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ryan_lieske's review
5.0
With "It, Watching," Elizabeth Massie further solidifies her reputation as a master storyteller of the creepy and macabre. There's not a misstep in the bunch. Hell, one of the stories here is only 50 words long, and it still packs a grim punch.
Massie's love for "The Twilight Zone" shows in the majority of the stories. With a deft hand, she leads you down trails you might as first mistake for prosaic or formulaic, only to brilliantly pull the rug out from under you in the final pages. With everything from zombies, vampires, witches, and more, she subverts genre conventions and before you know it she's playing your spine like an eerily untuned piano. You finish each story breathless, with a wicked smile on your face, loving every minute of the ride.
Massie's characters are so authentic that you can almost hear them breathing over your shoulder. Good horror stories must unnerve and disturb, or, at the very least, give you chills. And those reactions are only earned by the ability to empathize with the characters (even if you in no way sympathize with them). And Massie is a master at populating her tales with believable, empathetic characters.
Sometimes, those characters aren't even human, or, not QUITE human. "Don’t Look at Me," told from the point of view of an old lawn gnome, will have you cheering (perhaps guiltily; perhaps not) for its narrator's revenge. And the stories "18P37-C, After Andrea Was Arrested," about a lab monkey, and "The Replacement," about a child clone, are not only chilling but so intensely heartbreaking that you might find tears brimming in your eyes. I did.
The most disturbing tale, for me, is "Tintype," a nihilistic Civil War-era meditation on the horrors of war and the lengths one might go to survive. It proves that sometimes the most despicable acts we humans commit against one another are those that scar the mind.
Massie also has a wicked sense of humor, and a couple of the tales—"The Tree" and "Landfill" being prime examples—end on deliciously vicious notes that would make the Cryptkeeper proud. And the zombie tale "Wet Birds" makes for a gruesome pairing with her infamous story "Abed."
If you're a fan of horror fiction, Massie should already be on your radar and hopefully in your rotation. If not, then you need to introduce yourself to her imaginative, disturbing, and brilliant work. And "It, Watching" is a perfect place to start. If you are familiar with her work, then this collection will be every bit the treat you expect it to be.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Massie's love for "The Twilight Zone" shows in the majority of the stories. With a deft hand, she leads you down trails you might as first mistake for prosaic or formulaic, only to brilliantly pull the rug out from under you in the final pages. With everything from zombies, vampires, witches, and more, she subverts genre conventions and before you know it she's playing your spine like an eerily untuned piano. You finish each story breathless, with a wicked smile on your face, loving every minute of the ride.
Massie's characters are so authentic that you can almost hear them breathing over your shoulder. Good horror stories must unnerve and disturb, or, at the very least, give you chills. And those reactions are only earned by the ability to empathize with the characters (even if you in no way sympathize with them). And Massie is a master at populating her tales with believable, empathetic characters.
Sometimes, those characters aren't even human, or, not QUITE human. "Don’t Look at Me," told from the point of view of an old lawn gnome, will have you cheering (perhaps guiltily; perhaps not) for its narrator's revenge. And the stories "18P37-C, After Andrea Was Arrested," about a lab monkey, and "The Replacement," about a child clone, are not only chilling but so intensely heartbreaking that you might find tears brimming in your eyes. I did.
The most disturbing tale, for me, is "Tintype," a nihilistic Civil War-era meditation on the horrors of war and the lengths one might go to survive. It proves that sometimes the most despicable acts we humans commit against one another are those that scar the mind.
Massie also has a wicked sense of humor, and a couple of the tales—"The Tree" and "Landfill" being prime examples—end on deliciously vicious notes that would make the Cryptkeeper proud. And the zombie tale "Wet Birds" makes for a gruesome pairing with her infamous story "Abed."
If you're a fan of horror fiction, Massie should already be on your radar and hopefully in your rotation. If not, then you need to introduce yourself to her imaginative, disturbing, and brilliant work. And "It, Watching" is a perfect place to start. If you are familiar with her work, then this collection will be every bit the treat you expect it to be.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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