Debra K. Every weaponizes the senses in her debut novel, Deena Undone, a cocktail of horror that at once unsettles and ensnares.
Set in the early 2010s, our titular character is Deena Bartlett, an actress wrapped up tight in her loyalty to her dying aunt, Agatha. Poisoned by her guilt for not supporting her own mother when she passed away from cancer—or her father who followed soon after—Deena commits all her time, energy, and thoughts to Agatha’s care. She admits to no one, not even herself, that she’s waiting impatiently for her to die.
Agatha, however, has no intention of dying anytime soon.
At a glance, Deena should be happy. At least, that’s what she tells herself. She has a loving husband, friends who care about her, and a career that brings her joy and peace. All that stands between Deena and the rest of her life is Agatha. But she reminds herself not to think of her aunt as an obstacle, a burden, or a bully. After all, Agatha is the one who helped Deena catch her first big break in New York. She owes Agatha a debt. Even when the people closest to Deena warn her that Agatha is devouring her energy and eroding her mental health, she still insists upon visiting her aunt in hospice every day.
That routine is thrown off balance when Deena’s senses come under attack. Agatha, on the brink of death only a few weeks ago, fully recovers her strength. At first, Deena attributes this rejuvenation to Agatha’s stubborn spirit, but the truth is much more sinister. Deena is being targeted by a malevolent entity, a demon that feeds on hate and terror called the Sensu. This creature promises to save Agatha’s life for a price: the destruction of Deena. Agatha is bitter towards Deena for leaving her—just like everyone does. “I will not be abandoned again. I will not be the unwanted one, the reject.” Gleefully, she accepts the Sensu’s proposal.
The Sensu targets the senses: hearing, smell, taste, vision, and touch. Each attack is more aggressive than the last, and primes the victim for death by making them feel isolated, angry, and helpless. Deena suffers through the attacks on her hearing and smell in stubborn isolation. She’s convinced that asking for help will only make things worse, and has resolutely decided that the Deena of the past who suffered from panic attacks and went to therapy is not who she is anymore. She doesn’t even confide in her husband, Simon, until after the attack on her sense of taste. “The fact remained that her darling husband was a bloodhound looking for any reason to see her back in therapy.” When she does finally give in to Simon’s insistence that she tell him the truth, she hopes her desperation will convince him of the very real threat the Sensu poses. But her husband doesn’t believe her.
All of Deena’s anxieties about being seen as crazy are reinforced. The supernatural entity and its ruthless attacks are just one facet of the horror delivered in this story. As readers, we fear that, in Deena’s shoes, we would be just as alone. In a moment of vulnerability, can the people close to us really be counted on to help? Can we trust them with our despair, our wrath, our helplessness?
The Sensu represents the abuser; the partner or the parent or the friend who feeds on our loneliness. Abusers thrive on the isolation of their victims. They worm into our brains and convince us that we deserve the unhappiness they create. Its methods of attack separate Deena from her ability to ask for help, and at her most vulnerable it encourages her to let her hatred for Agatha consume her.
Agatha herself is a victim of the Sensu. The demon was attracted to her because of the venomous anger she carried in her heart for decades. Agatha believes the Sensu is her friend, at long last someone who won’t abandon her. But the reality is that Agatha is merely a tool for the demon to secure a never-ending chain of victims. When one person is consumed by hate and fear, they poison the people around them, and the Sensu moves on to a fresh victim. It promises love, sympathy, power, and health, all things its victims crave. In the same way that hate offers temporary comfort and small satisfactions, so does the Sensu. And in the same way that hate inevitably destroys people, so does the Sensu.
To overcome the evil that is targeting her, Deena will have to acknowledge that her anxiety and guilt are not all-encompassing parts of her identity. She will have to confront her aunt as an abuser, and recognize the fear and hate that has been festering in her own heart as a symptom. In the real world, our abusers are not malicious demons with supernatural powers. They are regular people just like us, and they weaponize the power that we give them. Deena Undone encourages us to draw a line and cut them off and confront the ugliness of hate in our own lives, whatever form it may take.
Learn more about Deena Undone and purchase a copy here.
Deena Undone
Debra K. Every
Woodhall Press
October 8th, 2024
246 pages
