When everyone might be crazy, picking the murderer gets complicated.
I finished Nothing Human Left at about one o'clock in the morning. That should tell you something right there. Forget the dust bunnies. This one stole sleep. The story begins slowly, but give it time. The author is laying the groundwork, and once that foundation starts cracking, good luck putting the book down.
Grace was raised by her single mother, Marge, whose problems go considerably beyond your average overprotective parent. Marge is obsessed with keeping Grace safe. Every time Grace spends time outside or away from her mother, Marge checks her from head to toe for bugs and other dangers. Sometimes she refuses to let Grace leave the house at all. Because according to Marge, there are monsters out there. She calls them People Faces. They look human, but they aren't, and Marge believes that only she and Grace can see them.
As a child, Grace witnesses increasingly frightening behavior from her mother, including an incident in which Marge becomes convinced that a man she has been seeing is a People Face and tries to kill him in front of Grace. Eventually, Marge's delusions, and the murders she is accused of committing, land her in prison. Years later, Grace is left with the aftermath of a deeply traumatic childhood and gaps in her memory. Then Marge insists that she is innocent of the murders that put her behind bars, and Grace begins looking for the truth.
The story alternates between present-day Grace and her childhood, and the two timelines work extremely well. Normally, jumping back and forth in time can make me twitchy, but here it serves a purpose. We are discovering Grace's past along with her, and what she remembers, or doesn't remember, matters.
What I particularly loved was how thoroughly the author made me question everyone. I started out absolutely convinced that Marge was dangerously delusional. Then I began questioning Grace's perception of events. Before long, I was side-eyeing her aunt Vivian and cousin Desi, too. At some point, apparently nobody in this family was getting through my imaginary psychological screening. The plot becomes increasingly disturbing and twisty as Grace searches for answers. Just when I thought I had some idea of what was happening, something shifted. I was completely blindsided.
This is psychological horror that gets under your skin. The idea of People Faces is creepy enough by itself, but the real horror comes from never being completely certain what (or whom) you should believe. It left me questioning what was real right along with Grace.
My only caution is that the beginning does take some time to build. Don't expect the story to come screaming out of the gate. For me, though, that slow buildup paid off enormously. By the latter part of the book, putting it down was no longer an option. Hence the 1 a.m. bedtime. And this book is DARK. It is definitely not for the faint-hearted. Content warnings include murder, violence, gore, childhood trauma, child abuse/endangerment, mental illness and delusions, and attempted murder.
Readers who enjoy dark psychological horror, unreliable memories, dysfunctional families, disturbing secrets, and mysteries that keep shifting underneath them should find plenty to love here. If you need likable, well-adjusted people making sensible life choices, however, you may have wandered into the wrong book.
Five stars. Nothing Human Left disturbed me, fooled me, and cost me sleep. With very little adaptation, I could easily see this becoming one seriously unsettling, award-worthy horror movie.
Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
