Rosalie’s Horror

Here’s a book you horror fans might enjoy, The Caretaker of Lorne Field by Dave Zeltserman. Do you enjoy stories where no one believes you even though their lives might depend on it?  That’s more or less the situation in The Caretaker of Lorne Field. Jack Durkin and his ancestors have been saving the town from the deadly Aukowies, bloodthirsty plantlike creatures capable of destroying the earth. Since Revolutionary times the eldest Durkin son has inherited the job of pulling out the Aukowies growing in Lorne Field before they can grow tall enough to cause major damage. It’s a backbreaking, dawn to dusk job. In return the Durkin family gets a free house and other perks, such as groceries and supplies, and Jack drinks for free at the local bar. Nowadays though, few people believe that there actually are Aukowies, since by city ordinance no one else is allowed out in the field to see for themselves. Jack’s attempt to have his younger son videotape the Aukowies ends in disaster with the Aukowies slicing off the boy’s thumb and eating it when the boy panics and drops the camera in the field. This was a melancholy story about vicious, carnivorous plants as well as the bitter Durkin family dynamic that doomed everyone from the start.