THE LAWS OF THE SKIES by Grégoire Courtois

Translated by Rhonda Mullins

For most of my childhood, I was too scared to go on camps of any kind. School, scout, summer… you name it. My head filled with the most grotesque horrors I thought imaginable. Turns out, my imagination was amateur hour. Grégoire Courtois’s story of a bunch of six year olds on what can only be described as the school camp experience from hell is the bleakest, most vile book I think I’ve ever read.

Within the first few pages, the adults are killed off in graphic detail, one by one, in ever-more horrific ways (bar one who simply gets lost), leaving the kids to fend for themselves. It’s them against the forest, but also against one of their own: think Jack Merridew meets Jason Voorhees. Needless to say, things don’t go well.

There’s no depravity Courtois won’t entertain. And yet, for all its dour nihilism, The Laws of the Skies is rather excellent. Courtois switches wildly between the various story strands, often mid-chapter, deftly creating a sense of panic that mimics what the kids are experiencing. You barely have time to breathe before the next horror smacks you in the head. It’s great but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The Laws of the Skies by Grégoire Courtois (Tr. Rhonda Mullins)
Coach House Books, 2019
148 pages