Book Review · Folk Horror · Wicked House Publishing · 2023 · Spoiler-Free
In Blaine Daigle’s The Broken Places, Ryne Burdette travels with his two closest friends to an isolated family cabin near the remote town of Wolf’s Bone in Canada’s Yukon Territory. It is Thanksgiving, winter has already taken hold, and an approaching storm threatens to leave the three men completely cut off from the outside world. Ryne has inherited the cabin after a devastating year, but returning to it means confronting painful memories and unanswered questions surrounding his family. The guarded behavior of the local townspeople suggests that the Burdette family is not the only source of mystery.
This is a well-written folk-horror novel that creates a genuinely creepy, unsettling, and frightening atmosphere. Daigle is particularly skilled at portraying places that seem threatening even before anything explicitly supernatural occurs. The isolated cabin, the frozen wilderness, the hostile weather, and the strange town all contribute to an escalating sense that the characters have entered somewhere they do not belong.
The three friends feel alive and organic. Each carries his own fears, disappointments, and emotional wounds, yet they remain likable and sympathetic. Their friendship grounds the novel and gives its dangers greater emotional weight. Their reactions feel natural, even as the events surrounding them become increasingly strange.
The book is accessible and absorbing, with an unusual premise and several interconnected mysteries that gradually flow into one another. The second half becomes somewhat repetitive, but the writing and atmosphere are strong enough that the repetition does not seriously diminish the experience. If anything, it allows the reader to linger a little longer in the novel’s disturbing world. The explanation of what is happening does not always feel completely logical, and a few details remain unconvincing. Still, this does not take away much from the book’s emotional impact or unsettling atmosphere.
Several scenes produced a genuine sense of horror, which is not easy to accomplish—especially for someone who reads a great deal of horror fiction. The story also remains unpredictable without depending entirely on sudden twists.
By the time I finished The Broken Places, I felt as though I had been taken on a dark and unexpected journey—exactly the experience I hope to find in a horror novel.
