An Unstoppable Descent into a Paranormal Nightmare
The Irresistible Summons by Simon Dillon
Our summer vacation to the East Coast was around the corner, and we heard the horrendous tales of traveler trauma, lost luggage, and absent flights. My small family packed our necessities into carry-on-sized suitcases, and mine was ready to go days before, but a doorbell ring forced me to make room for one more item.
Simon Dillon’s novel-An Irresistible Summons arrived, courtesy of a kind Medium subscriber, who, with the generosity of heart and charitable room in their budget, had sent it along — I thank you again; I appreciate it very much.
If you’re a Medium reader, you may well know of Simon Dillon— if you don’t, you’re missing out. Aside from giving excellent movie reviews, Dillon is a terrific author, and I placed a few of his books on my Amazon Wish List. Smiling at the gift, I quickly pressed the book into the carry-on. I envisioned many quiet, calm evenings where I could read at leisure.
Now, with vacation nearly over, I managed to accomplish my goal of reading Dillon’s creepy creative fiction.
The Irresistible Summons
The story focuses on the main character, Naomi Levinson, a director of paranormal investigative documentaries. Though she experiences a rather jarring and traumatic event at the start of the book, she remains surprisingly skeptical about supernatural entities and activity as being legitimate.
Raised by very religious parents, followers of Messianic Judaism, young Naomi and her brother, Luke, navigate school and life within the strict framework of the religion — and it isn’t easy on the kids.
As an avid reader, I can’t recall all the words even in my favorite books, but each excellent writer delivers phrases that hit and stick. Early on during the school experiences, Dillon provides the first of many wonderful snippets.
Naomi, facing a reprimand for a school altercation defending her brother against a bully, is finally allowed to leave the school and go home; she steps out of the empty school to a bright, cloudless sky.
Dillon writes — “Something inside of her had never trusted entirely cloudless skies. They made her feel exposed, as though God would be able to see her more clearly and therefore catch her red-handed in any sinful activity.”
That’s a rough day in school and a heavy weight to carry walking home. I love when an author takes an almost banal moment and turns it inside-out. I’ve never thought of a blue sky that way, but I will remember that observation.
The Bullies at school continue to torment Luke, which introduces the reader to a hero and eventual love interest of Naomi, Toby Lane.
Shedding her parents, and especially her mother’s unrelenting pressure to live a life for “Yeshuah,” Naomi pursues her feelings for Toby. Their relationship, its sweetness, and tragedy are key points in the story. Dillon does a fine job of hitting the notes of first teenage love, writing through the experiences of Naomi and her discovery of curiosity and courage regarding Toby Lane.
Dillon writes — “Time seemed to pause as Naomi beheld sparkling, deep blue eyes, filled with a righteous anger that softened as they caught sight of her, before giving way to surprise and embarrassment. Neither he nor Naomi spoke until she eventually broke the silence by expressing her overwhelming gratitude.”
And as the relationship develops, the author continues to build a tender, blossoming, and exciting romance.
Dillon writes — “The night after she met Toby, Naomi lay awake, unable to stop thinking about him….exactly why she found Toby such an intriguing character was difficult to explain….her thoughts escalated into an avalanche of blissful delirium with Toby’s kind blue eyes ever present in her mind.”
As one who considers himself a romantic, that’s juicy stuff!
The story doesn’t take long to move into creepy town with rumors of paranormal activity picked up by Naomi and her crew when they arrive at a very not normal office building with some decidedly odd characters,
This is one of only two points I found the slightest bit nagging. Naomi and her film production crew are said to be well versed in the world of “rumored” paranormal places and people, yet, they seem unusually reluctant to acknowledge the situation of their current project. I would have expected them to jump in with both feet, but instead, it takes a while to accept they are amid legitimate supernatural entities, if not pure evil.
The second thorn comes from an ailment most writers, myself included, seem to battle. We will find a pun, tagline, or nickname that we repeat in a story, and we can’t let it go. For Dillon, this comes in as a recurring joke mentioning one of Naomi’s crewmember’s preoccupation with having lunch on time. But, unlike several characters in the novel, the gag just won’t die.
Dillon moves the timeline well, and while plummeting the reader along a rollercoaster of fear, he drops back in time, revealing more and more about Naomi and Toby and both sets of parents being somewhat strange. This foreshadowing is done with a fine touch leaving the reader with questions that need answering.
An example of this is when Toby invites Naomi to his home, which is supposed to be void of parents, until his mother appears and gives a very odd greeting to Naomi.
Dillon writes — “I can see from your aura that you deeply love my son, and you are brave. That is good. Your compassion and courage will be needed.” Mrs. Lane says to Naomi. As Toby remarks, “Mum, you’re being weird again.”
My own mother was an expert at chasing girls away from our house, but if she had said that after I had basically just met a girl? Yeah, that’s weird.
Another thing I appreciated about Dillon’s writing was his choice to make the characters part of a lesser-known religion. The author takes time to open the door to a less commonly understood faith. Through his characters, Dillon gives the reader a bit of an education.
“We don’t use the word church, but yes,” Naomi says in response to Toby asking an innocent question.
“What’s wrong with the word church?” Toby asks.
“For Jewish people, Christianity and the words often used by Christians are sometimes considered offensive because of how Christians have persecuted Jews down the centuries,” Naomi explains.
This may seem trivial, but in today’s world, where more and more people are moving away from religion, often without much understanding of it — even a little education goes a long way.
From romantic nuance and religious references, Dillon drives the story into dark places. Horror arrives in various forms, and all of them are unnerving and most frightening is the possibility of some of them being real issues we could be facing soon.
The story makes you think, unwind and rewind the implications of what is happening, and you quickly lose faith in which characters you can trust. Dillon delivers the right amount of twists and turns, none of which I could accurately predict, and one of them is a real “didn’t see that coming” doozy.
The book soon becomes an itch you need to scratch, and the final hundred pages or so of the 325-page novel, kept me reading until my eyes lost the ability to follow lines. For me, that’s another sign of a fine read.
In conclusion, if you are a reader that enjoys a tale touched with darkness, trickled with horror that can take your mind to scary places, I highly recommend The Irresistible Summons by Simon Dillon.
PostScript. After the story’s completion, Dillon does an excellent job of providing a short synopsis for each of his other fiction works, and I look forward to adding those volumes to my Dillon collection.
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