My Two Cents (Book Review): THE WORLD TURNS RED by Tim Waggoner

"The World Turns Red" by Tim Waggoner is a quick read, both because of its diminutive length (83 pages) and because Waggoner's writing grabs you by the throat in a narrative chokehold from the opening line, and doesn't let up. It's a simple premise: a sociology instructor, Lewis, is grading student essays from his home office in a state of disaffected boredom, when he looks out the window and witnesses his neighbor and young grandson affixing a hangman's noose from a bough in a tree. Lewis's initial puzzlement turns into horror as the neighbor then lovingly drapes the noose around the child's neck. When Lewis rushes outside to warn them of a danger that should have been more than obvious, the child looks in his direction, gives a hearty wave and an eerie smile, then leaps from the ladder on which he's been perched, committing suicide before Lewis's aghast eyes. When his nonplussed neighbor then nonchalantly walks into the street, and directly into the path of a speeding oncoming pickup truck, followed soon after by the driver of the truck shooting herself in the head, Lewis quickly realizes this is no ordinary October afternoon. Everyone in the small, quiet town where he lives seems to be committing suicide, as further evidenced by the fact when he turns on the local news, he sees a reporter self-immolating on camera. For Lewis, the horror hits especially close to home; as a young child, he discovered his father shortly after he'd committed suicide with a shotgun blast to the head, and the memory of the gruesome sight -- as well as grisly hallucinations of his father's corpse, taunting him from beyond the grave that have lasted well into adulthood -- has left Lewis traumatized and emotionally scarred.

Although similar in premise to the M. Night Shyalaman 2008 movie "The Happening," the outbreak of suicidal tendencies in "The World Turns Red" hasn't affected the entire world just yet, and as Lewis rushes across town in the hopes he can rescue his mother, he eventually learns why. The reason, as well as the outcome of the story, are best left to be discovered on your own. No spoilers from me, but suffice it to say, the answer, my friend, isn't blowing in the wind.

This was such a fantastic story. The ending caught me completely off-guard, and I want to say more, but I'm not going to ruin it. Waggoner's writing is amazing, and the imagery in the story is truly chilling. "The World Turns Red" is a dark, disturbing, masterpiece worth binge-reading in one sitting.

Available here.