Below review

A mothman horror novel by the creator of the poltergeist book that unnerved me to my soul? Hell yes I was excited to read Below by Laurel Hightower!

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO HELP A STRANGER?
While driving through the mountains of West Virginia during a late-night snowstorm, a recently divorced woman experiences bizarre electrical problems, leaving her with little choice but to place her trust with a charismatic truck driver. But when an unexplainable creature with haunting red eyes gets between them, she is forced to make one of the toughest decisions of her life. Will she abandon the stranger who kept her safe—or will she climb down below, where reality has shapeshifted into a living nightmare?

Laurel Hightower is a master of two things –
1. making traumatized characters dealing with PTSD from abuse that I relate to more than I want to analyze and
2. writing about the world of weird that I obsess over in my other job as a paranormal investigator. I’m talking ghosts, cryptids, etc.

Below grabbed me with Addie, the woman who is on a road trip – destination: best friend’s house where they will drink wine and watch horror movies (my kinda women). During this time, she is recovering from 13 years of emotional and mental abuse from her ex-husband. She has anxiety (most of it seems to spawn from said abuse) and is understandably nervous about traveling, at night, in bad weather, alone, as a woman. My nerves were ALREADY on edge for her as the story opens on a near accident with a creepy person.

As the story unravels – mothman reveals itself and causes a kindly trucker to wreck – Addie shows her metel as a Final Girl. In one night, she goes through the dark night of the soul and comes out of the other end new person with not only a new view on life but also on herself and her goals.
I literally cheered at the ending even though the resolution is…shaky enough that I really hope we get a sequel in the future or that Addie shows up as a background character in another story. (Wanting sequels or characters to come back again in future work is another thing I’m noticing in Laurel Hightower’s work because her characters are amazing!)

As a paranormal investigator, I was thrilled by this book. Hightower not only includes mothman, as seen on the cover, but also cave goblins, government conspiracies, and Men in Black (not the Will Smith kind but the OG John Keel scary, uncanny valley not really human kind). Has Hightower seen Hellier or does her love for the weird go back further than that? Either way, I was STOKED to read this book.

My only complaint is wanting more. A good problem to have.

Highly recommend Below for fans of paranormal stories around cryptids and conspiracies, fans of the weird, and fans of troubled characters that are ordinary people finding themselves in extraordinary experiences and coming out changed for better or worse.