Publisher's Weekly Review
Bennett (The Troupe) gives the idealized image of the American dream a pan-dimensional twist with this alien invasion tale, part Bradbury and part L'Engle with a dash of Edward Scissorhands. Mona Bright, a former cop with a tragic past, inherits her long-dead mother's house in Wink, N. Mex., a picture-perfect hamlet built as a support community for a government lab conducting experiments in quantum physics. As Mona pieces together a history that bears no resemblance to the childhood she remembers, Bennett's epic narrative unveils a chronicle of dysfunction masked by Wink's mechanical obsession with normalcy. The quibbling, displaced characters are vile and sympathetic by turns, and always startlingly American. Through sharp empathetic detail, the horrific becomes both achingly poignant and comic; a wholesome diner where no one can ever order just one piece of pie shares space with a harsh alien landscape where a quivering blue imp cowers in terror while pleading for his life. Readers will be captivated from start to finish. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Mona Bright, a former police officer, is surprised to learn that she's inherited a house from her deceased mother. She's even more surprised to learn that the house is located in Wink, New Mexico, a town that, according to various sources, including maps, doesn't seem to exist. Curious to learn more about her mother's past and about this odd little town, Mona takes up residence in the house. But she didn't count on Wink being full of dark secrets and on the people of the town being determined to keep them that way. The novel starts out curious and odd but quickly becomes terrifying and haunting, as the author reveals more about the people of Wink, who just may be the most curious and intimidating collection of folks you're likely to meet outside the pages of Stephen King. We, like Mona, feel the town closing in on us, trying to take us over. A beautifully written, claustrophobic, and deeply memorable horror novel.--Pitt, David Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Since tragedy struck ex-cop Mona Bright a few years back, she's traveled from city to city, never staying in one place for long. When her father dies, she learns that she's inherited a house that was left to him by her mother, who committed suicide when Mona was very young. So, she climbs into her dad's cherry-red '69 Dodge Charger and makes her way to Wink, NM, a town not found on any map, frozen in Atomic Age domesticity, and shadowed by the Coburn National Laboratory and Observatory. Everything seems picture perfect in Wink (except for the warning to stay inside at night), and Mona imagines settling down until she learns her mother may have once been much more than the thin, wasted shell of a woman she knew as a child. Soon it is revealed to Mona that there's more to Wink than meets the eye, and answers seem to lie at Coburn and in her mother's mysterious past. Verdict Bennett (Mr. Shivers; The Company Man; The Troupe), winner of the Shirley Jackson Award and the Edgar Award, takes us on a creepy, thrilling journey into a small town under a pink moon, where reality is relative and whose residents are very, very different. You'll want to linger over this riveting and scary novel that straddles sf and suspense to startling effect. This wonderful offering is perfect for fans of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman.-Kristin Centorcelli, Denton, TX (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
