With the recent surge of Cormac McCarthy novels being turned into films—the Academy Award-winning No Country for Old Men and the much-anticipated The Road coming to theaters soon—the reclusive writer is now being featured more prominently than ever. This has made finding some of his older works easier than it may have been in the past—or, at the very least, it has increased awareness of these books. Having loved (and been terrified) by both The Road and No Country for Old Men, I decided to check out an older book of McCarthy’s. I was not disappointed.

Child of God, written in 1973, is McCarthy’s third novel. Though it predates the two successful books mentioned above by more than thirty years, it hold no less fervor, and is perhaps even more terrifying and compelling.

Set in Sevier Conty, Tennessee, Child of God is the story of Lester Ballard, a violent man addicted to necrophilia who McCarthy stresses is “a child of God, much like yourself perhaps.” This establishes the novel’s theme that humanity itself is perverse and violent, and Ballard could be any one of us. McCarthy has even said that Ballard is actually based on an historical figure, though he has not revealed which one.

Ballard, like people we may have seen living outside the city limits without any inclination of joining the rest of society—think of the old woman in the disaster-of-a-film The Happening, or perhaps the locals in Deliverance. After his family home is auctioned off, Ballard lives in a cave, perhaps representing the core of man as the primeval cave dweller.

Ballard quickly succumbs to necrophilia upon finding a dead couple in a car. After the “death” of this “love” in a fire, he then begins to kill other women and girls with his rifle to create new partners. As he moves farther and farther away from society, the people in the area close in on him.

Child of God did not receive much financial success—though it got plenty of critical acclaim. That doesn’t make it any less of a desirable read. If you’re looking for something that’s sure to keep you up at night—and perhaps even see the world through the eyes of a villain as both the villain as well as a piece of humanity, akin to the portrayal of Ronald McGorvey in Little Children—don’t pass it up.