(Review written January 2018.) It's make-or-break time for thirtyish couple Nick and Hannah. They're discontented, always bickering; Hannah has been m(Review written January 2018.) It's make-or-break time for thirtyish couple Nick and Hannah. They're discontented, always bickering; Hannah has been made redundant, and while Nick isn't sure how he feels about getting married, Hannah wants nothing more. It takes an almost-breakup for Nick to realise he can't live without Hannah. He's so grateful to get her back that not only does he propose, he agrees to move with her from New York City to Dutchess County, further upstate, so she can take on a new job: caretaker of the Wright Historic House. This small museum was once home to a writer, Edmund Wright, and his family. The tragic death of Wright's youngest son led him to dabble in occult practices, and local rumours say the building is haunted.
At first, the couple are blissfully happy. The move out of NYC invigorates their relationship; living in the museum is cosy and charming, a whimsical adventure. But after a while, cracks begin to show. Hannah starts behaving erratically, and Nick worries about her mental health. One night, she insists she can hear voices in the empty house. She barely sleeps; spends hours going through old paperwork in a cluttered office. Nick discovers she has stopped taking the medication prescribed ever since a nervous breakdown in her early twenties, and shortly afterwards, she goes missing. The aftermath sends Nick into a spiral of depression, confusion and guilt. What happened to Hannah? And what does it have to do with Wright's experiments in spiritualism?
I just tore through this one – it's so readable, as smooth as caramel and totally compelling. It's not really a ghost story, but there's always the promise of strangeness just around the corner. Dolnick makes his protagonists incredibly likeable yet makes sure the reader is aware something – the true nature of what's going on? – is out of their reach. The way Nick tells his story, with careful trepidation, assigning retrospective significance to certain incidents, only adds further layers of intrigue. If you're looking for a proper supernatural tale, look elsewhere; while there is horror here, it is (mostly) of the more existential kind. However, it's no less effective for that.
I received an advance review copy of The Ghost Notebooks from the publisher through NetGalley....more
(Review written November 2016.) Many of these stories have similar features: ponderous beginnings – through which you must slog to get to the good stu(Review written November 2016.) Many of these stories have similar features: ponderous beginnings – through which you must slog to get to the good stuff – and sudden endings, cutting them short just as they've become interesting. One of them actually ends in the middle of a sentence. 'The Room in the Tower', 'Mrs Amworth' and 'The Man Who Went Too Far' are worth seeking out; the rest, sadly, feel like filler. It seems this is often the way with collections of ghost stories by authors who wrote them but weren't best known for them (see also E. Nesbit's Horror Stories).
Spinach A brother and sister work as mediums, each claiming to have the power to channel a spirit guide. When one of their best clients encourages them to holiday in her seaside cottage, they head off, only to find that the previous tenant is still very much there... in spirit. This doesn't go the way you might think – the siblings really do seem to be able to channel ghosts, and their communication with this one is successful, though it leads to a macabre discovery. I liked the depiction of these characters, and the dialogue is sharply observed and amusing, but the story doesn't have a proper ending. As an opening to the collection, I enjoyed 'Spinach', but it adjusted my expectations: rather than fully-formed ghost stories, I assumed the rest of the collection would be made up of similar witty scenes.
In the Tube A more traditional ghost story, using the familiar 'storytelling' framing device: a first-person narrator hears a spooky tale from an acquaintance. The acquaintance has been haunted by visions of a man, both before and after his demise by suicide. Again, the story ends abruptly. Contrary to my aforementioned expectations, it isn't especially witty, and doesn't seem likely to stick in my memory for long.
The Man Who Went Too Far A lovely atmosphere in this, with description that really captures the beguiling magic of its rural setting. Two old friends meet after several years' separation, but Darcy is alarmed and intrigued to see that Frank has the appearance of a man fifteen years younger. His explanation is that he has adopted a way of life that brings him closer to nature, ridding himself of all pain and suffering (or proximity to it). However, it's not hard to guess from the title how this is going to pan out. In the end, the story seems to read as a cautionary tale about the dangers of eschewing Christianity.
Mrs Amworth A very enjoyable vampire story set in an otherwise sleepy, picturesque village. It doesn't exactly offer a new take on the genre but, even so, I'd probably say this is my favourite of the collection so far.
(The above reviews were written separately as part of a review-in-progress, each one completed after I finished the story. At this point, however, I got a bit fed up and resolved to finish the rest off in one go. I also remembered why I don't usually do this: because it ends up taking me a month to read a sub-200-page book.)
The other five stories are a similarly uneven bunch. The best of the lot is 'The Room in the Tower', in which a man finds a recurring dream appearing to come true, and is menaced by a diabolical painting; it's by far the most successful at conjuring up a genuine sense of dread and terror. The story that follows it, 'The Bus-Conductor', is both unremarkable and far too similar to 'In the Tube'. There are two stories about gigantic evil slugs (!), which makes this sound like a MUCH more exciting book than it is. And the last one is about poor put-upon caterpillars taking revenge on a couple of obnoxious caterpillar-taunting fops. At least that's how I read it. ...more
(Review written May 2017.) Ex-journalist Sam is writing a book about Robert Wardner, frontman of Manchester post-punk act The National Grid, who has b(Review written May 2017.) Ex-journalist Sam is writing a book about Robert Wardner, frontman of Manchester post-punk act The National Grid, who has been missing for 25 years. The band became famous overnight following a notorious appearance on Top of the Pops, during which Wardner acted out a fake suicide attempt; for years, rumours have persisted that he went into hiding because he murdered a fan. The tale of Sam digging into Wardner's life is juxtaposed with Wardner's story in his own words, plus occasional articles about the band that give a sense of their cultural impact.
At first, I found the plot thrilling, and Mankowski's writing about music and creativity is often excellent. But a great deal of the dialogue is stilted, there are some truly heinous descriptions of women, and overall there's just a bit of an amateurish feel that pervades the whole text. (I also just didn't understand what the purpose of Sam's relationships with Elsa and Camille was. Maybe just to provide a (weak) parallel to Wardner's with Frankie and Nataly? Even so, pretty much all of that material could have been cut to make way for the far more interesting story of Wardner, the band and the music.) A compelling but flawed novel, How I Left the National Grid has a fantastic concept but bumpy execution....more
First things first: I had no idea that Elizabeth Hand’s ‘Near Zennor’ – literally my favourite short story of all time – would appear in this anthologFirst things first: I had no idea that Elizabeth Hand’s ‘Near Zennor’ – literally my favourite short story of all time – would appear in this anthology. For anyone thinking of buying Bound in Blood, Hand’s story is an absolute masterpiece that is worth the price of the book on its own. I wrote about it in my review of her collection Errantry, and there’s not much I can add to that, but again: it’s a masterpiece.
Yet its inclusion means I find Bound in Blood more difficult to review, overall, than I might otherwise. For me, ‘Near Zennor’ is such a standout it makes even the good stories here look mediocre by comparison. That’s not to say that it’s a bad collection, just your typical mixed bag. As with something like Darkness Beckons, I found this to be such a mixture of styles and subgenres of horror that I inevitably found myself skipping over some of the stories. As a result, I’m not sure I can assign a single rating to it.
With that said, Lucie McKnight Hardy’s ‘Broken Back Man’ is excellent: a barman is spooked when a customer reminds him of childhood night terrors; it’s truly atmospheric and creepy. As a non-enjoyer of cosmic horror, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Charlie Higson’s ‘From the Sea’, an ingenious and funny reinvention of Lovecraft that reminded me of Lynne Truss’s Cat Out of Hell. Other highlights were A.G. Slatter’s enjoyably gothic ‘Bell, Book and Lamp’; Robert Shearman’s odd, original ‘Beneath the Diaphragm, the Gut Itself’; and Alison Moore’s ‘The House Witch’, a typical Moore combination of mundanity and the weird....more
I enjoyed If We Were Villains when I read it in 2017, but I’m puzzled by the reputation it’s acquired in the years since. It seems to be treated aI enjoyed If We Were Villains when I read it in 2017, but I’m puzzled by the reputation it’s acquired in the years since. It seems to be treated as one of the totemic campus novels, often spoken about as though it is equivalent to The Secret History rather than a pastiche of it (I always assumed it was a deliberate one – an homage in which Shakespeare takes the place of Classics). Rio’s second novel, then, arrives with a lot of expectation heaped on it. Can the author create a similarly compelling story outside an established and well-loved formula?
On the evidence of Graveyard Shift, I’m not convinced. It starts well enough, with five friends meeting at midnight in a churchyard that sits on a university campus, only to discover a mysterious open grave. Definitely academic, certainly dark. Too bad, the rest of it’s a damp squib. Despite being short, it’s devoid of tension or urgency, and the prose is riddled with cliches (‘like a dog with a bone, she refused to let the matter drop’ is a typical sentence). The characters are a grab-bag of features with no real personality, and the ending is silly. This might have made a decent episode of a podcast or something but it doesn’t work as a book.
I received an advance review copy of Graveyard Shift from the publisher through Edelweiss....more
(3.5) I haven’t read anything from PS Publishing for a while, and when I went to browse their recent releases, this – a new novella from the author of(3.5) I haven’t read anything from PS Publishing for a while, and when I went to browse their recent releases, this – a new novella from the author of The Ghost Sequences – caught my eye. Grackle follows master’s student Andi as she travels to the ‘famously haunted town’ of Drakesburg on a research trip. With her sister reluctant to join in, she ends up with fellow student Emanuelle in tow. And it’s Emanuelle who tells her the story of Grackle, a piece of folklore she’s never heard before... and a story that, thereafter, seems to haunt her all over Drakesburg.
Grackle is not as good as the strongest stories in Sequences; for my money, ‘The Nag Bride’ is a more successful treatment of some of the themes also found here (grief, family ties, folklore). I liked the investigation elements best, and would have preferred more clue-chasing, less abstract stuff. It has bags of atmosphere, though, and the kind of evocative description that makes it easy to imagine a film adaptation. ...more
Jade, a troubled PhD student, travels to Alaska for a conference, then disappears; though no body is found, a reclusive older woman is accused of murdJade, a troubled PhD student, travels to Alaska for a conference, then disappears; though no body is found, a reclusive older woman is accused of murdering her. What really happened, and what do mythical stories about bears have to do with it all? Fairclough’s excellent debut frames the story as a factual investigation by a journalist, supplemented by Jade’s ‘doctoral thesis’ (actually a personal account of her life leading up to the Alaska trip) and a lengthy interview with the alleged murderer. I loved the storytelling here; I raced through it. Just wish it had been longer!...more
An absolutely brutal and brilliant collection. Rejection is short: there are seven stories, of which the first five are substantial character studies,An absolutely brutal and brilliant collection. Rejection is short: there are seven stories, of which the first five are substantial character studies, and the last two a coda to those (the stories are all linked). The character studies, in the main, follow unhappy and self-sabotaging people: in ‘The Feminist’, a man who’s furious his status as a self-proclaimed feminist doesn’t get him dates; in ‘Pics’, a woman whose obsession with a crush destroys her life; in ‘Ahegao’, a gay guy who struggles not with his sexuality but with the fact that he can only get off on a particular, hard-to-articulate fetish. The broader themes here – dating, the internet, the soul-crushing combination of the two, repression, and, obviously, rejection – are explored in a lot of contemporary fiction, but it’s Tulathimutte’s writing that really makes it work: raw, shorn of any restraint, horribly true. The obvious point of comparison is Kristen Roupenian’s You Know You Want This – in particular, ‘The Feminist’ followed by ‘Pics’ reminded me of the one-two punch of ‘Cat Person’ and ‘The Good Guy’ – and I also thought a lot about Paul Dalla Rosa’s use of voice in An Exciting and Vivid Inner Life.
I received an advance review copy of Rejection from the publisher through Edelweiss....more
Issue 4 is bookended by two of the best stories to have ever appeared in this zine. Guan Un’s ‘Feel the Burn’ collects emails from an increasingly belIssue 4 is bookended by two of the best stories to have ever appeared in this zine. Guan Un’s ‘Feel the Burn’ collects emails from an increasingly belligerent gym owner as he tries to get around the problem of a giant spider in the cardio room; it’s perfectly realised and very funny. Kay Hanifen’s lost-documents story, ‘The Lost Park of Max Westgate’, is terrific and terrifying: a billionaire plans a theme park filled with human-animal hybrids, and its head scientist’s journal tells the sorry tale of how it all went hideously wrong (think ‘Abandoned by Disney’ by way of The Island of Dr. Moreau). I also enjoyed ‘Which World Ending Nightmare Are You?’ by Susan Taitel, in which a BuzzFeed quiz gets Lovecraftian, and Sara Omer’s cult story through penpal letters, ‘We See Red’. The prize for most original concept goes to Annika Barranti Klein’s ‘Transmissions from a Dying Whale’, a librarian’s log of the 1,000+ days she spends alone in the ‘World Library’... which is inside a whale. As ever, a highly recommended anthology overall!...more
In pandemic-era New York City, 24-year-old Cora’s world is torn apart when her older sister Delilah is killed right in front of her. It seems to be a In pandemic-era New York City, 24-year-old Cora’s world is torn apart when her older sister Delilah is killed right in front of her. It seems to be a racially motivated attack: Cora and Delilah are Chinese, and Cora swears she heard the attacker whisper the words ‘bat eater’. In the aftermath, a numb Cora becomes a crime scene cleaner. Her assignments reveal a disturbing trend: increasingly large numbers of crime scenes involve brutal killings of East Asian women. And they also involve bats. If that’s not bad enough, Cora thinks she’s being haunted by a hungry ghost.
Right from the start, Bat Eater is a gory rollercoaster of a story: as the first chapter immediately signals, Baker is gleefully unafraid to kill her darlings. The narrative never sits still, hopping and skipping between social commentary, cinematically vivid horror and a sort of lopsided coming-of-age story, with a likeable heroine in Cora. I raced through it – it’s difficult not to. And quite a few developments surprised me.
At times, it can be a bit too glib. There’s such a strong ‘YA author’s first novel for adults’ vibe here that I’d guessed it was exactly that before even knowing if the author has written YA (she has) or if this is her first book for adults (it is). While the plot is exciting and unpredictable, that’s sometimes at the expense of plausibility; there are plot holes here that just wouldn’t fly in a more ‘serious’ book. It’s the kind of story where that will either bother you (and ruin it) or simply not matter because you’re having a good time; thankfully, I was in the latter category.
Also, this book is so perfectly primed to be made into a film, it needs to be optioned right now, if that hasn’t happened already.
I received an advance review copy of Bat Eater from the publisher through NetGalley....more
While I’m not much of a YA reader, I enjoyed the predecessor to this book, An Unauthorised Fan Treatise, which the author published online, so thoughtWhile I’m not much of a YA reader, I enjoyed the predecessor to this book, An Unauthorised Fan Treatise, which the author published online, so thought this might be fun. And Last Seen Online IS fun, albeit overstuffed and lacking any particularly strong characters. It would feel mean-spirited to do a deep dive into the problems here, given that I’m not the target audience, but I will say that personally I had a better time with the original story....more
I’m sure there are other contenders, but Yasmin Zaher’s The Coin, about a Palestinian woman in New York City, feels to me like the buzzy book of the sI’m sure there are other contenders, but Yasmin Zaher’s The Coin, about a Palestinian woman in New York City, feels to me like the buzzy book of the summer. And maybe the weight of expectation did it no good, because I found this to be a fairly run-of-the-mill story about a woman under pressure. Obsessed with the filth of the city and seemingly lacking any kind of emotional life, the narrator ‘works’ at a private school for boys and strikes up a friendship with a homeless scammer. It’s all well-written, but I’ve read its like many times before, and it’s difficult to care about someone falling apart when they’re so rich that they’re insulated from consequence. The fact of its protagonist’s wealth makes The Coin virtually indistinguishable from the many stories of this type that already exist about affluent American women. Sure you can map certain anxieties attributed to nationality onto the character’s obsessions and actions, but honestly I think that’s a bit of a reach and not even what the book itself is going for – the author has said it’s ‘more of a New York novel than a Palestinian novel’.
Comparisons to Ottessa Moshfegh absolutely stand up, though: themes of filth and cleanliness, the constant judging of others, the emotional vacuity... The Coin reminded me in particular of the Moshfegh story ‘Bettering Myself’ (also about a highly incompetent teacher!), and it has some similarities to Jade Sharma’s Problems too (though I think that was a much better book)....more
Dead Letters is an anthology with a brilliant concept which just happens to be weighted towards subgenres I don’t much enjoy. If you prefer monster stDead Letters is an anthology with a brilliant concept which just happens to be weighted towards subgenres I don’t much enjoy. If you prefer monster stories, cosmic horror, action/gore and dark fantasy over ghost stories and subtler shades of weird fiction, you might get more out of this book than I did. Which is to say I didn’t love it, but that’s not a value judgement, just a matter of taste. And of course there are some great stories here, especially ‘Re: The Hand (of god)’ by J.A.W. McCarthy, which uses emails and messages to tell the story of a woman who gets trapped at work... with a severed hand... that keeps getting bigger. How you even come up with an idea as original and strange as this story, I’ll never know. Also really liked ‘Something Cool Behind the Waterfall’ by Nat Reiher (similarly original), ‘Family Dirt’ by Justin Allec, ‘The Second Death’ by Christina Wilder, ‘Echo Chamber’ by Gemma Files and ‘Berkey Family Vacation 1988’ by Jacob Steven Mohr....more
Straight from the ‘made in a lab just for me’ short story universe, this is a ‘lost media’ story with a twist. Stella is a compulsive liar, if a harmlStraight from the ‘made in a lab just for me’ short story universe, this is a ‘lost media’ story with a twist. Stella is a compulsive liar, if a harmless one; she falsifies facts about her life partly to amuse herself, partly to see how people react. So when she asks an old friend if he remembers the fictitious kids’ TV series The Uncle Bob Show, she’s shocked when he not only says yes, but pulls out VHS tapes of old episodes on which they both appeared. Great starting point, well told, just long enough to pack enough detail in without overcomplicating things. A bit like Mister Magic if it was much better and a lot shorter. ...more
This anthology has a starry list of contributors but it’s full of so-so stories, the kind where you think ‘hmm, that was fine’ and then promptly forgeThis anthology has a starry list of contributors but it’s full of so-so stories, the kind where you think ‘hmm, that was fine’ and then promptly forget everything about it. Best of the bunch is Helen Oyeyemi’s weird and entertaining ‘Hygiene’, told through messages and emails, in which a man suddenly finds a conversation with his girlfriend hijacked by a friend who makes a series of bizarre demands. It’s both original and genuinely Kafkaesque, where many of the stories manage only one of the two (or neither). ...more
I’m planning to reread this later in the year, and will write more then, but for now, I love LOVED it – a stunning spin on ‘dark academia’ tropes, a sI’m planning to reread this later in the year, and will write more then, but for now, I love LOVED it – a stunning spin on ‘dark academia’ tropes, a story that turns itself upside down and shakes everything out. Not only is it a story about privilege and obsession and envy, it gets to the heart of something about why we are so endlessly fascinated by these stories. An instant favourite, to sit next to The Party, The Bellwether Revivals and Engleby....more
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