White Space by Ilsa J. Bick starts out as Lizzie McDermott’s story but morphs into Emma Lindsay’s. Lizzie is the daughter of Wisconsin’s Most Famous Crazy Dead Writer, Frank McDermott, who is an author of horror stories which rival those of Steven King and H.P. Lovecraft. Lizzie, who considers her mother most beautiful when she is defiant, determined, and enraged, possesses a power that surpasses that of both her parents. With her memory quilt and the Sign of Sure, she can travel the Dark Passages, the black basement of the brain. Here, she drifts on the breath of a dream into a black void to play with characters she brings to life with thought magic, the energy of real life mixed with the make believe book-world.
When she creates Lindsay, their destinies get tangled. As a result of trauma suffered from childhood, Lindsay has metal plates in her head, which cause her to experience killer headaches, visions that appear at random, gaps in time, and blackouts/blinks. After spending ten years in Child Protective Services with various foster parents, she finally ends up with Jasper as her guardian. Jasper is fond of drinking bourbon and painting surreal pictures, which may be responsible for triggering many of Lindsay’s episodes, blinks during which she sees “bulbous monsters with tentacles and a patchwork of eyes; creatures that lived someplace dark, far away, and very, very cold” (48). Her condition is called the Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. Like Alice, she wanders dark passages where the worst imaginings live, “tangles of nightmares as clingy as sticky seaweed” (170) or as disorienting as being engulfed by fog. On her wanderings, she walks right into another’s life or pulls another character into hers.
Casey, Rima, Eric, Tony, Bode, Chad, Tania, and Lily all have suffered abuse of some kind. Although they live in the suffocating drape of despair, each has a talent, a special skill. For instance, Rima can read death whispers. From their garments, Rima can hear the thoughts of the deceased. Loyal and brave, Eric is “insanely handsome, something manufactured by a dream” (194). These characters live in limbo, in the white space between the lines of a story where they travel between different times, different Nows, to write their private nightmares. Here, the emptiness defines their shape, and energy initiates different realities. The energy of thought conjures new realities so that the characters can visit different timelines and alternative universes.
When Emma realizes Lizzie is in trouble, she reaches through White Space to help. With this encounter, Emma is forced to find her story and to save the others. What ensues is nothing short of horrifying and demented! In its most active state, my mind could never conjure the bleakness and the freakiness that these characters invent.
- Posted by Donna