Rainforest
by Michelle Paver
Michelle Paver is possibly best known for her YA fantasy series Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. However, she also has a strong following among fans of horror and supernatural fiction. Her standalone novels Thin Air and Dark Matter are built on a similar premise: individuals in eerie, extreme landscapes—whether Himalayan peaks or the expanse of the Arctic—start losing their grip on reality and are haunted by ghosts, real or imaginary.
Paver’s Wakenhyrst, published in 2019 and set in the Suffolk Fens on the eve of the Great War, was a departure of sorts, being more of a feminist Gothic thriller with echoes of M.R. James and folk horror.
Rainforest sees Paver return to her winning formula of historical “explorer horror.” The narrator is Simon Corbett, an English professor who, in the 1970s, joins an archaeological dig in Central America—ostensibly to assist on the project but, in reality, for personal reasons: namely, to study the particular mantids living in the area and, at the same time, to distance himself from some unsavoury events back in England. Although the story is told from Corbett’s perspective, in the form of a journal he keeps at camp, he is an unreliable narrator, and the reasons for his temporary exile are revealed only gradually over the course of the book. This adds to the suspense and enhances the novel’s readability. Corbett, it must be said, is also a highly unlikeable character. And although by the end of the novel he becomes a more nuanced figure, it is difficult to shake off the highly obnoxious impression he evokes for most of the time.
The strongest aspect of Rainforest is its atmosphere, with colourful descriptions of flora and fauna (based on the author’s own experiences) that are at once awe-inspiring and unsettling. References to indigenous rituals add a dark tinge to the story, and some scenes are particularly horrific.
This is, on the whole, a gripping
read—albeit not particularly innovative, especially for readers of Paver’s
earlier fiction.
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