Country: USA
Genre: Thriller (with noir elements)
Pages: 255
If you've never heard of THE GROVE by John Rector, let me tell you about it. When his publisher put the eBook version up for 1,99$ last October to hype the release of his new novel ALREADY GONE, it skyrocketed on top of the charts and kicked Kathryn Stockett's THE HELP out of the number one spot for a while. How intriguing. How could a writer of dark fiction could get such a tidal wave of love? I decided to find out for myself and read THE GROVE. While I appreciated ALREADY GONE, I found this novel to be in a different league. The tone is the same, the darkness is the same, but in this book, the bare and raw style of John Rector wraps up more than a tight mystery. THE GROVE is a novel about mental diseases and the isolation, fear, confusion and alienation that comes with it. A few writers can portray distress and emotional pain the way John Rector does.
THE GROVE is the story of Dexter McCray a Nebraska farmer who wakes up from an alcoholic binge blackout to find his tractor in a ditch and a dead girl in the grove next to his house. That's the plot in a nutshell, but Dexter is the story. He's estranged from his wife Liz since the death of their daughter not long before. He has stopped taking his pills (it's never explained, but it's strongly hinted that the pills are fighting psychotic episodes) and he managed to threaten her during her blackout episode. She calls Dexter's childhood friend and town sheriff Greg Nash for help. Alone and frightened of what he could have done, Dexter turns to the only person willing to help him. The ghost of the young girl who died in the grove. Or what his brain perceives to be a ghost anyway...
The mystery in THE GROVE occupies a very small number of pages, but if it works so well, it's because it occupies all the place in Dexter's mind and brings him back to a dark place he thought he had escaped when he married Liz. The aggression, the booze, the blackouts, the disease. The character of Jessica's (the dead girl) ghost is also a nice addition to the exposition of Dexter's mental issues. He deliberately stops taking his pills at first because he prefers to speak with her, disregarding the fact that she's a construction of his ill brain. According to many people I've spoken to, who have experience with mental issues (I know, how scientific of a statement), it's something a lot more common than we think. What THE GROVE does best is to portray a sick and conflicted man, wanting normal life but finding shelter in his problem.
While it's a thriller with cut-throat suspense, THE GROVE is still a low key novel. The only heroic thing about Dexter McCray is his will to get better and to do the right thing. Apart from that, he is one lonely and miserable bastard. I like my protagonists just like that, but it's not everybody's cup of tea. While Dexter is fundamentally a good person, the ultra-realistic portrait of his disease sometimes blurs the line and makes his actions questionable. That's what I liked the best about it, John Rector is testing the reader's treshold of tolerance for erratic behavior and dares you to love Dexter no matter what. THE GROVE is a pretty straightforward novel, but it's not unchallenging. In fact, after reading it, I find it a little surprising to see how successful it was, but it makes me very happy that so many readers took a chance on it. It's a dark little gem that deserves all the spotlight it can get.