The Entrapment of Place

When characters in fiction say they have to get out of this town, it generally means they feel the expectations of others, and their response to those expectations, are suffocating them. In Deadfolk, the town of Mangel is so suffocating that most of the characters do not have the will or strength to leave. Even the title, Deadfolk, refers not only to graveyards that play a role in the plot and the numerous characters who are killed, but also to its inhabitants, who are dead to any of hope of a better way to live. Mangel is an extreme example of an insular town whose citizens create their own prison though ignorance and incuriosity concerning the outside world. The narrator, Royston Blake, often says nobody leaves Mangel and he is pretty close to right about that. Mandy Munton, the one character who finally manages to...