Into the Sublime

When a bloody and incoherent Amelie Desmarai stumbles out of a cave with two companions, the authorities launch an investigation. Amelie and three other girls, members of a thrill-seeking group, had set off on an epic adventure to find a subterranean Colorado lake called the Sublime. It was supposed to be an afternoon hike, but five days later, only three of them made it out.

Clearly, something terrible has happened, and Police Constable Vargas is eager to get to the bottom of it. But Amelie insists on telling her story from the very beginning, and, as her tale unwinds, the deep secrets of each of the girls emerge. Each has her own hidden motive for risking the journey as the legend promises a life change as a reward for surviving the dangerous descent. Gia, Devon, H and Amelie know nothing about each other when they begin, but they learn the depths of the others’ desires as they are forced to depend on each other for survival.

Amelie is fulfilling a promise made to her cousin, a victim of a tragic and suspicious accident during one of the group’s dares. Gia, successful in everything she does, wants a bigger challenge. H is trying to face her nightmares by living a horror movie. Devon, reserved and apparently fearless, is a mystery to them all. The cryptic directions to the lake take the four girls through rainstorms and ravines to the dark tunnels that lead towards the lake. But when one of them goes missing and the rest start suspecting each other, the caves get darker and their flashlights begin to fade. Fear begins to set in – not just fear for their immediate safety, but of the hidden horrors of their individual histories. When they begin to see impossible visions, the girls start doubting their own sanity, and only cool heads can navigate an escape from the caves.

Into The Sublime is a creepy and adrenaline-fuelled psychological thriller that will keep readers flipping pages well into the night. Part of its tension comes from the point of view which shifts from Amelie to Constable Vargas, from present to past. Occasionally jarring in the midst of an action scene, the shift reminds readers that the story is being told by Amelie whose secrets readers can feel but don’t know. Vargas is caught up in the telling, but she reminds herself that the evidence points to Amelie’s responsibility, if not outright guilt, in the disappearance of the fourth girl. As Amelie’s description of the actions of each group member suggests that one after the other might be to blame, her own horrific visions cast doubt on her sanity, and the accuracy of her story.

The physical descriptions of the girls’ spelunking adventure are vivid. Scenes of tight, dark caves, sudden drop-offs and rising water effectively awaken universal claustrophobic fears of being trapped underground. Yet the beauty of underground light and airy caverns also suggests the allure of cave exploration. The psychological dimension of the adventure is also clear. Once the girls start to doubt the reality of their senses, their mental equilibrium teeters off balance, and they can’t trust themselves. The escape from the tunnels leaves them physically safe but transformed by the confrontation with their deepest fears.

Superimposed on the psychological journey is the historical legend of a witch who was rumoured to lure unsuspecting girls into the Sublime, from which they never returned. After the descent into her own madness, Amelie blurs the lines between perception and reality, legend and story.

An exciting adventure, Into the Sublime is also a tale that will keep readers thinking about those blurred lines, about what we understand to be true, and about the darkness of our own hearts.