Security
Ratings4
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings4
Average rating4.3
The inventiveness of A Visit from the Goon Squad meets the down-the-rabbit-hole suspense of The Girl on the Train in this chilling, pulse-racing thriller from an electrifying new writer. When the gleaming new Manderly Resort opens in twenty-four hours, Santa Barbara's exclusive cliff-top hotel will offer its patrons the ultimate in luxury and high-tech security. No indulgence has been ignored, no detail overlooked. But all the money in the world can't guarantee safety. As hotel manager Tessa and her employees ready the hotel for its grand opening, killers are in their midst. One by one, staff are picked off with ruthless precision. And before the night is over, as Tessa desperately struggles to survive, it will become clear that the strangest and most terrible truth at Manderly is simply this: someone is watching. With stunning ingenuity, Gina Wohlsdorf puts readers front and center as the elite resort becomes a house of horrors. Riveting to the final sentence, Security is fierce, wry, and impossible to put down. With a deep bow to the literary tradition of Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, and Daphne du Maurier, Wohlsdorf's razor-wire prose blitzes readers with quick twists, sharp turns, and gasp-inducing horror. Security is at once a shocking thriller, a brilliant narrative puzzle, and a moving, multifaceted love story unlike any other.
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“The best security is invisible security. The best safety is safety that one's object of protection doesn't know about.”
Security is really best described as a slasher film in book form and it hits all the right notes in that regard. It follows Tessa, the hotel manager at Manderly Resort, the newest, flashiest, high-profile resort hotel on the Santa Barbara coast. As she oversees the staff in their preparations for Manderly's grand opening the next day a killer is stalking the halls, murdering everyone that crosses his path. All of this is narrated by a mysterious stranger who is watching the bloodbath over the hotel's closed-circuit security system.
Told in a third-person omniscient voice, Security has a different feel that other novels. Because the narrator is telling the reader what happens as they view it on the hotel's incredibly comprehensive security cameras, we not only get a play-by-play of the horror as it happens but also this unknown viewers opinions which are often laced with a bit of dark humor. For example, we get this scene in the kitchen.
“Brian attacked the grease on his hands with a kitchen towel. The towel has red stains on it, most likely cherry coulis. One could not rule out the possibility that it was not cherry coulis.”
One of the things that makes this book unique is how the author chooses to show simultaneous action. The pages are split in half, thirds, or quarters with each “scene” playing out in those sections, giving the impression that they're being viewed on side-by-side television screens as they are being relayed to the reader by our mysterious narrator. In any other book this might feel gimmicky but here it's used perfectly (and sparingly) to remind you how the narrator is privy to the events as they unfold. I also have to add that when you slowly start to realize who the narrator is your jaw will drop. It was a stroke of genius I never saw coming.
The characters were both stereotypical in their make-up - the tightly wound girl-boss, the faithful maid, the temperamental French chef, etc. - but incredibly well developed at the same time. The book follows traditional slasher-film rules so much that each death is predictable in a way that doesn't decrease enjoyment of the book. (I actually had fun guessing who would die next!) Despite all of the blood and gore there's a certain playfulness in it's tone that makes it a fun read. It doesn't take itself too seriously and, because of the format, as a reader you're able to join in on that fun. You'll find yourself thinking “NO! Don't open that door!” as you read, just like you would watching it on a screen. It was a total success in that regard.
With nods to Stephen King, Alfred Hitchcock, and of course Daphne du Maurier, this debut - DEBUT! - novel is a gift to horror fans. Security is funny, clever, bloody and tremendously incentive. It certainly isn't going to be for everyone, but if you like slasher films and don't mind a little gore in your life, give this a try.
(Thanks to Alegonquin and LibraryThing for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.)
