Insanity By Increments

D. Donovan, Senior eBook Reviewer, MBR:

Modern literary short fiction is not unusual: many attempt it; relatively few do it well - especially in the style of the gothic horror approach so aptly explored by Poe, Hawthorne, and other greats. That's why it's such a pleasure to read Insanity by Increments: it takes some of the methods and madness of these greats and moves a step further, presenting nine short stories of contemplation and quiet horror.

Take 'Once Found, Once More Forsaken', for example (the first story in the collection). The protagonist has slept through a storm and is expecting the arrival of his brother, a wealthy wanderer, that morning; but his chance encounter with an old schoolgirl introduces a sense of danger ("The air had an unusual odor, one that seemed to have followed the storm, with the rising waters replenishing the stagnant pools of the bog."), and what transpires next is anything but a congenial family visit.

Surreal moments, gently simmering mysteries, a woodland replete with death and growing horror - all this is gently woven into a story that opens with a receding storm and evolves into exquisitely challenging horror.

'Omens of Winter' is another heart-pull: it opens with a family dilemma and, once more, time is taken to paint scenes properly, right down to the creak of a door as a last generation stands strong against what is to come: "The ancient door still made a ratcheting sound at a point in its arc, and I was careful to not let it alarm them, sliding from behind it as I escaped into the hallway and up the stairs towards my room." When the family structure changes, the kids face many new choices - and dangers.

All are well-done, replete with psychological tension throughout. If it's nonstop staccato action that is desired, look elsewhere. If it's the slow simmer of a buildup that injects readers into the sights, sounds, and circumstances of all kinds of horror and insanity, choose Insanity by Increments: it's a deliciously complex treasure trove especially recommended for fans of literary Gothic fiction who want modern scenarios and representations in the context of a genre that receives (regrettably) little attention these days.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite:

Insanity By Increments: Stories is a collection of literary short stories written by Alaric Cabiling. The nine stories that comprise this collection seem to share a theme of dislocation and/or alienation; many of their heroes are cold, disaffected or out of step with the world. The first story, Once Found, Once More Forsaken, is narrated by a man who admires his talented, eccentric and adventurous older brother and whose visit he has anticipated and prepared for with care and the deli meats he knows his brother loves. The brother comes and swirls through town in his Lamborghini; his old girlfriend throwing herself at him barely out of sight of her husband and his propensity to violence. "I never loved her," he tells his younger brother and is gone in the morning, almost as if he had never been there at all.

Inside Alaric Cabiling's literary short story collection, Insanity By Increments lurk compelling and darkly edgy gems that grab the reader's attention, toy with him for a few brief moments, and then toss him aside casually, without an afterthought while each succeeding story dares the undaunted audience to try again. The mood in these stories is stormy and oppressive and still somehow so seductive that I found myself unable to put Insanity By Increments Down. And after finishing the concluding, and title, story, I thought to read the first story once again and so retrace the cycle, but thought it best to wait a bit and let the dark magic settle down to safer levels. Cabiling is a master at creating moods, especially those which border on the macabre, the obsessive and the melancholy. Each word seems selected carefully, examined and put in place just so, and the flawed and flailing characters he peoples his work with become almost familiar to the reader as he himself is...and that's a pretty scary thing, and the handiwork of a powerful and creative writer. Insanity By Increments: Stories is most highly recommended.

Reviewed by John Nicolas of Bookreview.com:

"Insanity by Increments, Stories," a collection of short stories by Alaric Cabiling, takes its title from the last story in the book, but it might describe the reader if you decide to pull an all-nighter and read this volume in one sitting.

Cabiling's stories are grounded in one of the long traditions of American short stories, from Melville's "Bartleby" to the Montana of Richard Ford: lonely men at odds with bleak landscapes, traumatized by a childhood that was often violent, and always lacking true emotional warmth. These narrators are frequently writers, artists, young men who are capable of creating their own strange stage settings so that even within this tradition, they come off as memorable.

Some of Cabiling's protagonists live prosaic lives, some are definitely out on the fringe. The photographer of dead beauty queens in "Frailty" is as proud of his aesthetic skill and success as is the novelist in "Dulcinea," and Cabiling eases us through these nightmarish sequences by tossing in some Latin American magic realism. The tone throughout many of the stories is that of a surrealist move, where one absurd scene after the other continues to mount toward some dark inevitability. The endless days slipping away in a "wash of gray" against a pale sky are contrasted by closing time at motel bars, dark, gaudy rooms inhabited by people who do not really belong there—people on their way to and from somewhere else. You cannot help but be impressed by the author's ability to establish scene and pace within the first few paragraphs of his stories, and the simple dialogue is effective despite a careless parade of awkward adolescent sentences.

Unfortunately "Insanity by Increments" is only available as an ebook and that is an awkward venue for stories in which present, past and future often intermingle. A handsomely spaced format would have been a great assistance here. Bookreview.com hopes the author will take advantage of a good editor in the future. His talent certainly justifies the expense.

reviewed by Mihir Shah of US Review of Books:

"It's like there's this stranger deep inside of you, sharing space in your mind, whispering, sabotaging everything."

Insanity by Increments is a collection of nine short stories, each filled with progressively ascending tension; each walks the fine line between reason and the dark impulsive tendencies of the human mind.

While the novel takes the title of the final story, the stories prior are the build up. In the opening story, "Once Found, Once More Forsaken," the image of the dead swans in the forest thrusts the reader into a somber mood and ensures that there will be no fitting, happy end. "The Illusion of Progress," paints a grim, albeit real portrait of life: marriages fail, accidents happen, and even when one might think they've hit rock bottom, there's still further down to go.

Cabiling does an incredible job of using the setting to depict the ominous mood of his narrative. Examples include phrases like, "furniture would sit somberly like tombstones."

"Winter’s Eden," is the story that stands out. The phrase Eden plants the forbidden fruit idea into the audience's mind. Whether it's the tension between Amy and her Uncle Henry, or Henry's reluctant fulfillment of his obligations to his paraplegic wife, Leticia, this story pushes the envelope.

To have a collection that repeatedly trumps predictable behavior is refreshingly original. "Frailty" toys with the macabre and will certainly get a gasp from its readers as the story spirals into a darkening world.

Interestingly, sexual tension is almost ubiquitous. However, the story with the least is possibly the most depressing: "Omens of Winter." Set in Scuttlefield, Cabiling shines light on a painstaking life of toiling the farm and resigning one's self to a lifetime of despair.

Overall, the simple structure makes for an easy read. The content, at times, resembles a fusion of Poe and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Other times, it shatters the barriers of reason and lets readers dive into the horrific reality that is depression.