Member Review

Start reading "When Things Get Dark" and the air chills with the same unsettling feeling a seance might evoke.  This anthology is challenged with conjuring the spirit of Shirley Jackson's work and the best of these stories dissolve the security of what you rely on. Fear quickens your pulse as the atmosphere shifts away from the safety of "normal".

Horror can easily resort to the gross-out, the blatant scare, the knife-in-the-eyeball shocker. Shirley Jackson was better than that. For the most part, the stories in this collection dip into a dark pool of growing uneasiness. A few fall short, more sketches than fleshed out pieces, but even those hold true to the tone set.

My favorite is "For Sale by Owner" by Elizabeth Hand. A trio of women decide to camp out in a beautiful deserted house. It turns out much more complex than just the obligatory haunted house tale. Stephen Graham Jones, the author of "My Heart is a Chainsaw" and "The Only Good Indians," is also well represented here with "Refinery Road," a night ride where reality seems to bend.  "Quiet Dead Things" by Cassandra Khan touches on the theme of the evil possible by a community consciousness that Ms. Jackson illustrated. "In the Deep Woods; The Light is Different There" by Seanan McGuire tapped into the eeriness felt as terror approaches someone placed out of their element. The closing knockout in this book is "Skindler’s Veil" by Kelly Link, also about a character trying to get his bearings in an environment demanding blind faith despite some unbelievable twists.

I had planned on mentioning a few more pieces--suffice it to say this deserves 5 stars. Ellen Datlow has put together a potent collection of pieces that will usher you into the world Shirley Jackson defined.

Thank you to Ellen Datlow, Titan Books, and NetGalley for providing the Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. #WhenThingsGetDark #NetGalley

“Am I walking toward something I should be running away from?” ― Shirley Jackson

"When Things Get Dark" will be published on September 28, 2021 and this review will be posted on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, BookBub, Facebook and Twitter on that day.