Josh Malerman

Black Mad Wheel plunges us into the depths of psychological horror, where you can’t always believe everything you hear.

Black Mad Wheel

Bryan Alexander

Oh, what a disappointment.

I came to Black Mad Wheel after enjoying Malerman's first novel, Bird Box (my review). Bird Box was engaging, surprising, creepy, and full of promise for future work.

The first chapters of Black Mad Wheel suggested that promise was being fulfilled. We begin with a mystery, then explore it along divergent paths in the present and past. The mystery turns on a powerful sound discovered in the Namib Desert, an audio effect so powerful that it can break human bones, render weapons useless, and drive people insane. The protagonist is a musician; he and his band are sent to explore the sound.

Both plots proceed nicely until around the novel's midpoint, whereupon things fall apart. Without getting into spoilers Black Mad Wheel devolves into a string of cliches and inexplicable events. 
 I don't mean "inexplicable" in a weird way, but in the ways of characters being forgotten, plot threads dropped, and potential squandered. The finale collapses the novel's uncanny mystery down into banality, telescoping wonder into a flattened, entropic coda.

The titular wheel grandly refers to human history and violence. Malerman builds up that potential, then lets it run out like desert sand through broken fingers. On page 76 we learn that "Macy Mercy [hospital] has its mysteries, carries its own kind of uncanny energy", and we believe it at that point. Malerman follows with a "but", and that shift bears out for the rest of the novel, unfortunately.

From the author of the hit literary horror debut Bird Box (“Hitchcockian.” —USA Today) comes a chilling novel about a group of musicians conscripted by the US government to track down the source of a strange and debilitating sound The Danes—the band known as the “Darlings of Detroit”—are washed up and desperate for inspiration, eager to once again have a number one hit. That is, until an agent from the US Army approaches them. Will they travel to an African desert and track down the source of a mysterious and malevolent sound? Under the guidance of their front man, Philip Tonka, the Danes embark on a harrowing journey through the scorching desert—a trip that takes Tonka into the heart of an ominous and twisted conspiracy. Meanwhile, in a nondescript Midwestern hospital, a nurse named Ellen tends to a patient recovering from a near-fatal accident. The circumstances that led to his injuries are mysterious—and his body heals at a remarkable rate. Ellen will do the impossible for this enigmatic patient, who reveals more about his accident with each passing day. Part Heart of Darkness, part Lost, Josh Malerman’s breathtaking new novel plunges us into the depths of psychological horror, where you can’t always believe everything you hear.

Black Mad Wheel

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