Bedtime Story: Supernatural thriller about the dark side of "getting lost in a good book"

Robert J Wiersema's second novel, Bedtime Story, is a spooky, fast-moving horror novel that asks whether the power of storytelling can be something less-than-wonderful. Christopher Knox is a failing novelist struggling with his very late second novel and his dissolving marriage. When his son turns 11, Christopher blows the birthday present: instead of buying the kid a copy of Lord of the Rings, he comes home with a leather-bound first edition of To the Four Directions, an obscure kids' fantasy novel by Lazarus Took, a writer Knox himself adored in his boyhood.

But Knox is redeemed when David gets utterly hooked on To the Four Directions, skipping meals and getting in trouble at school because he can't tear himself away from it. It seems that Knox has found the answer to his son's status as a "reluctant reader" -- right up to the point that David collapses into a catatonic state while reading the novel and is taken to hospital, gripped with seizure after seizure.

Though Knox doesn't know it (at first), David has been literally sucked into the novel, cast as the protagonist in a hero's journey fantasy plot where things aren't quite right. All Knox knows is that reading the book aloud to David takes him out of the seizures and calms him. Soon enough, though, Knox is playing detective, learning more about the mysterious Lazarus Took, his literary estate, the book, and the other people whose lives it has ruined. Bedtime Story becomes a supernatural thriller, a race between Knox and his attempt to discover and break the spell on David, and the forces within the story who are bent on devouring David's soul.

This is a well-crafted story, one that really works through the fantasy novel cliches and looks at the darkness lurking behind them. It was a fun read -- and quick, too, despite the hefty, near-500-page weight of the thing. Weirsema's a fine storyteller, and once he gets his hooks into you, you won't want to stop reading.

Bedtime Story

• [btm]

  Random note to US customers – I just ordered 2 copies on amazon Canada yesterday, paid about $12 for standard shipping (it said 8-12 days or something), and they arrived via DHL this morning (less than 24 hour delivery time)!

• [nemryn]

  I want to mention
  House of Leaves, but color tags don’t work here.

• [robertjwiersema]

  At this juncture, I’d advise ordering individual copies from Canada. Rights haven’t been sold in the US as yet (hence no Kindle US version available).

  (I’m really touched by all the enthusiasm!)

• [-3-]

  There’s an interesting short story something along this line in the recent collection Stories, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio. The story is called A Life In Fictions, by Kat Howard. It’s only 5 pages long, but plays with the concept in an interesting way.
  The whole collection is pretty interesting, actually. It’s 27 tales with no thematic link beyond four words – “…and then what happened?” So there’s no clue of what to expect as you begin each story, except that Neil & Al thought it drew the reader into the story – though not as deeply as our hero in Bedtime Story, one hopes. ;)

• [Gregory Goldmacher]

  Arrrggh. When will it come to the US?

  So, what happens if you really really get into this book? Some kind of conceptual recursion?

• [Patrick Nielsen Hayden]

  This actually sounds a heck of a lot like Jonathan Carroll’s debut novel from years ago, The Land of Laughs.

• [Anonymous]

  Interestingly, there is another book in this same vein – “The Book of Lost Things.”

  An 11-year-old boy (who also suffers from seizures) is transported bodily from war-torn England to a sinister other world – a world that is an amalgamation of well-known fairy tales that have been twisted to be darker and more dangerous. (For example, the origin behind the scary man-wolves that wander the forest is explained by Little Red Riding Hood not being chased by the wolf, but seducing him with her box of goodies.) All of these stories are, essentially, out to get him, and he has to figure out the secrets of the world before he can escape.

  It was an excellent read, and I’m sure I’ll pick up this one soon enough!!

• [Anonymous]

  Let us not omit Neverending Story from the genre list. Atreyuuuuuu should not be forgotten.

  Also, I am sad that the US Kindle edition of Bedtime Story is not available yet, because reading one of Cory’s luscious reviews on BB and then immediately beginning to read that book is deeply satisfying. It may be the happiest technological development of this year for me. Instead, I shall happily take Amazon’s lost revenue right over to Borderlands Books and purchase the mighty tome–even if the weight of it does give me Thick Novel Reader Wrist.

• [Anonymous]

  What about Infinite Jest, and its concept of media enthrallment?

• [trifles]

  And to me, this sounds like a strange take-off of the frame story of William Goldman’s The Princess Bride.

• [Anonymous]

  sounds like a sinister version of ‘The Neverending Story’

• [Mark5four0]

  So should we wait for it to come to America or order it from the great white north?

• [Anonymous]

  Reading the description, I’m also reminded of Tad Williams Otherland-Story, where people get sucked into a virtual reality computer network.

• [dragonfrog]

  This has some interesting parallels to the movie “The Mystery of Rampo” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110943/). A really, really excellent movie, I recommend it to anyone (of an appropriate age – it’s rated R…)

• [dragonfrog]

  I guess I could add – I’d personally be more comfortable with a kid of, say, 16, watching that sexual and mostly non-violent film, than some of the very violent but non-sexual movies that get PG ratings.

• [robertjwiersema]

  The author here…

  Thanks for the nod, Cory. And for all the comments here. I really appreciate it, and them.

  Just a heads-up, for those interested: the book is not, as yet, published in the US. The only edition available is the Random House Canada hardcover, published today. It’s available through the usual sources, including amazon.ca.

  And Patrick – good eye. Carroll’s work (including The Land of Laughs) was definitely an influence on Bedtime Story.

• [Robert]

  So did the Yellow King claim another victim?

• [jtf]

  Darn it, Cory, you get me all worked up about this book and now I see it’s out of print on Amazon. Onto the wishlist it goes.

• [Mandi Kaye]

  I got really excited and wanted to read it – but it’s not available on Amazon OR BN. >:(

• [Ad Abolendam]

  If you enjoyed this example of nested fiction, recursive fiction, and meta fiction, there are also:

  “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler”, Italo Calvino
  “Headhunter”, Timothy Findley
  “The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel”, Jasper Fforde
  “The Three Pigs”, David Weisner
  “The Crying of Lot 49″, Thomas Pynchon

• [OntarioJer]

  Relax, it was released today. Maybe just not updated yet. Here is a Canadian link if you are desperate:

  http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0679313753/ref=mp_s_a_2?qid=1288715997&sr=8-2