NIK VS. THE EXTRA

New intern Nikolas Robinson reviews Annie Neugebauer’s novella The Extra.

Being in the woods with a complete stranger would be an uncomfortable experience for most of us, but Annie Neugebauer’s The Extra takes that experience and twists it into something truly unsettling.

The premise is simple enough. A wilderness guide and his two interns are leading a tour group of seven campers into the woods of Arkansas for a weekend camping trip. It’s something they’ve prepared everyone for, and they’ve planned it all carefully. But after some strange events the first evening, the guide discovers that there’s an extra person with their group.

Normally, this would seem easy enough to address. It’s as simple as finding out who the extra person is, learning where they came from, and discovering why they’ve intruded. Of course, nothing in The Extra is quite so simple.

What if you don’t know who the extra person is? I don’t mean that in the obvious sense, in that you don’t know a stranger. The question at the heart of Neugebauer’s story is more complicated than that. What if you can’t look at the group of people surrounding you and pick out which one does not belong there?

When everything you know for certain reinforces that there’s one more person in this group of seven you led into the woods, how do you contend with clearly recalling each and every one of the eight people that are there in your camp? That’s the question our guide and his two assistants are forced to address, and they have to figure it out before they return to the van that seats only ten. When all three of them remember the names and superficial details associated with each face looking back at them over the campfire, how are they supposed to determine which face hides a sinister secret? Perhaps more importantly, how are they expected to learn what this extra person wants from them?

The book is short, but big in concept and creepiness. This was one of those stories that stayed with me long after I finished it. It’s sure to leave you with questions. It certainly left me asking more than a few.

I was pleased to learn that Neugebauer has two books on the way that continue the story she started with The Extra. I’m dying to delve back into this mystery, and to learn whether the right choice was made, though I suspect that’s not the case.

Nikolas P. Robinson is an avid consumer of books, movies, and television, especially where horror, science fiction, and fantasy are concerned. When he isn’t consuming media, he’s creating it as an author, photographer, videographer, and news producer in Portland, Oregon.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.