AGE OF CONSENT
Howard Mittelmark
Signet 2007
Trade Pb 320 pgs   
ISBN# 0-45122-057-9
 

“It was the sort of place you’d expect to find littered with crushed, empty beer cans and discarded condones, with crumpled Marlboro hard packs and Bic lighters tossed away.”

So opens Howard Mittelmark in Age of Consent, a horror writer not afraid to toe the line of what can be in a novel. There is plenty of blood, sex, and suspense, but it all combines to further the narrative. Nothing is close to boring in the novel; there is no moments of filler or all encompassing details. It’s all story.

Look at the cover and one might expect another simple haunted house novel, but Age of Consent is far from that. The characters delve into the history of the house, but it’s like an illusion created by Mittelmark; he seems to have other plans. Instead of the power of the house, the novel is about the power of the individual and how they can create far more evil than any novel focusing on a haunted house where plenty of  bad things happen.

It all starts like one might expect: A family moves into a house with a past, but they have no idea of the history.

The one character who is chronicled the most in the novel, Peter, clashes with his family at the outset. And this is no normal family who could be watched on television as there are constant conflicts, which all lead up to divorces and sibling hatred. The house provides the backdrop for all of this.

Peter finds himself at odds with his unpopular sister, Virginia. While Peter makes plenty of friends at the school, Virginia quickly becomes an outcast. She had dreamed of starting anew but she isn’t accepted  by the other girls. She begins to isolate, to dream of escaping, and finds a horror in the house that intrigues her.

It’s the annals of being a young adult that the story focuses on. Bringing in the horror, Mittelmark uses plenty of suspense early. There are mysterious figures seen walking in the woods, a madness growing within the father, Phil, and amidst all of this whispers from many about what happened at the house.

Instead of staying in one time for the whole of the novel, Mittelmark takes readers back to 1971; finding his own way of explaining what really happened at the house, why it had a reputation.

Nothing is revealed early in the story, as even the flashbacks focus more on building up the storyline than bringing dramatic moments.

There are elements of pop culture brought in: from music by Phish or quotes from South Park. 

Love also plays a big part. Peter falls in love with a girl named Trish, whom he is surprised will actually talk to him. But Peter still wants to fit in even more, to explore the world; and to do this he begins to do drugs with his newfound friends.

Overall, Age of Consent has crisp storytelling and intriguing idea put together in a way that works well. Mittelmark provides a new beginning for the horror novelists. It is written with the intent to entertain; this is no John Updike, and it doesn’t pretend to be.

Jacob Malewitz