Today is the release day for the highly anticipated novel, It Looks Like You In the Dark by Mathilda Zeller. An expansion of her short story “Kushtuka” from the wildly popular anthology Never Whistle At Night (ed. Hawk & Van Alst), this book was chilling, fast-paced, and is absolutely perfect for winter.

We meet her main cast of characters quickly, which isn’t surprising in today’s landscape of literature. At least, certainly not for a lot of newer horror books! I love meeting the cast early on—it really helps me get invested in them and their plotlines as the story progresses. And Zeller does a great job in getting you invested in the Inupiat community that she has created in Alaska: the Kobuk River Valley. You learn about each of the young people at the center of the story and what drives them; who wants to stay and who wants to go and how they plan on making that happen. Everything boils down to what it always boils down to, no matter what community you’re part of: the money to make your dreams happen.

Then enters the white man. And he seemingly has the answers to all their problems. He helps one young man with college, gives our FMC a job, seemingly is helping the community. I gotta say, I really love how Zeller makes me hate him from the get-go. Nothing about him feels comfortable from the moment you meet him on the page. He’s an awful capitalist who thinks he knows a little something something about Native culture and how to survive in the Alaskan state, but he’s got several things coming to him. And if you’ve read the short story “Kushtuka”, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Without going into too much detail and ending up spoiling things for you all, I give this a “run-and-buy-it” rating. You’re going to want to read this one, curled up with a nice mug of tea (or hot drink of choice), covered up with your favorite cozy blanket while the air gets colder out. Like I said, this is absolutely perfect for winter, and I highly recommend.

I’ll be going to see the launch tonight at Bucket ‘o’ Blood in Chicago. Will you be seeing Zeller on tour?