Book Review : Tom Piccirilli - The Walls of the Castle (2013)

Order THE WALLS OF THE CASTLE here

''Insane people can do amazing things. They can smell a dead young woman burning in the wind.''

The demon of happiness in an intangible threat, like a puff of toxic smoke in the evening sky. It penetrates you and corrupts your blood cells before you've noticed a thing. Not everybody can bear the crushing weight of being happy and normal, so they'll seek meaning in whatever actions that'll make them feel different, special. Tom Piccirilli's novella THE WALLS OF THE CASTLE is the story of a man finding himself trapped on the wrong side of his sorrows, looking for an opportunity to feel whole again. It's a disincarnate and symbolic tale of redemption, driven by the lean, observant and powerful pen of Piccirilli. It's a mandatory stop for his fans and a wonderful opportunity to get on the bandwagon if you're not already one.

Kasteel watch his son die for nearly four months. It cost him everything, drove him to the brink of insanity and into the Castle, where he now resides. He appointed himself guardian of the Castle, to be more precise, living unnoticed between two layers of reality, only talking to the damaged, the dying and the silence. When a new visitor named Abaddon (the Angel of Death) slips into the reality of the Castle's operations, Kasteel understands his arrival as an opportunity for redemption and feels that it's his duty to protect the residents. Everyone needs to figure their own way out of the Castle.

THE WALLS OF THE CASTLE is one of the several short Tom Piccirilli gems you can find on the internet, My long time readers already know that I believe that the man can do no wrong, but he usually needs a little wind up space in order to work most efficiently, 40something pages is a little cramped, but 100something pages is about the perfect length in order to feel the Piccirilli experience. THE WALLS OF THE CASTLE might not be a home run, but it's a triple with two RBIs, packing Piccirilli's trademark AMAZING dialogue, short and bulky action scenes and that fleeting sense of reality he's so damned good at writing.

The pain meds were wearing off but the vitamins and the juice and the veggie platter, all that healthy shit, oxygen, was rushing through his system. It was like he was back in the yard, aware of everything, afraid of everything and nothing, not wanting trouble but willing to kill if he had to.

Vigilante justice is an important theme of THE WALLS OF THE CASTLE, and I don't have a great track record at appreciating stories that revolve around it, except maybe fot Batman (because Batman). Tom Piccirilli made a case for an acceptable vigilante though the strong and precise character development of Kasteel. You can feel his confusion and his desire to do what's right. He's not convinced that his actions are righteous, he goes with his guts and follows his instincts. THE WALLS OF THE CASTLE is an interesting departure, a ghastly, ethereal and morally grey-ish vigilante story that only a creative juggernaut like Tom Piccirilli could've come up with.

If I had one issue with THE WALLS OF THE CASTLE, is that the ending is a tad underwhelming and invalidates part of the endearing symbolism of the narrative. Not that underwhelming endings are exactly rare in fiction, but Piccirilli has a strong track record. It didn't deter from my overall enjoyment of the novella, though. I've finished it feeling the usual surge of excitement and creative energy I feel when finishing a Tom Piccirilli story. THE WALLS OF THE CASTLE is terrific, it blurs the line between traditional vigilante noir and urban fantasy and delivers a punch to the gut you're not ready for. If you were on the fence about hopping in the Tom Piccirilli bandwagon, THE WALLS OF THE CASTLE is your golden ticket.