Reading Barbie Wilde’s Voices of the Damned has inspired me to start reading again. It’s something that I enjoy doing, but it’s also something that was put on the back burner for a while since my full time job, writing for this website and marathon training are more important. Considering that I’m now adding a short film and my own novel onto my plate, I decided it was time to set some leisure time aside to give my brain and body a rest and there’s no better way than to relax in bed with a good book in hand. In between catching up on previous episodes of SyFy’s comic-to-series “Wynonna Earp” and trash reality television, I decided to download a copy of John Inman’s Willow Man to my Kindle. Books, like films, are hit or miss. Barbie Wilde’s short story collection was so great, could I really find a piece with similar quality so soon? With Willow Man, the answer is yes.
One thing that immediately drew me to John Inman’s Willow Man is the very big similarity to Stephen King’s IT. If anything, I can say that John Inman’s Willow Man is the Stephen King’s IT of a new generation… with a lot of gay content added in, but I’ll get to that later. The story outlines are basically the same: a group of pre-teens encounter a malevolent entity in the woods that ultimately catches and kills one of their own. The friends grow older, disburse and try to put the horror behind them – but the evil creeps up on them years later and brings them back to town for a final confrontation. Switch sewers for forests, and a killer clown for a killer hobo, and the stories are eerily similar. Although, I will say The Willow Man is a bit creepier than Pennywise because of his shape-shifting guises and use of other dark abilities. And, also, The Willow Man wants to do more to the children than just maim and eat them, if you catch my drift…
The second thing that drew me to Inman’s Willow Man is that the main character, Woody, is a struggling country musician right on the cusp of landing a recording contract. As I mentioned above, I’m a big reality television fan and that means I’ve seen almost every competitive singing series that was produced in the last ten years, and I have a strange sympathy for struggling musicians after seeing all of their sob stories on national television. While I may not be the biggest country music fan, I wanted Woody to succeed in his career and I wanted him to release that album that he’s dying to make. I knew that the subplot of his future as a country star would clash with the overwhelming stress of having to battle an evil force from Hell, but it never really got all the way there. There was never that moment of, “he’s going to fail and lose out on this big gig.” Woody was always collected enough to perform and that is the mark of a true musician and performer. See, I’m talking about him as if he was a real person.
Willow Man is extremely descriptive, too, almost to the point of insanity. What Inman envisioned in his head comes out crystal clear on paper (or in this case my Kindle screen) and you really get the chance to read a movie with HD detail. The novel jumps back and forth in timeline, between when the group of friends were younger and first encountered The Willow Man and when they regroup as adults. From the canyon to the mom and pop grocery store to the boardwalk to the bowling alley, all of locations are painted so clearly that I almost began to smell the mildew, the dust, the salt air, the forest breeze of each new piece of story. And, I mean, that’s basically the point of writing a good story… to take the reader on a journey into a world you created in your own head. Inman succeeds here and the best way to describe his talents as a writer and my experience with his novel as a reader is: I felt like I was a background extra in a feature film, not a part of the madness myself but still involved enough to take in the experience. Wonderful writing.
Finally, to address the gay content, I have to say that Willow Man has a lot of graphic male-on-male sex. I know this is going to be a deal breaker for a lot of people, but erotica of this nature is the niche that John Inman seems to work in judging on the other novels he’s published. Personally, I found the parts of the kid’s exploring their sexuality a little uncomfortable because… well… It makes you feel like a pedophile to read them, even though they’re established to really define the bond that Woody and Bobby shared. It’s not so much pornographic as it is an honest look at youths coming to terms with their identities as homosexuals, but it still was a little awkward to read. Things are much easier when Woody is an adult and you secretly wish to be the one in his bed. There is, if I remember correctly, one or two parts that contain female/male sex, so Willow Man has something for everyone; although it is definitely aimed more at the LGBT demographic.
Creepy, descriptive and erotic, Willow Man is a horrifying and gut wrenching novel from an extremely promising author. I’m glad that I downloaded it to my Kindle because it still keeps the flame I have for reading burning bright. Highly recommended if you’re a fan of Stephen King’s IT or if you’re in the LGBT demo that loves a good horror story! I was able to read it in less than a week, so get on it! (sit on it?) Final Score: 7.5 out of 10.
