Teenage Angst With a Little Skin Melting Spit......'90s Style
A Review of The Grimmer by Naben Ruthnum
Whoa, what did I just read?! Naben Ruthnum’s new YA horror novel The Grimmer is a wonderfully gory thrill ride through the supernatural underworld of the 1990s that will keep you on the edge of your seat and might even keep you up at night. With ancient witches, magic cats, enchanted televisions, undead creatures, and skin melting spit (yes, I said skin melting spit), this novel has all the elements of the supernatural mixed with a multitude of teenage issues.
When Vish returns home after two years at boarding school, he has a very hard time settling in at home and getting back to a normal existence and the fact that everyone in town knows about his father’s addiction, sure doesn’t help matters. Since Vish had alienated himself from his friends while he was away, he had become very quiet and withdrawn, turning to reading and metal music for comfort. One day at the local bookstore, he meets a very pale, very odd man who mistakes him for a relative of the bookstore owner. What happens next turns Vish’s world upside down and makes him question everything he thought he knew. Thrown into a magical race against time, Vish puts his trust in the bookstore owner and his strange teenage employee to help him save the town and everyone in it.
With major Stranger Things vibes, this novel’s vivid, gory descriptions play out like a movie in your mind with a soundtrack to go with it. There were many times throughout the novel when different bands or albums were mentioned, and you could instantly hear that music playing in your mind as you read. Close to the end of the novel, right at that moment when things have gone completely crazy but there’s that one final thing that must be done, a Black Sabbath song is mentioned. I turned that song on while I continued to read, and I was amazed at how the lyrics of the song matched with the events taking place in the novel. Absolute genius writing!
Even though the strange events in this novel could never happen in a million years, the characters were wonderfully troubled and honest making them so very relatable. The attitudes and feelings in this novel, those which we all experienced growing up, allowed me to feel a great connection to this story. Beneath all the gory stuff, this is a beautiful story of friendship, faith, and trust that also touches on important issues like racism, addiction, and sorrow.
This book may be advertised as YA, but it reads like an anthem for all those metal loving, band shirt wearing, 1990s misfits out there who still crave the good old days. As everyone my age knows, there was no better time in history than the 1990s when music wasn’t just music and movies weren’t just movies; the 90s was a time that pushed boundaries, a time that gave young people a new voice, a time when everything was dark and raw and grunge, and I loved every bit of it. This novel took me back and surrounded me with the sounds and feels of my adolescence – the love, the hate, the teenage angst.
The Grimmer awoke the teenage heart that still beats deep within me and made me remember that glorious feeling of fear that I would get upon watching a scary movie my parents specifically told me not to watch. Now, since reading this book, on early mornings when I awake at the witching hour and gaze out my bedroom window at the glowing orange autumn moon, a chill runs through me as I wonder what that sound was in the kitchen and what could be waiting for me just around the corner….