Wild Isle Review:

WARNING! INEVITABLE SPOILERS BELOW!

The Horrors of Kristy Pearson’s Childhood by Ken Wells is a set of short, serialized, apocalyptical horror-thrillers, the first two installments of which are “Tooth and Claw” and “Wails of Torment.” So far, these stories follow a young girl named Kristy as she flees for her life from various manners of classical and fantastical horrors: werewolves, ghastly phantoms and more. In her struggle to survive without her parents, Kristy makes new friends, family, and allies—and meets some old ones as well, but can she really trust them?

Do to the short nature of these stories, I’ll be discussing them in tandem in a single review. With that said, let’s get into “Tooth and Claw.”

The first installment introduces us to our protagonist in medias res, in the midst of her escape from a vicious wolfman. And by “introduces,” I mean, “Throws the reader into the mind of,” because despite these stories being written in the third person, the author combines style, narrative perspective, and plot pacing to give the reader Kristy’s feeling of abject fear, disorientation and terror—and he maintains this through much of the story. This is certainly the desired effect; however, it is also this story’s greatest weakness.

On one hand, the sparse setting and character details; purposeful repetition of key, chosen words; and punchy, one-word paragraphs work together to produce a sense of impact and urgency. They fit the initial chase scene well, successfully seating the reader in a helpless, fleeing child’s head. However, these same elements carry through “Tooth and Claw,” and the effect is an unfortunate loss of tension so necessary for a horror story. That is to say, the reader can only maintain that feeling of fear for so long before it exhausts, and when it does, the reader needs the plot to slow down a moment, and for the narrative to change focus to things we can value and invest in—i.e. have a “stake” in. “Tooth and Claw” does make an attempt at this. The pieces are there: Kristy reflects on her family life, she meets a potential surrogate family, she starts to integrate into them, to find safety and comfort, but because of the thriller-fast pacing, this is all taken away before the reader has time to believe it is real. Characters are killed and left behind, but I as a reader have not had the time to get to know them or to care about them. Narrative authority gets spent too often and too early.

But, I’m glad to say, it gets better. “Wails of Torment“ is only an improvement, which bodes very well for the series as a whole. This piece is longer, which solves the pacing problems mentioned above. This in turn lets the reader get more acquainted with and invested in each of the characters. Kristy’s self reflections feel more genuine/less rushed or forced. Her surrogate mother Camry has an opportunity to be better fleshed out. The introduction of Father Thomas works well because we have the opportunity—the time—for him to have character conflict with another member of the group.

Aside from the improved pacing, and therefore improved characterization and plot development, the world and setting see some interesting twists as well. While “tooth and Claw” left me assuming I was reading The Walking Dead but with werewolves, “Wails of Torment” subverted my expectations and sucker punched my predictions multiple times. Wells kept this up through most of the story, introducing fantasy elements as plow twists like those you might read in an old pulp-fiction magazine. I can say honestly that I hope this trend continues in Well’s next installment.

Overall, The Horrors of Kristy Pearson’s Childhood shows promise. If horror and fantasy fiction are your thing, I recommend you pick up both “Tooth and Claw” and “Wails and Torment,” and that you read through both stories before making your judgement. After doing so myself, I’m interested to see where Wells takes Kristy next as well as how she develops through her myriad horrific experiences. If this review as captivated your interest, click the image at the top to purchase both copies for yourself.