[Review] Beyond The Creek by Nico Bell
Beyond the Creek
Nico Bell
D&T Publishing
5/5 Stars
TW: Abusive Relationship; Child Abuse; Arachnophobia
Bell’s writing is so wonderful that before finishing the first chapter, I already knew this novella would become one of the top ten reads of the year. It’s a modern gothic that has all of my favorite elements: a strong female lead, great queer representation, a creepy house, and a dark family secret.
The novella follows a woman, Alex, who’s desperate to get a job, seeing as she’s escaped her abusive husband and is pregnant. That’s how she becomes the new caretaker for Peter LAST NAME, which seems like a perfect opportunity at first, until her landlady tells Alex about the (supernatural) rumors surrounding the X residence. Not long after that, she begins experiencing strange things while at the house and it becomes apparent that the family she’s been working for has their fair share of skeletons in the closet. Due to it being a novella, there’s not much build-up, once the first truly creepy thing happens, the rest followed quickly, and the plot becomes fast-paced. Even so, the story never feels rushed, the reading flowed well, and I was left feeling very satisfied with the ending. As weird as it may sound, the overall tone of the book is wholesome and advocates that everyone is strong enough to fight. It left me with a warm feeling of hope, something I’ve been needing these days and that I was not expecting to get from this novella. Bell ties up all the loose strands, however, she does leave the reader with an open ending, which I’m usually not a fan of, but it worked well with the plot she had constructed.
As I’ve mentioned time and time again, characters will always come before plot to me and no matter how well a story is written, if I can’t feel for the characters then I’m incapable of getting invested in the story. Thankfully, Bell’s characters are constructed really well and there was also the bonus that all the “big players” in the story were women, something we don’t see enough when it comes to horror. On top of this, the main character is an abuse survivor who succeeded in escaping, the reader sees how much she still struggles with her trauma, but Bell makes sure that Alex never comes off as weak or fragile, even when that’s how she sees herself. I found this protagonist to be an incredible representative of trauma survivors and, although this isn’t the main (or perhaps, only) intent of the novella, Alex’s arch does a great service as for the perception of abuse victims. Still on the topic of good representation, Bell does another thing that’s out of the (mainstream) horror pattern: she writes a queer couple whose role in the story has absolutely no connection to their sexuality. It’s not even mentioned, not by Alex and not by anyone else in the story, it’s so wonderful to finally read a story with queer characters that does not center around their pain and trauma (related to their sexuality, Bell had plenty of creepy traumas to inflict on everyone).
I’m a squeamish person and I’ll admit that I usually skim over the more gruesome scenes in books and close my eyes during kills in horror movies. That said, although there were a couple of moments where I had to skip a few “descriptive” lines, the novella does not rely much on body horror or gore. Bell created such a creepy atmosphere around the house and the X family, combined with the paranoia that Alex’s abusive ex could show up at any moment, that I was on edge the whole time I was reading it. Overall, a wonderful novella that was incredibly pleasant to read, as I’ve mentioned above, there is no doubt in my mind that it will make my 2022 top five, and I recommend this to any and all horror lovers.
