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megapolisomancy's review
5.0
Volume I of a series that’s recently concluded with Volume VIII, all of which I have, and which I’ll be going through at my usual snail’s pace. It hits the ground running here, a much higher success rate than most original anthologies, although of course this kind of understated weird fiction is my bread and butter. I really like Muller’s approach to sequencing here, a lot of the stories seeming to fall in duos that converse quite nicely with one another, with a truly remarkable pair of bookends in the DeMeester and Wehunt, standouts that could almost have come from the same prompt (of course, I have no idea what the commissioning or slush-reading process was like for this).
“Everything That’s Underneath” (Kristi DeMeester)
A woman’s husband has been diagnosed with MS; he starts building a door, she starts hearing things that aren’t there. My favorite kind of dissolution into a surreal nightmare world increasingly difficult to understand. Echoes of “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Excellent (although, is it really a DeMeester story if there are no mother/daughter dynamics at play?!).
“Strays” (Gregory L. Norris)
A divorcée has a miserable time in his new studio apartment. Not subtle in its central metaphor, and the prose is slightly (just slightly!) rough around the edges at points, but it uses second person well and nails a creepy, desolate atmosphere. Has really stuck with me since reading it, too.
“In His Grandmother’s Coat” (Charles Wilkinson)
Family drama on an abandoned Welsh mink farm. The prose and the narrative both lurch and jump about, unsure what direction they want to go, trying to impart too much at once.
“The Cuckoo Girls” (Patricia Lillie)
Two sisters run into odd, pregnant teenage girls and then end up pregnant themselves. There’s a nature doc about cuckoos. A little thin, and loses steam when the focus shifts to the sister rather than the odd teenagers, but a good story.
“The Sound The World Makes” (David Surface)
A couple & a third wheel visit a creepy church in the dead of night. The third wheel’s there to quip, which grows tiresome, but I loved this otherwise; sketches out the characters nicely, convincingly revolves around sound and hearing.
“Below the Falls” (Daniel Mills)
A 19th century woman is institutionalized after a lifetime of abuse; fortunately she leaves behind a diary. Very strong epistolary American gothic ghost tale (with requisite familial drama, incest, madness, crumbling home, etc).
“The Keep” (Kirsty Logan)
An updated Bluebeard tale, narrated in plural first person by his past victims. Prose that’s full of character and interesting word choices without crossing the line into preciousness. Very short, very nice work.
“She Rose From The Water” (Kyle Yadlosky)
A woman’s daughter survives drowning when she shouldn’t have; a preacher is displeased. A good idea that takes some risks in terms of prose and structure that didn’t work for me.
“Animalhouse” (Clint Smith)
A dead end guy in a dead end town, facing the dissolution of his marriage, goes feral. The off kilter prose adds to the general sense of disgust and misery and unease; body horror hand-in-hand with poverty and decrepitude.
“Tooth, Tongue, and Claw” (Damien Angelica Walters)
Beauty and the Beast without the love story. Of a style that usually doesn’t do much for me, and I was fully prepared not to like this one, but it won me over. Very interesting counterpoint to the Smith.
“Momma” (Eric J. Guignard)
A back country hedge witch, her ignorant son, his six dead brothers, accursed townsfolk and bubbling cauldrons and masses of cicadas. I’m a sucker for this kind of weird gothic Americana in general and this was a prime example of the genre.
“The Trees Are Tall Here” (Marc E. Fitch)
Something odd is going on with the forest around a tobacco farm where a girl has recently lost her mother and brother. Not sure if the roughshod prose was intentional to convey her voice or not; either way I found it quite jarring.
“A Quiet Axe” (Michael Kelly)
The land is as desolate as an abusive husband’s heart. Packs a lot into a very slight word count; really liked the paralleling of character and setting but I do wish it had gone on a bit longer (as I usually do with flash fiction).
"The Death of Yatagarasu” (Bethany W. Pope)
A crow’s last stand, from his point of view. Not sure what to make of this one being included here, honestly.
“The Cooing” (John Claude Smith)
A couple exploring an abandoned farmhouse bicker while they should be running away from creepy cooing instead. A silly story that expects to be taken seriously.
“A Knife in My Drawer” (Zdravka Evtimova)
A writer loses interest in her husband and son in favor of what might be on the other side of a blank piece of paper. An odd little tale with an odd cadence about it.
“On Balance” (Jason A. Wyckoff)
A man finds a cup while on vacation at the beach; years later, it finds him. Stiff prose, and while I very much liked the frantic flight from (or toward) meaninglessness that animated the plot, the motivation was a bit inert/unconvincing
“Learning Not To Smile” (Ralph Robert Moore)
A social worker’s 90 year old client has a baby, kind of. The social worker’s life goes into a downward spiral. Had a visceral distaste for this one because of its kind of Harlan Ellison-esque spite/disdain for its characters. This one was a real bummer because I loved RRM’s “Monkeys on the Beach” a few years ago.
“Fisher and Lure” (Christopher Burke)
A man, a beach, an odd kid, fishing line. Do you quickly know where it’s going? Yes. Does that lessen the fun at all? No. A nice quick piece that hearkens back to Weird Tales and the like without feeling shallow or atavistic.
“The Death of Socrates” (Michael Wehunt)
A woman is troubled by her dying husband and her own addictions. Hard to believe it wasn’t written in tandem with the DeMeester; excellent bookends marking out very similar thematic and narrative territory with individual voices.
“Everything That’s Underneath” (Kristi DeMeester)
A woman’s husband has been diagnosed with MS; he starts building a door, she starts hearing things that aren’t there. My favorite kind of dissolution into a surreal nightmare world increasingly difficult to understand. Echoes of “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Excellent (although, is it really a DeMeester story if there are no mother/daughter dynamics at play?!).
“Strays” (Gregory L. Norris)
A divorcée has a miserable time in his new studio apartment. Not subtle in its central metaphor, and the prose is slightly (just slightly!) rough around the edges at points, but it uses second person well and nails a creepy, desolate atmosphere. Has really stuck with me since reading it, too.
“In His Grandmother’s Coat” (Charles Wilkinson)
Family drama on an abandoned Welsh mink farm. The prose and the narrative both lurch and jump about, unsure what direction they want to go, trying to impart too much at once.
“The Cuckoo Girls” (Patricia Lillie)
Two sisters run into odd, pregnant teenage girls and then end up pregnant themselves. There’s a nature doc about cuckoos. A little thin, and loses steam when the focus shifts to the sister rather than the odd teenagers, but a good story.
“The Sound The World Makes” (David Surface)
A couple & a third wheel visit a creepy church in the dead of night. The third wheel’s there to quip, which grows tiresome, but I loved this otherwise; sketches out the characters nicely, convincingly revolves around sound and hearing.
“Below the Falls” (Daniel Mills)
A 19th century woman is institutionalized after a lifetime of abuse; fortunately she leaves behind a diary. Very strong epistolary American gothic ghost tale (with requisite familial drama, incest, madness, crumbling home, etc).
“The Keep” (Kirsty Logan)
An updated Bluebeard tale, narrated in plural first person by his past victims. Prose that’s full of character and interesting word choices without crossing the line into preciousness. Very short, very nice work.
“She Rose From The Water” (Kyle Yadlosky)
A woman’s daughter survives drowning when she shouldn’t have; a preacher is displeased. A good idea that takes some risks in terms of prose and structure that didn’t work for me.
“Animalhouse” (Clint Smith)
A dead end guy in a dead end town, facing the dissolution of his marriage, goes feral. The off kilter prose adds to the general sense of disgust and misery and unease; body horror hand-in-hand with poverty and decrepitude.
“Tooth, Tongue, and Claw” (Damien Angelica Walters)
Beauty and the Beast without the love story. Of a style that usually doesn’t do much for me, and I was fully prepared not to like this one, but it won me over. Very interesting counterpoint to the Smith.
“Momma” (Eric J. Guignard)
A back country hedge witch, her ignorant son, his six dead brothers, accursed townsfolk and bubbling cauldrons and masses of cicadas. I’m a sucker for this kind of weird gothic Americana in general and this was a prime example of the genre.
“The Trees Are Tall Here” (Marc E. Fitch)
Something odd is going on with the forest around a tobacco farm where a girl has recently lost her mother and brother. Not sure if the roughshod prose was intentional to convey her voice or not; either way I found it quite jarring.
“A Quiet Axe” (Michael Kelly)
The land is as desolate as an abusive husband’s heart. Packs a lot into a very slight word count; really liked the paralleling of character and setting but I do wish it had gone on a bit longer (as I usually do with flash fiction).
"The Death of Yatagarasu” (Bethany W. Pope)
A crow’s last stand, from his point of view. Not sure what to make of this one being included here, honestly.
“The Cooing” (John Claude Smith)
A couple exploring an abandoned farmhouse bicker while they should be running away from creepy cooing instead. A silly story that expects to be taken seriously.
“A Knife in My Drawer” (Zdravka Evtimova)
A writer loses interest in her husband and son in favor of what might be on the other side of a blank piece of paper. An odd little tale with an odd cadence about it.
“On Balance” (Jason A. Wyckoff)
A man finds a cup while on vacation at the beach; years later, it finds him. Stiff prose, and while I very much liked the frantic flight from (or toward) meaninglessness that animated the plot, the motivation was a bit inert/unconvincing
“Learning Not To Smile” (Ralph Robert Moore)
A social worker’s 90 year old client has a baby, kind of. The social worker’s life goes into a downward spiral. Had a visceral distaste for this one because of its kind of Harlan Ellison-esque spite/disdain for its characters. This one was a real bummer because I loved RRM’s “Monkeys on the Beach” a few years ago.
“Fisher and Lure” (Christopher Burke)
A man, a beach, an odd kid, fishing line. Do you quickly know where it’s going? Yes. Does that lessen the fun at all? No. A nice quick piece that hearkens back to Weird Tales and the like without feeling shallow or atavistic.
“The Death of Socrates” (Michael Wehunt)
A woman is troubled by her dying husband and her own addictions. Hard to believe it wasn’t written in tandem with the DeMeester; excellent bookends marking out very similar thematic and narrative territory with individual voices.
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