Book Report: Coiled in the Heart

'Coiled in the Heart' by Scott Elliot is a darkly quiet story that looms overhead and makes you shiver.

"Tobias Caldwell lives in a world balanced by the scales of grandeur and decay. The southern plantation he calls home has been the pride of the Caldwells since their settling there in the nineteenth century. As a boy, Tobias knew every crevice of the landscape, but he favored the creek to be his very own. By the time Tobias reached the age of seven, his father had begun to parcel off the land to new housing subdivisions, and the magical creek no longer belonged to Tobias alone. Soon they had neighbors, and Tobias was dispatched to meet a boy who was just his age. What Tobias encountered was an unruly, mean-spirited boy named Ben Wilson and his twin sister, Merritt. Ben's relentless cruelty brings malice into Tobias' good-natured heart, and he leads Ben to the creek, where the tree roots snarl and the cottonmouth snake coils itself for camouflage. Elliot's debut builds a magnetic love story between Tobias and Merritt that is heady with yearning and laden with guilt for the truths left untold."

The remainder of the story, chronicling Tobia's movement into adulthood and his developing affection for Merritt, bounces between present time and past. Lots of subtleties lend to a subconscious feeling of danger and evil, and the theme of the serpent remains strong throughout. Without purple prose, Elliot deftly portrays southern scenery that leaves lasting images in the reader's mind--a rare and conspicuous talent.

This story starts with an interesting, promising set-up but quickly becomes about human relationships and emotion. It is the quietness of this story that kept me reading, the details so fine they were simply there and real:

"I walk across the back porch, let the screen door clap clap clap shut behind me, and move out across the grass toward one of the houses Bank and his crew are in the process of dismantling. It stands before me, an enemy soldier, its wounds strangely enhanced by the moonlight and the cool air.
Inside this demi-house I take up a sledgehammer one of the workmen has left behind. I feel its weight in my hand and carry it upstairs and let it throw me into a blind spin. I spin counterclockwise. Sledgehammer extended, I let the weight spin me through the house until the sledgehammer finds a wall or a window or until I'm too tired to continue.
Glass shatters. Sledgehammer on brick makes a dull thud. Bricks chip, dent, crack. Tiny white sparks appear to enjoy their split seconds of life in the cool air. Drywall explodes chalky white. Boards splinter, break, or hold fast to stop my spinning."

Place and character have come together in 'Coiled in the Heart', creating a haunting story that will speak in whispers for a long time to come.

Four out of five stars.