Latcher, by Mike Dineen

Characters

There were four main players within Latcher: Joanna Smith, her sister Amanda, their mother Diane, and the dark force that lurked throughout the story.

Joanna is a professional horror/mystery writer living in the city, far away from her childhood hometown and the traumatic memories of her youth. She is a very direct woman, who wards her emotions away or else channels them into her work, where they are easier to deal with. She seemed afraid to rely on other people, as if doing so would be her downfall. Despite this, her stubbornness and determined nature saw her battle through many obstacles. She never gave up, a trait which I found admirable. At no point did I dislike Joanna’s character: there was a rawness to her that spoke to me, that made her all the more human in my eyes. Her painful past was gradually laid bare for me as a reader and helped me to empathize with her further.

Amanda, Joanna’s twin sister, is far less bold as a character. Owing to their difficult past, Amanda became more quiet and introverted. She seemed emotionally fragile, as though she might break under the strain of the terrible journey she and Joanna found themselves part of. In contrast to Joanna’s more emotionally reserved façade, Amanda’s emotions were always easier to read, spilling out of her as though she couldn’t hold them in. In this way and others, the two sisters were complete opposites of each-other, which provided a good amount of interpersonal conflict throughout the book, in addition to the main story conflict.

Their mother, Diane, only came into the book in person toward the end, however, she is mentioned repeatedly throughout the first half. From the start, Joanna describes her as unstable, with her mood and personality shifting quickly. There is said to be a hollowness to their mother’s gaze, which Joanna describes as seeing through her, into her. Not only is their mother said to be unstable but she is also emotionally manipulative and deeply troubled, an impression which is further emphasized when we meet her character in person.

Finally, we come to the dark entity which stalks the land of Violet Stone. At first, it wasn’t clear what the entity was, or what shape it took. However, over the course of the story, more details began to appear, providing additional pieces to the mysterious puzzle of the entity’s nature. The entity appeared to be drawn to those who had undergone intense trauma, absorbing their misery, as though gaining power from it. It had a sadistic mind, possessing and murdering whoever it deemed to be a nuisance. That being said, the author crafted an unforgettable and unique supernatural being with a complex origin story, which is only revealed toward the end of the book.