''Hemlock Grove'' is a 2012
Horror-thriller
debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...
by
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
author Brian McGreevy. The book was released on March 27, 2012 through
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...
and is set in the fictional town of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania. A graphic novel tie-in and a
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
based on the events in the book have been produced.
Critical reception for the book was mixed, with ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' giving an ambivalent review.
Synopsis
The book is set in the town of Hemlock Grove,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. The town is a mixture of extreme wealth and poverty, as the closing of the town's
steel mill
A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...
(owned by the Godfrey family) many years earlier cost a lot of people their jobs. Now the town's main sources of employment are the Hemlock Acres Hospital and the Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies. Run by the powerful Godfrey family, the institute is rumored to have several sinister experiments take place within. The town's rumor mill turns even more twisted when a teenage girl is brutally killed during a full moon. Peter Rumancek, a 17-year-old
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
n
gypsy
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
boy who just moved to Hemlock Grove with his mother, is suspected of the crimes by some of the townsfolk and is also rumored to be a
werewolf
In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...
. While he secretly really is a werewolf, he isn't the actual killer and along with Roman, the heir to the Godfrey estate (who Peter realizes is an ''
upir'', though Roman does not know it himself), they set 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, Dr. Norman Godfrey. At several points during the novel Norman 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. While Roman has known about the affair all along (but doesn't discuss it with anyone), his monstrous-looking, yet highly intelligent and kind sister Shelley becomes aware of the affair later. She openly says so in one of the
e-mail
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...
s she exchanges with her uncle Norman (on a regular basis since he is her therapist).
The murders continue in the town, and more people start to believe the teenage girl Christina who has been accusing Peter of being both a werewolf and the killer from the start. Christina also discovers 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 (Norman's daughter), who believes that she was recently impregnated by an
angel
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
. Their 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
Ouroboros
The ouroboros or uroboros () is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. The ouroboros entered Western tradition via ancient Egyptian iconography and the Greek magical tradition. It was adopted as a symbol in Gnost ...
. He later awakens and reconciles with Peter, just in time for them to launch another search for the killer. This fails due to Chasseur, a woman 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 of the full moon. During this time the twin daughters of the town sheriff are killed, which prompts a mob to ransack 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 (leaving the clean-up to Dr. Pryce) 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 and Christina fight to the death in their wolf forms. Peter miraculously survives, but Shelley, who threw herself into the fight to avenge Christina's last victim, is shot by the Sheriff because he sees her holding Christina's (now human again) body. Shelley runs off, not to be seen again.
Six months after the fight, Letha goes into labor and dies in the process (the baby apparently being stillborn), leaving her father Norman distraught as well as prompting Peter and his mother to leave town since there was nothing truly holding them there. Being abandoned by Peter leaves Roman in an extremely emotional state.
The final part of the book is told mostly from Olivia's point of view, revealing that centuries ago she was impregnated by a
gypsy
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
she tried to run away with as a young girl. The man abandoned her shortly after they escaped (taking her jewels with him), and she was found a few days later, bloody, from having cut off the tail she had (the origin of the scar on her lower back). She was brought home, and turned into an unnatural beauty over the course of her pregnancy. Now resentful of any
gypsy
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
, she gave up the child to grow up with a lowborn old
swineherd
A swineherd is a person who raises and herds pigs as livestock.
Swineherds in literature
* In the New Testament are mentioned shepherd of pigs, mentioned in the Pig (Gadarene) the story shows Jesus exorcising a demon or demons from a man and a ...
named Rumancek, showing that the family is descended from Olivia. She also muses that while she married JR Godfrey, she fell in love with his brother Norman, who actually fathered Roman.
At Roman's 18th birthday, Olivia takes him to Shelley's attic where he discovers Letha's (not actually stillborn) baby. With Olivia's ''extaz'' powers (which is the mind-controlling power Roman has used throughout the book too, without being taught), she makes her son remember that it was him who had sex with Letha (her mind having "made up" the "angel" to cope with this). Roman then slits his wrists to "not let his mother win" but this actually finishes his transformation; he grows fangs and it is insinuated that he drinks from Letha's - and his - 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. Of the writing process for the book, McGreevy stated that he was somewhat inspired by
Angela Carter's ''
The Bloody Chamber
''The Bloody Chamber'' (or ''The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories'') is a collection of short fiction by English writer Angela Carter. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1979 by Gollancz and won the Cheltenham Festival Literary ...
'' in that he saw that he "
oesn'thave to be trying to put myself in a box that I don't particularly have the talent for". McGreevy also drew from his experiences in high school and considers the book's setting as a ''
Through the Looking Glass
''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...
'' version of his hometown of
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
.
He also commented that while the characters of Roman and Shelley were derived from the fictional characters of
Mary Shelley's ''
Frankenstein
''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ex ...
'' and
Bram Stoker's ''
Dracula
''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...
'', he drew more from the films based on these characters and from
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...
as a whole.
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''. The graphic novel is a
prequel
A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work.
The term " ...
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 reanimation of Shelley.
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. However, in April 2013 McGreevy indicated in an article with the
Toledo Blade
''The Blade'', also known as the ''Toledo Blade'', is a newspaper in Toledo, Ohio published daily online and printed Thursday and Sunday by Block Communications. The newspaper was first published on December 19, 1835.
Overview
The first issue o ...
that he had not yet begun writing any sequels to the book and later stated on
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
that there were no plans for any further books in the series.
Television series adaptation
In December 2011 it was reported that
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
had ordered a thirteen episode series based upon ''Hemlock Grove'', which was unreleased at that point in time.
The project was officially announced in March 2012 and
Eli Roth
Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, having directed the films '' Cabin Fever'' (2003) and ''Hoste ...
was announced to be directing. Filming was initially set to take place in the Pittsburgh area, but was later moved to
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
due to misunderstandings with the
Pennsylvania Film Tax Credit program.
The show was released to Netflix on April 19, 2013 and stars
Famke Janssen
Famke Beumer Janssen (; born ) is a Dutch actress. She played Xenia Onatopp in ''GoldenEye'' (1995), Jean Grey / Phoenix in the ''X-Men'' film series (2000–2014), and Lenore Mills in the ''Taken'' film trilogy (2008–2014). In 2008, she ...
,
Bill Skarsgård
Bill Istvan Günther Skarsgård (; born 9 August 1990) is a Swedish actor, producer, director, writer, voice actor, and model. He is best known for portraying Pennywise the Dancing Clown in the supernatural horror films '' It'' (2017) and ''It C ...
, and
Landon Liboiron
Landon Liboiron (born March 10, 1991) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for playing Declan Coyne in '' Degrassi: The Next Generation'' and his lead role as Peter Rumancek in Netflix's original series ''Hemlock Grove'' (2013–15).
Early life ...
. In June 2013 Netflix confirmed that they would be renewing the show for a second season and in September 2014 they confirmed that the show had been picked up for a third and final season.
References
{{authority control
2012 American novels
2010s horror novels
Fictional populated places in Pennsylvania
Werewolf novels
American vampire novels
American horror novels
American thriller novels
Books with cover art by Rodrigo Corral
American novels adapted into television shows
2012 debut novels
Farrar, Straus and Giroux books