The Blade Between

August 31, 2020
Gay photographer Ronan Szepessy, the flawed, refreshingly frank narrator of much of this gripping mashup of psychological suspense and horror from SF author Miller (Blackfish City), left Hudson, N.Y., long ago for Manhattan. When he finally returns to visit his ailing father, he discovers that his once sleepy hometown is now thriving and that prosperity threatens to force out many of its longtime residents. Ronan reconnects with two old friends, his first love, Dom, a police detective, and Dom’s wife, Attalah, and soon Ronan and Attalah join forces to expose the corporate interests backing the gentrification. What starts as harmless pranks on their part wakes the spirits of the town and forces Ronan to come to terms with his love for a place he thought he’d left behind. Ronan’s relationship with the couple at the center of the story—Dom, with whom he’s sleeping, and Attalah, with whom he’s conniving—provides murky, uncomfortable tension. The author takes his time in introducing the supernatural, but once he does, the novel lifts off toward an exciting conclusion. Insightful social commentary is a bonus. Thriller fans will welcome Miller as a fresh new voice. Agent: Seth Fishman, Gernert Company.

Starred review from October 15, 2020
The latest from Miller (Destroy All Monsters, 2019) focuses on the rapidly gentrifying former whaling town of Hudson, New York. Amid a wide array of characters, a central trio emerges: Ronan, an aging gay photographer struggling with meth addiction who finds himself on a train back to his childhood home; Dom, a Black cop who was Ronan's secret boyfriend throughout their adolescence; and Attalah, Dom's wife and the leader of the uphill battles against Hudson's gentrification. When Ronan and Attalah work together on a more radical, less legal campaign to fight the transformation of the city, it quickly spins out of their control, seemingly fueled by mysterious supernatural forces responsible for events like people drowning in their own homes or Ronan meeting a young trans gay man, Katch, months after Katch's suicide. Hudson-born Miller's sprawling novel encapsulates the complex web of feelings brought on by witnessing the destruction of a town that made adolescence hell for a gay or trans teen. While some of the supernatural threads of the story are resolved abruptly, the raw and volatile energy of the novel more than makes up for it. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a queer-themed, sea salt-laced dark fantasy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2020

Miller (Destroy All Monsters) takes on cosmic horror with chillingly realistic results. Ronan, a famous New York City photographer, comes home to the upstate New York town of Hudson to care for his dying father. Returning to the site of his childhood trauma, a place where being openly gay was dangerous, Ronan reconnects with his first crush, Dom, now a police officer, and hiswife Attalah, a community organizer, to help them save the town from gentrification. But Hudson is more than just a typical down-on-its-luck small town. Its rich history has a power that goes deep into the soil and transcends time and space, one that does not see humans as an obstacle but will protect itself at all costs. VERDICT Filled with intense dread and unease; well-drawn if flawed characters; social commentary; and a satisfying resolution, this is a great example of how a century-old subgenre can still speak directly to today's readers. Direct those who want more to John Langan's The Fisherman, Caitl�n R. Kiernan's Agents of Dreamland, or T. Kingfisher's The Twisted Ones.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2020
Supernatural and uncomfortably human forces threaten to rip a failing town apart. In the 19th century, Hudson, New York, was a bustling port and whaling town. The blood of the slaughtered whales soaked into the earth, and their powerful spiritual presence permeated the area. Twenty-first century Hudson is poised between decay and a gentrified rebirth thanks to newly arrived billionaire Jark Trowse and a coterie of investors turning local mom-and-pop shops and familiar but dingy diners into upscale antique stores and boutique eateries. The town is divided between those who welcome the new people and their money and those who are losing everything they love to the invasion. As Jark embarks on what will likely be a victorious mayoral campaign, whale and human ghosts lure Ronan Szepessy, a successful New York City photographer and recovering drug addict, back to the hometown that brutally rejected him for being gay and showed little sympathy when his mother committed suicide. Ronan is disgusted by the changes he sees in Hudson and despairs at the state of his father, a butcher whose shop failed and who is now declining into dementia. He embarks on a volatile plan with Attalah, a high school friend, to confound the gentrifiers even while he carries on a secret affair with her husband, Dom, a cop who is never quite accepted by the rest of the force because he's Black. The town ghosts have granted Ronan powers that lend his efforts a supernatural heft, but Ronan's complex feelings about his past and the people of Hudson also rouse darker forces that tip the town toward violence and chaos. It's amazing how several of the same motifs that appeared in Miller's cli-fi novel Blackfish City (2018)--whales, the abyss between the rich and poor, the struggle for housing, and a mysterious broadcast which brings hope--appear in this novel but in entirely fresh and equally effective shapes. The story is also strongly informed by Miller's own history as a gay man brought up in Hudson, the son of a butcher who lost his shop to a big-box store. An unsettling and visceral journey: powerful, twisted, and grim but ultimately uplifting.

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