There’s a rich history of curses in fiction. We have those cursed to turn into werewolves when the moon is full, the curse of the mummy, and witches’ curses. With a more contemporary setting, we can look at Ringu, in which watching a videotape gives you but seven days to live. Often these narratives result in the protagonist desperately trying to undo the evil, and it’s a format Key Harrison uses to great effect in his debut novel, Shadow of the Hidden.
It begins with Seb’s last night in Turkey as he’s preparing to say goodbye to his friend Oz. An innocuous encounter with an elderly widow changes the lives of these two men forever. When Oz refuses to give ice cream to the widow, she mutters a curse.
Oz slumps back in his chair, devastated while Seb looks on, bemused and unbelieving.
His disbelief doesn’t last long when, shortly after returning to England, tragedy strikes. Oz calls, stating that his parents’ livestock have all dies from terrible deaths. Oz is convinced the curse is real, that a malevolent djinn is out to ruin his life, and from there, it only gets worse.
Seb rejoins his friend in Turkey and leans on academic acquaintances to find out more about the curse put on Oz, but the more he finds out, the worse it gets. Seb and Oz, joined by an academic, Deniz travel to North Africa to find out more about their heinous being and try to find a way to rid Oz of the curse.
There’s so much I enjoyed about this novel. The characters are all well-drawn. While Oz is the one suffering with the curse, we follow Seb. He seems like he’s willing to go to the ends of the earth to fight for his friend, but all too often he’s powerless to act. His frustration as result of language barriers and other cultural roadblocks adds another layer to the narrative. He wants to do more, but he simply can’t. The relationships between the characters are wholly believable too. The friendship between Seb and Oz feels genuine, and the developing relationship between Seb and Deniz is welcome. The affection between them grows on the page.
The settings are great, too. I don’t personally know any of the locations featured here, but it feels like Harrison does – something confirmed in the afterword. The buildings, the streets, the way of life and especially the food and the coffee helped to make these places spring to life.
Kev Harrison produced this map to shop the travels of the trio during the adventure. I love this route across different parts of the Mediterranean.
The plot itself moves along at a fast pace. There’s genuine urgency in trying to save Oz from the curse of the djinn and all of the locations make it seem like a real adventure. What’s more, the djinn is portrayed as particularly evil with the mutilation of the animals and the way it quite literary becomes a cloud hanging over Oz’s very existence. Sometimes, with a story like this, you think you know exactly where it’s going, despite the odds, the heroes will find a way, and everything will be fine. Harrison kept me on my toes and threw in plenty of surprises along the way.
I had a great time reading this. I started reading it one night and got halfway through before tiredness forced me to put it down. I picked it right up again the next morning and finished it off, so invested was I in the story and the characters.
Shadow of the Hidden is probably my favourite read of the year so far. Highly recommended.
I took many of these images from Kev Harrison’s website, which you can find here.