Author: Edited by Ellen Datlow
Release Date: Oct 12, 2021
Disclaimer: ARC via Netgalley.
Most
people in the United States have read Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” or
perhaps her novel, The Haunting.
But Jackson wrote so much other work, including works about her
children. In the Ellen Datlow edited When
Things Get Dark, the contributors pay homage to Jackson by using, in many
cases, both her supernatural and home themed writing.
As with
any collection, some stories stand out more than others, but this is Datlow
edited collection, so there isn’t a bad story in the bunch.
My
favorites include:
“A Hundred
Miles and A Mile” by Carmen Maria Machado, a story that at first seems to be
about a woman in therapy but becomes
much more. It is one of the
stories that plays more with the question of ordinary.
“Quiet
Dead Things” by Cassandra Khaw at first seems like it is directly channeling
“The Lottery” but it isn’t really. It,
like Elizabeth Hand’s “For Sale By Owner” works because you can actually see it
happening. Hand’s story builds slowly
and surely to its horror and works very
well in terms of the ending. Hand’s
story works in part because she doesn’t explain everything. Something that Stephen Graham Jones’
“Refinery Road” and “The Party by Paul Trembly also make excellent use of. All three stories work because of the detail
given to the relationships that exist at each story’s core.
“Hag” by
Benjamin Percy is a well written story set on an island. Percy not only works in horror but also very
good familial relationships and dynamics.
“Funeral Birds” by M. Rickert makes wonderful use of character and
event.
Datlow
says in her introduction that the purpose of the collection was to present
stories that “distill the essence of Jackson’s work into their own work, to
reflect her sensibility” (loc 105), the authors have succeeded at this brief.
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