Trying to explain The Cipher can be a daunting task. Its Bram Stoker award will lead you to believe that it's a horror novel, and while its horrific and unsettling nature can't be denied, there's nary a horror trope to be found here. In fact, all that's horrific about The Cipher is a strange, unearthly hole that exists in a room in an apartment building...well, that and the darkest impulses of our characters. The Cipher is less Stephen King and more David Lynch if it was written by William S. Burroughs, and sprinkled with a dose of Cronenberg's body horror for flavoring. It's a punk existentialist horror novel, and one that's part unfolding nightmare and part satire and critique of the art world. And if all of that sounds like it would make for a bewildering mix, well, it kind of does - but in the best way possible. The Cipher unfolds with all the logic of a bad dream, one that begins with a pair of explorers putting a video camera down that mysterious hole and ends in a cacophony of blood, severed limbs, sexual violence, and sculptures come to nightmarish life, and along the way it's told in spellbinding, rich prose that feels vivid and raw in a way that only increases the discomfort you feel on almost every page. Look - even here, you can tell that I'm struggling to encapsulate the experience I had reading this book. It doesn't always work, and sometimes you get the sense that it's a little too sprawling and unfocused. And there were times when I just needed a break from the raw, razor-edged prose and the grim world that the book plunged me into. But for all of that, I've never read much like The Cipher, and reading it was a fairly unforgettable experience. It's a truly horrific book, and even if it doesn't fit the standard idea of a horror novel, there's little other genre that could contain its nightmarish visions and unsettling confrontations. It's raw, and vicious, and toxic, and riveting, and completely impossible to describe other than as an experience. But if anything I've said makes this sound appealing, you should check this out. You may not like it. Or, maybe, you'll be blown away by it. But whatever else the case is, you certainly won't forget it.
- Josh Mauthe
- Josh Mauthe
