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julieds's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0
evavroslin's review against another edition
5.0
I hadn't heard of Erik T. Johnson before reading Yes Trespassing, but after reading the glowing endorsement from horror writer John F.D. Taff, whose work I do respect and admire, it set up the short story collection for me in a good way. Rather than give a story-by-story breakdown, what I will say is that Johnson is a writer who knows how to play with the reader's expectations. One story, "The Black Tree's Box," in particular, was well done. It used various elements, including a possibly unreliable narrator, to spin a pretty good yarn. It also plays with chronology of the characters and of events in a very interesting way.
Rather than suffering from the fate of some short story collections that have stories that are all too similar or thematically not very different or make the reader question whether they've just read something very similar recently, Johnson's collection offers a wide variety of stories on different themes and keeps the reader guessing as they make their way through the collection. In addition, the use of hand-drawn illustrations made this book reminiscent of House of Leaves or other books that have creatively incorporated hand-drawn notes and marks to give the overall design a feel as though it has been written down on lined paper, similar to a student's notebook.
It is fitting that Michael Bailey and his press, Written Backwards, is the publisher of this superb collection. Johnson's work has appeared in other Bailey anthologies, including Qualia Nous and the recently launched You Human as well as Chiral Mad 2. From a print culture perspective, this collection makes an interesting use of marginalia or readers' commentary and annotations as part of the text, not necessarily on the main pages of the stories, but in the front matter and the end matter as well as for the story and chapter titles, which uniquely uses typographical elements and creates a dynamic overall aesthetic element that runs as an undercurrent throughout the book.
If you prefer the type of slipstream or Weird horror, you will thoroughly enjoy Johnson's short story collection. If you're looking for a horror collection that features the standard tropes of vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts and so on, then you should likely look elsewhere because you're not going to find anything cliched or overdone, or "been there done that" about these stories. Instead, you will find originality, good storytelling, and a compelling collection of tales.
Rather than suffering from the fate of some short story collections that have stories that are all too similar or thematically not very different or make the reader question whether they've just read something very similar recently, Johnson's collection offers a wide variety of stories on different themes and keeps the reader guessing as they make their way through the collection. In addition, the use of hand-drawn illustrations made this book reminiscent of House of Leaves or other books that have creatively incorporated hand-drawn notes and marks to give the overall design a feel as though it has been written down on lined paper, similar to a student's notebook.
It is fitting that Michael Bailey and his press, Written Backwards, is the publisher of this superb collection. Johnson's work has appeared in other Bailey anthologies, including Qualia Nous and the recently launched You Human as well as Chiral Mad 2. From a print culture perspective, this collection makes an interesting use of marginalia or readers' commentary and annotations as part of the text, not necessarily on the main pages of the stories, but in the front matter and the end matter as well as for the story and chapter titles, which uniquely uses typographical elements and creates a dynamic overall aesthetic element that runs as an undercurrent throughout the book.
If you prefer the type of slipstream or Weird horror, you will thoroughly enjoy Johnson's short story collection. If you're looking for a horror collection that features the standard tropes of vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts and so on, then you should likely look elsewhere because you're not going to find anything cliched or overdone, or "been there done that" about these stories. Instead, you will find originality, good storytelling, and a compelling collection of tales.
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