A father and his estranged daughter reconnect to try to understand a decades-old trauma in this haunting novel, part ghost story, part lyrical exploration of family, aging, and how we remember the past.
... despite its promising beginning, evolves into a bizarre, otherworldly environment that never clearly seems resolved ... It's possible that Passersthrough is about memories linked to extrasensory perceptions not commonly experienced but present in some trauma victims. But then again it may not be. In the end the reader doesn't have any clearer idea than Benjamin did about what happened to his children more than two decades earlier. And perhaps that is what Peter Rock wants. Uncertainties and mysteries always surround death and disappearances. And while we may hope we find answers in stories, and in life, that's not always what happens.
Its best elements, like its supernatural overtures, are reminiscent of Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (1999) ... A captivating page-turner that raises more questions than it answers.
Rock draws on the mountain scenery to create a surreal atmosphere, culminating in a haunting scene of disaster. The result is an otherwise conventional family conflict that convincingly morphs into something genuinely bizarre.
