Turning of the Seasons - A Dark Almanac by JS Breukelaar and Seb Doubinsky
I would like to thank the authors for a copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher - IFWG Publishing Australia
Published - Out Now
Price - £4.99 kindle eBook
Seasons have always been connected with the passing of time and the changes of life, inspiring myths, folklore, poems and songs. In this short collection award-winning J.S. Breukelaar and Seb Doubinsky have decided to pay tribute to the old tradition of yearly almanacs, which contained short pieces of lore and traditions. Keeping with the short format, they have renewed the genre by infusing it with a modern-day setting, pushing the boundaries of the folk-horror uncanny into the borders of our cities. A succession of disturbing stories and vignettes, sometimes poetic, sometimes funny, but always gruesome, Turning of The Seasons will surely be an almanac you will never forget.
I really enjoy a folk horror story. Stories that take and play with myths and local history and work to creep us out. Its a reminder that the past is a place that can be haunting and also troubling. Who does not enjoy a good chiller? In shorter fiction I was very entertained by Turning of The Seasons - A Dark Almanac in which Seb Doubinsky and JS Breukelaar provide a smorgasbord of different tales based around the seasons using modern and older myths to create a successful and varied set of strange tales to enjoy.
Among the stories that I enjoyed were
The Bear, The Witch - a spinning tale of perspectives as three strange characters all try to solve their respective problems and it ends smartly and unexpectedly with a dark smile on top
The Innocent Child - a flash fiction length piece of the Gods deciding who is best and the ending is unsettling in the best ways
Friedlichstadt - a European traveller crosses into a town that is perfectly peaceful; and has been for a very long time. I loved the way this story never explains the mystery just makes you feel our narrator crossed into a dark story we probably will never know the answer to and perhaps that is for the best.
212 - a powerful strange tale of schoolkids arguing over who will ring the doorbell of a infamous house with a strange reputation. Then it goes in a very unusual and weird direction as we enter a different world and then has a really open ended but life changing final scene that leaves us wondering what happens next.
The Comet - a comet approaches the earth and people wonder what it will bring. The reveal of what transpires is smart and we may find ourselves taking sides as to was it the right thing
Fireproof - in what appears to be an australian setting a fire chief meets at the scene of two deaths an infamous spirit. This feels a powerful new myth with many questions as to what has happened and if it was good or evil in nature. Really interesting idea.
Yellow - Another powerful and disquiting tale. A mailman gets taken away and this as we find out all hints towards a strange family history and either madness or a very unusual explanation. As we don't know which it is unsettling and so a great read.
The Gift - a comical wizard entertains a crowd; there is a comment not a question joke many will love and then the floor drops away from us and the story smartly takes a darker turn I was not expecting and changes the whole story
Lifeline - a lonely man in a nightclub agrees to get his fortune read and it is not what he expected. Enjoyably weird and a very smart idea about human fear.
The joy of very short flash fiction tales is that you only have to wait a page or two before another story and full credit to the authors for adding a good mix of variety, tone and styles in the stories so it never gets repetitive or predictable. Well worth a look for horror fans!
