Remedy by J.S. Breukelaar: Review by Gabino Iglesias

Remedy, J.S. Breukelaar (PS Publishing 978-1-80394-485-2, £25.00, 208pp, hc) August 2024. Cover by Jeffrey Alan Love.

Imagine suddenly being attacked by a creature that comes down from the sky. The thing, which you can’t see well, has big teeth and powerful, sharp talons that dig into your flesh. Now imag­ine this: That horror isn’t the worst thing in J.S. Breukelaar’s Remedy, a curious horror novel that explores the complexities of the duality of self.

After being yanked from their lives by big fly­ing monsters with piercing claws and nasty teeth, people wake up in a different life in a world that mirrors our own, but where they are not the per­sons that they have always been. The new arrivals have families, names, histories, and jobs in their new lives, but they all carry the truth – and the scars – of their previous life and their horrific and excruciating abduction. As with anyone who has been kidnapped and pulled away from their loved ones and their life, all these people want is to go back home, to return to the life they remember, but there are security measures in place to keep them there, and every group meeting they have is under surveillance. When someone shows up with a remedy, many jump at the chance, but no one knows at what cost.

Surprising, complex, and strangely beautiful, Remedy is one of those smart horror novels that deliver the gory, brutal stuff while also digging deep into the humanity of its characters. Breuke­laar knows that horror can be found in many things, and here the creatures that left everyone scarred are just the beginning. Feeling alone, constantly worrying about those left behind, the pressure of having to deal with a family and job and place that is alien to them, and the anxiety cause by the shady figures that constantly observe them, the characters in this novel have plenty of worry about, and the author communicates their desperation very well.

In a way, this is a hard book to review because giving too much information about the main characters would spoil their backstory and would give away the things that haunt them in the real­ity they were forced into. That said, what matters most is not the characters themselves but the way the author brought together those desperate souls and a strange new world in which people like them have to deal with things like “Watchers” as they frantically look for a way back. Breukelaar is a talented storyteller, and her powers are on full display here. In fact, the way the abducted people – known as “Scarheads” – talk about their lives and try to figure out the mystery they’re immersed in makes for the kind of story that is best enjoyed when you go in knowing nothing.

The Taker. Despite the fact that it might be different monsters because everyone remembers something slightly different, that’s what they call the creature that takes people from this world and into the other one. The Taker is a scary thing, but losing contact with your loved ones and struggling with the mental health effects of a brutal attack that was also an abduction are just two elements that are worse here, and they make for a very entertaining and very dark read. Skillfully writ­ten and full of a very particular brand of despair, this top-notch speculative fiction will take you places, and you should let it. Just make sure you can come back.

This review and more like it in the January 2025 issue of Locus.

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