Having previously read Little Heaven, I decided to pick up The Handyman by Nick Cutter and Andrew F Sullivan to see if he really was a horror author that would become an auto buy for me. Well, needless to say this was a WILD read and I definitely think Cutter is becoming an instaread going forward. This is such a pointed take on so many parts of contemporary culture, from the addiction to online media to gender norms, I worried it would be too preachy to be scary. Boyo was I wrong. Despite knowing where this was going, the ride was still scary and gory.
I would warn about spoilers, but honestly? You kinda understand everything from the very beginning. It doesn’t take long to really catch hold of the different threads. Trent, father and husband, is excited to move his family into a new home. His wife, Rita, is not. His son, Milo, is content to go with the flow. That literally might be the only time we ever see the family content, and even then they aren’t, which honestly? sets the tone really well. Trent slowly tumbles into the trap of societal pressures of masculinity. We see just how innocuous it can start. Catching a DIY youtube video. Then another. Then building that parasocial relationship that so many vloggers depend on for views and sales. Before Trent knows it, he has morphed into a wildly toxic alpha male he cannot even recognize. Meanwhile, Milo is left with a tablet as a babysitter and undergoes his own metamorphosis like his father. Yes, there are other forces at play (because of course there are, it’s a Nick Cutter horror,) but the horror lies in the fact that this could be anyone. This could be you.
While at the start, I thought it would simply be this social commentary presented as horror, I too found myself getting sucked into the story. The writing becomes more unhinged the further along you get. There is animal and body horror and gore that is completely removed from the commentary. Each half further ramps up the discomfort and tension. Where sometimes Trent or Milo start to mellow, the outside world starts to get disturbing. Then the world calms and the internal horror begins. It is such a perfect balance. This delicate balance is what makes the ending so much more horrific and perfect and a perfect commentary on the state of the world in general.
I really enjoyed The Handyman Method by Nick Cutter and Andrew F Sullivan. Yes, the social commentary is heavy but so is the gore and horror imagery. I think everything meshes so well that eventually the knowledge that this is commentary fades to the background and all you can focus on is how everything is so incredibly wrong all the time. If you like horror, are okay with gory animal and body descriptions, I think this is definitely something worth picking up. I did listen to this as an audiobook which I really enjoyed and I think made the experience so much more visceral.
