Published by Graydon House/Harper 360. Many thanks to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for giving me the opportunity to review "The Madness".
What a treat it was to read Dawn Kurtagich's ingenious modern-day re-telling of the "Dracula" story. She brings a unique perspective to the vampire myth, infusing it with Welsh lore and mythology and featuring strong feminine protagonists.
The book's "Prologue" foreshadows the book's central conceit; women are mysteriously vanishing without a trace. Each of them has met a mysterious stranger who has promised them "a new opportunity, a new life", in return for an unnamed price. At an appointed time and place, a black car appears and every time, the woman enters the car without knowing where she's going. These women have one thing in common: their fear is overcome by a desperate belief that a promising future awaits them.
The story then turns to Mina, a psychiatrist living in London but with deep roots in Tylluan, the small town in Wales where she was born. She fled Wales many years ago without a word to anyone, having suffered a traumatic event she's never told anyone about. Mina has rejected most of the trappings of her childhood but maintains the rituals of drinking Welsh verbena-nettle tea, and using verbena extract as a moisturizer. She also exhibits signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder: repetitive tics and counting, and hours spent scrubbing the bathroom with bleach and a toothbrush. She wakes up one morning:
In addition to her private practice, Mina treats women at Brookfield, a government-funded psychiatric facility, which calls her in to help women with "extreme trauma". Brookfield asks Mina to assess a Jane Doe who was found naked on the docklands, “raving about the walking dead and a coming apocalypse." Mina finds the woman in her cell, crouched in a corner, twitching and muttering under her breath. Her real name is Renée; a counterpoint to Stoker's Renfield, and like him, has a revolting appetite for spiders, flies and beetles. Mina is horrified by this and vows to help Renée any way she can.
Unfortunately, Dr. John Seward, who writes best-selling misogynistic books about delusional women and women driven to kill, also works at Brookfield, and proves to be Mina's bête noire. He's a sinister and shadowy figure who tries to thwart all Mina's attempts to help Renée for reasons only he knows.
Then, Mina gets an email from Lucy Holmswood, a childhood friend from Tylluan. They haven't spoken in years. Lucy is furious with Mina for leaving without a word, because they had promised to escape Tylluan together. After Mina left, Lucy tried repeatedly to contact her, but Mina never responded. They've been out of touch for many years. Now, Lucy is desperate and needs help, and has reluctantly asked Mina to return home.
As Mina prepares for her trip, she reflects on her difficult relationship with her mother, and how estranged they've become. Her mother is a strong believer in ancient Welsh lore and legend. She prepares medicinal herbs and potions, and protections against evil creatures of myth, such as "y Gwyllgi, Satan’s hound" and "Arglwydd Gwaed, the stygian lord of the Evil One" (both figures from Welsh folklore). She's a complicated woman who intermingles her traditional practices with a touch of Christianity:
Mina believes that her mother's practices come from ignorance and psychological distress. Her visit home will challenge that and shatter Mina's reliance on her psychiatric training. In this part of northern Wales, not everything can be explained by science and rational thinking.
After seeing her mom, Mina visits Lucy, now married to a minor Welsh noble named Arthur. She is still furious with Mina, but forgives her when she learns the dark reason behind Mina's flight from home. Lucy needs help because she's been experiencing blackouts and sleepwalking, is very weak and always tired, and has a strange rash. There appears to be no medical reason for her symptoms, which closely resemble those suffered by Renée, far away in the Brookfield institution. Mina witnesses Lucy having a strange seizure including self-mutilation, after which Lucy threatens to kill her.
Shaken by her visit with her old friend, Mina goes into town, where she learns that a local girl, Seren Evans, has gone missing. Mina knows that her disappearance is just one of numerous instances of missing girls, but when she tries to involve the police, they don't show much interest. However, Lucy's ex-girlfriend, Quincey Morris, is now the local police inspector leading the search and will eventually join Lucy in investigating the mystery.
Mina also runs into Jonathan Harker, her childhood sweetheart. He is now disfigured by a painful looking facial scar, and is not happy to see Mina, to say the least. When Mina fled, she not only left without a word to her best friend, but also deserted Jonathan. Kurtagich keeps us in suspense regarding the reason for Mina's precipitous flight, and why she lacks any close commitments in her life in London.
Mina is determined to find the cause of Renée and Lucy's symptoms. She wonders whether their suffering could be linked to the women who have been vanishing. Her upbringing comes back to haunt her, as her scientific mind collides with the old Welsh rituals and stories that her mother surrounded her with in childhood. Mum is convinced that a monster is behind all of the sinister happenings. Mina claims to live in a world of reality, where there is no room for monsters; "logic centers replaced with fantasy and fairy tales.” The clash between modernity and myth is a central feature of the book.
Kurtagich gradually paints a chilling portrayal of the entity that haunts the town. He "watches, lingers, and waits" and his patience is as horrifying as it is deadly. The conflict between this diabolical being and Mina's rational mind is beautifully laid out, and the outcome is unpredictable. Both Renée and Lucy are getting worse, and there is no trace of the missing women. When medical knowledge and scientific reasoning fail, what is left?
The tension grows as to whether Mina can overcome her childhood trauma and firm belief in science to accept that her mother's arcane knowledge can help these women. In a ceremony led by Mina's mother, Mina, Quincey, and her mother's friends join forces to attempt to vanquish this murderous entity. Even after their ritual is performed, the outcome is by no means certain. Mina must put herself in grave danger to finish the spell and put an end to the madness.
It was a breath of fresh air to read a vampire tale in which women are not merely helpless victims. In "The Madness", Kurtagich gives us female characters very different from Stoker's late 19th century women. They exhibit remarkable courage and withstand hideous treatment in the face of the utmost evil. They risk their own lives to protect other women armed with only their belief in the righteousness of their task. "The Madness" is a welcome addition to the "Dracula" canon, and its unique perspective makes it a very rewarding read.
Dawn Kurtagich is an award-winning horror and suspense novelist. Some of her books have been Buzz Books, YALSA Top 10 picks, Audie Award nominated, Earphone Award winners and optioned for TV. Her novels have been described as gothic, spooky and intriguingly formatted; find more about them here.
Please buy/order "The Madness" from your local independent bookstore, or go to bookshop.org and order there. They now offer ebooks as well.
For audiobooks, go to libro.fm.
