Listen: The Sound of Fear edited by Elizabetta McKay
I would like to thank Eule for a copy of this anthology in exchange for affair and honest review
Publisher - Ninestar Press
Published – Out Now
Price – £16.63 paperback £6.10 Kindle eBook
A knocking. A ringing. A steady drip-drip-drip. These are the sounds that haunt us. Drive us mad. Draw us in like the songs of sirens, hypnotic and deadly. And we must either give in, or resist with everything we have…and hope it’s enough.
Listen: The Sound of Fear offers ten stories written exclusively by trans and nonbinary authors that explore the chilling, perplexing, terrifying nature of sound.
Horror even in books relies on sounds or its absence. The creak on the stairs or the rustle of leaves in the forest all can have an impact on our subconscious and remind us that sometimes even humans can be prey for something. Even total silence can be scary as we so rarely hear it. In the very interesting horror collection Listen: The Sound of Fear we are offered tales written exploring this concept in many interesting ways.
Among the stories that I enjoyed were
Kill Your Darlings by Ridley Harker – a very strong opening tale in 19th Century America where two male store assistants find a phonograph that seems able t kill the many people who purchase it for it only to return to the shop shortly afterwards. Harker takes the traditional cursed object story and creates a strong mystery but also winds into this a relationship between the two main characters at a time when homosexuality was illegal. Scary, tender and thoughtful this story keeps us on our toes until the mystery is explained. Very impressive.
Exhibition by Laure Jane Barnett – A performance artists is in a Perspex box and one night she and the night guards all start to hear something. A very strong tale where sound without explanation is used very effectively and just more chaos surrounds our very trapped main character. Horror that cannot be fully explained is always very disturbing and I like how this story decides to keep its secrets making our own ideas that much more terrifying. One of my favourites.
On the Other Side of Sound by Jon James – A man in a car crash receives a metal plate in his skull and now he hears always a terrible sound. This is potentially a story of a man driven to extremes or just pure madness and its wonderfully disturbing. Horror when a decent person decides to act inhumanly can be always terrifying.
Her Little Joke by Eule Grey – My favourite story in the collection. It’s told as a podcast set in a Northern UK town and the mystery is one of those places where the residents are being disturbed by strange sounds at night. This uses an often-common local news story and makes it something a lot more interesting. Grey achieves this by the brilliant use of our narrator the charming, funny and definitely unique Mave Kitten a fifty something purple haired moped driving want to be journalist. Mave’s voice captures you and makes you care about the story and the danger she gets in. One of the best short stories I have read this year.
Holy Water by A R Vale - a trans teenage boy with hearing difficulties arrives at a school where cruelty from fellow classmates starts to build but this school has its own secrets. I enjoyed this story’s reminder that school, is very rarely a safe place for most people
Snipper Snapper by Eule Grey – A short but delightfully disturbing tale exploring the partners in crime relationship that cats and their owners get into with victims being disposed of. But who are the victims? Playfully evil!
Bride Of Brine – An estranged daughter arrives back in her hometown on the sea when her father tells her that her own brother is now missing. Less horror and more a tale of loss and being found. Old folk myths get different spins and just possibly ends on a happy note.
A very impressive collection and worth noting that all the stories are exclusively by trans and non-binary authors who were mainly new to me. Very strong tales that play with the concept in various ways and a perfect way to unnerve yourself on a dark evening and hopefully you’ll realise what that noise is just by the window before it’s too near you. Highly recommended!
