That Which Stands Outside by Mark Morris (book review).
There is a tradition of horror novels isolating a community or group of people and having nasty things happen to them, often involving rather gruesome deaths. Authors such as James Herbert and Guy N. Smith were excellent at this. This technique works even when the reader expects total disaster but doesn’t know how many and who the survivors are. Mark Morris has taken on this tried and tested format in ‘That Which Stands Outside’.
Like many of these novels, the prologue gives a tantalising glimpse of something uncanny, making its first tentative connection with the real world. What is concealed is who the victim is and when the event took place. The reader will learn that information later, once they have invested themselves in the characters and the situation they have become embroiled in.
Todd Kingston is having a miserable evening. Todd Kingston, who works in a bar, has been confronted by a drunk who is attempting to disrupt the patrons because he refused to serve him after hours. Then, on the way home, he sees a woman being mugged and wades in, only for them to turn on him and end up in the hospital. The only consolation is that the woman he went to the rescue comes to visit him. She is Yrsa Helgerson. A relationship develops between them, and everything seems perfect until Yrsa’s mother dies and she has to return home. Home is Eldfjallaeyja, a small island off Iceland. Todd agrees to accompany her. When they arrive, he notices the islanders don’t seem very friendly towards her. He wonders if that is because Yrsa had left to pursue a different life. If she’d stayed, her future would have revolved around fishing or farming. Todd’s hope is that as soon as the funeral is over, they can leave.
Yrsa has other ideas. She takes Todd to a shaft known as the Devil’s Throat. As a child, she fell down it and discovered a network of tunnels. Now she takes Todd down and shows him a slit in the rock deep underground. She says that then she saw a Viking ship in a cavern. As a child she could get through it, but not as an adult. She convinces Todd to persuade his brother Robin to bring a crew out to enlarge the crack. That is when the dramatic horror side of this novel takes off.
Although there is a lot of buildup to the nastiness of the events, there have been clues, but as an outsider, Todd doesn’t recognise them. Despite Yrsa’s partial truth, he maintains his trust in her. The entity known as jötnar emerges from the cavern to launch an attack. These are not the race of giants that inhabit the world of Norse mythology but small, misshapen hominids that, once they are freed, aim to destroy humanity. They are not just an underground-dwelling race but have been trapped and have supernatural traits. They are able to mentally control the native population, turning them against strangers, and apparently have some control over the weather, as the climax of the novel takes place amid an exceptionally ferocious storm.
This variety of the horror novel with a gentle build-up before all hell is let loose on the unsuspecting characters may be a long-standing format, but in the hands of a talented writer like Mark Morris, there is plenty to satisfy the reader who seeks out this kind of book.
Pauline Morgan
January 2025
(pub: Flame Tree Press, London, 2024. 389 page paperback. Price: £12.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-78758-933-9.
check out website: www.flametreepublishing.com/that-which-stands-outside-isbn-9781787589339.html