Jade Slash Laverna

Cynthia Whissell is a psychology professor at Laurentian University.

Robert Plutchik’s psychological theory of emotion describes human
emotion in terms of eight distinct emotions, ranged along the rim of a
circle in a clockwise direction from happiness (at 1 o’clock) to
friendliness, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, and finally
daring. In Jade Slash Laverna, Montagnes aims to shock and disgust her
readers, and because she is a skilled writer she succeeds.

Sex and death are the main themes of this psychological novel, about a
group of people who assemble in a small community outside Toronto. These
are played out against the background of the narrator’s fears and her
hopes and prayers for escape. Life is also a theme, but it remains in
the background until the close of the novel. At the centre of the story
is a chilling event.

Montagnes’s mastery of style and her ability to convey mood are
nowhere more obvious than in her mockery of a burial service—this
reviewer’s favorite section of the book.