A review by connorjdaley
Stay on the Line by Clay McLeod Chapman

challenging emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thanks to Shortwave Media for the physical arc! 

Read this in a single sitting, which as a novelette might not be that crazy, but I’ve been having trouble focusing for periods of time. So this one really grasped me and I ran with it. 

A hurricane hits a small coastal town, taking the lives of multiple loved ones, and yet not damaging the long-dead payphone. When folks start looking for a way to grieve, to move on, to speak to them one more time, they may just find what they need in the phone booth, but will it be enough…Or even too much?

As much as this is a drama and a story of loss, this really fits into what I’ve come to think of as grief horror (which I may or may not have picked up from author Katherine Silva?). Beats of the unthinkable, perhaps supernatural, tinged with people dealing with horrible loss. It could all be taken as in the heads of those grieving, but what if it’s not? Not to mention the crazy black and white illustrations throughout by Trevor Henderson definitely add an additional layer of darkness to the story. 

And big shout out to Shortwave for the quality of this one. For the art it has these nice thick pages and the book itself felt solid. Just like an old school Scholastic Goosebumps book.