Silk

Wow, what a ride. I haven't read something like that in a long time and it was fun. I did have a few quibbles but in the end I'd recommend this book to fans of horror and weird fiction and gothy things.

There are two parts to the story that gradually interweave with each other until they are thoroughly tangled. The main part follows Spyder and her crew of goth kids who gravitate to her like moths to the flame. The other follows Daria and the misfits and punks in her social circle. Both groups consist of very damaged, creative, eccentric, and foolish young adults. All of them are striving for some happiness or stability in a world they feel they don't fit into.

The plot follows these two groups at first going through their daily lives which seem to be inevitably unraveling before the real shit even hits the fan. Spyder's mental instability starts to pour into her day to day life and the group begin to experience inexplicable horrifying hallucinations and then yes, the shit hits the fan.

My biggest quibble with this novel is the characters. They are an interesting bunch but among them there is not one sympathetic character. Every one of them is very selfish. They are all neurotic, narrow minded, single minded individuals. They don't inspire much admiration if anything they inspire pity mixed with scorn. Interestingly, they are all super attractive, mystical and otherworldly epitomes of alternative "freaky" beauty and coolness. And hey maybe that was the point and it's all part of the grove of the novel but it annoyed me more than anything else.

So here's this group of alternative young adults trying to figure themselves out and live on their own terms. Then add drugs, alcohol, sex, and madness. Pour in a bit of otherworldly weirdness and horror. Stir in a heaping helping of flowery and descriptive prose and dark apathetic atmosphere. What you end up with is a thrilling, scary-cool, gothy tale.