Dante's Heart
Meghan O'Dea
A Tour of the Gothic Hot on the Werewolf's Trail:
A Review of Cherie Priest's Dreadful Skin
Dreadful Skin is more than fabulous Southern
horror, it’s Cherie Priest’s highly original tour of
the Gothic tradition and genre. Readers familiar
with Gothic grandfathers Dracula and Jack the
Ripper will see elements of those 19th century
characters, one fictional, the other fatally real,
gracefully transplanted onto Reconstruction
-era riverboats and into Texan saloons as
Priest’s werewolf travels across America. He is
Jack Gabert, the sole survivor of a mysterious
attack by a wild animal in the jungles of India, now fleeing West across
America in search of salvation or solitude. Hot on his tail is Eileen
Callaghan, a whisky-drinking, silver-bullet toting Irish nun, who contributes to
the hefty body count that marks Gabert’s path from Old World to New.
Priest’s third novel, Dreadful Skin demonstrates a series of brave risks as
she develops her storytelling. Her blend of a strong literary background,
smart attention to historical detail and unusual clarity of prose shine in this
work, making up for the slightly disjointed nature of the three part structure
of the novel. More successful is the risk Priest takes in assembling a variety
of captivating first-person narratives, including those of a ruined sea
captain, a Christian songstress-turned-concubine, and Jack Gabert
himself. Dreadful Skin is presented as if Priest has carefully selected the
most informative elements and accounts of a much longer story, like a
historian condensing a great series of events into its essentials.
Dreadful Skin offers far more than innovative craft and an interesting
story, however. Priest does not merely derive inspiration for her plot from
Victorian Gothic, but certain themes as well, most notably that of anxiety
over immigrants, the alien, and otherness. Both the lycanthropic Jack
Gabert and the focused Eileen Callaghan are literal foreigners, but in true
Gothic fashion the monsters they fight within themselves and across
America represent a metaphorical otherness.
Yet Priest does not limit herself to the black and white exposition of that
idea as her 19th century forebearers did, instead exploring less trodden
variations on the theme. Dreadful Skin juxtaposes the wolf-in-sheep’s
clothing leaders of a traveling band of Christian Revivalists with Gabert’s
actual wolf-within. Sheltered believer Leonard’s naïve and Puritan
condemnation of everyday sins such as prostitution and gambling are
contrasted with Eileen Callaghan’s selective approach to sin, enjoying drink
and accepting murder, which become minor crimes in the face of Jack
Gabert’s visceral and primal evil. Leonard’s continual shock as the ex-nun’s
moral compass provides several much needed touches of humor to a story
book-ended by terror and destruction.
Page 2
A Tour of the Gothic Hot on the Werewolf's Trail:
A Review of Cherie Priest's Dreadful Skin
Dreadful Skin is more than fabulous Southern
horror, it’s Cherie Priest’s highly original tour of
the Gothic tradition and genre. Readers familiar
with Gothic grandfathers Dracula and Jack the
Ripper will see elements of those 19th century
characters, one fictional, the other fatally real,
gracefully transplanted onto Reconstruction
-era riverboats and into Texan saloons as
Priest’s werewolf travels across America. He is
Jack Gabert, the sole survivor of a mysterious
attack by a wild animal in the jungles of India, now fleeing West across
America in search of salvation or solitude. Hot on his tail is Eileen
Callaghan, a whisky-drinking, silver-bullet toting Irish nun, who contributes to
the hefty body count that marks Gabert’s path from Old World to New.
Priest’s third novel, Dreadful Skin demonstrates a series of brave risks as
she develops her storytelling. Her blend of a strong literary background,
smart attention to historical detail and unusual clarity of prose shine in this
work, making up for the slightly disjointed nature of the three part structure
of the novel. More successful is the risk Priest takes in assembling a variety
of captivating first-person narratives, including those of a ruined sea
captain, a Christian songstress-turned-concubine, and Jack Gabert
himself. Dreadful Skin is presented as if Priest has carefully selected the
most informative elements and accounts of a much longer story, like a
historian condensing a great series of events into its essentials.
Dreadful Skin offers far more than innovative craft and an interesting
story, however. Priest does not merely derive inspiration for her plot from
Victorian Gothic, but certain themes as well, most notably that of anxiety
over immigrants, the alien, and otherness. Both the lycanthropic Jack
Gabert and the focused Eileen Callaghan are literal foreigners, but in true
Gothic fashion the monsters they fight within themselves and across
America represent a metaphorical otherness.
Yet Priest does not limit herself to the black and white exposition of that
idea as her 19th century forebearers did, instead exploring less trodden
variations on the theme. Dreadful Skin juxtaposes the wolf-in-sheep’s
clothing leaders of a traveling band of Christian Revivalists with Gabert’s
actual wolf-within. Sheltered believer Leonard’s naïve and Puritan
condemnation of everyday sins such as prostitution and gambling are
contrasted with Eileen Callaghan’s selective approach to sin, enjoying drink
and accepting murder, which become minor crimes in the face of Jack
Gabert’s visceral and primal evil. Leonard’s continual shock as the ex-nun’s
moral compass provides several much needed touches of humor to a story
book-ended by terror and destruction.
Page 2
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