Author: Tananarive Due
Release Date: April 18, 2023
Disclaimer: I received a copy early via a giveaway done on
Librarything
Due’s
collection of short stories runs with fantasy and horror. Some of the stories are interconnected, be it
by character or setting. Most raise
questions about self, be it in terms of living in a hostile society or looking
at oneself.
The
title story, “The Wishing Pool” hits especially hand, not only because of Due’s
introduction to the collection but because it can be seen as happening to so
many of us as we start to lose parents or close friends /family to the ravages
of dementia and other diseases of the mind.
When Due tells the story about a woman who wants to help her father who
is losing his memory, the emotion and power of the style hit home and hit hard.
“The Wishing
Pool” is followed by “Haint in the Window” which is another story about loss,
though instead of watching a family member slowly loss themselves, it is, in
part, about watching a neighborhood become something else and the impact that
it has on businesses and the people who live there. If the ending of “The Wishing Pool” is some
type of comfort, the ending here raises questions and concerns that we struggle
with and fight against every day.
Due has
a novel coming out later this year, The Reformatory, and she has written about
her research for that novel periodically
That novel takes place in Gracetown.
In this short story collection, there are Gracetown stories. “The Last Stop on Route 9” also directly
refers to the setting of the novel. “Last Stop” is an excellent and spooky road
story that deals with intergenerational trauma, travelling while Black, and the
racial history of the South. To say that
Due handles all that in one story well would be an understatement. She hits it out of the park.
Two
other Gracetown stories – “Migration” and “Caretaker” - are slightly different in tone but also
address darker issues with the use of horror.
Both stories have a creepy feel.
The other two Gracetown stories “Rumpus
Room” and “Suppertime” are different again.
And “Suppertime” is a wonderful adventure story that works in growing up
and figuring out family. “Rumpus Room” I
didn’t enjoy as much as the others but it does address several hard issues and
is worth the read for incorporating topics in a way that are not usually done
with female protagonists.
There
are pandemic stories in this collection as well. And those run a variety of ways. Two of them, titled The Naymina Stories” are
set in a dystopia that reminds one of Butler’s works. (and Butler is referenced in more than one
story in this collection). I actually
really loved “One Day Only” in this section which presents a society after devastation
in a different way. “Shopping Day”, one
of the non-connected dystopian/pandemic stories focuses on the eldest child and
the need to make a decision when a parent doesn’t return home. Due captures the conflicting emotions and desires
so well in “Shopping Day”. Honesty, can
we forget the Walking Dead, and make the characters of ‘Shopping Day” the stars
of a series?
“Ghost
Ship” is another of the pandemic stories, but not in the same way as the
others. Like “The Last Stop of Route 9”
there is far more going in “Ghost Ship” than the simple plague and illness. The last story of the collection, “The
Biographer” is an excellent closing story and meshes with some of the ideas and
hopes not only of the pandemic stories, but of the title story as well.
Due’s
stories aren’t magical in the sense that the term is usually used when describing
fantasy. And it’s true, outside of “The
Wishing Pool”, the stories here don’t fit that limited definition of that word
when describing fantasy.
But they
are magical. Every single story in this collection is magical.
They are
magical because they connect to and with you.
They represent the human condition: now, then, and later. They deal with the trauma of the past and the
trauma of now as well as the struggle to move beyond. They realize that answers are not easy.
You would be poorer for it, if you didn’t read this collection
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