...the Soul of Wit - Short Reviews

Enjoy the shorties, have a great October!

Nestlings by Nat Cassidy

Moving into a new place has always held a scary kind of fascination for me. I'm not an animist, but when it comes to new apartments, especially ones I saw and (hopefully) chose for myself (and wasn't forced to rent because I got nothing else) I believe in some kind of interaction between you and your new place, and I usually feel super vulnerable in those first days before the place becomes mine. That vulnerability triggers all kinds of crazy thoughts, energies, sleepless nights, dreams – it's a phase of unrest and, for the lack of a better word in English, “unheimlichkeit”, which translates to eeriness, but is derived from the stem word “heim” which means “home” and “unheimlich” to “unhomely” etc. Just as an aside - when I moved into my current flat just before the pandemic broke out my phone kept on giving me the warning that the phone charger is wet and cannot charge, even though that was impossible... Or the lights used to flicker every time the train behind the house passed by... Or the old wall paint keept on coming through no matter how many times I painted it over... I used to imagine invisible demons licking my phone charger, sticking their long tongues into the inlet, or a dark silhouette between the flickers, or the house not letting me paint it, change it.

We're friends now, though.

It is this feeling that makes me appreciate the use of this trope in horror fiction, the peak being Ira Levin's Rosemary's Baby, which combines said angst with cults and misogynistic manipulation, creating a progressively threatening and paranoiac atmosphere resulting in devastating surrender. Exactly that atmosphere is something Nat Cassidy succeeds in capturing in his latest novel Nestlings, which strongly echoes Levin's masterpiece.

A young couple with baby miraculously finds a great housing opportunity in New York City, she trying to recover from the aftereffects of the complications of birth, which left her paralyzed, and he slowly discovering a new world his neighbors in this gorgeous yet mysterious new building are letting him in on.

Cassidy's writing appeals to me – in this second book I've read by him, Mary being the first, I again thought that the characters he creates are his forte. Even though couples with children and the difficulties of parenthood isn't really my world, I was interested in what would happen to Ana and Reid and the story takes the reader towards an ending which is unexpected and makes you ponder. The supernatural element used here, even though Salem's Lot is being name dropped in the blurb, not your usual vampire and includes interesting notions from Judaism, refreshing the trope infinitely, creating its own myth.

Our Own Unique Affliction by Scott J. Moses

A small novella in which the reader follows two sisters, Alice Ann and Hannah Grace, who have been turned into vampires about a century ago.

Our Own Unique Affliction has many strengths; there were some nice scenes here, especially the turning of humans was nicely done, and the prose is beautiful, the book has depth. Moses focuses rather on main character Alice Ann and her coping with her vampirism than anything else, more character building and though I liked that, it felt more like an excerpt of something bigger, which can be good in an experimental way. It is an interesting work as a vampire novel. I just really can’t warm up to narration in present tense and along with a nonlinear storyline that confused me a little. I’d definitely like to read something else by this author.

Stay Out Of The Tub!! by D.W. Hitz

Ideal for those who like a little horror in their smut! So little (but nasty and intense) horror does this book deliver that at the 50% mark I was convinced the supernatural element here is the amount of sex people over the age of 40 can have with various sexual partners, work jobs they have to be physically present at, and raise kids on top of it all. I mean, I guess some of us would be so exhausted we would practically live in the titular bathtub.

It is after the 50% mark that the horror comes into its own, and it gets downright titanic (unfortunately the story only goes until about 75% in the kindle version and the remaining 25% constitute a preview to another book by the same author).

The only character who was a sweetheart was nine year old Freddy, and he made a smart final boy! Considering he survived the ordeal, I guess, we can prepare ourselves for his future adult self's sexual escapades in the next installment, who knows? I also never rooted for a bathtub nor did I have any kind of feeling whatsoever for a bathtub before. So this book offered me a new perspective.

A Different Darkness and Other Abominations by Luigi Musolino

… the cigarette burning down between his lips, making spectres of smoke dance in that room which had once hosted life ...

Elegance in writing will take a book a long way, especially if that elegant form is coupled with delicate horror, as it is in the charming A Different Darkness and Other Abominations by Luigi Musolino. The specific darkness of this book encloses alpine atrocities, sirens luring and killing fishermen, tormented small town outsiders wreaking havoc, punishment, lactic acid - believe it or not -, and children, again and again, harm or threat to children or babies.

As curious and charming this darkness is, it wasn't enough for me and I felt it disintegrate before it could even encircle me. There are a few points why this work didn't quite hit the mark for me which probably has more to do with me and my criteria for good horror rather than anything else. A new geography as setting, people reacting to the supernatural differently, or even the thought of the supernatural existing in a place unaccustomed, is always a breath of fresh air very welcome in dark fantasy. That being said, despite this novum, the horror in most stories of this collection follows known paths instead of paving its own way: parental anxieties of the corruption of children, folkloric aroma, punishment being but some of the templates Musolino settles in, dampening a little my excitement.

Musolino really has his way around with words, but he has the tendency to use those words to tell rather than show, at times giving the reader the feeling of being spoon fed. Using catch words such as "the unknown", "incomprehensible" or "offense to normality" is acceptable in writing cosmic horror, although I think that kind of deciphering is the job of the reviewer. It leaves the impression the reader is told to feel cosmic dread instead of really feeling it. A writing in which the author succeeds in showing, describing, encrypting something of which the abnormality will slowly dawn on the reader and that realization triggering a dread or even a physical reaction in the reader, will have a greater effect than the author telling me that thing looks not normal. That kind of grabbing the gut and squeezing it, making its dread physically felt, is unfortunately not something A Different Darkness does. It's possible that it does not aim at it anyway, thus its nomination for a fantasy award, and not horror.

Nevertheless there are some truly original and unsettling ideas to be found here too. My highlights were; The Strait, because of my love for marine horror and sea monsters, Black Hills of Torment, in which the town's misfit claps back impressively and finally, my favorite, The Last Box, because I'm a sucker for circuses and curiosities and it has a quiet, unassuming, but authentic kind of horror.

At the end of this month we will see if Musolino will be awarded the World Fantasy Award, which is in my opinion a very pretentious title considering the nominees don't really represent the world but the English speaking world - a critique of which Musolino is of course exempt and I wish him luck. Despite my somewhat strict commentary I never mean to be dismissive and appreciate A Different Darkness, it is definitely worth your time.