Clay Mcleod Chapman is well-known for crafting tales of terror, whether that’s haunted horror movies (The Remaking) or perennial picky eaters (Mama Bird). The prolific author is back with his latest full-length novel, the creepily-daubed What Kind of Mother.
What Kind of Mother follows Madi, a professional psychic forced into living back in her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, the epitome of a sleepy backwater town, to accommodate custody needs of her teenage daughter. While she’s trying to just survive as a medium operating out of a dingy motel room, Madi finds herself reconnecting with an old flame who is suspected in the disappearance of his young son, and plagued with dark visions as a result.
So good so far – it’s a shame then that this simmering set-up fails to truly pay off the gothic story at the heart of Chapman’s premise. That’s not to say that What Kind of Mother is a write-off by any means – Madi is a likeable protagonist, the world of Brandywine is filled with gritty, morally-flawed people just trying to muddle things through, and the horror, when it does appear, is not about jump scare terror, but rather insidious, creeping threat.
This all ties into the conceit of the novel – what parents will do to to protect their children. Madi and her old flame Henry are both parents; Madi struggles with her daughter Kendra’s blossoming relationship with her biological father and his new family, while Henry is plagued with guilt over his inability to find his missing son. These motivations arc through the novel, but the midway twist that reveals the true nature of the horror at hand undermines this a little, trading in a potential deeper exploration of familial trauma for some underbaked monster horror.
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While its second half falls into more traditional tropes and its plotting becomes predictable, there’s a sense of simmering gothic tension throughout What Kind of Mother that helps it glide along to its dark end that will appeal to most horror readers, and isn’t without its fair share of dark, summery appeal. It’s only a shame that its plot and execution leave a little more to be desired.
What Kind of Mother is out now from Titan Books.
