The Sundowner's Dance

As always, my infinite thanks to Shortwave Media for the physical arc!

A novel that tackles grief and aging as much as the terrors within the small town of Fairview Acres. Jerry Campbell is a recent widower. He hopes that the sale of his family home for a new and smaller location will help him with accepting the loss. But when his realtor notifies him that his offer was accepted almost simultaneously with a buyer wanting his old place, the strangeness just keeps stacking. Welcoming neighbors, but nightly parties that always seem to start after sundown and last through the night, strange noises across his roof as he tries to sleep, a mid night warning from Katherine Dunnally that may be more than dementia delusions, and worst of all, Arthur Peterson, the association lead, giving off almost Nosferatu-level weird vibes.

This novel falls under what some may call “old people horror.” The lead is elderly, as is a majority of the cast, and it certainly contains the aches and pains of those getting on in years. I don’t have a slew of experience with this (if you’d call it) sub-genre, but it did bring to mind the likes of Mark Towse’s Nana, with its oddly over-aged community members and its cosmic twists. Sundowner’s is imbued with terror and heartfelt moments, like the tenderness that forms between Katherine and Jerry, and disfigured horrors that push cosmic into the realm of creature feature. With fantastic parallels that seamlessly blend the horrific nature of dementia with an alien withdrawal that mimics its memory losing effects.

But what I truly loved the most about the novel was Jerry. A lead that appears to be a grumpy old loner, is actually just a grieving, socially awkward and anxious man. So used to having his wife with him as a salve, he’s unsure of how to tackle this last stage of life. Not only is he dealing with the loss, his aches and pains, his uprooted life, the attempted continuous communication from Arthur, but also the absolute preternatural atmosphere of the Fairview community. And while the novel delivers on the small town feel, there’s much bigger things happening to turn the wheels. I found Jerry to be incredibly grounding throughout the read because you too may be a little grumpy and standoffish if your entire new town was giving off funky vampiric vibes. I really appreciated how he was witty, intelligent, still strong, and a cohesive lead that broke a lot of the conventional elderly tropes.

A first for me from the author, but I truly enjoyed it.