Book Review: "With A Blighted Touch" by J. Todd Kingrea (2023)
With A Blighted Touch Book Review
Written by Stuart D. Monroe
Published by BHC Press
Written by J. Todd Kingrea
2023, 254 pages, Fiction
Published on October 24th, 2023
Review:
There are very few hooks in literature that work as well as bad stuff happening to ordinary people. It’s a time-tested deal, after all. What if the bad luck you’d been living your life with was the result of a horror that touched you when you were still a kid, a horror that has cursed your entire hometown with a literal blight that poisons everything it touches?
That’s the idea behind my initial foray into the mind of J. Todd Kingrea, and I’m here for it. Kit McNeil is a talented (but not necessarily accomplished) guitarist with a monkey on his back and a past full of ghosts. He’s returning to Scarburn County, Tennessee, and his hometown of Black Rock after the death of his mother and his unceremonious firing from yet another band. Things are as bleak as he was anticipating- the blight is everywhere and a freakish number of his high school classmates have died bizarre deaths. Then there’s the Dunley clan to contend with. Soon, Kit finds himself at the center of an investigation into multiple local disappearances while fighting off the Dunley threat and dealing with the strained relationship with his father. And who the hell are these freaky, pale children?
With A Blighted Touch is a loaded novel, full of ancient mystery, small-town despair, and Lovecraftian horror at the heart of it all. Kingrea’s style puts the human element first, however, grounding the characters in true emotion and reality. Then the horror happens naturally. Kit is a protagonist that you can get behind and empathize with; we’ve all made our fair share of piss-poor decisions while our hearts are more or less in the right place.
Kingrea’s game is complete- the novel is paced well, the relationships develop naturally, and the action scenes are highly competent..there’s even an epistolary break for exposition, and I’m a sucker for epistolary exposition! The finale is appropriately horrific, full of both terror and heroism. And I must award style points for the restraint shown in not busting into a sex scene when it would have been natural but probably would have ended up feeling gratuitous. Bravo!
Kit’s curse and how he handles it are the beating heart of this story full of relatable characters and unimaginable nightmare creatures. With A Blighted Touch takes a working formula and enhances it with a deft hand and an understanding of where the true horror lies- in the place where you are the curse and only ultimate courage can break it. The result is a page-turner that has you immersed before you realize it, and isn’t that really the sweet spot?
