Review by readundancies - Seven Empty Houses

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.75

None of That: 4/5
- Solid start to a short story collection, even though I forgot I had read it.
- Which is not a testament to it being a forgettable story, but rather to my flip-flopping nature when it comes to short story collections and the order that I choose to read them in.
- It’s got shades of insanity, of desperation and resentment and it was the perfect length.

My Parents and My Children: 3/5
- This one was just weird for me.
- We start with a rather normal domestic scene that quickly escalates into a drama of epically strange proportions that’s ultimately rooted in a dreadful situation: missing persons cut with the stinging loss of one’s head.
- But the dreadful aspects have this odd sense of whimsy to them, and it’s not really endearing even, it’s just tilted and brimming with this deep seated sense of unease.

It Happens All the Time in This House: 3/5
- It’s not that I require a beginning, middle and end from a short story. But this just seemed to contain but a slip of story in terms of plot, and everything was just characters without much of in the way of story between them.
- Like really, there are neighbours with some history between them but beyond that, their petty squabbles and family troubles are not involved enough to actually construct much of a tale around.
- What exists isn’t a chore to read, it’s just not really much of a story to begin with? And while I didn’t disapprove of my reading experience, I wouldn’t necessarily say I endorse it either.

Breath from the Depths: 5/5
- I got through not even one page front-to-back before falling utterly in love with this story - the first I’ve chosen of the lot because we believe in a non-linear approach to short story collections. The writing is everything.
- And halfway through my first little dip into the waters of this collection I’ve determined I need to own a physical copy of this. It’s inevitable and a necessity.
- GOOSEBUMPS. This was so good! It was creepy, it was gut wrenching, it was so incredibly unsettling and it was to the nines tragic. I frigging loved it for how excitable I got during the reading experience as I got further and further into the story. I decided to start with the longest of the short stories first and what a fantastic decision in hindsight. Like I don’t think we could’ve started on a better note.

Two Square Feet: 3.5/5
- I liked this enough, despite me not completely understanding what’s going on.
- Like, there’s a clear direction with it, I just - something’s not clicking in my brain with respect to destination.
- It feels kind of mundane but with some horroresque undertones in terms of eerie vibes and offputting intimations, and I don’t hate it.

An Unlucky Man: 4.5/5
- I’m still so squicked about this one, because there’s the obvious path that it could go, but it does this delightful little trope subversion that I cannot get over.
- Right from the get-go this one goes to an alarming extreme that is depicted in this sort of satirically morbid voice, that I was exclaiming about it.
- And the slow twist that culminates in the title manifesting itself within the pages of it’s story? I thought it was masterfully done.

Out: 3.75/5
- I like this story as the final story of the collection. It’s very ambiguous in its ending, and though you don’t necessarily get any answers by the end of it, it has this finality to it that works well.
- I enjoy how Schweblin takes these moments that raise little red flags in one’s head when it comes to danger and subverts them in an introspective manner.
- I’m left with a lot of questions though: like what happened to the unnamed MC’s sister? Why did she have such a pressing need to leave her apartment and SO? And what is Schweblin trying to get at beyond the mundane meeting of two strangers that have such a feeble connection for but moments?