I really fucking loved this one. Chaplinsky has been on my radar for a minute but in a ubiquitous way where I’ve never been able to get his work in my hands. So this is my first book by him but imma need to hit up that catalog asap. I’m not really going to try and summarize the plot (other reviewers do a great job) but it’s liminal-haunted house-non linear time and all of this gets packed together into a dope read. There’s going to probably be quite a few readers who feel like this book requires too much mental effort, and that’s valid. Sometimes I like to just be carried away by a story, but more often I find myself gravitating to the books that you have to assemble yourself. There’s competing yet also intersecting story and timelines and everything is all muddled together. There was at least once I thought maybe my copy had been cobbled together wrongly, but this is not the case. Chaplinsky has taken over a decade to craft this story and sew all the threads together into this weird fucked up horror story but it works. If you get confused please stay the course and you’ll see the method behind the madness.

There’s some very heavy themes (CSA) so please exercise caution when going in. I think this was an excellent showcase of the rage, fear, confusion, apathy and devastation that accompany childhood trauma. The different storylines were all coherent and thoughtful on their own, but watching them merge is like getting to see a symphony at work. Sometimes a simple violin solo is what’s needed, and on other occasions you need to feel the music and this book hits that note. It’s super dark and the imagery just as harrowing as the subject matter. If you’re looking for a book to feel and not just follow along, then this is the one. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and there were multiple times I had to pause and just absorb the brilliance of certain connections. TMitWSVMaN is not a book for everyone but if you vibe with “literary” or “high concept” horror then I highly recommend it. It’s weird, murky and ambiguous and also so so clever and easily one of my top reads this year.