Stephen Randolph Stinson

It has an old-fashioned Edgar Allen Poe feel to it - slightly genteel. But once the premises are set up, the tale takes one on a wild ride that is viciously circular. Much like a haunted house in a Poe story, the glass modernist house becomes a remote isolated structure, which contains dreadful secrets. It is impossible to escape as if this were a 19th century mansion in the middle of a treacherous marsh. No carriage is available to take one away. Isolation from human society is one of the premises. An advanced biological science/technology that can clone humans, seemingly with ease, is another premise. The forbidden room echos many classic myths where there is a forbidden x that of course draws the innocent victim into that trap. The young wife is like Eve in the Garden of Eden. Henry’s savage punishment of this inevitable sin has a harsh Old Testament quality to it. But Henry’s use of a machete as a rod for punishment tips the story over into Gothic horror.