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A History of Fear: A Novel
A History of Fear: A Novel
A History of Fear: A Novel
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A History of Fear: A Novel

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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This “disorienting, creepy, paranoia-inducing reimagining of the devil-made-me-do-it tale” (Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World) follows the harrowing downfall of a tortured graduate student arrested for murder.

Grayson Hale, the most infamous murderer in Scotland, is better known by a different name: the Devil’s Advocate. The twenty-five-year-old American grad student rose to instant notoriety when he confessed to the slaughter of his classmate Liam Stewart, claiming the Devil made him do it.

When Hale is found hanged in his prison cell, officers uncover a handwritten manuscript that promises to answer the question that’s haunted the nation for years: was Hale a lunatic, or had he been telling the truth all along?

The first-person narrative reveals an acerbic young atheist, newly enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to carry on the legacy of his recently deceased father. In need of cash, he takes a job ghostwriting a mysterious book for a dark stranger—but he has misgivings when the project begins to reawaken his satanophobia, a rare condition that causes him to live in terror that the Devil is after him. As he struggles to disentangle fact from fear, Grayson’s world is turned upside-down after events force him to confront his growing suspicion that he’s working for the one he has feared all this time—and that the book is only the beginning of their partnership.

“A modern-day Gothic tale with claws” (Jennifer Fawcett, author of Beneath the Stairs), A History of Fear marries dread-inducing atmosphere with heart-palpitating storytelling.

Editor's Note

Devilishly good…

Grayson Hale is a murderer — but did he act independently or did the devil make him do it? Dumas’ debut follows a journalist investigating a grad student who killed his classmate after agreeing to ghostwrite a book about Satan. The book dives into Hale’s memoirs, but the inner workings of his mind only lead to more questions. “A History of Fear” is a psychological horror novel with themes of mental health, the power of influence, and faith.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherAtria Books
Release dateDec 6, 2022
ISBN9781982199043
Author

Luke Dumas

Luke Dumas is the author of the novel A History of Fear. His nonfiction has appeared in Literary Hub, Hobart, Last Exit, Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature, and more. He received his master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Edinburgh and is a graduate of the University of Chicago. 

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Competently-written and fairly interesting, at least in the early parts of the novel. Evocative descriptions and interactions, unfortunately all filtered through the perceptions of a stiff, haughty and extremely neurotic young man with whom it's impossible to empathise. He's tiresome and utterly pathetic, a cosmic punching bag of a character, and he remains distant from not only other characters but also from the reader, as all his experiences seem reported at one remove. He displays the traits of (among other things) a Borderline Personality Disorder sufferer, which made him unattractive to me as a character and a narrator; the glibness, clinginess and constant need for reassurance. Oh yes, our "hero" is the very definition of an unreliable narrator....

    All too quickly it becomes obvious that not only did the viewpoint character suffer outrageous abuse from his mother and older brother and complete neglect from the father he idolises, but he was delusional for much of his youth, suffering vivid hallucinations of demonic persecution and an obsessive belief in Satan's *personal* interest in him and the immanence of his appearance -- and he's fast relapsing now. I think 'schizophrenic' would be an appropriate adjective, possibly modified by 'paranoid' and 'deeply delusional'... and so begins a long series of unsurprising "revelations" of what the protagonist does and has done.

    And yes, the protagonist is homosexual, or at least has unexplored tendencies that way. And so was his sainted father, and the protagonist's not-entirely-unrequited-love love interest, and the reader knows it very early on, and without much surprise. And the protagonist's mother feared, hated and resented her husband's 'leanings', and has projected them onto her younger son... and so the entirely predictable backstory is displayed in a series of epilogue-style court documents, after the protagonist has stumbled off the deep end and killed someone, or possibly two someones, and assaulted several others. But no, Satan likely didn't have anything to do with the story directly; it was all just delusional thinking... OR WAS IT? (cue frightening laughter). Other than the infuriating tone of the narrator, *that* little attempt to create ambiguity annoys me more than anything else in the book; the author ought to have the courage of his convictions and present readers with either 1]a psycho drama, 2]an extended metaphor for the interaction of homosexuality and religion, or 3]a supernatual tale of infernal intervention... instead of taking the coward's route and dribbling out a muddled melange of all three.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A History of Fear by Luke Dumas is a strong debut that looks at evil in its many forms, from the religious to the secular.This is basically a "found manuscript" story with holes in that manuscript being filled by a journalist. The story of the protagonist's life coupled with the events just prior to his crime is presented in very clear prose. Though overwritten in places, the ways in which anxiety and panic are expressed were especially effective.I found part of the big reveal to be problematic for me. I can't go into detail without giving away the story, but I am uncomfortable with feeling like it fits into old harmful stereotypes. I think Hale's personal history is supposed to mitigate this, but I don't think it succeeded.Recommended for readers who like a more subtle horror-ish story. This is one of those books that will either pull you in right away or it probably isn't your cup of tea.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Goodreads giveaway.

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A History of Fear - Luke Dumas

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