A review by sam_bizar_wilcox
You Should Have Left, by Daniel Kehlmann

3.0

Delightfully eerie, Kehlmann's slim novella provides enough ambient chills to satisfy a discomforting afternoon alone. I am constantly reminded, however, of a book I haven't yet read (Danielewski's House of Leaves). The sort of deja-vu-eque quality to this book isn't entirely a flaw. Certainly, part of the dread is the sense that one might have been here before, yet unable to place exactly why. The splintering marriage at the novella's center is perhaps where things fall apart (which, spoiler, things do) thereby following a little too close to others' leads. If I seem vague here, it is to keep the novella's secrets secret, but suffice it to say a simple text message around midway through the book allows what had otherwise been a unique story (if sharing the same DNA as some other postmodern horror novels) to morph a more familiar one. Kehlmann's book is a tight scare nonetheless, a creepy offspring of Lovecraft and Shirley Jackson.