Cheer The Sick by Verity Holloway

Publisher – Black Shuck Books

Published – Out now

Price – £11.99 paper back £2.49 ebook via https://blackshuckbooks.co.uk/cheer-the-sick/

The dissection of the unexplained, I believe, is the scientist’s anchor. Like inclement weather, the inexplicable may take many forms, and what may begin as a spatter of rain is liable to become a typhoon in an instant. In climates such as these we must hold fast, with all the cool-headed dignity we can muster.
     Nevertheless, I am resolved to burn these pages.”

A bedridden camgirl possesses a divine gift; a Victorian warship is haunted by a ghost who knows too much; a miraculous drug is extracted from a captured satyr; a soldier would rather face monsters than her past.
 

From the author of Pseudotooth and The Others of Edenwell, sixteen unsettling tales of the sickly, the desperate, and the doomed.
     

What ails you?

When we start to get aware of being sick it is reminder that our bodies can fail us and as we get older, we may find it reminds us of our own mortality. Sickness is something we fear but also something we stigmatise be it those with long-term conditions, disabilities or mental health issues. How we treat those perhaps also casts a light on being human and not always a positive one. In Verity Holloway’s unsettling and great collection Cheer The Sick we have a a variety of tales exploring the sickly, the desperate and the doomed that really pull the reader into the past and future for tales that linger in your mind long after reading them

Among the many stories I enjoyed were: -

The Luxury – imagines an alternate past where Katrin a middle-aged woman and her Uncle have slowly made a name for themselves by creating the powerful tonic The Luxury that the rich and powerful love to taste because of the strange effect it creates. Only our two main characters know that The Luxury is the name they also give to the strange furred humanoid they keep in their home whose horns provide the special ingredient for the tonic. This is a tale of a woman realising she is trapped in her life, and it is in her own gift to get out of it. The rebellion starts subtly and the dynamics between these three unique characters shift across the tale. Our sympathies stay with Katrin but we sense this will not end easily and it really does not! Every escape requires some price to be paid. Really gripping and will set the tone for the wider collection.

Florabelle – this tale is a gripping Victorian set ghost story that sets the reader on edge when we find our main characters like to dress cadavers up as if playing cards but then Holloway makes us focus on one student who decides to play pickpocket and finds a photo of a child that makes them seek to make amends. But the trip the father’s house is weird, dark and dangerous. I live the way this tale weaves strange images in and becomes quickly very unsettling as a bad deed definitely gets punished, and the use of atmosphere really works.

Cremating Imelda – This is a very unusual tale of an incredibly obese woman’s death and funeral which goes very badly wrong, but Holloway gives Imelda dignity. We see the person not her condition and we also start to realise that she has been holding a magical role in her community which I won’t spoil but ties into what really has been going on. We watch Imelda’s soul react to being cremated and find just possibly hope in her finally being free of responsibility. It is a beautiful tale and the humour is more on us than Imelda.

The Cherry cactus of Corsica – Kurt is a teacher increasingly fascinated by Joshua a new student who tends to travels to schools around the world and seems to be acting out drinking on the premises. This story is a mystery, and Kurt is being pulled in we want to know who is Joshua and his mysterious Uncle and why does Joshua seem afraid. Shadowy secrets, menacing relatives and Kurt perhaps getting too obsessed to do the right thing may be putting everyone in danger. We finally get answers but that may not make the tale end any better. Very smart horror indeed.

The Fireman – a Another historical horror where we unusually are on a naval vessel and follow the ship’s doctor and surgeon as he experiences a series of unusual events. It’s a claustrophobic tale and as people fall ill or injured in a time when amputation more than drugs is the cure this place feels very dangerous, and our crew is very alone. There is also a hidden relationship between the Doctor and his own aide that we subtly get exposed to and we find events are far larger and more powerful than our poor main character can face. It is a disturbing nightmare of a tale.

Veterans – I loved this story as it explored attitudes to disability, long-term conditions and medical care. We appear in an alternate version of our world where a war was fought, and new technologies known as Sensus developed that take care of you when ill. We follow a disabled girl at a snobbish boarding school who gets fascinated by their new teacher who has an artificial leg and was on the other side of the war. This is a very well told complex tale that explores the cruelty of children, our attitudes to those we deem unwell, medicare and the traps that we can plunge people into making them forever in our debts to do with as we please. It’s a futuristic dystopia that casts a sharp light on our own world’s opinions and attitudes

Kindness at the Four Boars in – Another historical horror as a 17th century inn gets strange boarders for a few days who seem fascinated by a happy healthy young man and the local myths. There is a powerful sense of a corrupting wrongness in this story and events get stranger and more menacing our main character is the inn’s maid, but she is more hapless bystander, and it is about how the rich and powerful just always take what they want and damn the consequences. An eerie weird tale that really packs a punch.

Don’t You Know Miss Kelly – this short tale is a brilliant historical nightmare of a tale as we watch a young man debut as a drag performer with a comedy song. It plays the tension and joy of being a performer capturing the crowd, but it feels like something is wrong which we don’t really see until the last scenes appear and change the whole tale. Powerful and hammers home a message for those who never really leave a real-life nightmare

Bernie – A strange m is always seen at the same bus stop in Cambridge. People judge him as mentally unwell, but Holloway takes us into this man’s life and we realise he is definitely not what he seems. It’s a modern ancient folk tale that never ends but makes you view the man very differently by the end. A lovely piece of mythic writing in a modern setting.

The Subtle Feast – We see two men sentenced to death and then follow their earlier lives, first meeting and crimes. Holloway creates a gothic historical with added highwayman, press-gangs and young men being very reckless for fun and we can see already this ends badly but then one scene changes the whole story making it even stranger, sadder and more mystical delivering a powerful punch at the end.

This is a very strong short fiction collection. Full of whispered unsettling tales that prick our attitudes to health and sickness and should also just make us consider our own beliefs on the subject. A wonderful mix of new and historical horror and tales that very rarely go where you expect them to. It is highly recommended!