There’s something to be said about the kind of horror set in a place that feels very recognizable, while also being timeless, but you know is imagined. A horror that plays off the folk tales of a place that allows a sense of dread to build over the course of a novel. Lute by Jennifer Thorne is a novel that is a point of convergence for those ideas (and more) with “The Day” as the focal point of the tension and action of the novel. But what is “The Day?”
On the idyllic island of Lute, every seventh summer, seven people die. No more, no less.
Lute and its inhabitants are blessed, year after year, with good weather, good health, and good fortune. They live a happy, superior life, untouched by the war that rages all around them. So it’s only fair that every seven years, on the day of the tithe, the island’s gift is honored.
Nina Treadway is new to The Day. A Florida girl by birth, she became a Lady through her marriage to Lord Treadway, whose family has long protected the island. Nina’s heard about The Day, of course. Heard about the horrific tragedies, the lives lost, but she doesn’t believe in it. It’s all superstitious nonsense. Stories told to keep newcomers at bay and youngsters in line.
Then The Day begins. And it’s a day of nightmares, of grief, of reckoning. But it is also a day of community. Of survival and strength. Of love, at its most pure and untamed. When The Day ends, Nina—and Lute—will never be the same.
The novel unfolds through Nina Treadwell’s first-person narrative as “The Day” nears. It isn’t explicitly stated what “The Day” is initially, but it is revealed to be an event that happens every seven years…and claims the lives of seven people before it is over. Nina came to the island when her husband, Lord Hugh Treadway, met her on a ship and brought her to the island of Lute as his wife. Nina is not very comfortable with the honorific “Lady” many people call her, either. However, Lute seems peaceful and idyllic. It is shieled from the war that seems to have engulfed much of the world outside of Lute. Very little attention is given to the war itself, although several times it is remarked that Lute is safe from the war. We also don’t know too much about Nina at the outset of the novel, but as Nina learns more about Lute and “The Day” we learn a little bit more about Nina.
By fashioning a protagonist who is an outsider to these mores, this imaged place, author Jennifer Thorne gives the reader a sightline to discover the intricacies of Lute along with Nina. Thorne does a great job escalating the simmering dread that acts as a black cloud to the inhabitants of Lute. Nina is even told that she can’t understand the full weight of “The Day” until she experiences it. And since she is the narrator, we as the reader see through her eyes the mounting dread that surrounds the people of Lute as they draw nearer to “The Day.”
What I found as unnerving as the black cloud over “The Day” was the effect it had on Nina’s relationship with her husband Lord Hugh. He initially seems quite stable, but as Nina begins to stray from the home as the “Day” draws ever closer, he seems to unravel. As it turns out, Nina is a quick learner and the true impact and import of “The Day” begins to settle into her mind, she understands what it means to be a resident of Lute and somehow begins to find herself mor resolute.
Readers will very likely find a great deal of resonance with “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. Thorne, of course, unfolds her horror at a more protracted pace and length, allowing for a deeper characterization of her cast as well as a little more flavor to Lute than just an unnamed town. That said, the dread is more palpable as it is drawn out of a much longer narrative, and equally as powerful. The island setting also reminded me, in some ways, of Mike Flanagan’s Netflix masterpiece, Midnight Mass.
The pacing was a little uneven throughout, particularly some of the middle sections, but as the conclusion drew ever closer, I found it quite difficult to set the book aside.
Lute is a well-thought-out novel of dread, acceptance, and how high a cost a feeling of serenity may ask of a person and a group of people.
© 2022 Rob H. Bedford
Hardcover | October 2022
Tor.com Publishing | 336 pages
https://www.jenniferthorne.com/ | @JuniperJennyT
Excerpt: https://www.tor.com/2022/09/15/excerpts-lute-by-jennifer-thorne/
