‘’Passengers are advised to board while the train is still in existence.’’
If we come to think of it, we daily commuters live in a softened, less thre‘’Passengers are advised to board while the train is still in existence.’’
If we come to think of it, we daily commuters live in a softened, less threatening (hopefully…) kind of transportation loop. I have been coveting this collection for three years and although we got off to a rocky start, I soon realised that we were simply meant to be. From the eerie feeling of being alone on the platform, closely listening for the sound of the train that will surely carry you home (or will it?) to the congestion that grows and grows like a deranged Hydra, this volume gives voice to each and every fear of the commuter.
From Prague to New York, Paris and - naturally -London, these are 19 little horrors for the daily commuter to despair upon.
All aboard…
Bullroarer (Paul Meloy): There’s nothing extraordinary in this…thing. It is a stinking pile of utter bullshit and one of the most disgusting stories I’ve ever read…
The Girl in the Glass (John Llewellyn Probert): A young woman finds himself haunted by a girl who hovers between life and death. Quite unique this one…
The Lure (Nicholas Royle): Sensual, tense, elegant. Like a haunting tour of Paris. A young teacher falls prey to the desires of a strange couple. This story needs to be made into a film.
23:45 Morden (Via Bank) (Rebecca Levene): I can’t begin to count the number of shocks my brain was subjected to while reading this extraordinary story of a life turned upside-down in the most horrible way imaginable.
End of the Line (Jasper Bark): A story of time loops and psychogeography that could have been better developed. Interesting, nonetheless.
The Sons of the City (Simon Bestwick): An interesting premise focusing on the futile efforts to create an Underground in Manchester, drawing parallels on how technology disturbs the creatures of the Old World that quickly lost momentum. It contains a few scenes of absolute horror, though.
The Roses that Bloom Underground (Al Ewing): I don’t know what is more disturbing. Things growing out of the walls or happy commuters trying to accommodate each other…
Exit Sounds (Conrad Williams): Mysterious and fascinating, this story has the old glory of the Cinema and the unnerving setting of the nightly Tube walk hand-in-hand.
‘’Where would you like to go that we’ve never been before?’’
Funny Things (Pat Cadigan): An extraordinary piece of writing, one of the best stories I’ve ever read! The agonizing battle of a woman against sudden loss and unbearable grief. An elegy of eerie coping mechanisms, a real Odyssey accentuated by sorrow and loneliness. Simply mindblowing!
‘’You might be on holiday, but some of us have to get to work, dear.’’
On All London Underground Lines (Adam L.G. Nevill): Accidents, incidents and malfunctions keep on happening and the narrator finds himself in a terrifying loop. As if Kafka wrote about life in the Underground, this story is the definition of life as a daily commuter. An all too familiar masterpiece and may I say that the protagonist is my spirit animal, trapped in an endless There and Back Again.
P.S. Bloody tourists…
Fallen Boys (Mark Morris): A teacher finds herself in an eerie tale while on a school field trip in an old mine. A beautiful, sad story that follows the good old tropes of a quintessential British ghost story. Furthermore, it felt oddly relatable since I am a teacher who has had her share with what others would deem as ‘’troubling students’’.
In the Colosseum (Stephen Volk): A hedonistic, hallucinatory nightmare exposing all the layers of human cruelty.
The Rounds (Ramsey Campbell): An outstanding, heart-pounding story with the epitome of the Unreliable Narrator. Is he paranoid or is he really trying to save his fellow passengers?
Missed Connection (Michael Marshall Smith): A man is trying to go shopping before Christmas but is unable to escape the claustrophobic boundaries of the Underground. All exists closed, the city is different and the nightmare is never-ending.
Siding 13 (James Lovegrove): A passenger is trapped in a train that becomes more and more and more and more congested. I got claustrophobic just by reading this masterpiece!
Diving Deep (Gary McMahon): What if Antarctica had its own underground transport system? Yes, I can’t say I liked this one…
Crazy Train (Natasha Rhodes): An intriguing heroine (I ADORED HER!!) and an ode to the dark stories of Rock music, set in LA.
‘’The ground couldn’t hold him.’’
All Dead Years (Joel Lane): A psychologist is trying to help a woman who has experienced manipulation and abuse but the tunnel seems endless. With traces of the myth of Persephone and Hades, this story is exquisitely elegant.
‘’He once read that those who die by the hand of another are the easiest to see. At the far end of the scale are those who die natural deaths - they can never return. But what about the ones whose departures are simply accidental? What does it take to see them?’’
Down (Christopher Fowler): An Underground worker helps victims of the past find their way through the labyrinth of the Tube. Whether those who perished during the Blitz or in tragic accidents, the spirits need a guide. A shuttering ending and if this story doesn’t bring wailing tears in your eyes, then you are Satan!
‘’He turned the corner onto something so unexpected that he stopped dead in his tracks. In front of him were the steps which he knew led down onto the southbound platform of the Northern Line. They did not lead down into the usual shuffling malee of irritable shoppers, however. They led down into total darkness.’’
‘’Emma Green is boldly hale Her house is warm but narrow On scattered grass until she dies She’s wide awake in sorrow.’’
‘’Anna Green is old and frail‘’Emma Green is boldly hale Her house is warm but narrow On scattered grass until she dies She’s wide awake in sorrow.’’
‘’Anna Green is old and frail Her house a warmer borrow Her scattered ashes, unbidden eyes Still wide awake and hollow.’’
Always look both ways when you cross the street. Don’t go anywhere near pylons. Don’t ever go to Almanby. Almanby is the Other. Its name is uttered in frightened whispers, the place of mystery, terror and fascination for the youth who is constantly being flooded with the cautionary tales of the adult world. But what if there is actual truth in those tales? What if some places ARE the Other that must be avoided at all costs?
Three young adults, Heather, Rachel and Antonia, must go to Almanby to find Heather’s boyfriend. Many of their friends have disappeared never to be seen again. And this is how a summer Odyssey of mystery, despair, deceit and obsession begins…
And this is how one of the most beautiful and unique books you’ll ever read is born…
‘’Front doors changed colour overnight, their locks fit different keyes, they opened outward instead of inward. Pets changed colour, or were slightly larger or smaller than before, or they changed sex. Light switches inverted, windscreen wipers swapped sides, fridge magnets demagnetised, televisions detuned, piano keyboards swapped ends with the high notes on the left and the low notes on the right. Beyond the rash of wild conspiracy theories, nobody had a good suggestion, either for the changes or the ghosts. The best anyone could come up with was that reality itself had become sick.’’
First of all, this astonishing novel contains some of the BEST first pages I’ve ever read. We’re talking true, pure Masterpiece Material! Adam S. Leslie has created a dystopia unlike any other and breathed new life into a much-abused genre. The summer seems endless, voices are heard through radio waves, people wither, die and become ghosts. Ghosts lurking in the fields. Ghosts wandering, lost and sad. Ghosts banging on your windows. Ghosts trying to attack you and kill you. This is a land where danger is constant, unpredictable and unbeatable. Your dead relatives will hurt you, silently whispering, watching with dead eyes and lethal intentions. And Almanby is always there, the destination that seems to resemble a different Hell on Earth. And the Earth itself has changed…
‘’Six years of summer. Six years without grey skies or snowdrifts or icy northerly blasts. Six years of sweltering in the same gelatinous humidity.’’
‘’Six years ago, a different kind of pollen drifted in on the summer winds.’’
It is a world of suffocating beauty. A world of summer afternoons and silent interactions, where ‘’the grass smelled of evening.’’ A land of abandoned cars in the fields, of empty towns, of sighs containing terrifying lullabies, of empty funfairs and maypoles moving on their own. A time when you can sit on the grass and let the meadow hear your cries on the way to your meeting your Fate with a sad soul.
‘’Dusk was Rachel’s favourite time of day. The heady stink of night-time plants, still hot from the day’s glare, filling the atmosphere now with their aromas. Everything red and purple and lavender, at once insubstantial and supremely solid. Nothing was quite real at twilight.’’
‘’[...and the sun had baked the sky cobalt blue and naked, burnt all its clothe off. Now just a tortoiseshell of fields lay ahead of them, as flat as the ocean or an alien world, and impossibly green. Woodland, misted blue by the distance, stretched out to their left - and even against its furthest flank, Heather could make out the pinprick- small presence of ghosts. Tiny moments of black and white.’’
The way the writer shocks us in the middle of a ‘’simple’’ paragraph is nothing short of outstanding. Using references to fairytales and folklore, he has composed a dark folk song, steeped in the light of the midday sun, equally scorching and hypnotising.
This is Folk Horror at its finest, and a genuinely BEAUTIFUL novel.
‘’Emerald green the boat that sails The mouse will surely borrow On shattered glass ‘neath stars he cries To guide this day to sorrow.’’
''Don't worry, this house is safe from 'demonic forces'. Except the ones you already left in.''
A dangerous seance goes horribly wrong. A girl carri''Don't worry, this house is safe from 'demonic forces'. Except the ones you already left in.''
A dangerous seance goes horribly wrong. A girl carries out a tricky mission of revenge and retribution. A young member of a coven in Salem tries to become accepted and resurrect her lover in a story with a unique feeling, whimsical, gothic, haunting. A tender boy, quiet and kind-hearted, is fascinated by the peculiar behaviour of a strange classmate with an unnervingly special family. A girl without a shadow tries to face a world suspicious and enticing.
A woman suffering tremendous personal trauma is in need of new skin. A heavily wounded man struggles under the psychological abuse of his mother-in-law (well, aren't we all...?) A dollmaker creates comforting likenesses of the beloved deceased. An Angel of Death finds prey in a bar.
Dark stories (some of them will be really hard to stomach) where the supernatural meets the REAL terror of physical and emotional pain. A few of the stories may seem too confusing, disjointed, lacking a clear direction, but others are simply literary gems.
Definitely difficult, undeniably unique.
Many thanks to Serpent's Tail and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
‘’I always wonder, isn’t being a good listener worth anything? Can’t you do something good for the world without standing in a crowd or shouting fr‘’I always wonder, isn’t being a good listener worth anything? Can’t you do something good for the world without standing in a crowd or shouting from a podium?’’
In a future that may not be as distant as we’d like to think, Alma returns to the island of her childhood, in East Canada, to find solace following a personal tragedy that has left her empty. In the company of the islanders and her aunt’s family, she tries to heal the wounds that have been created by loss and grief. But Nature has decided differently for the small community of Violette has been plagued by strange phenomena. Moths swarm the land, terrible storms strike hard, breaking windows, streetlamps and every glass in every house, lights flash without cause, closed flower buds open. What is worse, residents fall dead without cause and they immediately become forgotten by everyone, even their closest relations. Everyone, but Alma who has a rare gift. She can experience other people’s feelings, going through their fears and hopes, carrying their burdens on her shoulders. And all the while, the old radio tower is looming and the community is filled with the Echoes of the past, voices coming through electric appliances. As the sea level rises and rises, Alma must find the key to heal others and herself.
This is one of the most unique, haunting novels you will ever read…
‘’The sky darkened, and there was the unmistakable calm in the air, the way it felt before a storm. Another storm, right on the tail of the last one, seemed unlikely. But so far nothing about this place was predictable. An owl startled her, flying so close she felt the brush of its wings on her forehead. It landed on a branch with the body of a red squirrel clutched in its talons. The frantic silhouettes of brown bats flitted through the trees, snapping up the abundant mosquitoes.’’
I can’t say much for fear of spoiling a reading experience that must be ‘’lived’’ to become fully understood. Apart from the fact that every single paragraph is written to perfection and the characters jump right through the pages, the themes of this novel are universal and strike straight to the heart. Loss, sorrow, despair, the urge to help, the fight to heal yourself and others, the feeling of hopelessness when you know that you are battling against an enemy that cannot be defeated. And yet, you refuse to give in. You write stories to make the lives of others known, to preserve their existence, to understand your own course through the journey of a community trying to swim against a vicious current.
‘’How many times did you sit in a room and try and fail to understand yourself? A hundred? A thousand? You felt your own energy, your thoughts and emotions, all bouncing around, seemingly disconnected vibrations, and you could never quite pin them down or predict what they would do next. You could never tell when they would begin, or from which direction they would come, or when they would fade, or if they would simply cease abruptly, without warning.’’
‘’Sometimes the impossible still happens to be the thing that makes the most sense.’’
Alma is Latin for ‘’soul’’ and she is the soul of this beautiful novel. Observant, sensitive, quiet, astute, deeply compassionate, intelligent, she is the perfect main character and our guide in this special journey. Her strength makes her a true example to be followed. It is such a joy to witness her determination to narrate the stories of her friends, to keep their memory alive amid bitter goodbyes and growing uncertainty while searching into the void for her beloved without losing her shrewdness and her kindness for a single minute, something so rare in today’s literature that wants the majority of ‘heroines’ behaving as stupid as it gets to make them ‘strong’ and ‘feminist’. Spare us…Alma is not afraid to assert her right to fight against time and space - quite literally - and refuses to accept defeat. The end may be inevitable but what better way to exit according to our rules? The rest of the characters are also a joy to read, deeply humane, kind, realistic. A cast that is a breath of fresh air, despite the ‘heavy’ themes of the novel.
‘’The past is where I live and I like it that way,’’ she said flatly. ‘’Everything that really matters to me is in the past.’’
At times reminding me of the excellent film Frequency, starring Jim Caviezel, this novel is a tranquil, tender, bittersweet whisper into the void that has been Contemporary Literature of late. Without the need for gimmicks, rich in an unsettling, eerie - almost supernatural - feeling guided by incorporeal voices and the wings of Death that we cannot escape, Jessica Bryant Klagmann has written an elegy for a planet on the verge of destruction and a hymn to the fighting spirit, the resilience and the gentleness of the human soul.
‘’We heard it, and we felt it, the pulse of a dying planet that had stories it could no longer tell on its own. It was beautiful and comforting, that rhythm - suffused with pieces of everyone and everything we had loved - but it was also broken.’’
Many thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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