Book Reviews: Beyond the Spiral Gates by Mutch Katsonga

Trigger Warning: The book reviewed in this post, Beyond the Spiral Gates by Mutch Katsonga, contains depictions of abuse, violence, and corporal punishment which can only be described as torture. If you are triggered by such depictions or otherwise wish to avoid them, proceed with caution.

Happy Hump Day, readers and writers! After yesterday’s announcement about the passing of beloved fantasy/science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin, I’ve decided to lighten the mood some by bringing you another book review. Of course, the topic of the book in this review is not a light one, but the writing and story are both thrilling and compelling. Today I’m reviewing Beyond the Spiral Gates by Mutch Katsonga.

We all have things in our past that we’re not so proud of. Whether we’re embarrassed by the time we farted in class during high school or we did something so violent that we’re too ashamed to let anyone know about it, each of us has something we wish we could undo. Unfortunately, that’s not how life works, and these events can have drastic consequences. Even something entirely out of our control or in which we’re the victim can haunt us and change the entire course of our lives. Such an event leads us to the incarceration of the narrator of Beyond the Spiral Gates at Wicksfield, a school and prison for criminal boys.

The unnamed narrator has been dealt a bad hand. Pampered by his mother after his father died when he was a few months old, the narrator’s entire world turns upside-down when his mother remarries. He’s abused by his stepfather for disobedience, and his mother, while loving and doting, does nothing to stop it. Things only get worse for the narrator when a couple of horribly chaotic days lands him in Wicksfield, where he and the other boys are terribly mistreated and viewed as nothing but demon-infested vermin who need to be exorcised. But what happens when the narrator finally gets a chance to escape—not just one of his daytime jaunts but a true, planned escape that could actually gain him his freedom? Will he take it? And what will become of him once he gets beyond the spiral gates of Wicksfield?

Beyond the Spiral Gates by Mutch Katsonga is a gripping, heart-wrenching tale of a young man’s coming-of-age journey, a physical, emotional, and spiritual trek with more twists and turns than you can imagine. I can usually predict the outcomes of these kinds of books—that’s why I so rarely bother with them anymore—and while I could still see much of what was going to happen next, Katsonga pleasantly surprised me with plot twists I actually did not expect.

I simultaneously wanted to keep reading until I was finished and had to take multiple breaks. So many moments were cringe-worthy and emotional that they necessitated those breaks in order for me to continue. For me, that’s the sign of a good book in this genre; it both had my adrenaline pumping and made me emotionally attached to the main character.

I think, perhaps, the biggest reason why I experienced such emotional turmoil in sympathy with the main character is because I know that institutions like Wicksfield once existed. One real-life example constantly came to mind while reading Katsonga’s work: Preston School of Industry in Amador County, California, better known as Preston Castle. (If you’re a fan of Merle Haggard or Neal Cassady, you might know it because both of them were once wards of Preston Castle.) Knowing that such deplorable conditions and abuse once happened to such boys, even criminal boys, makes the depiction in this novel even more heartbreaking.

The unfortunate flaw I saw in Katsonga’s writing is that many of the characters are one-dimensional stereotypes. In particular, Hector Sevene—the head of Wicksfield—and Switch—the narrator’s bully from his hometown of Hayvern—did not receive much development or growth despite being rather crucial to the story.

However, this could have been by design. The book is narrated in first person, and so the reader only gets the narrator’s views on these people. To someone as angry and mistreated as the narrator, these people, both of whom represent different miserable aspects of his life, would only be those one-dimensional, almost devilish stereotypes. It’s a toss-up and probably depends on how the reader decides to interpret it.

The biggest mystery in the novel—and, thus, the most compelling aspect—is why the narrator ended up at Wicksfield in the first place. The event haunts the narrator throughout his time at Wicksfield and beyond, but for much of the book these brief glimpses are all that Katsonga gives the reader. While a little frustrating, it also kept me reading even if the book sagged a little. Mind you, it did not sag often, but the mystery really helped to keep me interested whenever it did.

Katsonga’s writing is, for the most part, crisp and quick-paced. Still, I thought that Katsonga’s descriptions were sometimes drawn out unnecessarily and slowed down the narrative. Katsonga takes several paragraphs to describe the narrator’s anger at seeing Switch again and what he would have done if he had known who it was sooner. While this description is amusing in a bitter-sweet way, I felt the tension begin to dissipate and I just wanted to watch them fight already. Similarly long descriptions are scattered throughout the book, but the rest of the novel is written well enough that these passages do not detract much from the overall experience.

Overall, I highly recommend Katsonga’s novel for thriller and mystery lovers. I noticed some proofreading errors but they were very minor, such as misused commas, and that could have just been the difference between American English and Queen’s English. At 166 pages, it’s a very quick read, perfect for those brief moments of downtime. If you’re sensitive to violence and/or institutionalized abuse, you’ll want to avoid this book. However, if you can stomach such issues, you’ll definitely want to read Beyond the Spiral Gates.

You can find Beyond the Spiral Gates in both e-book and paperback form on Amazon.

Do you know of any books I should read? Want your work reviewed on this blog? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com or message me on Fiverr and we can arrange something.