Scan barcode
A review by lucyabilene
Things We Say in the Dark by Kirsty Logan
5.0
I want to know what haunts me. The ghosts that obscure my face in the mirror, that speak in my head when I’m trying to think, that pull my hands back when I try to reach out. I know there’s something; I just don’t know what it is yet.
But also.
This work I’m doing, this dragging up of my worst fears. I don’t know what it’s doing to me. Maybe I’m looking for something – for someone – to keep me safe. To say that I’m safe, even if it’s not true.
We tell ourselves stories, we stoke our fears, we keep them burning. For what? What do we expect to find there inside?
What are we all doing to ourselves?
Logan's prose is as beautiful as ever as we are gently lead through a multitude of horrors. Many of these are rather mundane horrors, made horrific through poetic surreality and an overall sense of uneasiness. Darkly whimsical and almost delicately unnerving, some settle awkwardly in the reader's stomach, while others weave nightmares as thick as blankets - but not ones you'd want to hide under in the dark. There's a strong sense of bleakness I haven't felt from Logan's prior works - having reread this collection multiple times, I'm still left unsettled in a way I can't quite describe. That being said, in some ways it's comforting to see those ever-present fears we face as women validated as true horrors. Be warned though - the last in the collection is a wonderfully written onslaught of the fears in prior stories.
I finished this collection with a sinking feeling. These are certainly stories that linger on the mind. If I had to pick favourites, I'd go with Birds Fell From the Sky and Each One Spoke in Your Voice and Half Sick Of Shadows - both very eerie in two very different ways.
5/5, will be scaring myself to sleep again.
But also.
This work I’m doing, this dragging up of my worst fears. I don’t know what it’s doing to me. Maybe I’m looking for something – for someone – to keep me safe. To say that I’m safe, even if it’s not true.
We tell ourselves stories, we stoke our fears, we keep them burning. For what? What do we expect to find there inside?
What are we all doing to ourselves?
Logan's prose is as beautiful as ever as we are gently lead through a multitude of horrors. Many of these are rather mundane horrors, made horrific through poetic surreality and an overall sense of uneasiness. Darkly whimsical and almost delicately unnerving, some settle awkwardly in the reader's stomach, while others weave nightmares as thick as blankets - but not ones you'd want to hide under in the dark. There's a strong sense of bleakness I haven't felt from Logan's prior works - having reread this collection multiple times, I'm still left unsettled in a way I can't quite describe. That being said, in some ways it's comforting to see those ever-present fears we face as women validated as true horrors. Be warned though - the last in the collection is a wonderfully written onslaught of the fears in prior stories.
I finished this collection with a sinking feeling. These are certainly stories that linger on the mind. If I had to pick favourites, I'd go with Birds Fell From the Sky and Each One Spoke in Your Voice and Half Sick Of Shadows - both very eerie in two very different ways.
5/5, will be scaring myself to sleep again.