Gothic

The well-worn trope of a horror author grappling with writer’s block drives this disappointing effort from Fracassi (Boys in the Valley). Manhattanite Tyson Parks has authored multiple bestselling chillers, but he’s hit a dry patch. Stuck in his efforts to produce a book that matches the pitch for which his publisher paid a hefty advance, Tyson gets bailed out by chance when his wife, Sarah, buys him an antique wooden desk adorned with strange symbols and the words, “DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.” Sitting at it to write revitalizes Tyson, who, without fully realizing what he’s doing, turns out an entirely new book within hours, one so frightening that one person who reads it becomes physically ill. Fracassi intersperses Tyson’s experiences with sections on the desk’s grim history, but regardless of timeline, the characters come across as types rather than real people, and despite abundant gore there’s nothing really unsettling here. Purple prose (laughter is described as “great, bellowing howls that carry through the vacuous halls of the near-empty castle like wind through a black ship’s sails, freezing the hearts of any who hear it, heralding death, and madness”) doesn’t help. This is best suited for the author’s die-hard fans. (Feb.)