Stage’s new supernatural thriller is a provocative philosophical page turner
In the midst of a global pandemic, Zoje Stage has released a novel about a family beset by a murderous invisible force that requires strict quarantine. But given publication schedules, that’s surely a coincidence. And “Wonderland” isn’t a medical thriller, anyway, it’s a supernatural one, and the Pittsburgh-based author’s followup to her creepy 2018 debut novel, “Baby Teeth.”
Still, claustrophobia and dread can’t help but resonate these days. In “Wonderland,” a retired ballerina named Orla Moreau (H.G. Wells-reference alert!) and her husband, a lifelong dilettante named Shaw, move their two young kids from Manhattan to the woods of upstate New York so he can pursue his new passion for painting. An isolated old house in December, some minatory trees in the yard — what could go wrong?
Soon, the family’s been trapped at home by an otherworldly entity, one that manifests itself as sudden, terrifying snow squalls or other natural threats; it also seems to read minds. And Orla’s introverted daughter, 9-year-old Eleanor Queen, shortly emerges as the lead go-between for the mysterious spirit and its obscure desires, which seem to circulate about a particularly huge and ancient pine tree just behind the house.
The setup, inevitably, recalls “The Shining” with its invocation of nature and seemingly vengeful eldritch phenomena. It also conjures Robert Eggers’ 2015 period horror film “The Witch.”
Told through Orla in close third person, “Wonderland” plays as a mystery blended with a survival yarn. Shotguns, new to the citified family, are introduced early, adding to the foreboding that feeds Orla’s growing anxiety. Her fears seem silly, at first, but Ms. Stage credibly renders both Orla’s imaginative irrationality and her ability to reason her worries away.
The writing is a bit overwrought at times: “The madness was coming on fast, a herd of murderous circus clowns.” And occasionally, Ms. Stage’s language and the mental states it describes don’t seem commensurate with the mounting traumas these blindsided characters have experienced. They are too composed, too rational.
Yet Ms. Stage manages the sine qua non of a thriller, creating a world where you are eager, occasionally even desperate, to learn what uncanny and horrifying thing is going to happen next.
It is very easy to imagine a film adaptation of “Wonderland” (and in fact, a movie version of “Baby Teeth” is in the works).
Sensitive readers might also not regard trees the same way for a while.
“Wonderland” also turns out to be more than a mere page turner. There’s some philosophical pondering about prayer and God. (The book’s title casually shows up a couple of times, as Orla’s dismissive reference to the standard-issue monotheistic heaven.) Another theme offers nature not as the setting for a becalming “forest bath” city folks might desire, but as a place where immersion might scald, or even boil. And Ms. Stage is capable of sketching this endangered little family’s psychology with a fine point, as in this passage anchoring her description of an argument between Orla and Shaw that revolves around whether moving upstate had been such a terrific idea:
“It wasn’t enough that Shaw wanted to shoulder the responsibility, to make things better and prove it wasn’t all a terrible blunder; his ego couldn’t be her primary concern. Eleanor Queen’s needs felt more urgent — even if Orla was using those needs to support getting her own way.”
But the dominant emotional undercurrent in “Wonderland” really concerns parents and children. Some of it involves fretfulness about parents pursuing their dreams to the possible detriment of their offspring, but there’s something more provocative, too.
In “Baby Teeth,” Ms. Stage posited a child as a master manipulator. In “Wonderland,” the tension comes from Orla’s anxiety over Eleanor Queen becoming, at age 9, her own person (and maybe something more). Eleanor Queen (never just “Eleanor”) rapidly turns more mature and independent; indeed, her parents come to rely on her ability to read the antagonistic spirit’s moods and thoughts. It’s a clever twist on ordinary parental anxieties about a child, in this case a tween, growing up too fast.
“Wonderland” is a sturdy beach read, assuming you’re not too worried about hitting the beach this year. But its emotional core will resonate after its many scares have faded.
‘Wonderland’
By Zoje Stage Mulholland Books ($28)