Hemlock Grove

Hemlock Grove
Author	Brian McGreevy
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Horror, Thriller
Publisher	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date	March 27, 2012 (paperback)
Media type	Print, e-book, audiobook
Pages	336 pp
ISBN	0374532915

Hemlock Grove is a 2012 Horror-thriller debut novel by American author Brian McGreevy. The book was released on March 27, 2012 through Farrar, Straus and Giroux and is set in the fictional town of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania. A graphic novel tie-in and a television series based on the events in the book have been produced.

Critical reception for the book was mixed,^[1][2][3] with the New York Times giving an ambivalent review.^[4]

Synopsis

The book is set in the town of Hemlock Grove, Pennyslvania. The town is a mixture of extreme wealth and poverty, as the closing of the town's steel mill many years earlier caused many to lose their jobs. The town's main sources of employment are now the Hemlock Acres Hospital and Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies. Run by the powerful Godfrey family, the Institute is rumored to have several sinister experiments take place within it on a daily basis. The town's rumor mill turns even more twisted when two teenage girls are brutally killed, their bodies left for unsuspecting people to find the next day. Peter Rumancek, a 17-year-old Romani, is suspected of the crimes by some of the townsfolk and is also rumored to be a werewolf. While he secretly is a werewolf, he isn't the actual killer and along with Roman, the heir to the Godfrey estate, sets out to find the killer.

The two become unlikely friends, much to the chagrin of each boy's mother. As the two grow closer, Roman's mother Olivia resumes an affair with her late husband's brother, Norman Godfrey. At several points during the novel Godfrey tries to break away from Olivia but ultimately fails due to his desire for her, despite him remembering several warnings from his brother about how Olivia emotionally preys on people. Roman's monstrous looking, yet highly intelligent, sister Shelley becomes aware of the affair, which frustrates her to no end, especially since she is usually in contact with her uncle via e-mail and cannot ignore the proceedings.

The murders continue in the town, which makes more people suspect Peter due to a teenage girl, Christina, accusing him of being both a werewolf and the killer. She discovered the remains of one of the murdered girls, which seems to push her into insanity and causes her hair to turn white. Tensions continue to rise, especially after Peter begins a relationship with Roman's cousin Letha, who believes that she was impregnated by an angel. This relationship ultimately breaks the friendship between Peter and Roman, prompting Roman to try to attack the Godfrey Institute and its lead scientist Dr Pryce. Roman falls into a coma due to Pryce's attempt to keep him from harming Pryce or the experiment for Project Ouroborous. He later awakens just in time to try to launch another attack against the killer. This fails due to Chasseur, a person operating for a secret group known as the "Order of the Dragon", shooting a dart into Peter in his wolf form, knocking him out for the rest of the night. During this time the daughters of the town sheriff are killed, which prompts a mob to set fire to Peter's trailer. Neither Peter nor his mother are injured, as Peter is saved by Olivia interfering and Peter's mother was called away due to premonitions from a cousin.

Ultimately Chasseur is killed by Olivia and Peter and Roman discover that the murderer is actually Christina, the girl who accused Peter of the murders. She turned herself into a werewolf by drinking water from one of the tracks left by Peter while he was in wolf form. Unable to control her actions as a werewolf or truly remember all that occurred, Christina's mental state deteriorated and caused her to become a "vargulf", an insane werewolf. Due to her insanity she attacked anyone she saw as being sexually promiscuous due to her own confusion over her burgeoning sexuality. Peter kills Christina's wolf form, which leaves her human form alive. However in the process Peter's own human form is also killed, leaving him with presumably only his wolf form. During this time Shelley is also killed by the sheriff, who was attempting to shoot Peter during his attack on Christina. A few days after the fight is over, Letha goes into labor and dies in the process, prompting Peter and his mother to leave town since there was nothing truly holding them there. This leaves Roman in an extremely emotional state.

The final part of the book is told partially through Olivia's point of view, revealing that she is centuries old and that she was originally impregnated by a gypsy she tried to help free. The man abandoned her shortly after they escaped, which prompted her to give the resulting child to a swineherd family by the name of Rumancek, showing that the family is descended from Olivia. She also reflects that she hated acting unpleasant towards Roman, but had to in order to set orders in motion for him to transform. Olivia also muses that she actually loves Norman, whereas she did not love his brother. The book ends with Roman discovering Letha's baby in Shelley's attic and trying to slit his wrists. The process finishes his transformation and it is insinuated that he drinks from the baby.

Development

McGreevy spent six years writing Hemlock Grove and the book was rejected by six publishers and eight agents before it was picked up by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2010.^[5] Of the writing process for the book, McGreevy stated that he was somewhat inspired by Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber in that he saw that he "[doesn't] have to be trying to put myself in a box that I don't particularly have the talent for".^[6] McGreevy also drew from his experiences in high school and considers the book's setting as a Through the Looking Glass version of his hometown of Pittsburgh.^[7] He also commented that while the characters of Roman and Shelley were derived from the fictional characters of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula, he drew more from the films based on these characters and from Greek mythology as a whole.^[7]

Series development

Graphic novel

In March 2012 McGreevy released an online graphic novel set in the Hemlock Grove universe, entitled Hemlock Grove: Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire.^[8] The graphic novel is a prequel to the events in the main novel and focuses on the time leading up to the suicide of JR Godfrey. The graphic novel shows the building of the biotech facility as well as how Olivia met and seduced both Godfrey brothers. It also highlights Olivia's boredom and frustration with the utilitarian world of JR Godfrey, as well as gives some detail on the creation of Shelley from the remains of their first child Juliet.^[9]

Sequel

Shortly after the initial release of Hemlock Grove McGreevy commented that he had almost completed a second Hemlock Grove novel and had prepared an outline for a third entry in the series.^[10] However in April 2013 McGreevy indicated in an article with the Toledo Blade that he had not yet begun writing any sequels to the book and later stated on Reddit that there were no plans for any further books in the series.^{[11] [12]}

Television series adaptation

In December 2011 it was reported that Netflix had ordered a thirteen episode series based upon Hemlock Grove, which was unreleased at that point in time.^[13] The project was officially announced on March 2012 and Eli Roth was announced to be directing.^[14] Filming was initially set to take place in the Pittsburgh area, but was later moved to Toronto due to misunderstandings with the Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit program.^[15] The show was released to Netflix on April 19, 2013 and stars Famke Janssen, Bill Skarsgård, and Landon Liboiron.^[16] In June of 2013 Netflix confirmed that they would be renewing the show for a second season.^[17]

References