Tom Piccirilli's Hellboy: Emerald Hell
A Look at the Fast Paced Novel Starring the Big Red Hero
Sep 5, 2008
- Hellboy: Emerald Hell by Tom Piccirilli
- Available from Dark Horse Books
- 213 Pages
- Originally Published February, 2008
- ISBN 978-1-59582-141-6
There are several Hellboy novels floating around, including Unnatural Selection, On Earth as it is in Hell, and Odd Jobs, but the standout title is, without a doubt, author Tom Piccirilli’s novel Hellboy: Emerald Hell. After reading this luminous book, you’ll be convinced that everyone’s favorite big red lug is bound to conquer the fiction shelves of the world in short order and win the hearts of readers, be they comic fans or not.
The Storyline
According to the book’s blurb:
“Hellboy comes down to the crossroads. The sins of the father have been wrought in the children, and the seven, silent daughters of Bliss Nail have been struck barren as punishment for Nail’s carnal wanderings. In the dark swamps surrounding Enigma, Georgia, Hellboy is called on to save a child from murder. He pairs with the powerful hillbilly John Lament, a man who speaks directly with the deep bayou shadows.”
The swamps contain the awful and the strange--killer moonshiners, hungry alligators, a race of mutant children, and siren-like Girlies who kill while they kiss. Worst of all is the foul Brother Jester, a mystical evil preacher bent on collecting his blood debt…though Hellboy stands in his way.
Beneath the Pulp Fiction Lies a Heart of Gold
Emerald Hell is so much deeper than its storyline would have you believe. It’s an enthralling tale, from start to finish, which can be appreciated even by people who are relatively unfamiliar with the Hellboy universe. It’s a deeply philosophical examination of the nature of religion, masked as pulp, and it’s hard to put the book aside.
The real magic of Emerald Hell is all in the execution. The paragraphs are beautifully painted: you can feel the Georgia heat, breathe in the swamp, and hear the crickets in the distance. The story’s characters are richly portrayed, becoming living, feeling, breathing beings. The villain is truly creepy and the peripheral characters distinctive--even though there are quite a few ‘extras’, you never get mixed up about who’s who.
These factors, in addition to sharp, believable dialogue and a compelling story, make Emerald Hell hard to put down. It’s easy to get lost in the simplistic beauty of Piccirilli’s distinctive narrative style and simply forget you’re turning pages, eager to get to the next part of the novel.
Not once does the plot drag or feel forced; instead it flows naturally, almost without a single hiccup. You can wander from page to page, losing yourself in the story, without any excuse to take a step back and analyze or critique what you’re reading. That’s exquisite in itself.
Though it gets the least bit hard to follow--and slightly, seemingly nonsensical--in the second to last chapter, its redeeming qualities greatly outweigh its flaws, and it leaves you with a fierce case of the warm fuzzies. Exploring in equal measures Christianity and earth based religions--albeit in such a way that you might not realize that’s what it’s doing--Emerald Hell is a fun little romp with a deeply rooted underlying message about wrath, forgiveness and, ultimately, redemption.
Even if you’re not a Hellboy fan, you probably will be after reading Hellboy: Emerald Hell.
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