When Things Get Dark edited by Ellen Datlow
I would like to thank Lydia from Titan for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Titan
Published – Out now
Price – £18.99 hardback £6.99 Kindle eBook
A chilling anthology in tribute to the genius of Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson is a seminal writer of horror and mystery fiction, whose legacy resonates globally today. Chilling, human, poignant, and strange, her stories have inspired a generation of writers and listeners.
This anthology, edited by legendary horror editor Ellen Datlow, brings together today’s leading horror writers to offer their own personal tribute to the work of Shirley Jackson.
Featuring Joyce Carol Oates, Josh Malerman, Carmen Maria Machado, Paul Tremblay, Richard Kadrey, Stephen Graham Jones, Elizabeth Hand, Kelly Link, Cassandra Khaw, Karen Heuler, Benjamin Percy, John Langan, Laird Barron, Jeffrey Ford, M. Rickert, Seanan McGuire, Gemma Files, and Genevieve Valentine.
Horror like all genres come in various flavours. It can be soaked in blood; it can be incredibly strange, or it can be capable of making you increasingly uneasy as things don’t quite feel right and until too late you realise that you’re no longer in the world you recognise and you’re in a lot of danger. Shirley Jackson specialised in the latter through her books and novels which continue inspire many authors to this day. In the excellent new anthology When Things Get Dark edited by Ellen Datlow a host of authors are invited to tell tales inspired by Shirley Jackson and deliver some shivers to be enjoyed as much as feared.
Amongst the stories I enjoyed were
Funeral Birds by M Rickert – we meet Lenore who readies herself for a funeral very worried about what she thinks people will think of her. But we soon find Lenore has reasons to feel guilty. This tale really captures that quiet sense of things not being quite right. Respectable very ordinary people hiding nasty secrets and then throws in supernatural elements and moments of violence on top. All written quietly to build the tension of can Lenore’s secrets stay silent forever. Its an excellent opening tale.
For Sale by Owner by Elizabeth Hand – This captures Jackson’s habits of finding ordinary people with a dark shameful secret where they transgress social standards. In this case our narrator loves to walk around deserted tourist homes and if she finds one unlocked, she goes in and explores the owner’s life. One such expedition makes her, and her friends discover an absolutely perfect house. They can’t resist planning a night-time cap in it. Hand again captures Jackson’s sense of people with secrets but also as the house enters the story a place that seems too perfect becomes itself without any explanation increasingly terrifying as the characters find they’re all alone on a country road in the middle of the night. It’s excellent at unsettling and you’ll struggle to explain why. One of my favourites
A Hundred Miles and A Mile by Carmen Maria Machado – We meet Lucy who through her whole life is haunted by a memory she cannot remember but something breaks her on dates with her partners and visiting restaurants and makes her need desperately to find someone to pass it on. This tale does not explain itself but we do just get the sense of a huge, horrible thing that has trapped a woman to almost remember it and it needs to live on in other people too. Very quietly and powerfully creating a disturbing read.
Quiet Dead Things by Cassandra Khaw – In two remote american towns a suspicious death leads to the towns cutting off all contact with strangers. But deaths continue and people get suspicious of the immigrant Mr Wong. This tale captures the paranoia and small-town evil of the Lottery but throws in themes of racism and revenge from across the grave as nasty secrets haunt the townspeople. The nastier elements of the story are left unsaid, but we know this town is very guilty.
Money of the Dead by Karen Hewler – this truly dark horror tale is one of my favourites. An apartment block of elderly people find the Chinese traditional money for the dead left on their doorstep and two characters find people they know are dead are now living with them again. A mother and her child and a man and his old student friend. But this is not a heart-warming reunion. This story is about guilt the fear that what we did or didn’t do has hurt people. A horrible atmosphere of increasing dread pulling people down into it makes this an absolute chiller from which there is no escape.
A Trip to Paris by Richard Kadrey – Roxanne Hill has lived alone for a year and still no one knows she poisoned her husband and children. Townspeople feel sorry for her instead. This tale is what happens when Roxanne finds her home now visited by black mould which starts to look like her family’s faces. Here a mix of the supernatural and again hidden secrets that can destroy someone. Suspicion, paranoia, and murder are all thrown together to make a tale where we wonder can this woman get away with murder again? Skilfully delivered tension.
The Party by Paul Tremblay – another tale where there manages to be nothing explicitly horrific, but a feeling of dread erupts as a couple go to a work party. One character finds she didn’t; get told by her new wife that the theme is the end of the world. A dark night, strange people and a horrible, strange fruit make this tale feel horribly wrong and foreboding without any explanation. It will worm itself into your mind that something wicked lurks underneath the tale.
Skinder’s Veil – This is another strange wandering tale where a student meets his housemate’s girlfriend who gets constantly visited by an unseen ghost who finds her boyfriend repellent; then we move to a house he must sit with two rules – always let people in who are at the back door and never allow the owner Skinder inside. Link weaves in little dark folk tales that may or may not impact the story and it gets strangely weirder and uneasy as we wonder what happens when the front door is opened. A dark magical mythical tale that suggests so many strange things out there still to find.
Throw in additional tales from the likes of Seanan McGuire, Jeffrey Ford and Stephen Graham Jones this soon becomes a delicious horror anthology and a fine tribute to one of its best authors. Perfect reading for the month of Halloween. Strongly recommended!
