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Patience is a value going extinct in the internet age. Instant gratification has become a sought-after commodity in a culture that always demands more out of everyone and everything, so patient people are a now a dying breed endowed with a bizarre superpower. It takes a little bit of patience to appreciate THE SUBTERRANEAN SEASON, by Dale Bailey, an understated, yet suffocating speculative horror novel that'll hit the shelves on November 10. It is bound to become a polarizing novel since it relies on tension over action, but if tension and existential dread are your thing, you'll feel THE SUBTERRANEAN SEASON cut through you like a rusty meat clever.
It is a brutal read in its own way.
Perhaps the boldest choice made by author Dale Bailey in THE SUBTERRANEAN SEASON is the troublesome protagonist Alex Kern. Not that he is poorly written or anything, but he's not the most likeable guy. In fact, the entire novel is structured around the very idea that Alex is a borderline sociopath unable to cope with the stress if PhD classes and his increasing marijuana consumption. When Alex is moved to a subterranean office after failing his PhD entry exam, he finds a seemingly bottomless hole behind a secret door, right next to his office. It becomes an additional source of stress that will not only change his life, but that will alter the existence of every member of his faculty.
There's an argument to be made that THE SUBTERRANEAN SEASON is an existential Academic thriller, like a distant cousin of Donna Tartt's seminal mystery The Secret History. This is because outside of the hole next to Alex's office, there is little to no supernatural elements. It's part of what makes Dale Bailey's novel fun is that he doesn't telegraph his intentions. He plays it close to the vest, which keeps THE SUBTERRANEAN SEASON unpredictable for its entire duration. This is real horror to me, being prey to an author's intention and not knowing what will freak you out and when. Bailey plays it to a satisfyingly nightmarish finale, although I thought it felt a little out the left field. Some foreshadowing would've been fair game.
So yeah, the bottomless hole is more or less the only supernatural element in THE SUBTERRANEAN SEASON, but it's multidimensional. First, it's a great supernatural device because it's the only one in the novel and yet it's not the only source of mystery. Sigmund Freud once said that the truly terrifying was the uncanny and that hole plenty uncanny in the Academic setting of THE SUBTERRANEAN SEASON. There is an existential dimension to the hole too, representing the gaping void Alex is creating in his life, which ties in to its symbolic meaning : the way to hell, a tunnel with no light at the end. There it is, there is only one supernatural element in THE SUBTERRANEAN SEASON, but it is so tightly woven into the narrative, it'll keep your mind busy.
I really liked THE SUBTERRANEAN SEASON, but I know all too well that it'll be a polarizing because of its bold choice of protagonist. Part of me liked it for the bleak portrait Dale Bailey draw of Academia. I've been there for a brief period and it's pretty dead on. THE SUBTERRANEAN SEASON is a solid horror novel halfway between Donna Tartt's The Secret History and Twilight Zone. It's understated and original, but it's also quite demanding and it'll require you to be in your best reading shape in order to fully enjoy what it has to offer. It's not going to leave people indifferent though and I'm looking forward to debating its merits on social media.