Review: Well written, realistic, and scary as hell.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 27, 2013
At one level this novella is a sci-fi/monster tale.  And a well above average one at that.  Taking the ordinary and creating something sinister and menacing is very unsettling.  Like the children singing off key nursery rhymes with evil twisted smiles, the unnatural juxtaposition gives a cold chill.But The Tent is more than a sci-fi/monster story.  Partly because it is written by Kealan Patrick Burke, whose writing is smooth and literary---as it sticks in the blade that you never saw coming.Add to that characters that have realistic and often tragic flaws and strained relationships.  This book, at its core, is about a man trying to reconcile with his wife and son, to rebuilt his marriage, and to show to them that he really isn't the screw up that he has appeared to be for the last few years.  This story is so good it would be a great story with no supernatural element whatsoever, just the damaged people trying to find their way (both literally and figuratively) through a blinding storm of ice, snow, failure and regret to recover their lost son.However, the story reaches another level when we realize that something else is out there in those woods---something that preys on their need for shelter---something that changes the order of supremacy on the food chain forever.