A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain

This slick, if overstuffed, first novel from short story writer Harun (The King of Limbo) is an exploration of evils both supernatural and temporal. It seems things couldn’t get any bleaker for teenagers Leo Kreutzer and his friends Bryan, Ursie, Tessa, and Jackie. Drug abuse, poverty, and prejudice hem in their lives in a tiny unnamed Canadian logging town; escape consists of trips to shoot rats at the town dump. But the devil himself appears to have tests in mind for Leo and his friends. One day Kevin Seven, a mysterious musician, and Hana Swann, his girlfriend, come to town; the pair quickly works its way into the friends’ lives. Because the town is terrorized already by Gerald Flacker, a local meth baron, and his henchmen, the Nagle brothers, no one notices the newcomers’ insidious influence until it’s almost too late. Interspersed with the plot are bits of folklore Leo has cribbed from a dying uncle, recounting ominous stories of the devil and his handmaiden. Harun creates a masterfully bleak and spooky mood, and succinctly captures the desperation of the young people’s lives, such as when she describes the “daily weight of disregard” that made them “vibrate with the dual desire to both shake and embrace” everyone they met. While stylishness abounds, the impact of this promising debut is diluted by a too-busy plot and a too-long cast of characters. (Mar.)