Until very recently, there wasn’t any treatment for soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. There wasn’t even a good name for it either. But modern psychology and medicine would have a hard time treating what ails Cuban American World War I veteran Tomás Cordero in Cherie Priest’s Brimstone. Fortunately for him, novice medium and clairvoyant Alice Dartle does.
On her train to Cassadaga, Florida, Alice shares a dream with Tomás about fire and the trenches. Neither of them knows what it means but they are both left with the sense that they’re not alone. In alternating chapters, we watch Alice settle (sort of) into her lessons in Cassadaga’s spiritualist community and Tomás struggle with unexplained fires that cause enormous damage. Alice’s natural feistiness and willingness to go in over her head are a bit much for the surprisingly staid spiritualists. Tomás is bewildered and saddened at the same time as everything seems to burn around him.
Readers with a bit of knowledge about the history of witchcraft will figure out what’s going on in Brimstone fairly early. Still, interesting to watch things unspool here even if you do twig early, because the characters are wonderfully drawn. Alice is spunky and sweet. She would be a terrific friend to have. Tomás is the kind of wounded man that makes people want to help him. He feels deeply and makes friends for life. Every character, even the minor ones, feel utterly real.
Brimstone is, the way I read it, an unusual but strong metaphor for post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers. Veterans of World War I were piled into trenches, faced horrific weapons, and were subjected to all sorts of propaganda about who they were fighting and what they were fighting for. The experience was toxic to everyone who fought and its no surprise that things would follow the soldiers home. Brimstone makes those things more tangible and thus something that can be defeated. In a not-fantasy genre novel, Tomás would have been dealing with memories and psychological triggers, probably for the rest of his life. In Brimstone, however, we all get a satisfying conclusion.