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A review by raforall
I Would Haunt You If I Could by Seán Padraic Birnie
4.0
Review in the April 2021 issue of Library Journal: https://www.libraryjournal.com/?reviewDetail=i-would-haunt-you-if-i-could-2110205
And on the bloig [link live 4/5/21]: https://raforall.blogspot.com/2021/04/what-im-reading-april-horror-reviews.html
Three Words That Describe This Book: terrifyingly mundane, character driven, disorienting.
Draft Review:
Birnie, Sean Padraic. I Would Haunt You If I Could [debut collection]
A solid debut story collection by British author Birnie containing 14 stories, 8 of which are original to this volume, presents Padaric as a promising new voice in the genre. The fear in these stories is character, not action, driven, tending to focus on familial relationships, with an intense sense of setting a visual stage, expertly informed by the author’s background in photography. However, the most striking thing about these tales is how mundanely the terror begins. This is horror that has every day beginnings, making the reading experience so much more enjoyably haunting and disorienting than readers will expect upon first entering this volume. “Out of the Blue, “Hand Me Down” and “Other Houses” are stellar examples of how the author contemplates normal family situations that begin weird and unsettling, moving into a terror readers will intimately feel before the story’s conclusion.
Verdict: Filled with thought provoking, character driven, psychologically horrific tales that veer slightly and satisfyingly into the weird, this is a collection that is reminiscent of the deeply unsettling and disorienting worlds of Samanta Schweblin and Dan Chaon or the backlist gem,Travelers Rest by Keith Lee Morris.
A solid debut story collection. Some were amazing, others fine, none bad. Promising voice that I would like to see more from.
More than half of the stories are original to the collection. These are thought provoking, character centered psychological horror stories that veer into the weird. Many focus on familial relationships. I was struck by how the horror begins so mundanely. It is a word I wrote multiple times as I took notes. And the fact that the horror has such normal, every day beginnings makes it all so much more haunting and disorienting. Everything is just tipped over the dark edge of "normal."
The story and the fear are all character driven.
Fav stories: "Out of the Blue" near beginning hooked me into the collection. dad comes back from the dead and just stays. Not menacing, not smelly. Just stays. "Hand Me Down" was a terrifying new mother story involving a haunted baby monitor, but again, it is a mundane and subtle haunting. "I Told You Not to Go" is short but is also the perfect example of the feel of these stories. A longer one, "Other Houses" at the end was originally and very creepy-- a family. barely held together through a house, where multiple realities exists at the same time.
Readalikes: Samanta Schweblin for sure. Also Dan Chaon. The collection as a whole remind my of the novel Travelers Rest, a backlist favorite of mine. Same feel. mundane situation causing terror, with just the right touch of the weird.
And on the bloig [link live 4/5/21]: https://raforall.blogspot.com/2021/04/what-im-reading-april-horror-reviews.html
Three Words That Describe This Book: terrifyingly mundane, character driven, disorienting.
Draft Review:
Birnie, Sean Padraic. I Would Haunt You If I Could [debut collection]
A solid debut story collection by British author Birnie containing 14 stories, 8 of which are original to this volume, presents Padaric as a promising new voice in the genre. The fear in these stories is character, not action, driven, tending to focus on familial relationships, with an intense sense of setting a visual stage, expertly informed by the author’s background in photography. However, the most striking thing about these tales is how mundanely the terror begins. This is horror that has every day beginnings, making the reading experience so much more enjoyably haunting and disorienting than readers will expect upon first entering this volume. “Out of the Blue, “Hand Me Down” and “Other Houses” are stellar examples of how the author contemplates normal family situations that begin weird and unsettling, moving into a terror readers will intimately feel before the story’s conclusion.
Verdict: Filled with thought provoking, character driven, psychologically horrific tales that veer slightly and satisfyingly into the weird, this is a collection that is reminiscent of the deeply unsettling and disorienting worlds of Samanta Schweblin and Dan Chaon or the backlist gem,Travelers Rest by Keith Lee Morris.
A solid debut story collection. Some were amazing, others fine, none bad. Promising voice that I would like to see more from.
More than half of the stories are original to the collection. These are thought provoking, character centered psychological horror stories that veer into the weird. Many focus on familial relationships. I was struck by how the horror begins so mundanely. It is a word I wrote multiple times as I took notes. And the fact that the horror has such normal, every day beginnings makes it all so much more haunting and disorienting. Everything is just tipped over the dark edge of "normal."
The story and the fear are all character driven.
Fav stories: "Out of the Blue" near beginning hooked me into the collection. dad comes back from the dead and just stays. Not menacing, not smelly. Just stays. "Hand Me Down" was a terrifying new mother story involving a haunted baby monitor, but again, it is a mundane and subtle haunting. "I Told You Not to Go" is short but is also the perfect example of the feel of these stories. A longer one, "Other Houses" at the end was originally and very creepy-- a family. barely held together through a house, where multiple realities exists at the same time.
Readalikes: Samanta Schweblin for sure. Also Dan Chaon. The collection as a whole remind my of the novel Travelers Rest, a backlist favorite of mine. Same feel. mundane situation causing terror, with just the right touch of the weird.