Book Title: Things We Say in the Dark
Author: Kirsty Logan
Date Started: June 19th 2019
Date Completed: June 24th 2019
Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Short Story
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars
Final Rating: Four Stars
Review:
◆ Thank you Harvill Secker for the uncorrected proof! ◆
A girl leaves her window open to the monster that calls to her, while a couple explores treetops, caves and icy landscapes looking for the right home, and a woman sleeps with a marble man to escape a ghost. My favourites followed a Kelpie's revenge, a woman isolated in the city, and parents taking their child to an amusement park where things are not what they seem.
Kirsty's short story collection is a lot of things, but above all else it is a haunting commentary on female identity, blurred somewhere between the vengeance of Angela Carter and the unsettling mystery of Shirley Jackson. It's not horror in its gore, its creepy inferences, or prophetic warnings of death and depression - it's horror because in so many ways it's real. Girls are dressed like dolls even when they're corpses, we do fall into the hands of abusers because they feel safe, and disapproving family members do play on our minds even when they're long gone. But with that realism comes empowerment too; it's nice to have lesbians in practically every story without it being a 'thing', and it's damn satisfying for the woman to be the one to swallow the man whole for once (literally).
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