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I have read a lot of Joel Lane’s short stories and enjoyed them a lot, one thing I always wonder is how would his stories come across if he did a full length novel? with The Blue Mask he answers that question. Blue Mask follows a student called Neil who is doing his thesis at Birmingham Uni, he is in a relationship which has it’s rough moments, after a falling out Neil goes off with a stranger and gets his face badly damaged, needing a lot of surgery to start looking like himself again. Whilst the physical wounds start to heal it is the damage to his psyche that takes a lot longer to heal if it ever will. Neil’s spiral is one of the darkest journey’s I’ve ever read and I hated every moment and every decision Neil made, I so wanted him to take a different path to heal but Lane was adamant that this is how things will play out…and just like with his short stories you put yourself at his mercy and go with the flow.

I have enjoyed the book, and it is a very strong piece of writing but it does have it’s faults…I usually give a book 50 pages to grab my attention and this one failed, but I decided to try a bit more and by page 53 I was hooked, that is how Lane writes, he seems to know your limits and takes you beyond. I also felt that a couple of side stories were left unfinished, particularly Anne, she has her own battles and I felt it was left hanging a bit.

The strong parts of his short stuff were all present and they seemed to tower out of the pages, the desolation of the city, the empty factories and the canal at night were so vivid. The sex was more graphic and violent and the characters larger than life, that maybe why Anne’s story felt unfinished, she was only a bit character but dominated her scenes. The supernatural elements were the only thing missing from this story, I think if Lane had included that the book could have become a mess and that’s why the focus was on the break down of Neil’s psyche.

Whilst it’s not a fun family read it is still a fantastic book by one of the best writers I have ever found. If you are starting on your own Joel Lane adventure, don’t start here, pick up a short story collection and work your way to this one, it is well worth the effort.

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