Anyone looking for a claustrophobic and unsettling story will find the perfect match with Into The Sublime, a self-aware YA thriller whose characters directly reference The Descent and As Above, So Below. With an unreliable narrator and slow nightmarish downward spiral into questioning reality that is reminiscent of The Luminous Dead, Kate A. Boorman cleverly creates an ominous, disorienting atmosphere that creeps the audience out by making our minds run wild with speculation about what dangers await the main characters.
The author takes her time showing the group dynamics unfold as Amelie and her companions navigate mundane setbacks and conflict before gradually introducing bigger threats and hints of possible supernatural occurrences. This isn’t the book for someone who wants a concrete monster revealed by the end of the first act, it’s for readers who delight in a story where the author delicately walks the line of portraying increasingly baffling and undeniably freaky phenomena taking place while still maintaining plausible deniability that nothing supernatural is going on. Personally I adore the tension and thrill when something afflicts the protagonists without being explicitly magical or paranormal, it’s always much more satisfying to me when that uncertainty is drawn out and we’re actively engaged in unravelling what on earth is going on along with the heroine.
Into The Sublime will appeal to fans of slow-burn psychological horror as a significant portion of the book involves teasing apart the clues dropped by Amelie about a tragic incident that involved her cousin which is the motivation for undertaking this search for a hidden lake out of local folklore about a one-eyed witch. The deeper the girls go into the cave system, the more it preys on their mental state and the more unreliable Amelie’s narration becomes. We only see H, Gia and Devon through her eyes, making them as innocent or sinister as she perceives them to be, and we’re led to entertain suspicions of one after another in turn based on the circumstances.
I always enjoy when social media impacts on the storyline in some way because in our modern society, technology is inescapable and affects our connections to fellow human beings on a daily basis, so it was a neat touch that the girls were strangers that connected through chance via Dissent, a group for thrill-seekers who completed dangerous challenges. Because the girls weren’t familiar with each other before this expedition to the wilds of Colorado, it was more plausible for Amelie to suspect that one of them could be deliberately toying with the group in a way that wouldn’t have made sense if they had all been friends from school.
The story jumps between a few timelines—while the majority of the book takes place in the first-person from Amelie’s perspective three months ago as the girls embark on their search for the witch’s cave, it opens with the surfacing of a body and Amelie’s subsequent email about it to a mysterious character, then at periodic intervals, her narrative is halted by a police officer who is questioning her directly after she’s discovered soaked in blood once she’s escaped the cave. The opening is deliberately ambiguous and sets up questions that are addressed (though not necessarily answered) by the end of the book, and while it may be jarring to some readers to be dragged from the depths of the cave out back to the normal world at random points, it’s a fun and effective framing device that makes it clear how guilty and unhinged Amelie looks to third parties. It adds an element of dread that takes the relief out of knowing that she survives whatever threats the group faces in the cave because what has she emerged to face in the real world, is she escaping the witch or a psychotic teammate or monsters only to be put in prison for murder? And just whose blood is she covered in anyway?
A well-written, spookily entertaining variation on the ‘trapped in a remote location’ horror trope with a unique creepy local legend and enough thrills and chills to keep readers on their toes. Its open ending that smartly ties off some loose ends while leaving others up to the imagination ensures this will linger in your mind for a while to come.
Into The Sublime is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of July 26th 2022.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
A new YA psychological thriller from Kate A. Boorman, author of What We Buried, about four teenage girls who descend into a dangerous underground cave system in search of a lake of local legend, said to reveal your deepest fears .
When the cops arrive, only a few things are clear:
– Four girls entered a dangerous cave.
– Three of them came out alive.
– Two of them were rushed to the hospital.
– And one is soaked in blood and ready to talk.
Amelie Desmarais’ story begins believably enough: Four girls from a now-defunct thrill-seeking group planned an epic adventure to find a lake that Colorado locals call “The Sublime.” Legend has it that the lake has the power to change things for those who risk—and survive—its cavernous depths. They each had their reasons for going. For Amelie, it was a promise kept to her beloved cousin, who recently suffered a tragic accident during one of the group’s dares.
But as her account unwinds, and the girls’ personalities and motives are drawn, things get complicated. Amelie is hardly the thrill-seeking type, and it appears she’s not the only one with the ability to deceive. Worse yet, Amelie is covered in someone‘s blood, but whose exactly? And where’s the fourth girl?
Is Amelie spinning a tale to cover her guilt? Or was something inexplicable waiting for the girls down there? Amelie’s the only one with answers, and she’s insisting on an explanation that is more horror-fantasy than reality. Maybe the truth lies somewhere in between?
After all, strange things inhabit dark places. And sometimes we bring the dark with us.
