Matryoshka by Penny Jones

Publisher – Hersham Horror Stories

Published – Out Now

Price – £8.00 paperback £3.00 Kindle eBook

There’s something wrong with her husband, Mark. Lucy had heard all the rumours about him, the whispered warning behind her back. The half heard Chinese whispers seemed to haunt her, mocking her wherever she goes. Now it appears that whatever’s the matter with Mark is spreading; tainting, infecting both strangers and those that she loves the most. So, Lucy will go to any lengths to protect both her young daughter and her unborn child.

Are there some people you will take on trust as to what they say? Friends and family very probably. Are there strangers you’d probably believe or follow their advice – perhaps your Doctor? A nurse? How about a pregnant woman in distress? We must believe them, mustn’t we? In the haunting yet fantastic novella Matryoshka by Penny Jones we meet a woman who is finding her life is slowly being taken over by dark forces and feels certain no one can rescue her delivering one of the most chilling stories I’ve read.

Lucy is heavily pregnant juggling the changes her body is going through with also managing her three-year-old daughter and her constantly working husband Mark. One day a stranger knocks on the door and asks for sugar. A stranger who reminds Lucy very much of her younger self prior to babies, motherhood, and loss of time. This sets rapidly a series of events that makes Lucy increasingly afraid someone is trying to take her life over – the watchers at the playground, her psychologist and even her own family start to behave a little differently. Timeslips take place and increasingly it feels like Lucy must escape before something very very bad happens.

Be warned dear reader I am not going to tell you very much about this story. It’s best to go in with knowing probably as much as I’ve told you. What I think is important is how this tale made me start questioning my reactions to events. My perspectives altered from this is strange; this is terrifying to please don’t do that!! Reality in a tale is always flexible and Jones very deftly changes this in two ways. Very simple everyday scenes are transformed into something much more disturbing -  a child putting their toys away is compared to some one burying the dead; a playground of watching parents is now a suspicious place where everyone is being watched and being told yet again there is someone at the door is giving you a worry that this tie Lucy is in danger. At the same time my perspective sof characters also shifts – who I believed, who I suspected of telling lies alters through the tale – even if they’re a child. It’s a tale of suspicion, paranoia, and the sense that the world is going mad all around you. I loved how Jones made me as a reader question of the reality of the tale itself.

Making this all work is Lucy - a woman who feels lost in the roles she plays – mother to be; mother, wife and she barely remembers being herself anymore. Taken for granted and increasingly viewed with suspicion herself. It is refreshing to see a tale remind us that pregnancy has huge physical and mental tolls compared to how media likes to portray it. We can feel her anxiety and stress levels build as well as her isolation and suspicions deepen that all is not well. We are sympathetic but also unable to help which makes the reader feel deeply uncomfortable.

Matryoshka is a fascinating, sometimes disturbing and yet always compelling horror tale that makes you as a reader question your own sympathies and sense of processing the world we see. It explores an important issue and may make you question are there better ways we or the wider society can help someone like this. How far is anyone away from this happening to them? The answers Penny Jones are disconcerting, but it is a read I think fans of dark psychological horror should definitely pick up

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