Did a search on line for eco-horror, and Gina Ranalli's Unearthed was high on the list in my search results. Having never read anything by her, and since FB says this month is Women in Horror Month (I thought it was next month), I figured I'd give it a shot.
First off, before I continue, Unearthed in a novella, not a novel, so I'm going to keep the summary brief.
Our story opens with Rebecca Robinson making like Little Rabbit Foo-Foo and running through the forest, but she's not batting field mice over the head. No, instead she's looking for her dog, Lou. As she's returning home with the hopes that the dog beat her there, a sink hole opens up and she almost falls in. She's able to save herself, but once she's safe inside, another sink hole opens, this one beneath her house, causing the building's foundation to sag dangerously. Knowing she's no longer safe, she decides to strike out for the nearest neighbor, who is a ways down the road.
Meanwhile, in town, as a local cafe, a stranger bursts through the door claiming to barely have escaped being swallowed by the Devil, and before too long, they see something that shouldn't be but is -- a giant Digger Bee, has alighted on the cafe's window.
What follows is like a scene out of H.G. Wells's Food of the Gods: as more and more sink holes open up, more and more giant bees are unleashed. And the question becomes: Who will survive to see another day?
Ranalli keeps the readers on the edge of their seats, wondering what's going to happen to Rebecca and Lou, cafe owner Joe, and pregnant waitress Stacy. John, the man who escaped being swallowed by a sink hole, is a dick, so we don't care about him. And granted, given that this is a novella, there's not much in the way of character development, but we're given enough of a background for the players so that you find yourself rooting for them. The frustrating part of the story, as it is for many apocalyptic tales where the characters are cut off from the surrounding areas, is that we don't know if this is a localized occurrence or something that is happening across the United States (or globally?). We also don't know what sparked the growth of the bees. Is Mother Nature getting her revenge on those who have destroyed what she so graciously allowed us to us? Is it nuclear? Chemical? Given the isolative nature of the story, we have questions that aren't answered. Had this been a novel, we might have gotten those answers. But given the structure of the story, these unanswered questions, while annoying and frustrating to the reader, are acceptable.
My only real criticism is the ending. It feels unfinished, but that's what happens with cliffhanger endings, which is why I'm not a fan. I also don't like abrupt endings that leaving your hanging. You can assume the story is going to go one way, but it can easily go another, and nothing is resolved, and you wish the author had given you a definitive ending so you're not turning the page looking for what happens next. This particular detail aside, if you're a fan of those giant bug movies of the 40s and 50s, or some of the more recent offerings from the SyFy Network, this is one worth checking out.
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