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Worms
By
James Montague
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Worms
is 186 pages long and is set on the Norfolk coast. The story is written
in the first person and the central character is a man named James
Hildebrand.
The beginning of the book finds James and his wife -- who is never
given a name -- on holiday. The couple had originally rented a cabin
cruiser with the intention of travelling the Norfolk Broads,
but
the ancient cruiser was less than comfortable and its engine gave them
several days of trouble before eventually giving up for good.
James considered the death of the engine to be a blessing in disguise
and when the owner of the boat gave the Hildebrands a refund it was the
icing on the cake and James booked a room at a coastal inn instead.
James' wife has little enthusiasm for this attempt to salvage their
holiday. She would have preferred to return home, to their flat in
London. In fact, it has to be said, that she seems determined to make
**sure** that she does not enjoy herself and that if she is not
enjoying herself that James will not enjoy himself either.
James'
wife does not come across as one of the nicest people in the world, in
fact, the word 'bitch' comes to mind, but, as the reader soon
discovers, James himself is less than an ideal partner and, in all
honesty, not much of a human being either.
Despite his wife's best (or worst) efforts James takes an instant
liking to the area, decides that he would like to live there, and
begins looking for property. He does this behind his wife's back
though, and his deceptive behaviour is made all the worse by the fact
that he has no money of his own and is planning on using his wife's
inheritance. Nice guy!
James soon finds his ideal home, but is unable to convince his wife to
buy it. In fact, she hates the place. Not a man to let a little thing
like that stop him, James decides on another option. He murders his
wife in chapter three and chapter four, which is set six months later,
finds him safely set up in his ideal home. Two things, however, spoil
his new found happiness:
- James
is convinced that the local gardener knows the
truth about his wife's death.
- The
local worm population seem to have unusually
aggressive tendencies.
In all honesty I have to say that I did not enjoy this book very much.
When I review a book I read the book first and then work my way through
it for a second time as I am writing the review. If the book is so
bad that I cannot finish the first reading, I do not review
it.
To its credit I did manage to finish Worms, but my main reason for
finishing the book was because I wanted to discover the reason for the
worm's strange behaviour.
In the first chapter James visits the local church, where he spots two
life-size effigies, lying side by side on their tombs, with what James
presumes are snakes writhing up towards them. They are not snakes
though. The vicar informs him that they are “The worms of
Hell.” And that they, “Rear in pursuit of the souls
of the
deceased.” A statement like this hints of a supernatural
connection, as does the fact that church suddenly becomes unnaturally
cold. Even the vicar appears to be uncomfortable in the church.
Towards the end of the first chapter James visits the local estate
agent, who is about to go fishing, and manages to spill his tin of
worms onto the floor. The worms rear up like snakes and then begin
burying themselves in the carpet. The estate agent recovers as many
worms as he can and then begins to stamp on the carpet. “They
are
little devils,” he says. “They make marvellous
bait, but
you don't want to let them escape.” Again, the hint is there,
something is decidedly odd about these worms. I had to find out what it
was. I was to be disappointed.
The worms turn up in the story again and again and, at times, behave in
a manner that shows intelligence. Worse still, the worms seem to have
an agenda. Later on in the book though, the story line deviates off in
a totally different direction when the government build a nuclear power
station on the moors. First the worms vanish and then, when
they
return, the worms have turned nasty. Worms with attitude?
Okay, I
can just about take that, but what really annoys me is the
change
in direction. The author suddenly discards any association with the
supernatural and puts everything down to radiation! How could he
justify this? These were bad-ass worms before the power station put in
an appearance! I even thought that they might be the
worms
of
Hell. Radioactive wrigglers just does not do it for me. There are a few
surprises at the end of the book, but, like I said, as far as the worms
go, no real answers, and I felt incredibly let down. It was hard to
like any of the characters in this story and even harder to feel any
sympathy for them, but I suffered them right until the bitter end. I
wish I'd dug up some worms of my own. I could have gone fishing instead.
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