Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson
Publisher – Penguin
Published – Out Now
Price - £8.99 paperback £3.99 Kindle eBook
Step into the unsettling world of Shirley Jackson this autumn with a collection of her finest, darkest short stories, revealing the queen of American gothic at her mesmerising best.
There's something nasty in suburbia. In these deliciously dark tales, the daily commute turns into a nightmarish game of hide and seek, the loving wife hides homicidal thoughts and the concerned citizen might just be an infamous serial killer. In the haunting world of Shirley Jackson, nothing is as it seems and nowhere is safe, from the city streets to the country manor, and from the small-town apartment to the dark, dark woods...
Shirley Jackson for me has written one of the best ever horror stories in her novel The Haunting of Hill House. But she is also a famous short story author as well. With Jackson its like taking a walk through a street and feeling as if you’re in a dark inverted version of the world you knew and you may or may not find a way back to normality.
In this collection of her stories I really enjoyed
The Possibility of Evil – The opening tale best sums up what Jackson does with a trip to an ideal small american town where one of its oldest citizen is the well respected elderly Miss Adela Strangeworth and yet in this picture perfect town there is a darker force pulling strings and spreading mischief. A story that suggests that under the veneer of our lives lies greed, evil and manipulation for own gains. Totally wicked yet compulsive.
Louisa, Please Come Home – A woman seeks escape from her overbearing family and finds it. However, when an ambitious person seeks a reward for her whereabouts then she discovers sometimes you can never go home again. A seemingly straightforward tale but one that plays with identity and who people think you are.
Paranoia – Halloran Beresford leaves his office only thinking of returning home and birthday present for his wife but slowly he realises he is being followed and clearly many people are after him for some reason. A tale that builds up a sense of chase and fear that you get in a nightmare where you never understand why you’re being pursued and also that you can’t trust anyone.
The Honeymoon of Mrs Smith – a newlywed finds everyone is not celebrating her new marriage as her husband carries baggage of the mysterious death of his previous wives and then gain of their insurance payouts. A troubling tale of someone so desperate for love they end up falling into a trap they may not escape alive from.
The Story We Used to Tell – A story that falls into horror of two young women, an evil picture and magic yet subverted slightly into tale of an endless cycle of monsters. An unexpected direction makes this even more scary.
All She Said Was Yes – Here Jackson provides a tale told by a character full of righteousness telling us a tale of a strange child that has lost her parents. The reader may spot something our narrator has missed and some statements may start to trouble you -again Jackson reveals secrets underneath the society people live in.
What A Thought – A woman stares lovingly at her husband then finds herself having a sudden urge to break his skull with an ashtray. Domestic bliss turning into hell in seconds. I love the ay Jackson makes us doubt what we just read and then underlines the dual feelings someone can have for a loved one even at the same time.
The Bus – another nightmarish ride as a sweet little old lady takes reluctantly her least favourite form of transport the bus yet it takes her to a place that doesn’t exist and walks through memories that seem strangely warped. An innocent character lost in a nightmare makes this tale feel quite hopeless for her safety.
This was a collection where there is a string feeling that society, relationships and love can be seen to be traps from which people cannot escape when they want to. Its that warping of the world or possibly the unveiling of some ugly sides to our world that I think powers this collection.
