by Wink’s mechanical obsession with normalcy. The quibbling, displaced characters are vile and sympathetic by turns, and always startlingly American. Through sharp empathetic detail, the horrific becomes both achingly poignant and comic; a wholesome diner where no one can ever order just one piece of pie shares space with a harsh alien landscape where a quivering blue imp cowers in terror while pleading for his life. Readers will be captivated from start to finish.

December 15, 2012
Urban fantasy that gradually morphs into supernatural science fiction, from the multiple-award-winning author of The Troupe (2012, etc.). When ex-cop and now drifter Mona Bright's abusive, deadbeat and estranged father dies, she learns that her long-dead mother owned a house in Wink, N.M., which for some reason her father never went near. Wink, Mona finds, is a tough place to locate and even harder to reach: It was once a government town, built to service a mysterious research station atop a local mesa. The station was abandoned in the 1970s, and it seems her mother used to work there. Wink's inhabitants, furthermore, are decidedly peculiar. Some, unequivocally human, make "accommodations" with unseen entities and never, ever go outside after dark; others, like town clerk and gossip Mrs. Benjamin, the terrifying, unseen Mr. First (he lives in a canyon that nobody goes near) and motel proprietor Parson, who plays Chinese checkers with an invisible opponent, are fey and know more than they're telling; still others live perfect lives, Stepford Wives style, but without any real idea what they're doing. And nobody admits to having known Mona's mother--until she digs up a photo of her mother at a party along with a Mrs. Benjamin, whose appearance hasn't changed in nearly 40 years. To unravel the multiple mysteries, Mona will need all her survival instincts and the skills she acquired as a police officer. Investigating Wink and its weird, secretive inhabitants is enthralling--for about half the book. But then, Bennett starts providing increasingly far-fetched and repetitious explanations which ultimately prove far less fascinating than the conundrums. Highly impressive for the most part, but increasingly unrestrained and with a quite frankly absurd finale.

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February 15, 2013
Mona Bright, a former police officer, is surprised to learn that she's inherited a house from her deceased mother. She's even more surprised to learn that the house is located in Wink, New Mexico, a town that, according to various sources, including maps, doesn't seem to exist. Curious to learn more about her mother's past and about this odd little town, Mona takes up residence in the house. But she didn't count on Wink being full of dark secrets and on the people of the town being determined to keep them that way. The novel starts out curious and odd but quickly becomes terrifying and haunting, as the author reveals more about the people of Wink, who just may be the most curious and intimidating collection of folks you're likely to meet outside the pages of Stephen King. We, like Mona, feel the town closing in on us, trying to take us over. A beautifully written, claustrophobic, and deeply memorable horror novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)