Book Review: Edge of Sundown

Edge of Sundown. Jennifer Worrell, Darkstroke, October 6, 2020, Paperback and eBook, 229 pages.

Review by Gail Galvan.

What a fanciful and haunting concept: “A dystopian conspiracy theory set in a tangential universe when alien invaders eliminate undesirables perceived as drains on society.” That’s what Val Haverford, the main character of Edge of Sundown, dreamed up. Attempting to overcome his ten-year writer’s block spell, his idea is aimed at helping Chicago get some kind of system related to controlling the constant violence that plagues the Windy City. Yet fiction and reality begin to merge as the story unfolds.

While reading the story for a while, I began waiting and wishing for something to happen. Characters were introduced, settings and themes explained, and I waited. Then bam! Sure enough, the author delivered—Haverford is viciously attacked. And soon after, another reality check in the story, a murder happens to someone Val is very much personally connected with. It seems violent criminals want to halt Val’s storytelling in the belief that the circulating storyline tidbits are hitting too close to reality.

At one point, dealing with diminishing eyesight and merciless attackers, Haverford wonders if he should even continue the book. After all, he’s busy trying to stay alive and solve the murder that occurred and changed everything.  

Interesting, even flawed, characters and endless explicit descriptions of Chicago bring the story to life and really make the book identifiable. Especially, I suppose, for Chicago residents. Museums, Millennium Park, homeless sidewalk-sitters, L tracks: “Shoppers and businessmen on cell phones…towers heaved upwards from cracked concrete, cars emerging from garages… Sears’ famous stair-step architecture.” (Chicagoans will identify!) 

Also, for writers—plots, writer’s block, editors, how a writer thinks, struggles, changes ideas midstream, as Haverford does. (Writers will identify!)

It’s a complicated story at times, and the last few chapters are zingers festering until shots against a real live human monster are fired. I think the only thing I missed was a bit more fiction, that alien-idea connection that Haverford originally dreamed up. But hey, writers have the option to make twists and turns anytime they want, right?

Edge of Sundown is a good read, don’t miss it! It teaches us that sometimes there isn’t always an answer for things. But hey, writers can dream. Right? Just as Worrell, the author, and Val Haverford, her main character, did.