Emily's Rebellion Book

A very pleasant surprise.

It's like going to a film you were interested in and then learning that it was directed by Tim Burton, starring Christopher Lee and based on a Neil Gaiman short story. Whoa! Interest just spiked.

I first found out about Daniel Kraus when I read The Shape of Water. Knowing Guillermo del Toro because of his excellent films, I learned that del Toro had collaborated with Kraus on the idea and the book. Studying more led to the realization that perhaps it was Kraus who did the heavy lifting for the book while his partner went on to win an Oscar.

So, intrigued, I sought out more of his work and found this gem from 2011.

This reminded me of Louis Sachar's Holes (because of the YA label and digging and the onions) or China Mieville's King Rat, or even obliquely of Gaiman's Neverwhere or The Graveyard Book. This is at its heart about wanting to come in from the cold - about an outsider who seeks acceptance and belonging.

The great thing about YA books is that at least on some level, we can all relate, as most of us anyway have similar memories of high school / teenage years.

Joey Crouch was living a good life in Chicago when his mother is tragically killed. He's bussed off to Iowa to live with his father whom he has never met or even spoke to. The first idea that something is unusual begins when he learns that his father has no phone, or any form of electronic communication. Arriving at the shack out in the woods on the edge of the rural town, Joey further learns that his father is not just off the grid but something of a local pariah - the town garbage man, a figure of mystery and distrust for the natives.

Being the new kid in school can be scary all by itself and Kraus masterfully crafts a setting of fear, isolation and cruelty that is all the more terrifying because it is a homely situation we can readily understand. Stephen King's horror is so effective because it is supernatural but wearing store bought shoes, it is paranormal but sits at the kitchen table pouring milk over a bowl of Cap'n Crunch. Kraus uses some of these same techniques to create this unhappy situation for Joey.

Joey then learns that his father has a VERY unusual occupation - he's a grave robber. Yeah! How original is that? More than this, Joey's father introduces him to a world of "diggers" - an underworld society of dark archeologists who have an ethos and who observe ancient codes of conduct. His father relates a kinship with the thieves of the pyramids and describes his profession as a cultural-economic necessity like vultures are to nature.

What follows is a very well written and empathetic tale of family, loyalty, and of shared but misunderstood mortality.

All warm fuzzies aside, this is about grave robbing with some mental illness and teenage angst thrown in, so it's dark. Some of the graveyard scenes sail past creepy and into the neighborhood of shocking and outrageous, enough to make Chuck Palahniuk raise an eyebrow.

A very good book.