Grab the Lapels

It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan

Recently, I was listening to my favorite podcast, The Evolution of Horror, and the host and his guest were talking about how one of the scariest things we’ve all experienced, but maybe we don’t think about too much as adults, is being home alone as a kid and someone knocks on the door. And I do remember that happening! (Well, it was daytime and the Jehovah’s were out). You’re not expecting anyone, you feel safe in your house (and for me, that was down a dirt road without neighbors snuggled up to us). And then you hear it, and what do you do? You hide, of course, while trying to see out the windows without being seen.

So, I went into It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan with that scenario in mind, and I think it made me have a scarier experience. Kaplan’s novel quietly, and sometimes more obviously, makes connections to other horror stories: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, The Shining as directed by Stanley Kubrick, Grave Encounters directed by The Vicious Brothers, and even a little Sweet Valley High — one character in Kaplan’s novel is named Elizabeth Wakefield, and I can only think that the author’s young age made her miss this famous reference.

In the novel, Samantha Wakefield has returned to her haunted, Gothic childhood home to live with her mother, who hasn’t left the house in recent memory. Sam ends up there because she was kicked out of her sister, Elizabeth’s, house after she whacked Elizabeth’s husband over the head with a heavy, jarred candle. Unfortunately, Sam thought he was an intruder, and she was on high alert because she’d recently been mugged. The mugging is contentious between the sisters because they got into a fight during a girls’ night out, and Elizabeth drove off without her sister, leaving Sam stranded, which is when she was mugged. Elizabeth feels no guilt.

In her childhood home, Sam settles in to what is totally normal for her: seeing the ghosts of her relatives walking around or replaying how they died in the house, such as suffocating from their own tubercular fluid-filled lungs. She and her mother can also sees various time periods, such as Sam and Elizabeth playing as girls (“Look how young we are,” Sam says as she and her mother watch the girls romp past). But one night Elizabeth shows up unexpectedly with no husband and is eight months pregnant. Something about the house changes, because now Sam is seeing the future — and it’s pretty scary.

What scared me? We’re introduced to a faceless boy killing animals. Sam wonders if he doesn’t have a face because maybe the house can’t remember this particular long-dead relative, and she doesn’t know him from any genealogy she’s learned. But then, Sam sees him again:

I back away down the length of the hall to my own room as he turns around, looking through me with those indistinguishable black pits for eyes, blank like the dead, out of that strangely unfocused face. I walk backward all the way to my room, grateful to find the doorknob in my hand. With a thrill of unfounded fear I close and lock the door behind me, then turn and listen to the slow footsteps creaking across the hall toward my room.

And then that’s when he knocks and calls her “Auntie.” Sam realizes for the first time she can see the future, and she’s assuming this violent boy is the baby her sister is carrying. From there, Sam contemplates ways to get rid of her nephew, and there is some pretty graphic writing, which would be especially upsetting to anyone who has a real fondness for babies and pregnant women. I was rather chilled and upset in that way that excites me as a horror fan, but many of you should steer clear.

Then, Sam realizes it’s important to tell us about the swamp witch. It Will Just Be Us is set in Virginia, and I was not aware that they have swamps, so I was mostly picturing Louisiana, something like that. We’re told a story of slaves who were owned by Sam’s far-back relatives, and one slave, a mother, is drawn into the swamp and killed, then reanimated, by the swamp witch. This is a great piece of writing as the woman walks around with mud coming out of her mouth as she tries to convince her husband and daughter to be “safe” by joining her and the witch. Later, the daughter is made into the slave owner’s mistress, thus entering the Wakefield family tree when she has children. The ghosts of these individuals begin haunting the house more steadily in Sam’s time, until one of the ghosts is killed by the faceless boy.

I found the writing mesmerizing and almost poetic in places, which meant that when I started the novel on audio I had to stop; I couldn’t keep up when I wanted to pause and take in the words. Here’s an example: “But the hand she took was cold, with the muculent feel of a tree root that’s been submerged for many years, and though this sodden woman was her mother, yes, she was afraid.”

I was immersed in the story, the construction of the environment, the characters, and the mystery of the faceless boy and whether he is born evil or made that way — and what Sam can to do stop it all. One member of my horror book club found the novel boring, while another felt a lot was going on. As for me, I was in my happy place getting violence, Gothic houses, a mystery, fighting siblings, real-life threats from Elizabeth’s husband, a distant mother whose source of trauma is a surprise, the story of the slaves . . . okay, there is a lot, but I felt it went together beautifully.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Grab the Lapels

I'm a graduate of the MFA fiction writing program at the University of Notre Dame, which inspired me to follow along with trends in teaching, publishing, and reviewing. I also have an MA and BS from Central Michigan University. I used to teach composition, creative writing, and literature in higher education, then did a brief stint at a civic theater, followed by two years at a references desk at a public library. I'm now working toward my ASL Interpreter license.

29 comments

  1. Oh my. Not a book I would read as it would give me nightmares! I’m glad you enjoyed it though! It strikes that it would probably make a pretty good movie, which I also wouldn’t see 😀

    Like

    Reply

  3. I don’t remember ever being frightened in that way as a little boy – though I hated going to the outside toilet at night in case the bears got me – so perhaps that’s why I don’t have your affinity for horror stories.

    Like

    Reply

    • Now, imagine you were in the outside toilet, all alone…..and someone knocked on the door. You guys don’t have door-to-door Jehovah’s Witnesses in Australia? And why did I not know there are bears in Australia…

      I finally watched Lake Mungo, which is a spooky movie set in Australia that I didn’t find scary at all, but it’s about a girl who drowns in….Lake Mungo. The family thinks her ghost keeps coming back, but the photos were talking with a potato camera, I swear.

      Like

      Reply

  4. […] It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan is too scary for most of my readers, but it’s a novel I greatly enjoyed. This makes me think about how subjective horror is. My horror movie group met to discuss Lake Mungo, an Australian horror movie described as eerie or spooky. I nearly fell asleep. I wanted more emotion from the characters, more setting so I knew it was actually in Australia, and more to the mystery. However, everyone else at the meet up loved it, and found it quite chilling. And so it goes. […]

    Like

    Reply

  5. This is a bit different to your usual posts, but enjoyable just the same. I can’t ever recollect being scared by being home alone and there being a knock at the door BUT my oh my I was scared by The Twilight Zone! And, like Bill, I didn’t much like going to the toiler outside at night, which didn’t happen often as I mostly lived in modern homes but it did on holidays. And being scared that something might jump out of the toilet.

    Like

    Reply

  6. Like Bill, I was terrified of an outside toilet – my Gran’s – but why, as she had an indoor one, too, that you used at night! Anyway not for me but glad you enjoyed this!

    Like

    Reply

  7. Just reading this review gave me chills! It sounds very creepy. Definitely one I couldn’t read myself (children dying is hard for me), but I can see why this was such an effective horror novel. Super creepy! The description of the ghost’s face is so good/terrifying!

    Like

    Reply

  8. This sounds like there is a lot going on! You know I’m not going to read this but yes, I am still a bit terrified when someone knocks unexpectedly on my door! I was a latchkey kid at various times and it was unintentionally instilled in me that probably everyone was trying to kidnap me.

    Like

    Reply

    • 1) stranger danger, 2) parents often not home, 3) probably too young to be home alone, 4) live in the middle of nowhere.

      All these things can add up! I think for me part of the horror is I felt I had to always listen to adults, so the idea of hiding from an adult while they banged on the door felt horrifying in the sense that I didn’t know what to do/feel.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  9. I’ve never left my kids alone longer than it takes to get to the mailbox but I know I was left home alone when I was Pearl’s age. Though I’m the youngest in my family so that probably made a difference.

    There was also a huge emphasis on stranger danger when we were kids that I don’t think exists in the same way anymore. Now it’s better understood that kids are more likely to be abused by people they know, unfortunately, and they do more to teach consent and self-advocacy. At least, that’s been my experience.

    The idea of an adult at the door seeing that I was inside and not answering was particularly alarming! Probably for the reasons you say!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. I just stumbled up on this review and I LOVE it… but you’re right, I absolutely was not aware of the inadvertent Sweet Valley High reference. Time to start Googling all my character names before I move forward, lol. Sorry to pop in like this, carry on.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I LOVE that you popped on like this, so long as it’s not to correct/argue with me. The things some nutty authors do. However, I do appreciate a pop up and hello and compliment. I really loved this book and hope you have more coming soon. I was really petrified by all the creeping dread.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Insert 2 Cents Here: