Pearl

Pearl by Josh Malerman is a horror story about evil in the form of a pig. It sounds odd, but it works. Malerman achieves the really difficult task of writing about something esoteric, seemingly silly, but in a frightening way.

In Pearl, a farm pig of that name has the ability to get into the minds of humans, learn about them, and direct them. The teens, adults, and policemen in the plot have personalities and internal thoughts that make sense because Malerman knows fear and how people think. Besides flashbacks, all the action in the book takes place within a short period of time, which gives the plot immediacy.

The readers’ obvious question of why the pig isn’t just slaughtered is answered by delving into the minds of the various people who encounter Pearl. The kind of evil that Pearl exhibits isn’t easy to define; it is a kind of evil nihilism. While the book’s plot does cover the bloodiness of farming and killing livestock, it’s not a moral tale but a horror tale. Even the Acknowledgements page is fun.

I would recommend Pearl to lovers of the horror genre, especially those who appreciate gore and the presence of evil.