I’m going to be so honest with you guys right now. When I was offered No Road Home by John Fram, I didn’t give it much thought. In fact, I wondered why I was even considered for this. I’ve been on such a fantasy and romance kick that reading about some religious cult didn’t seem like it’d be fun or interesting. Well, it turns out, some people know me better than I know myself. This was an absolutely amazing book! I cannot remember the last time I was so enraptured and enthralled by something so honest.
The premise is simple and basic, Alyssa Wright takes her brand new husband Toby Tucker, and stepson Luca, to her family compound in Texas to celebrate her 30th birthday. Sounds pretty normal, and yet the start of the book was a little rough for me to sink into, but in retrospect, it makes sense. I couldn’t understand how the relationship between Toby and Alyssa worked, how they were so madly in love they couldn’t help but be married within six months of meeting. Once we get deeper into the story, and the weekend starts slipping away from Toby, I understood my confusion. It was such a great beginning to have us, as readers, feel so out of sorts trying to quickly grasp relationships and the dynamics between each of the players – because we are relatively normal, because this is such an abnormal situation, and yet most everyone trapped within the narrative can’t see that.
Fram does a great job of keeping the pacing quick and moving the story along, while not sacrificing character development, plot building, or foreshadowing. I never once felt mired in the details, but also was able to keep a vivid picture in mind of where we were and who everyone was. Despite a larger cast of characters than you’d typically find in a gothic novel, it was easy to tell everyone apart. They all had their secrets and their quirks, their important roles in the build-up and downfall. What’s even more amazing is how horrible so many of the characters are, just absolutely horrendous people, yet there are kernels of something within each of them where you can see how they became who they did. You can understand how sometimes, they are simply pawns to a greater machine as out of control as they are. Nowhere is this more apparent than with Richard, who I despised but could also, almost sympathize with.
One of the most important things I think that would’ve sold me on this a lot quicker than simply labeling this as horror, would be categorizing this as I think it should have been – American/Southern Gothic. This hits so many cornerstone tropes for southern gothic, it should be included in modern gothic literature courses. I don’t want to go into exactly which gothic tropes it touches upon because of spoilers, but it felt so satisfying to read and understand what was happening within the narrative, but also within the greater context of that genre specifically.
Something that makes mysteries and thrillers so great is their ability to tell you the story, tell you so blatantly what happened, and yet hide it in the most innocuous details so it is only once everything is fully revealed that you realize you should’ve known it all along. This is what happens in No Road Home by John Fram. He is able to give us such a brutally straightforward and honest narrative that, despite its twists and turns, remains true to its own premise. He crafts an ending that is so wonderfully earned and deserved. I absolutely have been raving to everyone I know about this book and absolutely, 100% recommend this to anyone that enjoys good stories, but especially those that enjoy gothic literature, thrillers, and mysteries.
