WE CAME BACK is the impressive sophomoric effort from Patrick Lacey. While, yes, there are shades of King’s SOMETIME’S THEY COME BACK and CARRIE, WE CAME BACK is it’s own monster. A high school revenge tale that takes on a twisted life of it’s own. We can imagine the Melvins in the world. We’ve seen many a teenager in the news that has taken his own life with their high school as their stage as they paint the walls red with their own blood and brain matter. We’ve all experienced various levels of bullying and, while we may not go so far as agreeing with Melvin’s solution to take his own life, we do understand where he’s coming from. We can also imagine what it would do to small, close-knit Lynwood High. Ten years later, the old high school is closed and abandoned. A new school is built on the other side of town. The teachers are doing their very best to forget that there ever was another Lynwood High. That the old brick building with the chained doors and roof leaking into the classrooms never existed. The students are chalking up the stories of Melvin’s ghost wandering the halls as an urban legend. Frank Tanner is especially trying to forget that day a decade ago. Frank was a young teacher that witnessed Melvin’s suicide first-hand. Now his straight-laced daughter is dating the new goth kid and damn, if he doesn’t look familiar. And damn, if she isn’t acting up like never before. Is this all just teen rebellion or is there something evil about her new boyfriend?
Lacey builds the layers nicely in WE CAME BACK. The characters are three dimensional and realistically fleshed out. The atmosphere slowly builds and ratchets up as the story unfurls. He really does a nice job with this one. No sophomore jinx here. I’m looking forward to novel number 3.
4 Pasty White Complexions our of 5
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