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A History of Fear
A History of Fear: A Novel | Luke Dumas
8 posts | 4 read | 1 reading | 5 to read
Readers, beware: this novel is not safe and will have you questioning whats real for many sleepless nights to come. Clay McLeod Chapman, author of The Remaking A disorienting, creepy, paranoia-inducing reimagining of the devil-made-me-do-it tale (Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World) following the harrowing downfall of a tortured graduate student arrested for murder. The Devil is in Scotland. Grayson Hale, the most infamous murderer in Scotland, is better known by a different name: the Devils Advocate. The twenty-five-year-old American grad student rose to instant notoriety when he confessed to the slaughter of his classmate Liam Stewart, claiming the Devil made him do it. When Hale is found hanged in his prison cell, officers uncover a handwritten manuscript that promises to answer the question thats haunted the nation for years: was Hale a lunatic, or had he been telling the truth all along? Unnervingly, Hale doesnt fit the bill of a killer. The first-person narrative that centers this novel reveals an acerbic young atheist, newly enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to carry on the legacy of his recently deceased father. In need of cash, he takes a job ghostwriting a mysterious book for a dark stranger, but has misgivings when the project begins to reawaken his satanophobia, a rare condition that causes him to live in terror that the Devil is after him. As he struggles to disentangle fact from fear, Graysons world is turned upside-down after events force him to confront his growing suspicion that hes working for the one he has feared all this timeand that the book is only the beginning of their partnership.?? A History of Fear is a propulsive foray into the darkness of the human psyche, marrying dread-inducing atmosphere and heart-palpitating storytelling.
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Robotswithpersonality
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Speaking of impact, this is perhaps my favourite category to reflect on, because it only reveals itself over time. These are the ones that stuck with me. Not quite the same as an unquestionable fave, but I keep thinking about them (and not in a 'wow, I hated that' way 😅). We'll see if they're still lodged in my brain at the end of 2024!

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Robotswithpersonality
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I completely understand anyone who finished this book, and could not fully enjoy the horror-mystery aspect due to the heavy weight the story places on themes of 'internalized homophobia and childhood abuse and neglect can lead to violence and mental break' and 'is it all in that character's head?' 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? There are certainly many times in the past where homoerotic subtext, blatant homophobia, trauma survival and mental health concerns have been exploited in the most sensational ways, with no regard for the communities such 'representation' affects. 8mo
Robotswithpersonality 3/? As neither a gay man, a survivor of abuse, nor a person currently struggling with mental health, I cannot comment on the specific representation, but I think this was a sharper, more empathetic read on such themes, from the angle of what fear makes us do, and the tragedy of being made to fear a part of ourselves. 8mo
Robotswithpersonality 4/? Whether you go with 'repressed homosexual man with abusive childhood struggles with sexual identity and mental health and turns violent', OR 'man with that past is goaded on by supernatural force to become violent', it's tragic, and depressing either way. 8mo
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Robotswithpersonality 5/? But the way this story is built up, the multimedia elements by turns supporting and contradicting the main narrative, those moments when you can see the characters revealing things they might not have intended to, even in their own POV, the creeping increase in uncanny, violent, horrifying circumstances... 8mo
Robotswithpersonality 6/7 It did a very good job of presenting the Devil as a plausible boogeyman (clandestine, shape shifting, friendly, seductive), in the best tradition of films like The Devil's Advocate. [If there are other books like this, I would love recommendations.]
I guess what I'm saying is 'your mileage may vary', but I had a damn good time, quality chills, especially after that last line. 😉
8mo
Robotswithpersonality 7/7 ⚠️Fatphobia, child abuse, neglect, suicide, animal cruelty, internalized homophobia, homophobia, homophobic violence, child death 8mo
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Robotswithpersonality
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The atmosphere! 😍🖤

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Robotswithpersonality
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Yeah, Satan as a speckled grouse gave me the giggles too. 🤭

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Robotswithpersonality
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Yikes. As someone whose neighbouring childhood community's idea of an upgrade was to design a library with basic log cabin exterior, I have encountered some very 'function over form' libraries, but 'warehouse of sadness' and 'call centre' for 'midsize life insurance outfit' is next level roasting of institutional ugly. And considering the funds that are usually flung at universities, (sadly not always in the library's direction) this is grim.

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LatrelWhite
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🎧Oh my this was excellent!

Did the devil really make him do it? That question haunts Dumas‘s stellar debut, a complex whydunit. American Grayson Hale, a University of Edinburgh postgraduate student, has been convicted of murdering a colleague, Liam Stewart, whose strangled corpse was found in a loch months after his disappearance.

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gibblr
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Sitting in my second grade classroom waiting for the opening night of my daughter‘s play to begin. Gotta keep myself entertained somehow!