Book 9 of my 26 books for 2024 goal! (If you notice that book 8 is missing on the list, that was a private review of an upcoming book for a publisher, which I’m counting, because I’m way behind!)

A lot of horror novels work by being unpredictable, and providing a lot of twists and turns that keeps the reader guessing — and shocked — throughout their run. Others, however, have a sense of doomed inevitability to them, where the reader knows with near certainty that doom is approaching, and the book is all about following that painful path to the horrific end. Joan Samson’s The Auctioneer is a book that is like that, where from the very first page you are inexorably ground down. I immediately thought of it as I finished reading The Abyss (1981) by Jere Cunningham, which has recently been reprinted by my friends at Valancourt Books.

The novel is set in the Appalachian hill town of Bethel, which has been in decline for years after the abrupt closure of M-19, the nearby coal shaft that is the deepest ever dug. The mine was closed after an accident, but the coal company is back to reopen it and bring employment and prosperity to the people of Bethel, who welcome it.

Among those seeking a job in the mine is Seth Stacey, a man who once tried to escape Bethel, and poverty, through a college football scholarship. But an injury ended his college hopes, and a stint in the merchant marines proved fruitless, so he has returned to Bethel with the resignation of a convict on death row. We see events unfold mostly through Seth’s eyes, though we also get to know many important figures in the town, and see how their lives change — and then unravel — as the mine digs deeper to its ultimate goal.

It is no secret what that goal is: digging just a little deeper through the veins of coal will open a literal portal to Hell, unleashing demons and the end times, with the initial brunt borne by Bethel. This is no secret because it is literally advertised in the cover image and back cover of the book! As I’ve said, the tension of the book is knowing exactly where it is going, unlike most of the characters in it, and helplessly watching this town of mostly good people go right to hell.

I’ve noted in the past that almost all great books, even those that are largely entertainment, are about something, and in this case one can see that The Abyss serves as a commentary on the entire corrupt coal mining business of the era and the negative effect it had on those towns that it was supposedly boosting. Sure, the mines brought jobs, and money, and new convenience stores, but they also brought sickness, in the form of coal ash dumps, and black lung and death in cave-ins for the miners. This is reflected metaphorically in the novel, as the prosperity of the town is matched by increasingly disturbing events and a general sense that the wheels are quickly coming off the entire society. Cunningham gives very detailed descriptions of the coal mining operations and their propaganda, which to me ended up being just as disturbing as the horror elements of demons and corruption.

All in all, The Abyss is a very dark book, about doomed people living their lives under a shadow that becomes increasingly difficult to ignore, until literal Hell breaks loose. I read the book through in just a couple of sittings, and found it well worth the time.

This new edition includes an introduction by author and horror scholar Grady Hendrix, who provides more information about the author and the era in which this book was penned. Like all Valancourt introductions, it is well-worth the time to read.