Excerpt - One Year Gone by Rebecca Dessertine
“Moo shoo pork?” Dean called. He pulled the food container from the box on the kitchen table.
“That’s mine,” Ben yelled, racing from the living room to the kitchen, “and I want white rice.”
“Brown rice. It’s better for you.” Lisa said, spooning rice onto a plate for Ben.
“Okay, whatever.” Ben grabbed the plate and carried it back to his position in front of the television.
“Whoa, what’s the rush?” Dean asked over his shoulder.
Ben turned up the sound.
“Not so loud,” Lisa called, taking her place across the dinner table from Dean. She smiled as Dean cracked open a beer and dug into his chow mein.
“Not a bad place,” Dean said, between bites.
“And you wanted to go to the Golden Palace again.” Lisa smiled. “I don’t know why you like it so much. You think that waitress is cute, don’t you?”
“She doesn’t have anything on you,” Dean said, picking up Lisa’s free hand and kissing her palm.
The last couple of weeks with Dean had been, if anything, simply idyllic: Dean had found a job refurbishing old buildings in nearby towns, and he was even cooking every once in a while. Life with Dean was great, even after everything they had been through in the beginning. Lisa never thought that Dean would walk back into her life, but here he was. It was strange. Years ago she had resigned herself to being a single mother. She had practically mastered being a single parent: she went to Ben’s softball games, covered the parent/teacher conferences, stayed up late with Ben when he had the stomach flu. She handled a lot: the carpooling, lugging sports equipment, even the science projects which she never really understood. Lisa did it all. But it was the loneliness she felt at night that made her really want a partner. Then Dean showed up and all that changed.
Dean had never lived a normal life except those first years in Lawrence, Kansas before his mother was killed. Life with Lisa was exactly what he had imagined domesticity to be. There was no denying it; Dean was happy. He was like a regular guy: he had bought a truck and retired the Impala, and had even taken Ben to a couple of Indianapolis Indians baseball games.
Lisa had introduced Dean to the next-door neighbors. As summer approached cookouts became commonplace and Dean wholeheartedly took part in all suburbia had to offer.
On those summer nights Dean manned the grill while the neighborhood kids and Ben ran around menacing everyone with super soakers. And as the spring days dripped away into nights buzzing with the sound of cicadas, Dean’s dreams about Sam stopped. For the first time in months Dean had slept through the night.
“You’ve got to help me, sis!” An inflated music score of a network show blared out from the television.
“Ben. Turn it down!” Lisa pulled her chair around and stared at the back of Ben’s head. He was thoroughly engrossed and ignored the command. Lisa sprang to her feet.
“I’ll get it.” Dean stuffed an egg roll into his mouth and crossed to the living room. “Ben, your mom is talking to you.”
Ben nodded but didn’t make a move. Picking up the remote, Dean pointed it at the TV to turn down the volume.
“Carrissa, please.” On the screen a blonde clad in black leather pants was being whipped around by an invisible force. “Use the Necronomicon!”
A brunette girl flipped through the elaborate pages of a large grimoire. “I’m trying. Here it is!” She began a Latin incantation. The wind subsided and the blonde dropped to the floor. The girls—sisters, Dean gathered—hugged each other. They had just escaped some sort of supernatural force and both of them wanted to go home. But how would they hide this from their mother? The two girls quipped a couple of lines of tween banter.
“What’s this?” Dean asked.
“It’s a new show. It’s about two teenage witches.” Ben blushed a bit. “But they’re badass, not like stupid witches.”
“What’s it called?”
“Spell Bound.”
“Spell Bound, huh?” Dean sat down, and paused the show.
On screen, the book they called the Necronomicon hovered in digital stasis. During all of his obsessing over the past couple of months Dean hadn’t thought about the Necronomicon. The book had been thought to be a work of fiction by twentieth-century occultist and novelist H.P. Lovecraft. A Wikipedia search could bring up enough facts about it to make any Hollywood screenwriter seem sufficiently knowledgeable about the work; thus its appearance in the pop-song scored, tween show of which Ben was a fan.
But in truth, the book had existed over millennia, though it had been called a couple of different things: The Red Dragon, The Great Grimoire. These texts had all been combined, picked apart, then combined again. But the original text was thought to have come from one man, some seven hundred years before Christ’s birth in Sumeria, what is now Iraq. It had been recopied, abridged and added to over centuries. The original was in an ancient form of Arabic, but it was later translated into Latin, Greek, German, and French by other scholars, monks, and priests.
The book contained ancient rights and spells with which to bind gods, which were in actuality demons. When the book was translated by Christians it was interpreted with less mysticism and more religion. The unorthodox nature of the text made many Christian scholars nervous, so they added locks and safety measures into the text, but it still stayed powerful.
Despite the changes made to the incantations, the text included spells for necromancy, raising the dead, the binding of demons, and mastery over the earthbound. If someone knew what they were doing the book was as potent as the day it was written. But there was one spell in particular—the only spell in the Necronomicon which Dean was interested in—a spell that could raise Lucifer.
The brothers had toiled to get Lucifer into the cage, but the Necronomicon was written to release Lucifer and bind him—a whole different story to raising Lucifer and starting the Apocalypse. It had never been done before because all sixty-six seals had to have been broken. But Sam had taken care of that and that meant that, in theory at least, Lucifer could now be raised and bound.
If Dean could get Lucifer out of Hell, he would be getting Sam out of the cage as well. Lucifer would no longer have to fight Michael, so he might have lost his spunk and perhaps could be lassoed silent for enough time for Dean to expel Lucifer from his brother’s body. But the first step would be freeing Lucifer.
Dean thought about where he could find a complete enough version of the book. The brothers had run into a Necronomicon a couple of times, though usually only abridged, watered-down, fit-for-public-consumption pamphlets. An elementary version of the book had been used by the teens who had switched Sam into the body of a suburban geek a couple of years ago. It was witchcraft all right, but the pesky, pimpled kids had probably picked up their copy in a head shop.
The actual Necronomicon was locked up in a cloister somewhere in Europe. Chances were that H.P. Lovecraft had made most of his version up, since reading from the actual text is often fatal—it can only be used by someone very practiced and powerful. Dean was pretty sure that Amazon wasn’t selling the originals. He had to find a real one.
And then who would help him cast the spell? He needed someone who knew how to handle powerful magic. Witches and those who practice witchcraft had used the Necronomicon and texts like it since ancient cultures developed an alphabet. The lineage of the sorcerers familiar with the book trickled down from ancient Sumeria to today. But where was Dean going to find a witch? He couldn’t ask Bobby to point him in the right direction, and he and Sam had ganked every other witch that they had encountered. Finding a witch that was powerful enough and willing to help Dean might be difficult in Cicero, Indiana.
Dean sat down next to Ben, who again commandeered the remote.
“You want more?” Lisa called to Dean. “If not I’m saving it for leftovers.”
Dean didn’t answer, he was thinking about his brother.
End of Excerpt
No offense to Rebecca Dessertine, but the premise sounds awful. Dean just randomly decides to go after the Necronomicon? He's never even heard of Lovecraft! And the Salem witches creating monsters? Seriously? Maybe if the baddies were another Lovecraft tie in but as it is….I might enjoy the Campbell history, but I just don't think the rest of it makes sense or sounds like good story telling.
It doesn't help that so many of the Supernatural novels (everything by De Candido, for instance) have been so wretchedly awful. As much as I usually want to support the show, I've learned my lesson: I'm going to have to pass on this one.
Well, I didn't want to spoil anything, but just because Samuel SAYS Salem witches are creating monsters doesn't actually mean they ARE (or even that he's necessarily telling the truth).
Also, the book is not necessarily supposed to be canon. So, yes, Dean said he didn't know who Lovecraft was in ep. 6.21, and that threw me a bit, but it's not necessarily the Lovecraft connection that is important. The rest of what happens in the book fits in with what we know about the characters and the circumstances.
I tried to read one and I just couldn't. No offense but please leave it at the show. It's one thing for a book to turn into a show but not vice versa, just doesn't work IMO.
Honestly, if you don't like the idea of tie-in novels, you obviously won't like a tie-in novel when you read it – that's like watching a soap opera when you don't like soap operas in the first place. Tie-ins are for fans of a show – and of tie-ins, that's a "special breed" of fans, if I can say so.
I gobble tie-ins to all shows I like: Stargate, Star Trek, Star Wars, Eureka, Psych, Supernatural etc. and so on. So I'll be definitely buying this book. Thank you for the wonderful review :)
First, obviously when the book was written, the script for 6.22 was not, so the whole "Dean doesn't know who Lovecraft is" criticism is unfair to the writer.
Second, if you want to take the book as canon, here's what you can do: assume Dean lied. Not the first time Dean lied and I can definitely see him stearing away from the subject so that Sam doesn't discover that he considered raising Lucifer from the cage. Knowing Sam, he'd be pissed.
I liked these few paragraphs and I'll be sure to get a copy to check it out properly.
Excellent point, MJ! The manuscript obviously went in before the episode aired (or probably even finalized). And like I mentioned above, him knowing/not knowing about Lovecraft actually doesn't impact the overall story of the book all that much.
I'm looking forward to reading this! I've read all the others and am certainly curious about the year they jumped. Dean clearly stated he didn't just give up trying to find a way to save Sam and this seems like a reasonable idea he would come up with. As for the H.P. Lovecraft thing, I kind of assumed Dean knew who he was even tho he denied it. He's a hunter. He's done research his whole life. The name had to have popped up once or twice. Like MJ, I just figured there was a reason he denied it and an attempt to break hi promise and save Sam seems like a pretty 'dean-like' reason to lie. Can't wait for my copy (I pre-ordered it months ago!) to arrive!
Well, I just finished it and it was great! Really great! I think it fits in nicely with the series and explains part of that missing year. The situations depicted in the book are ones that totally fit with Dean and Sam and others. It was interesting to find out about how the Campbell's through a journal that Dean locates. It help to flesh out some of their family history. I also got a better understanding of Samuel and his motivations which I felt weren't explored properly on the show. I've always felt this was due to time constraints. I found the book well paced and very easy reading. Great job, Rebecca Dessertine!
I think I will read before I critique. I am keeping an open mind understand the tie-in is not absolute. I look more for craft and voice than I do whether we're talking canon or not.
Hi! I just popped in to say that I think Kripke made a huge mistake in having Dean not knowing who Lovecraft is. One of his favourite bands is Metallica for pete's sake!! The only reason I first heard of Lovecraft was because I listened to Metallica's Call Of Ktulu. So I think the writer was right in having Dean knowing who Lovecraft is. But this is a problem I always had with the show. Just because Sam went to college and had good grades doesn't necessarily mean he's read every book while Dean only magazines. It is a very narrow and false premise.