A review by connorjdaley
Grey Noise by Marcus Hawke

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Another paperback I’ve had for a while that I wanted to ensure got read for my October TBR. The spooky reads are in full swing. 

This novella is an ode to the nostalgic Friday nights of old. Getting out of school and getting your mom to drive you to the local video store, to Blockbuster. Browsing the aisles of those cardboard movie poster-ended racks of VHS tapes until you found the perfect one. 

It also has the feel of playing into the nostalgia of old horror movies. The two page staticky play screen reminding me of the design in Shortwave Media’s Killer VHS series, and the endless references brought the entire story to life for me. If you can recall those nights, that feeling of picking the right watch, then you’ll understand why Evan Grey opened Rewind Video. To chase not only that feeling, but his dream. 

It is also, an incredibly bleak examination of survival in a capitalist world. Ever growing rent, car payments, even medicine. The desire to just survive while the changing world only exacerbates the problem. Evan has sank his funds, his savings, into chasing his dream with this store. But when Evan finds an old tube tv on the sign of the road marked ‘free,’ he feels as if his opening day is off to a really good start. He grabs the tv, figuring he can get an old VHS machine running, playing movies all day long for the browsing shoppers, but things begin to spiral. 

After a disastrous opening day, with next to no customers, an argument with his best friend and employee, and a weirdo stalking the back curtained area, all Evan can hear is the static from the tube tv. And the further he slips into the void, voices. He has always hated his step father, who has never been proud of him, but is that really enough here? 

The ending is a bit of a revenge story mixed with Groundhog Day, and a bit of a Saw-esque new lease on life. It’s brutal in its descent, and awfully bloody. This was an enjoyable one that mixed some unique ideas!