Dead Tree Forest (2011)

Sex :
Violence :
Author Brett McBean Reviewer :
Publisher Delirium Books
Length 193 pages
Genre Revenant
Blurb None Listed
Country

Review

"You don't want to go to Dead Tree. Trust me, it's a bad place." - Chris Long

Four desperate men head into Tasmania's infamous Dead Tree forest, a desolate dying landscape ruled over by a revenant who seeks justice for the atrocities done to her and her family by colonial white settlers. Two of the men are interested in treasure rumoured to be at the bottom of a lake in the middle of Dead Tree, one is after something that might just save his dying daughter, and the fourth man is forced into the adventure against his will but might just learn a lot more about his heritage. Only one of the men is aware of the dangers the forest harbours.

As the men travel further into Dead Tree they begin to learn what the curse placed on it is all about, and two of them gain insight into how to lift the curse if they can survive the harrowing journey to the lake. Will anyone survive their encounter with the revenant Ginnumarra, and can any of them bring an end to her long suffering?

Brett McBean takes time out of writing about his normal knife wielding antagonists to invest some time in a good old fashion haunted house tale. However this haunted house is an ancient forest in regional Tasmania and the spook is a revenant. Toss in a Koori curse and you will find yourself having a good time with Dead Tree Forest. So structurally we pretty much have standard revenant fare, the incarnate spirit of someone who was done wrong to is back with a vengeance taking her pound of flesh from the living. The Japanese would really dig this book, someone get Takashi Shimizu on the phone, Brett McBean has got his next script ready for his next movie. And naturally we have central characters who need to unlock the secret of the curse before the final page's ink is dry. McBean here is summoning the traditional Western story of the vengeful ghost, and in a nice touch he mixes some Koori dreamtime into the brew.

Where McBean mixes things up, and darn him for making me read late into the night, is with the motivations and eventual fates of his four main characters. Two of them pretty much get what they deserve, this is horror after all, and you are going to pay for your sins. One doesn't deserve his fate, though that remains unstated so happy thoughts there if you want, and the final character shows he's not all about greed and isn't thinking of himself. The resolution to the story is surprising and I didn't see it coming, though for mine it was rewarding and satisfying.

As opposed to Brett McBean's normally blood splattered pages Dead Tree Forest is a quiet horror novel that get's where it's going without recourse to building up a body count. Sure there are some deaths and nasty surprises lying in wait for the reader, but nothing that will have you writing in voicing your disgust at the content. My wife could quite happily read this one, and she simply hates anything lurching out of the horror wood.

While the novel certainly isn't Brett McBean's largest to date, it doesn't need to be. A solid reader should be able to wade through the narrative here in a single sitting, or of course you can take it at bite sized chunks on public transport. There's nothing superficial here, no added pages to extend the length of the story. What you get is a cracking read that is well paced and tells the tale without the necessity of a whole bunch of minor detours that do nothing for the central plot. McBean once again writes a novel to the length the novel needed to be.

Clearly the novel is aimed at adults, but I would suggest young adults will get a buzz from a very well written book, though sub teens might be left out of the loop here. There's some adult themes running through the book that might disturb younger kiddies, and yeah some of the death scenes might be construed as slightly off putting for the younger reader. What the hell, tell them to toughen the frack up, and replace their current Harry Potter library with something slightly more on the realistic side of the fiction aisle.

While I'm not a leading expert on Koori mythology I was pretty pleased with McBean throwing some local colour onto the page rather than setting his novel in the bayous of Southern America or the wind scoured moors of Scotland. You can almost smell the gum resin in the text here, with the story being firmly from Downunder.

I had a lot of fun with Dead Tree Forest, a particularly well written and constructed Aussie revenant story. Author Brett McBean took a traditional European concept and transplanted it into the Aussie environment without losing anything in the transposition. If you like a good ghost story then McBean has something you are really going to dig, full recommendation. The Author once again proves he can write supernatural fiction with the best of them.

The good news for those looking for a copy of the book is that it's available in electronic form from Smash Words for a particularly favourable $1.99. Well worth the investment kids.

Beyond Scary Rates this read as ...

  Brett McBean hits out with a more then decent supernatural tale that will hit the right spot.