Shelter for the Damned

Having been a fan of Mike’s collection ‘Darkest Hours’ and his Demain Short! Sharp! Shocks! release ‘Dreams of Lake Drukka/Exhumation’ I was excited to see what he had in store for us for his first novel, ‘Shelter for the Damned.’

His story that appeared in the anthology ‘Prairie Gothic’ revolved around a house that wasn’t a house and was fantastic, so seeing what the synopsis of this was, I was very intrigued to dive in and discover what new nightmares he’d conjured for us.

Ultimately, this one was an odd read. Parts I absolutely loved and parts that really ground my gears. When all was said and done and I finished the book, I sat back and thought about it and wondered if maybe this release had started life as a screenplay. I know Mike’s a massive cinephile and there were some sections in here that read very much like it was written in script format and then transferred over into the novel. When I started to consider it in that aspect, I think some things clicked for me in a way they hadn’t when I initially read it.

What I liked: The story follows Mark, a teen kid who struggles to control his impulses. We get told he’s dealt with counselling already as well as multiple run-ins with school administration, but ultimately he isn’t sure why he acts as he does. Scott and Adam, Mark’s two best friends are hanging out with him when they find a random shack in a field, one they’ve never seen before.

Thorn uses that point to jump off into a story that focuses on a portal that soothes Mark’s shattered nerves but also feeds into his impulses and works to make him act out.

For me, the highlights were when Mark was interacting with the shack and the ‘inhabitants’ and struggling to come to grips with what they need him to do. In those moments Mark was a very believable character, one that you felt for and desperately wished he’d make the right choice.

What I didn’t like: The story attempts to have a few additional plotlines within, one about toxic masculinity and one about abusive parents. For me personally, I found that it made for difficult sections where the dialogue and interactions were off and didn’t feel like how real people would speak.

As well, and this leads back to my screenplay theory, the ending lost some impact from it being described from a phone call, instead of an actual action description.

One thing I’ll note – I wasn’t completely sure when/what year this takes place or exactly how old the kids were. This did make it tough at times with how the story was unfolding. There were no cell phones throughout, people instead phoning on landlines, yet in one instance with a homeless man, he mentions kids were beating him up while filming with a camcorder to load on Youtube. It threw me for a loop, as if Youtube exists, cell phones exist. Saying that – where I grew up, cell phone reception is still incredibly spotty and just last year, in 2020, they finally stopped using dial-up internet. Even where I live now, in the capital city of Alberta, you can drive for a few hours in any direction and find yourself out of cell service/range. So, in that aspect, I accepted the reality of no cell phones, but it may grind on some readers.

Why you should buy this: Thorn gives us a slow burn story that shows a kid spiral as the shack he loves hooks its tentacles into him and begins to distort right from wrong. Matt is a kid you want to root for and ultimately succeed, but in classic horror fashion, you just know that this won’t happen. Fans of Barker’s The Hellbound Heart will see similarities with Matt’s story arc and there are some amazingly grotesque moments that’ll make fans of horror happy.

“What the fuck could happen? It’s a fucking shack. It’s an old, run-down piece of shit and Mark has a hard-on for it, for some goddamn reason.”

Mike Thorn’s debut novel SHELTER FOR THE DAMNED is a remarkable journey into suburban insanity, adolescent rage, the power of addictions, the struggle for identity, and so much more.

Having read Thorn’s short fiction—his short story collections DARKEST HOURS and DREAMS OF LAKE DRUKKA & EXHUMATION are essential—I went into this thinking I knew what to expect. Oh, many of Thorn’s hallmarks are here, to be sure; there’s gore, and violence, and unspeakable creatures in unexpected places. But SHELTER FOR THE DAMNED takes the reader deeper into the dark and tormented world Thorn continues to probe like that raw bloody tooth socket you can’t stop tonguing.

Now, before I dive in, I want to mention that I felt something of a personal connection to the book’s setting, which is central to the story. Not the actual setting, of course, as that remains unspecified… but as it turns out I spent my teenage years in the same suburb as Mike Thorn (coincidentally enough, I moved back into the old neighbourhood in 2019). As such, I had no trouble at all picturing the streets, the strategically spaced-out greenspaces and playfields, Mark’s school, and even the convenience store as described in the book. But all suburbs built between 1970 and 2000 look, smell, and sound the same anyway (and all that has changed in those built after 2000 is cladding and lot size) so don’t feel that you’ll be at a disadvantage here if you grew up in some other postal district. What Thorn explores to great effect in SHELTER FOR THE DAMNED is what you don’t see when walking those streets at night. Malice lurking behind practiced smiles. Violence hidden behind manicured lawns. Subtle (and not-so-subtle) psychological warfare swirling behind double-glazed bay windows. There is no shelter to be found in these perfect little houses.

Perhaps that’s why, when Mark and his friends find an old, abandoned wooden shack in a field one night, he feels drawn to it. His friends see the shack as a place to hang out, kill some time, and smoke some cigarettes, but before he even walks through the door Mark is overwhelmed with a euphoric sense of belonging. The Shack is everything suburban life is not, a home he never found in his parent’s house. The Shack soon edges out just about anything else in his thoughts (second at times only to the smile of a pretty girl in his math class). But it’s not long before the Shack begins to reveal its true nature and purpose, and Mark’s grip on reality and his own sanity start to slip.

It’s clear, though, that Mark’s problems don’t begin with the Shack. His troubles at home and history of schoolyard violence stretch back to well before he ever laid eyes on the Shack. Perhaps that’s why, of the three youths who entered, he is the one chosen for the Shack’s diabolical ends. Answers about what exactly the Shack and its inhabitant(s?) are remain few through to the very end. It’s entirely possible (and in this reader’s opinion very likely) that the shack and the horrific entities within and without are all aspects of the same being. The whole thing veers toward cosmic horror, and while some readers may feel shorted by the ambiguity in the narrative, in my opinion keeping things vague in this regard works here.

A short read, SHELTER FOR THE DAMNED crams a wealth into its roughly 190 pages. Thorn’s prose is stripped-down and accessible, and works to bring the reader into Mark’s adolescent POV. Where Thorn peppers in references to the giants of horror cinema (particularly Wes Craven, George A. Romero, and John Carpenter) could easily have come off as fanboyish, but some of the book’s most memorable scenes effectively call such visuals to mind; the creature in the closet is pure Carpenter, and is wonderfully realized. The lasting scares and most visceral horror herein, though, come from the more mundane elements. SHELTER FOR THE DAMNED is a powerful comment on idle suburbanism, and absolutely worth your time.

Trigger & Content Warnings: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child Abuse, Psychological Abuse, Gore, Graphic Violence, Murder, Abduction/Luring, Mild Teen Sexuality, Overall Morbid Theme