The Grimmer by Naben Ruthnum

Formats: Print, audio, digital

Publisher: ECW Press

Genre: Dark Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Audience: Y/A

Diversity: Indian Canadian author and characters

Takes Place in: BC, Canada

Content Warnings: Alcohol Abuse, Death, Drug Use/Abuse, Racism (Highlight to view)

Blurb:

The small-town mysteries of John Bellairs are made modern with a dash of Stranger Things in this spine-tingling supernatural horror-thriller After his father returns from treatment for addiction, highschooler Vish ― lover of metal music and literature ― is uncertain what the future holds. It doesn’t help that everyone seems to know about the family’s troubles, and they stand out doubly as one of the only brown families in town. When Vish is mistaken for a relative of the weird local bookseller and attacked by an unsettling pale man who seems to be decaying, he is pulled into the world of the occult, where witches live in television sets, undead creatures can burn with a touch, and magic is mathematical. Vish must work with the bookstore owner and his mysterious teenage employee, Gisela, to stop an interdimensional invasion that would destroy their peaceful town. Bringing together scares, suspense, and body horror, The Grimmer is award-winning author Naben Ruthnum’s first foray into the young adult genre. This gripping ride through the supernatural is loaded with vivid characters, frightening imagery, and astonishing twists, while tackling complex issues such as grief, racism, and addiction.

I received this product for free in return for providing an honest and unbiased review. I received no other compensation. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

It’s 1996, and Vish Maurya is finally returning from his Vancouver Island boarding school to his home of Kelowna, BC (where Ruthnum grew up). Normally, he’d spend the summer playing music with his best friends, Danny and Matt Pearson, but they’re no longer on speaking terms after the brothers told their music teacher about Vish’s father’s opioid addiction. Somehow, the entire school found out and Vish was sent away to boarding school while his father went to detox and worked on his recovery. Now he spends his days in his room brooding and pretending everything at is normal at home.

Kelwona is very white, and it’s hard for Vish being one of the only Indian kids. Other children do imitations of his parents’ Indian accents (never mind that neither of them has a strong accent). They joke that his beautiful mother is a mail-order bride or make snide remarks about arranged marriages because “there was no way someone that beautiful would willingly end up with someone who looked like his dad.” Parents tell him how much they love butter chicken and samosas. So, it’s a relief when Vish meets another Indian person, a cool but sick-looking young man named Agastya who runs a bookstore called Greycat books. A shop I would totally visit for the name alone if it existed in the real world. There’s even a shop cat named Moby. Little does he know that Agastya, a punk teen named Gisela, and a strange man named Mr. Farris are about to change his life forever.

And this is where the book veers into a mix of dark fantasy and science-fiction à la a Wrinkle in Time. Mr. Farris is a nachzehrer, an undead creature from German folklore that is said to be able to drain its victim’s lifeforce. Gisela is also a 700-year-old German witch, but somehow still 16 so it’s totally not creepy for Vish to harbor a crush on her because they’re technically the same age due to magic and time travel. She gave me the impression of a punk version of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, that is, a woman who exists only to help and fulfil the male protagonists. She rescues her love interest from his own boring life and guides him to become a better version of himself. Gisela at least has her own motivations and desires, using Vish to stop the antagonist, but her “not like other girls” vibes still grated on me. I also didn’t like how Agastya and Gisela keep promising to tell Vish everything, then would end up dropping new, horrible surprises on him. You can hardly blame him for getting frustrated with them. They would act like they cared, but then seemed to be only interested in using poor Vish.

I found the Grimmer’s magic system confusing, somehow both extremely detailed and vague. Despite multiple explanations of both magic and magical beings I still had no idea how everything worked (something to do with very complex math and physics?). All this seemed to do was make the book feel unnecessarily drawn out. Kudos to Ruthnum for putting so much thought into his world, but I would’ve liked to have seen less world building and more character development, especially for Gisela. I could have also used more horror, given that the book is advertised as horror, though what little there was felt genuinely creepy.

Although The Grimmer takes place in the 90s, it avoids relying too much on nostalgia or making a plethora of pop culture references that might alienate its young adult audience. I liked how the book dealt so deftly with heavy topics like racism and addiction and showed the adults as imperfect. I like that Vish’s father, a well-educated psychiatrist, struggles with drug addiction while we see Agastya, a successful book store owner, abuse alcohol to help cope with the death of his wife.

Anyone can suffer from a substance use disorder, including a successful doctor and family man like Vish’s father, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at most media. At my day job, I work with patients struggling with substance use disorder (SUD), and half the battle is confronting the stigma surrounding addiction. Stereotypes about those with SUD include being “bad” people who can’t hold down jobs, live in squalor, have no meaningful relationships, are uneducated (often drop outs) and choose to be this way. Often, I will hear patients tearfully tell me that they’re not bad people, not like those other “addicts.” They’re afraid we’ll judge them, even though they suffer from a disease that can affect anyone, because the stereotypes surrounding addiction are so pervasive. Unfortunately, their fears aren’t unfounded because even in healthcare addiction carries a lot of stigma and providers will treat these patients as “lesser.” Some patients can’t even admit they have a problem because they don’t fit the mold of what they think someone with SUD looks like. They have a successful job, a family, they own their own house, they go to church, etc. so they can’t possibly be someone with an addiction. Their inability to accept reality (of course) makes recovery even harder. The fanciful aspects of The Grimmer were hit and miss for me, and I felt like Giselle could have been a stronger character, but the book was solid and the more serious issues (grief, addiction, racism) were all handled well and were, for me at least, the strongest parts of the story.