Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle

Published by Spiegel & Grau on July 23, 2012

Consider, if you will, Lucretia Gardner. (I begin with these words because I was hearing Rod Serling's narrative voice while I read this novella.) Lucretia lives in Queens. She just turned twelve. She wants to spend time with her best (and only) friend, Sunny, a girl who is dying of cancer. Apartment 6D (according to Lucretia's older brother) is occupied by the remnants of a deformed and rotting family of crack-addicted child snatchers called the Kroons. Are the Kroons the invention of an older brother who wants to scare his sister, or do they exist? Lucretia learns the answer to that question when her mother and brother leave her alone to spend some time with Sunny.

Victor LaValle writes twisted, nontraditional versions of horror stories. His monsters often behave in surprisingly human ways. Despite the monstrous appearance of the Kroons, there's a sweetness to the story and a large dose of gentle humor (including the suggestion that Shea Stadium is actually Heaven). This might be the only story you'll read in which children smoking cigarettes is a good thing.

As LaValle demonstrated in The Devil in Silver, true horror lies not in the supernatural but in the tangible world. In Lucretia and the Kroons -- sort of a longish short story -- it is the horror of childhood cancer, of saying goodbye to a friend who will never grow up. While LaValle achieved a greater degree of poignancy in The Devil in Silver, this story offers another fine balance of creepiness and honest emotion, showcased by characters who are original and sympathetic.

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