Modern Myth Making w/ The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home

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This review does contain spoilers. However, if you have listened to the podcast Welcome to Nightvale, then they are not spoilers and simply facts of The Faceless Old Woman’s life

Summary

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home is the most thrilling novel I’ve read this year. It can be classified as horror fiction, fantasy fiction, fantasy comedy, and paranormal fiction, but it is also a great read for period piece lovers and history buffs. This novel travels through the centuries through the eyes of The Faceless Old Woman from the Mediterranean to the United States to the ridiculously weird world of Nightvale. She shares the story of her past with her readers, and Craig— the man she’s currently stalking—to explain her present and reveal her future. She is both cruel and benevolent, trying her best to toe the line between acceptable vigilantism and ceaseless revenge. All while building and rebuilding her close groups of friends and family and surviving on the fringes of society.

The Faceless Old Woman is dead but not dead. Alive but not really or entirely. She has no name, she mostly has a shape, and she’s probably watching you from behind the bookcase. And while she probably doesn’t regret her path now, you don’t want to end up like her. She is faceless and old and she is forced to live out the rest of her days in your house, reading over your shoulder because she spent the majority of her life seeking revenge. The Faceless Old Woman is a cautionary tale for young women, as well as anyone who feels they may hold too much revenge in their heart because it does not end well for her.

The Faceless Old Woman was forced to live on the edge of society because her family was ripped away from her when she was too young to help them. By taking away her family, she also lost her livelihood and her security. She teamed up with a giant strong-woman, a lesbian Jewish woman who has mastered the art of disguise, and a rich man who has disgraced his family by helping them in their adventures. And of course, a secret organization, who’s power is growing and sweeping over the entire continent of Europe. The Faceless Old Woman has dedicated the rest of her life to enacting revenge, determined to punish the people who ripped her family from her very small hands. She’s devoted decades to this cause. Her friends live and die, her lover waits and then doesn’t, and her home rots without her on the coast of the Mediterranean. She has no name because it doesn’t matter, not even to her. Revenge consumes her, scrubbing any mark of personality or personhood from her body, leaving only a vehicle for revenge.

The entire novel is un-put-down-able. It forced me carve out stolen moments of time to read just a little bit more. But the last chapter was the most chilling thing I’ve ever read. Her fall from a privileged, ‘almost untouchable life to her descent into a wayward tale was highlighted by the fact that she refused to fall alone. Whether or not these casualties are innocent is up for debate, but the carnage left in the wake of a scorned woman seeking cannot be ignored. Which begs the question, was it worth it?

Modern Myth Making

I don’t find her journey worth it and that’s why I call The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home a cautionary tale. I pray that I never have to, but looking at her path instead of my own, I would not choose her’s. I would not make the decisions she made. Maybe it is because of my own impatience, or maybe I have not had such a strong need for revenge, but I cannot bring myself to understand how she could waste precious decades of her life to such a fruitless cause. How much is enough? How much one bear the pain of hatred before it breaks their spirit and leaves revenge at the crossroads?

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home became a wayward tale for young women to not waste their lives. None of her actions were as damning as her need for murder and her obsession with revenge. She gave herself so many options throughout her life— money, power, love, freedom— but she eventually gave them up for the sake of revenge. Her life was molded with her own hands and she let everything she built crumble between her fingers. So much of her tragic life could have been improved if she had brought her attention to herself instead of to others. If she had chosen to love herself enough to give herself a better life instead of focusing her soul’s goal on the death of another’s, she would not be the myth she is today. She may have known peace. But she doesn’t.

She lost her face because she was not herself. She did not belong to herself, she gave herself to revenge and secrets and petty gods. She became something that is not her own. She’s in there, somewhere in the body she has now. We know this because the angels in Nightvale see her, but she is not the same.

And then there is her “life.” She cannot die, is it a blessing or a curse? She has more time, but she cannot start over. She cannot move on and she cannot see the other side. She must live with the living and find meaning in her staying here. Her life after her human life gives her strength she did not have before. She can hide in plain sight, scutter up walls, and live in multiple people’s houses at once. Even yours. And while that may be great for revenge, what does that mean for her? Revenge is so far removed from her personhood that it can be argued that it is an entirely new person. Revenge has stolen her face and replaced her personhood with a tool to enact violence through her on its behalf.

Final Notes

All in all, I give the book 4.5 stars out of 5. The only issue I could think of was there was a lag in the middle section during the heisting and the pirates. I think it has more to do with my own disappointment that The Faceless Old Woman will not get her revenge during her youth and her life was becoming much more of a tragedy than I had anticipated. The writing was a devastating expression of life. While The Faceless Old Woman could see the beauty in the world around her through the novel’s descriptions of setting, sensorial feeling, emotion, and trauma bonding, Faceless inevitably rejects it all for the sake of revenge and it is heartbreaking.

Please give it a read when you get the chance. It can be purchased here at Bookshop— an online bookstore that supports local indie bookstores— and wherever you buy books.

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