We Are Here

December 9, 2013
Marshall combines mystery with urban fantasy to create an eerie, convoluted tale of shadow beings living between the cracks of our world. While visiting New York City, writer David Miller encounters a stranger who says cryptically, “Remember me.” Meanwhile, John Henderson (protagonist of 2009’s Bad Things) and his girlfriend, Kristina, investigate her friend’s stalker, who they discover belongs to a society of mysterious entities. These people, who call themselves “friends,” might be ghosts or forgotten imaginary friends whose creators have grown to adulthood. They have their own factions and agendas, some of which threaten John, Kristina, David, and those David loves. While allusions to John’s past can be distracting, and some explanations are delayed so long that readers might be tempted to flip ahead for context, Marshall depicts interactions involving John and Kristina with realism and warmth. He excels at endowing the ephemeral “friends” with complex motives and emotions, making them as engaging as his most finely drawn flesh-and-blood characters.

January 1, 2014
In this thriller by Marshall (Killer Move, 2011, etc.), people are being stalked on the streets of New York but not in the usual fashion. The stalkers are part of a strange underworld of rejected "shadow people" who disappear as suddenly as they appear. First-person narrator John Henderson, a former lawyer now working in a restaurant, discovers that the shadow people are not easy to tail. He has been asked to determine who is stalking his girlfriend Kristina's friend Catherine. In a parallel plot, told in the third person, small-town teacher David is bumped by a stranger in Penn Station and insinuatingly told, "Remember me." David, who has come to New York with his wife, Dawn, for meetings about the publication of his first book, can't shake the stranger or the strange feeling that he knows him. Soon enough, David becomes embroiled with members of the underworld, who are named for their designated roles: Cornerman, Fingerman, etc. Kristina is followed, traumatic events from John's past are alluded to, and a significant pregnancy points to the future. Is this book a ghost story? A Stephen King-style shocker? An allegory about the neglected underclass? Marshall takes so long to reveal the most basic details, and his writing can be so obtuse, readers may lose interest by the time they find their footing. But in the final third, Marshall puts the pieces together to unsettling effect. It helps that John and Kristina, who share an East Village apartment, are such a winning duo. Though laborious at times, Marshall's novel rewards the reader's patience with its edgy storytelling and ambition.

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January 1, 2014
For the first half of this novel, readers will believe they're in a tingly thriller. Right off, we meet David as he stands on a train platform. A stranger calls him by name. Just before vanishing, the mystery man whispers, Remember me. Jump-cut to John, a New Yorker whose experience in intelligence work is called upon when a friend of a friend asks for help. She's sure someone is following her, but when she looks back, no one's there. Some fine scenes, suspenseful and witty, ensue as John and his girlfriend mount their own surveillance. They walk fast, maintaining cell-phone contact, and notice that, yes, someone is tracking their friend of a friend. Odd, though: whoever it is can disappear as quickly as that person on the platform. Here's where the thriller dead-ends, and the fantasy begins. Or maybe it's magical realism. Suddenly there's a new mystery to solve. When the dreamer forgets the dream, does it live on anyway? Readers comfortable with mixing genres will enjoy the ride, while others may want to get off at the first stop.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)