A Curious Cartography by Alison Littlewood
Publisher – Black Shuck Books
Published – Out Now
Price - £11.99 paperback £2.49 ebook via https://blackshuckbooks.co.uk/a-curious-cartography/
Tales of dark lore, inescapable hauntings, peculiar beasts, strange birds and mysterious happenings from across the known world and beyond…
The stories in A Curious Cartographynot only chart a writer’s journey but range across the globe: from Vietnam to Sweden, from London to New York, from Cornwall to Lancashire and the Yorkshire coast.
Some discover lands more curious still, beyond the reach of any map…
Horror often involves being lost. Often obviously in the countryside in a decaying castle, creepy forest or chased by a man with a chainsaw in the middle of nowhere. But horror can also be about people being lost in their thoughts, petty rivalries, grief or just life in general. Alison Littlewood is an excellent horror writer the blog has enjoyed reading for several years and now in the wonderfully eerie A Curious Cartography we have a fine collection of their short fiction. A read you too will get lost in but unlike many of the characters we meet you’ll leave having enjoyed the wonderful tales within.
The first part of the collection deals with monsters and starts with ‘The Boggle Hole’ a young teenager and his beloved grandad are enjoying a break. Littlewood makes us feel the warmth and closeness between the two and then we go to a deceptively strange coast which has a boggle known for its tricks. The skill here is a very subtle type of evil is about to be performed. The stakes can be seen as small but when we realise the extent of the impact its quite alarming. In ‘Jenny Greenteeth’ a WW2 evacuee must deal with being placed in the countryside with a farm with two very unwelcoming children. There is a pond rumoured to be haunted nearby. Nasty tricks are used here, and our vulnerable main character is feeling very alone. The supernatural starts to take over the story with dire results but the tragedy of why this girl is alone means there is an even sadder ending to come. Then we leap to modern day New York with ‘In The Wabe’ where a mother tells us of her three year search for her missing young daughter. A strange Alice in Wonderland statue holds the key to the disappearance and Littlewood uses the random weirdness of Wonderland magic here to a more disturbing idea -internally consistent with the logic of such a tale here the impact on this family is horrible but compelling to read. Then in ‘Headland of Black Rock’ we geta truly annoying main character a faded star hiding in a retreat on the coast. We get a wonderful feel for the type of person they are with all their snide remarks and resentments but then their lust gets in the way of common sense nd a beautiful woman offers him delights but various clues are not noticed in time. The ending is very satisfying for the reader! With ‘The Merrie Dancers’ we have a tale within a tale and our narrator meets her new sweet elderly neighbour who hides her legs from view. We are then told the neighbour’s tale of faraway Scottish isles and the dangerous magical folk on them who create bargains that always have a high price. The gradual shading of the story into something darker and nastier is very well handled. Finally, we are off to an old people’s home with ‘Ways to Wake’ one of those sweet tales you read about but when you think about it perhaps something darker lies in store – a cat that senses when someone is dying. We see things from the resident’s side and as well as a compelling mystery there is a gradual sense of nearing danger, and we wonder if any form of escape will be possible. I loved this story as a simple care home feels a much more sinister place.
The more ghostly side of horror arrives in the next section but often in unexpected ways. With ‘The July Girls’ we have a sad tale of sibling rivalries cut short when the elder daughter dies. Our narrator feels she has always been on the sharper end of her sister’s anger and is looking forward to getting out of her shadow but perhaps family stays with you longer than you expect. The tension builds, the relationships are exposed to us and a very strange final location and nasty ending pulls you all the way in the dark. Then off to a creepy Victorian Theatre for a taste of the weird and gothic in ‘The Marvellous Talking Machine’ where our narrator tells us of the time he met a famed inventor but whose show made audiences disturbed more than happy. It’s a powerfully strange tale as we wonder what this invention is; then we gather its more than simple technology at work and then finally a trap from beyond the grave awaits to an sombre disturbing conclusion. Modern day Hanoi creates confusion for our travelling narrator in ‘Hungry Ghosts’ this tale is more someone encountering something wildly out of their reference points and understanding of the world as her friend finds a new but very possessive and strange boyfriend. Little wood makes things just feel out of sync; a growing understanding of the myths of the Hungry Ghosts and then we come out the other side changed but not quite sure has everything fully returned to normal. Another tale I hugely enjoyed. We get a tribute to a classic MR James tale with ‘..And I’ll Come To You’ but this time it’s a new divorcee going on a modern sailing ship cruise with his friends. A strange island, an old whistle and then things truly get spooky. A different type of tale the classic but it links skilfully to the original and just feels incredibly haunting in many ways – my favourite in the collection. We get a fantastically weird location in ‘The Light You Can Hear’ an arctic hotel made of ice and here the ghosts are what you bring with you as a couple for reasons we don’t’ yet understand try to find some piece but a ice statue of a child sets horrible things in motion. The creepiness here is subtle and who knows could be a happy ending for the characters but I suspect not.
Birds and folk tales feature in the next section with ‘Black Feathers’ a young girl walks us through her strange love/hate relationship with her younger brother. Ee get the rivalries of childhood but then a little gift makes things turn very dark quickly and just when we think we know how bad things will get something even more eerie is revealed. It’s a very clever and disturbing tale. This also links neatly with ‘White feathers’ our core character is a young girl and she finds a beautiful feather that starts to make her look and soon feel very different. Its also got a feel of something eerie about to happen but in very different ways to the first tale and yet has a wonderfully nasty and unexpected ending. Finally, in ‘Swanskin’ we get a darker version of folk tales with a fishing village where wone woman seems constantly trapped but out narrator is helpful to the events that will unfold. It is filled with growing menace and truly horrible scenes with a powerfully scary final page suggesting even more horror is about to be unleashed.
The final section takes us to many strange places. We get a Holmesian tale with ‘The Adventure of the Avid Pupil’ where we have unusually a weaker and increasingly off his game Holmes seems about to be eclipsed by an ambitious policeman. All though is not quite what it seems and indeed the deduction shows who is on top very ingeniously! With ‘The Flowering’ Littlewood has a compelling narrator who loves flowers but also controlling the woman of his desire. The use of gardening terms and flowers to add atmosphere and fill in the menace of the tale is delivered powerfully but hope (from one point of view) stays to the end. I loved the weird horror that awaits in ‘The Entertainment Arrives’ which captures the feeling of a lost UK coastal hotel where a strange Punch and Judy show is about to start. Its horribly sinister and yet feels a long-running ancient myth…nasty in all the best ways. Another creepy hotel is then found with ‘The View From The Basement’ where our middle aged main character is puzzled by his little getaway turning into something that reminds him constantly of his former wife who he has few fond memories of. I really liked the way the elements of this tale comes together and it has the feeling of an unlucky soul who steps into the wrong place at the wrong time…but you may not feel too sorry for their fate. Finally with ‘ The Same As The Air’ we get a little cosmic horror of a strange postcard from who two neighbours who vanish compels our main character to go to the place they were last seen. It seems to have a malign influence on her. Are things about to unfold logically or is something much more supernatural at work and about to win again? The story doesn’t tell us and that makes it hugely compelling.
A Curious Cartography is a brilliant collection of different types of unsettling stories from the past to the present with a host of lost souls about to find their lives changed forever. It reminds us that Littlewood is an incredibly skilled storyteller, and this is a strongly recommended collection.!
