Whirlwind Romance by Sam Thompson

I would like to thank Laura from Unsung Stories for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Unsung Stories

Published – 21/4

Price – £9.99 paperback via http://www.unsungstories.co.uk/store/whirlwind-romance other retailers are available

The walls of our world are thin, and in places they start to break down. A new love affair awakens a host of malignant things on the fringes of a young man’s vision. An academic uncovers an ancient song with the power to change reality. A violent computer game turns into an obsession, bleeding into the waking world.

This debut collection from Sam Thompson (Communion Town, longlisted for the Booker Prize) explores the cracks in the fabric of our existence, the hinterlands where the mundane meets the strange. Drawing upon writers like Robert Aickman and Thomas Ligotti, Whirlwind Romance creates a landscape all its own – a place where a single moment can be the catalyst to turn the very nature of reality upside down. Breathtaking, poetic, and yet shot through with an unsettling darkness, it confirms Thompson’s place as a major talent.

The type of scare that works best for me is the unsettling feeling that makes your skin suddenly tingle. Its being told that you’re about to walk down steps that may suddenly disappear on you or that you may never reach the end of them. Horror is not the only genre explored in the Sam Thompson’s magnificent short fiction collection Whirlwind Romance which gave me a strange trip to other worlds, unusual people and encounters U.K. I that delivered a remarkable experience with each story.

Among the many many stories that I enjoyed in this collection were: -

Where You Are – This excellent collection starts with a non-supernatural tale of a parent losing their child on a street. Thompson makes this experience visceral for the reader to fear a parent’s fears and shame of such experiences, but we also get a walk through this parent’s experience of growing up with a child with autism. Not just a tale here of fear but also love and how I was made to feel all these thoughts at once was delivered beautifully.

Whirlwind Romance – What starts off with a young woman finally deciding to move on in her life after realising that her first messy relationship has cast far too long a shadow over her life for 12 years, we then suddenly flip to the Jamie the man who left her in the lurch. Thompson skilfully gives us two potential reasons for Jamie’s vanishing from Fern’s life one supernatural and one that is not and its up to you as the reader to determine which option you prefer. Neither option is that comforting and it ends deliciously open-ended as to what happens next. Really well delivered and captures the whole feeling of this collection inside it.

The Red Song – There is a wonderful feeling of dread in this story where a young academic arrives in a foreign country to research a poet connecting the country to its ancient path. An ancient ritual beckons to her and that always never ends well in these kind of stories but what works and makes this story unexpectedly more disturbing is the examination of academics seeing the world as a research experiment for glory and not a more humane feeling to help. A standout tale that is brilliantly and surprisingly delivered

Pilgrim: Hinterlands – We get a disturbing tale of a man whose partner is dealing with a seriously ill parent and our lead character thinks a little video game may help him deal with the stress. Here Thompson combines the themes of using entertainment as a distraction; the way a good game can suddenly take over your life and a desire to run from terrible things in real life to create a really powerful tale of obsession going wrong. Watching time suddenly jump; lies being told and a sense that we may have gone a little too deep into the game makes you not sure what is real by the final scene. A standout tale

The Monstrosity in Love – Two strange friends on the edge of society have an irregular catch-up to discuss where they are in their respective lives. But what nearly looks like a tale of manic pixie punk tale switches the focus to our more long-lived narrator who we realise by the mention of dead bodies and enemies has his own secrets. We follow these two friends through their ups and downs until a final confrontation in the near future. I loved the way we got to know these two characters and its final scene is remarkably peaceful. Another of my favourites,

The other Side of the Shadows – an engrossing tale of a gritty detective in a city that feels more a comic horror nightmare. The juxtaposition of a noir style tale and a series of supernatural encounters is handed really well to keep us guessing what the final outcome will be as the genres cross.

The Heights of Sleep – another story where nothing supernatural happen and yet everything feels a little strange. Our narrator talks us through his immense love for a little-known genre author for whom he has created an entire universe to link all the books and then finally he gets several chances to meet his hero and finds the experience unsatisfying. It’s a tale of obsession; how art makes the reader an active part in interpreting a story and never meeting your heroes. Again, a strange final scene that make you wonder what will happen next.

This was a fantastic collection to read and enjoy. Thompson also includes some very short yet impressive 1-2 page slices of fiction that are equally a match for the longer stories with an ability to puzzle, intrigue and unsettle us in each story. Fans of stories that unsettle and pull readers into places we may not want to stay too long before something gets us should run and get this book. Strongly recommended!