Book Review: The snow won't chill your bones as much as It Looks Like You in the Dark will
In 2023, Mathilda Zeller took us to the edge with “Kushtuka,” one of the many stories in the indigenous anthology Never Whistle at Night from Shane Hawk and Ted Van Alst Jr. Now she’s back to push us over that edge with her debut novel It Looks Like You in the Dark.”
The description from Tor reads;
Tapeesa is newly out of high school and working in a fish processing plant in the Inupiat village, Chukchi, where she’s lived her whole life. Maybe that’s why people tend to assume she isn’t that bright—or maybe her mama is right and she does have bad blood. Either way, she knows the legend, and she knows the history. Her Ahna told her that the hungry creature—the kushtuka—appears to us in the form of someone we love. It will try to get us to follow it. Follow it where? Those who have gone no longer have throats to tell us.The Kobuk River Valley of remote Alaska draws greedy white men time and time again. But whenever they come, death comes too. This time the white men are here for the long term, to create an open pit, a rare earths mine just north of the village. When her sister Esther goes missing, Tapeesa will do anything to get her back. Seeking justice, Tapeesa must track down the kidnapper in the darkening Arctic. What awaits beyond the warmth of her village is more horrible than she could imagine and closer to her than she knows. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU IN THE DARK is a fast-paced, grab-you-by-the-throat story about love, loyalty, and all the fearsome monsters that emerge when we turn our backs on the land and each other.
Zeller takes us through Iñupiaq life raw and unapologetically, showcasing alcoholism, generational trauma, colonization, and other real life horrors. But through her characters, Zeller showcases distinctive strength and resilience that many of us in the lower 48 states can’t relate to. Even when the supernatural horror manifests, their strength is exercised beautifully, but that’s not without fear and fully-expressed terror.
“Humanistic horror” is the phrase that keeps popping up in my head after reading it. As deliciously chilling as it is, some of the most unnerving and profound terrors in the book are grounded in reality; missing indigenous women, masked assaults, hazardous environments. And one of the most unnerving characters is not just Kushtuka, but an Oklahoma millionaire named Hank Ferryman. Hank is the embodiment of greed and entitlement, and his exploitation of Chukchi might be the most consistent antagonist to the story.
Zeller makes the environment itself an antagonist. The valley along the Kobuk River is at the mercy of the climate, and the residents of Chukchi posess great mental and physical strength living there. Meanwhile, Hank’s survival there is only dependant on his wealth and influence.
Throughout the book I sometimes forgot about the supernatural elements, but that’s in no way detrimental. The depictions of Iñupiaq life and Chukchi's history of white invaders (which the book opens opens with) help to intimately describe the characters and their vigor, and we grow to love characters like Tapeesa, Eddie, and Pana.
As enduring as the life is portrayed, it is still life and there is still love there. Love makes great horror—in a genre loaded with blood and guts, reading gnarly descriptions simply isn’t enough to fright. To truly be scared we have to care about the characters at stake.
Of course, that’s not to say the gore in It Looks Like You in the Dark does not disappoint. A moment I particularly recall with delightful disgust was when a character reaches a hand into the split chest of a dead person and palms their spine.. It does take a minute to get to the action, but that works perfectly because we have plenty of time to get to know the characters, town, and atmosphere.
Despite the scares, it is also quite a thrilling read! We read almost entirely from Tapeesa’s point of view, and her perspective is hectic. Her mind is barely at rest throughout the story, and the terror, frustration, and confusion she feels is shared by us. This applies not only to her eocnounters with the Kushtuka but also Hank, her mother, police officer, etc.
At its core, It Looks Like You in the Dark is a riveting humanistic horror that generously sprinkles gnarly supernatural terror throughout. The result showcases the life of people in a largely ignored part of the world and the introduction of a familiar, yet terrifying, entity.
It Looks Like You in the Dark is currently available from Tor.
Comments