Jackie has a map of the city on the wall of her bedroom,
with a green pin for each of her trees. She has a first-kiss tree and a
broken-arm tree. She has a car-accident tree. There is a tree at the
hospital where Jackie’s mother passed away into the long good night.
When one of them gets cut down, Jackie doesn't know what to do but she
doesn't let that stop her. She picks up the biggest rock she can carry
and puts it through the window of a car. Smash. She intends to leave
before the police arrive, but they're early.
Ann is Jackie’s best
friend, but she’s got problems of her own. Her mother is chained up in
the basement. How do you bring that up in casual conversation? "Oh,
sorry I've been so distant, Jackie. My mother has more teeth than she’s
supposed to, and she won't eat anything that’s already dead." Ann and
her sister Margaret don't have much of a choice here. Their mother needs to be fed. It isn't easy but this is family. It’s not supposed to be
easy. It'll be okay as long as Margaret and Ann still have each other.
Add in a cantankerous old man, his powerfully stupid dog, a headless ghost, a lesbian crush and a few unsettling visits from Jackie’s own dead
mother, and you'll find that One Bloody Thing After Another is a
different sort of horror novel from the ones you're used to. It’s as sad and funny as it is frightening, and it is as much about the way
families rely on each other as it is about blood being drooled on the
carpet. Though, to be honest, there is a lot of blood being drooled on
the carpet.
