The famous horror writer H.P. Lovecraft wrote, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.” While the man himself was not very nice who had deeply ingrained racist, misogynistic, and xenophobic beliefs, he certainly was on to something with fear-mongering and became a pillar in the genre. The multi-billion dollar empire of books, films and video games entertains countless people mostly by exploiting their fears. We’ve all got them. Some are rational--being traumatized by a bee or a spider can bring on anxiety and panic when facing them (apiphobia or arachnophobia). Others seem irrational but nonetheless debilitating, like acrophobia (heights) or agoraphobia (public spaces). Some seem downright silly: turophobia: fear of cheese or hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia: fear of long words. But there is one that, while not highly common, has been documented throughout history, reflected in literature, and has even led to the invention of safety coffins: the fear of being buried alive.
My recent read of Unbury Carol by Josh Malerman (of The Birdbox fame) takes this concept and synthesizes it with a western and the deep sleep made popular by Sleeping Beauty. Readers follow protagonists Carol Evers in the 1890s west and the outlaw James Moxie. Carol is afflicted by a strange phenomenon that frequently and indiscriminately puts her into deep comas that last for days. Only two people know of Carol’s condition: her husband Dwight and first love turned infamous outlaw Moxie. Unfortunately for Carol, Dwight married her for her family fortune and aims to take advantage of her ailment to keep her money for himself. He plots to bury Carol quickly before she can come out of her coma--in essence burying her alive. Carol’s fated demise reaches Moxie, who rides the deadly trails back to his beloved to save her from her early, unnatural, horrific death.
Malerman expertly creates suspense as readers toggle back and forth from Carol’s internal, crippled body but nonetheless aware mind and Moxie’s harrowing journey to save the lost love of his life. The action-packed cat-and-mouse chase of hired guns to stop Moxie and the fierce determination in Carol keep readers turning the pages as we root for not only her survival but also the re-ignition of the deep bond between two long-separated lovers. While my fears don’t go as deep as the worry that I’ll be buried alive, this book does scrape the edges of some of my other angst-ridden, horrific, oxygen-deprived ways to potentially die and left me gasping for air too many times to count.