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Six Stories
by Matt Wesolowski
"Cleared of all vegetation, this hole in the side of the fell is an ugly wound. It bleeds its darkness across this land."
"Mother, is that father's form at the door?
It's taller and longer than ever before,
His face is all white, coat black like a loon,
His teeth glow like blades in the light of the moon."
I picked this one up without knowing much about it. I had just read the first lines of several reviews and a few key words, together with the enthusiastic opinions, were enough for me to dive in: a mystery/crime with a tinge of horror. I was also aware it was in the form of a podcast transcript, which I found a nifty concept.
I had so little knowledge of it, that in the beginning I thought there were going to be six separate plots! (Sad, I know). This notion obviously got dispersed in the first few paragraphs, which was a bit disappointing, as I was hoping for an anthology along the lines of Lore. However, the premise was still sufficiently interesting to go on.
And, boy, did this pay off.
The story centers around the disappearance of a teenage boy that took place about twenty years before the podcast is released. Tom Jeffries’ body was found in the marsh a year after he went missing. The titular six stories are interviews with six people who knew Tom and were with him shortly before he disappeared, describing the events leading up to the disappearance from different perspectives.
Firstly, I was instantly drawn in by how the location is presented. The Scarclaw Fell and everything it consists of – the fell, the marshes, the collapsed mine – all of it combined, is given a personality; it seems to be a living, breathing organism and have its own (might I add, insidious) character. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the nature descriptions, which is not something I can say very often.
Secondly, the horror element. As it turned out after watching the Netflix Black Spot series (could not recommend enough – watch it!), I am a sucker for a bit of horror thrown into a crime story. And Six Stories definitely delivers that, but in a subtle, ambiguous way that I liked a lot. It is a little bit difficult to decide how much I can actually comment on here without spoiling it, due to what the novel’s main focus is (and it is not the plot. I will touch more on that in the next paragraph). I will add that I loved the folk tale elements inserted in the story and how that was executed. I just love, love dark English folklore.
Thirdly, the main focus of the book – the relationships. The plot is there, but it is very short and simple, with somewhat of a twist at the end, but it is just a skeleton of the novel. The meat, plump and juicy, are the characters and the relationships between them in the period before the tragedy. This is explored in depth, each of the six stories adding something new to the picture we thought we already had of how the group functioned and how the relationships fluctuated.
As far as the twist goes, there are actually two, on two different levels, and one did totally take me by surprise. It certainly enhanced the entire novel for me.
The plot twist is something that some will say they saw coming from a mile, and some will not. However, the narrational twist was great and I had to re-think the whole thing from the beginning. For some it might even prompt a re-read, just to see the interactions between the interviewer and the witnesses from the new perspective.
I also enjoyed the format, it felt fresh and real. It might be slightly confusing in the beginning, as we do not know who is talking at first and who they are talking to, but this becomes clear quite quickly and is easy to follow from there.
Now, to explain why I am not giving this 5 stars – mostly nitpicking, so do not get too deterred:
Reason one (the most important one):
For all the depth that went into the characterisation, I found it really difficult to actually like any of the main characters. Out of the whole cast, the only two I really liked and felt for were Haris Novak, who I am not sure can be considered one of the main characters, and the secondary figure of Harry Ramsay.
Most of the main witnesses are not super nasty, but I was not able to relate to any of them, and that made me less engaged. This is despite it being frequently emphasised that they were “open, tolerant, good, sensible kids.” For me, they were anything but – their actions being often quite the opposite. Perhaps this is a conscious device on the part of the writer, employed to make the readers see the characters for what they really are, as opposed to what is being said about them. Well, what I saw I did not like, and it left me less captivated than I might have been otherwise.
Reason two:
An instance of a very unlikely human reaction: I find it extremely hard to believe that three 21-year-old men – no matter how drunk – would whip themselves into a frenzy of fear upon hearing an old folk rhyme. A serious eyebrow was raised there. And this event is significant to the plot, as it starts a chain of events resulting in an important discovery.
Also, some unrealistic circumstances: an alcoholic, jobless dad who is not in the picture and a depressed, pill-popping mother, who does not get out of bed the whole day. Where is the money coming from to feed both the mother and the child, pay rent, get the child expensive clothes???
Reason three:
Forensically unrealistic. There are many cases where the forensic scientists were able to conclude in what conditions a corpse had been kept, by examining its state and how preserved it was. They were able to determine whether it had been kept in dry or damp conditions, warm or cold, etc.
This leads me to believe that even in 1998 forensic experts would have been able to determine that Tom’s body did not spend a year in the swamp, but was kept somewhere much drier and dumped in the swamp only recently. That would have most likely led to a different coroner’s verdict than “misadventure” – because why would anyone bother to move and hide the body and then move it back, if it was a misadventure?
I may be nitpicking here, I might also be wrong about the state of advancement of the forensic sciences in 1998, but it bugs me.
Despite the above flaws, Six Stories is a really good read, with a fantastic, dark mood, that kept me going till the end. Definitely recommended.
"Mother, is that father's form at the door?
It's taller and longer than ever before,
His face is all white, coat black like a loon,
His teeth glow like blades in the light of the moon."
I picked this one up without knowing much about it. I had just read the first lines of several reviews and a few key words, together with the enthusiastic opinions, were enough for me to dive in: a mystery/crime with a tinge of horror. I was also aware it was in the form of a podcast transcript, which I found a nifty concept.
I had so little knowledge of it, that in the beginning I thought there were going to be six separate plots! (Sad, I know). This notion obviously got dispersed in the first few paragraphs, which was a bit disappointing, as I was hoping for an anthology along the lines of Lore. However, the premise was still sufficiently interesting to go on.
And, boy, did this pay off.
The story centers around the disappearance of a teenage boy that took place about twenty years before the podcast is released. Tom Jeffries’ body was found in the marsh a year after he went missing. The titular six stories are interviews with six people who knew Tom and were with him shortly before he disappeared, describing the events leading up to the disappearance from different perspectives.
Firstly, I was instantly drawn in by how the location is presented. The Scarclaw Fell and everything it consists of – the fell, the marshes, the collapsed mine – all of it combined, is given a personality; it seems to be a living, breathing organism and have its own (might I add, insidious) character. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the nature descriptions, which is not something I can say very often.
Secondly, the horror element. As it turned out after watching the Netflix Black Spot series (could not recommend enough – watch it!), I am a sucker for a bit of horror thrown into a crime story. And Six Stories definitely delivers that, but in a subtle, ambiguous way that I liked a lot. It is a little bit difficult to decide how much I can actually comment on here without spoiling it, due to what the novel’s main focus is (and it is not the plot. I will touch more on that in the next paragraph). I will add that I loved the folk tale elements inserted in the story and how that was executed. I just love, love dark English folklore.
Thirdly, the main focus of the book – the relationships. The plot is there, but it is very short and simple, with somewhat of a twist at the end, but it is just a skeleton of the novel. The meat, plump and juicy, are the characters and the relationships between them in the period before the tragedy. This is explored in depth, each of the six stories adding something new to the picture we thought we already had of how the group functioned and how the relationships fluctuated.
As far as the twist goes, there are actually two, on two different levels, and one did totally take me by surprise. It certainly enhanced the entire novel for me.
Spoiler
The plot twist is something that some will say they saw coming from a mile, and some will not. However, the narrational twist was great and I had to re-think the whole thing from the beginning. For some it might even prompt a re-read, just to see the interactions between the interviewer and the witnesses from the new perspective.
I also enjoyed the format, it felt fresh and real. It might be slightly confusing in the beginning, as we do not know who is talking at first and who they are talking to, but this becomes clear quite quickly and is easy to follow from there.
Now, to explain why I am not giving this 5 stars – mostly nitpicking, so do not get too deterred:
Reason one (the most important one):
For all the depth that went into the characterisation, I found it really difficult to actually like any of the main characters. Out of the whole cast, the only two I really liked and felt for were Haris Novak, who I am not sure can be considered one of the main characters, and the secondary figure of Harry Ramsay.
Most of the main witnesses are not super nasty, but I was not able to relate to any of them, and that made me less engaged. This is despite it being frequently emphasised that they were “open, tolerant, good, sensible kids.” For me, they were anything but – their actions being often quite the opposite. Perhaps this is a conscious device on the part of the writer, employed to make the readers see the characters for what they really are, as opposed to what is being said about them. Well, what I saw I did not like, and it left me less captivated than I might have been otherwise.
Reason two:
An instance of a very unlikely human reaction: I find it extremely hard to believe that three 21-year-old men – no matter how drunk – would whip themselves into a frenzy of fear upon hearing an old folk rhyme. A serious eyebrow was raised there. And this event is significant to the plot, as it starts a chain of events resulting in an important discovery.
Also, some unrealistic circumstances: an alcoholic, jobless dad who is not in the picture and a depressed, pill-popping mother, who does not get out of bed the whole day. Where is the money coming from to feed both the mother and the child, pay rent, get the child expensive clothes???
Reason three:
Spoiler
Forensically unrealistic. There are many cases where the forensic scientists were able to conclude in what conditions a corpse had been kept, by examining its state and how preserved it was. They were able to determine whether it had been kept in dry or damp conditions, warm or cold, etc.
This leads me to believe that even in 1998 forensic experts would have been able to determine that Tom’s body did not spend a year in the swamp, but was kept somewhere much drier and dumped in the swamp only recently. That would have most likely led to a different coroner’s verdict than “misadventure” – because why would anyone bother to move and hide the body and then move it back, if it was a misadventure?
I may be nitpicking here, I might also be wrong about the state of advancement of the forensic sciences in 1998, but it bugs me.
Despite the above flaws, Six Stories is a really good read, with a fantastic, dark mood, that kept me going till the end. Definitely recommended.