They Shut Me Up by Tracy Fahey
Publisher – Absinthe Books
Published – Out Now
Price – £18 hardback eBook to come
Life is tough. And then there's The Change...
A woman, ignored and invisible, starts to discover her voice. But who—or what—is speaking though her?
Part body-horror, part feminist fiction, They Shut Me Up poses the question: how can we retell historic female narratives?
I think we all want to be seen and listened to – accepted for who we are. But its often interesting to watch in group dynamics who is not paying attention or dismissing someone as unimportant. Those judged as too quiet, too weak, too old and of course the wrong gender are all things I’ve witnessed or heard about too many times to say it is rare. Eventually being ignored I know means you don’t speak up. You lose your voice and your power. In Tracy Fahey’s excellent They Shut up Me Up we have a tale of a woman who finds through the strangest of changes that she has a Voice again (but possibly not her own).
Annie has lived a very quiet life. Just turning 50 she has worked in the one office; lived alone often in the shadow of her apparently more successful twin sister, Annie just wants to avoid attention and survive each day as it comes. But during a agonising office birthday party she starts to hear an angrier voice. One that people think may be her own – especially when she says death To her Enemies blowing out the candles. But this is the start of several changes in Annie’s life; her body; possibly her mind and a new allocated project looking into Ireland’s past and the many notorious women within it. Annie is about to learn truths about herself and her country’s history.
Ok this is a tricky novella to review because Fahey’s premise is surprising and hugely inventive and I’ve no desire to spoil that for you. What I can say is that this is a tale focused on women and being seen. We have Annie who initially seems an older than their time spinster and she is plunged into a series of strange scenes which upset her ordered life and pushing her to re-appraise what she wants and what she is capable of. Indeed we soon realise it’s society that puts Annie in that label not herself and she’s a lot more capable than she thinks. Fahey brings in moments of horror for Annie be they supernatural, biological (the fear our bodies are betraying us as we get older) or sometimes even social the horror of a male GP whose attitude to women is quite frankly insulting but sadly commonplace.
What I loved about this tale is the exploration of how this is never anything new how women who are ‘awkward’ have always get rejected by the society they often must fight against. What may help now though is few have to always do it alone which is an important feature of this story. Fahey does have moments of horror or at least potential horror, but this tale is ultimately about taking the world on and learning to shout at it to pay attention; it is more a tale crossing that genre of horror and fantasy creating something unique. Elements of body horror, myth and history create something special and striking.
They Shut Me Up is a brilliantly told tale with many points to make while delivering a great set of characters we learn to understand and not judge because they are too quiet or rock the boat. It has messages for our past, present and future and is strongly recommended!
