'When Rob receives a call in the middle of the night, he knows it must be bad news. But he isn't quite prepared for what he hears; his brother, Marcus, has died on the Systematics compound in Scotland, where the two of them grew up. The place Rob managed to escape with his sanity barely intact, the place that hollowed out his parents and his brother.
'Rob is determined to go up north to the compound to see Marcus laid to rest, but more importantly, to get to the bottom of what killed him. Because Rob has been waiting for the Systematics to make a mistake, for their charismatic leader Bjorn Thrissell to show his true colours so that Rob can make their crimes public and bring them down for good.
'But when Rob arrives at the compound with his producer Lucy in tow, they discover a group of people coming apart at the seams and paranoia seeping through the community. Mutiny is in the air and worse still… there is something lurking under the surface, something monstrous and murderous, something that has been biding its time in the margins…
'Trapped and isolated, Rob and Lucy are going to have to put their trust in the community they have come to ruin if any of them are going to have any hope of survival.'
Cults are a ripe ground for horror stories. They're a very real horror that exists within our world, one where we can see how far people can be abused and broken by corrupt leaders, as well as showcasing the extremes that people are willing to go to for their beliefs. Some of the most frightening things people have done throughout history have been because of religion, and modern day cults are usually reflective of this. As such, Marginal is able to tap into some very dark ideas and horror that feels very grounded with its story set around a remote cult in remote Scotland. However, it's not afraid to dive into the realm of the fantastical too.
The story follows Rob, a man who was raised as a member of the Systematics cult, but who managed to escape from it a number of years earlier; an experience that still has a number of psychological scars that he's living with. When Rob is awoken in the middle of the night with a phone call telling him that his brother, Marcus, who remained in Systematics, has died, Rob knows that he's going to have to face the terrible events of his past.
Rob is determined to be there for his brother's funeral, being held within the Systematics compound in Scotland, and wants to find out exactly how and why his brother died so suddenly. Lucy, a young podcaster who wants to get a story about Systematics, accompanies him north, hoping to get the big scoop that will make her career. The two of them arrive at the compound and meet with the leader of the cult, the charismatic Bjorn Thrissell, hoping that they'll be able to learn the truth. Unfortunately, neither of them could ever expect what they find.
In some ways Marginal feels like a book of two halves, with half the book being very grounded in reality, dealing with the Systematics cult, and their affect on Rob and his brother. It's got some dark moments, as all stories about cults tend to do, but it's geared more towards character drama and mystery as to how Marcus died than anything else.
Rob is something of an unlikeable protagonist in some regards. He's clearly a man with a lot of demons and a lot of trauma in his past, and this is all being dragged up to the fore thanks to the loss of his brother and having to return to the Systematics compound. But, because of this there are times where he's somewhat overly aggressive, he snaps at people, he's surly and withdrawn. His journey throughout Marginal, and the way it affects Rob emotionally is one of the main aspects of the book, and it's interesting to see the journey he goes through, but there are also times where I kind of wanted to yell at Rob. This isn't a bad thing, and having an imperfect lead character can be a lot of fun, but I can see how this might be challenging for some readers, and why not everyone might gel well with him.
The supporting characters are kind of similar too, thanks in no small part to most of them being cult members. A lot of people in the book are self serving, or liars, or simply untrustworthy, and it leads to a situation where as a reader I was never sure if I could trust what people were saying or doing, or if I should want to see them come out the other side. It created this somewhat grey narrative, one where I found myself challenged in a lot of ways.
Marginal is a story about a cult, but it's also more than that, as there's a shift in the narrative part of the way through that turns this from a grounded, realistic cult horror story, into something much, much more frightening. I will not say much about it, as going in knowing as little as possible about the book is definitely the best approach, but this shift introduces some wild new elements to the book, and comes with some extreme violence, gore, and body horror that is sure to shock the reader.
Overall, I had a pretty decent time with Marginal, it had some cool ideas and some flawed characters that I think will likely challenge some readers. But it was also at times a hard read thanks to its darker tone and more depressing story. Marginal will appeal to a lot of horror fans, but it might not be to everyone's tastes.
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