Dead Eleven - Jimmy Juliano

 "She was finally leaving and she couldn't wait to put Clifford behind her."

I had such high hopes about this book, and I loved the premise, but ultimately, the execution just fell flat for me. 

⭐⭐⭐

Started: April 14th, 2024

Finished: April 22nd, 2024

Synopsis: Clifford Island, a island off of Lake Michigan, is a weird place. It seems like it is perpetually stuck in 1994, from the clothes to the T.V. they watch. Willow, a recently divorced mom, travels to Clifford Island to find out what why her son left her a message to this place, who died a year earlier.  When she gets there, she finds a small town of people who don't like to talk about the past, even though they are actively living in it. Lily, who lives in Clifford Island, desperately wants to leave. And she will do anything, even working with a stranger like Willow, to get out of there. 

My Review (Spoilers!): I was first drawn to this book by the cover. Honestly, look at it. It looks so cool. And for a millennial who is desperate to return to simpler times, the VHS stood out to me. Then, when I read the summary, I was hooked and wanted to read it so fast. So I did. I downloaded it onto my Kindle and away I went. I'm sad to say, that this book had so much potential, but the execution didn't do it for me. 

Let's start off the topic of Clifford Island itself. After doing some of my own research on the place, Juliano is right; there is not much to these little smattering of islands off the Wisconsin Coast. In an interview, Juliano states, The island of Clifford is definitely inspired by Washington Island….off of Gills Rock, and it’s very quaint and very peaceful." Which gives Juliano a great blank slate to work from. It's small, its deserted, and filled with woods. What more can you ask for in a horror/thriller novel?

After the setting of the island, there comes the main focal point of the novel, which is the fact that all of the population there still acts like its 1994. The opening chapter with the two elderly neighbors saying hi and picking up their mail was a great way to introduce the slight uncanniness about the island itself. When the one woman dies, the other desperately tries her best to keep the routine going, even if it means tying up her dead body to the mailbox. 

This was the moment that I was like, "Wow, this is going to be interesting." But as I continued through the novel, I found the plot to be so slow-moving. I can honestly say that the entire middle part of the book is a blur. It is conversations with the townspeople, slight glimpses of spooky things, but mostly it is Lily complaining about living on the island and wanting to leave. 

The ending though, gave the book its 3rd star. The introduction of the ghoulish beast at the end was an exciting one. While I have read something similar in Revelator by David Gregory, this ancient beast that lives in a dark place and communes with certain people who are open to it, I thought it was a nice touch to the story. But that was partly the issue. The beginning and the end were strong, but the middle was just...meh. Juliano sets up a "cult-like" town that all agree to relive 1994 so this primeval beast doesn't destroy everyone in the world. But, they were all too...calm? I don't know how to describe it. It felt like the citizens of the town were too lax towards their laws in some ways and very uptight in other ways, that it didn't feel consistent. 

Finally, the characters. Honestly, most of them annoyed me. Willow was the only okay one. The others like her brother, Harper, and Lily were mostly annoying. The brother didn't add much, other than a outside person to look for Willow once she disappeared. And Lily, was the one we were supposed to be rooting for to get out of the island. But in actuality, she was a spoiled teenager who liked to play pranks on people. If you see an ENTIRE town that believes in something so deeply, that they would rather re-watch the OJ Simpson car chase every day, I would believe in whatever they believed in too. 

Final Thoughts: I think overall, this book was fine. It gripped me at the beginning and end, but the middle was so slow to get through. There could have been more horror elements added in since the beginning and the ending took the notch up to 10, and the rest meandered at a tepid 2. I would say that this would be a nice introduction to horror/thriller if you haven't read them before and you are interested in old, forgotten places that are seemingly haunted.