Spanning one hundred years of history, Mazywood is so many things: a monster story, a historical family saga, and a contemporary isolation/survival horror tale, all wrapped up around you like a fur coat in winter. Told in six parts with alternating timelines and points of view (this is accomplished seamlessly), we begin with seven-year-old Mazelle Washington in Gracetown. Really, we begin with a wish made in a muddy pond in the woods, because ‘Mazelle Washington worshipped the woods.’
She wishes for a best friend, forever, and that wish will both bless and curse her and her family for generations to come. Because ‘wishes always try to trick you.’ Details and spoilers aside, what Mazelle gets is a dog named Scout, and they become like ‘two pack animals with a special bond.’ What Mazelle also gets is a Hollywood role in Li’l Gumshoes, playing a character she despises, a ridiculous caricature who, much like the wish she made as a child, will haunt her, her career as an actress, and her family for the next one hundred years. The weight of the Washington’s financial well-being is placed on her shoulders, essentially parentifying her, locking her into scammy contracts (where she can be traded back and forth between studios) and a role wrought with systemic racism and ritualistic humiliation prevalent of both the era and modern day Hollywood. Not to mention having to live with Aunt Ruby…
Flash forward to the present day, L.A.: Johnny Washington has had some success in Hollywood as a screenwriter, but his current project is stalling out due to some white executive bullshit, and Tasha, his wife, is pregnant. The problem with that is, Johnny and Tasha have two children already, Sharise and Imani, and they’re getting ‘older,’ looking forward to enjoying their lives post-parenthood (not that that ever ends, anyway). Long story short, the Washington family packs into a RAV4 rental and heads to Mount Shasta, where Johnny’s grandmother—Mazelle, of course—owned a place named Bear Creek Lodge… a place Johnny vowed never to return to.
Secrets can do a lot of damage, and Bear Creek Lodge is full of them. Johnny Washington is full of them, too. We find out that Uncle Ricky went into the woods and never came back. If only he’d spilled the beans earlier. Tasha, who looks a lot like Johnny’s grandmother, wants to write a book about Mazelle, Johnny would rather forget her, and Sharise and Imani just want to go snowboarding. The girls find a deer head and a freezer full of fifty-year-old meat, Johnny confronts his trauma and ‘the punishment room,’ Tasha has strange dreams and really likes that fur coat, and when the power goes out, something big and fast starts to move in the snow around their cabin, making its way inside. Now, as a Southern Californian who recently moved into a cabin in the middle of nowhere—near Mount Shasta, I might add—where the snow is a nightmare, this part of the story hit hard. But at least I didn’t find a strange Jeep parked outside, and a body part underneath it. Johnny gets knocked out, Tasha goes missing, and it’s up to Sharise and Imani to save the day.
We get another part showing the progression/regression of Mazelle’s career, the celebrities she meets, the slimy character of Jerry Lorenzo, and how she begins to dissociate from the horrible things happening to her, the husband who beats her, the children she didn’t want, the aging of her parents, and how: ‘more and more, Mazelle felt the urge to hurt someone.’ Eventually, she makes her way back to the ‘Wishing Pool’. And this time ‘it wasn’t a wish, but a negotiation.’ Once we get to chapter 30, the truth starts to unravel, and man, it’s bone-chilling! There’s a chapter, 36 I think, that will totally shred your heart, ruin you, and change your mind about Mazelle as she ages. ‘She understood how the temporary madness unleashed by the world receded under Death’s gaze.’ Note here* Don’t ever forget to tell the people you love that you love them. It could be your last words.
Can’t say much about the last five chapters but they’re awesome, and Due certainly lands the ending, a drive back home that’s both hopeful and terrifying. While all the characters are well-realized, I have to say, Johnny and Sharise pissed me off for most of the story—just stuck in neutral and frozen in thought, but not everyone can be a hero. Favorite characters: Mazelle, Imani (the real hero), and Uncle Ricky. Would love a story with Imani and Uncle Ricky. To sum it up: one of the best novels I’ve read in a while.