-Reviewed by Elinor Walpole- Reviewing J Bradley’s Bodies Made of Smoke is is rather a challenge when you haven’t seen Highlander: The Series. A quick internet search after having read the novella explained a few things that just didn’t seem to fit with the internal logic of the story, but there were still many things…
-Reviewed by Elinor Walpole- Described as ‘Twelve stories of obsession, loss and getting in a state’ Ashley Stokes’s The Syllabus of Errors is a collection of unnerving tales about people struggling to cope with their disappointments. Having read Stokes’s ‘The Swan King’ in the process of reviewing Unthology #2 for Sabotage in 2011 and found…
-Reviewed by Elinor Walpole- Willie Smith’s Nothing Doing is a collection of short stories that claim to ‘anatomise America’s most vivid perversions and outsider fantasies with unmatched precision and wit’. Flagrantly offensive at times, the stories are wildly imaginative as they veer into the depths of some of the most disgusting and disturbing situations imaginable,…
-Reviewed by Elinor Walpole- Simon Lewis’s Border Run is a pacy read that tells the story of two gap year travellers, Jake and Will, who embark upon an ‘adventurette’ in the jungle on the borders of China and Burma that turns nasty. We see events unfold from the viewpoint of Will, an insecure young man…
-Reviewed by Elinor Walpole- Robert Barnard’s Rogue’s Gallery is a collection of dark short stories and unnerving mysteries. Although renowned for his crime writing Barnard’s tales in this offering do not feature many crime capers or detectives (except our Nordic dog-detective in ‘Where Mongrels Fear to Tread’) so rather than the thrill of the chase…
-Decided by Richard T. Watson– It’s the time of year for lists again: lists of things, lists of people, lists of events and occasionally, just occasionally, lists of lists. I think lists of lists are my favourite. It’s also a time to look for Christmas presents. Sabotage’s own Claire Trévien has already provided a Top…
-Reviewed by Elinor Walpole- Sullom Hill is another discomforting tale from Nightjar Press (this one written by Christopher Kenworthy) featuring a young and impressionable narrator who reveals the pecking order in the social structure of small-town teenagers’ friendship. With vivid description that is almost grotesque at times, and a tangible sense of guilt and responsibility,…
-Reviewed by Elinor Walpole- Pickin’s Remains is a tale of a walker (and a very particular type of walker at that- the protagonist is keen not to be associated with the middle class ‘Walking Business’) who, to his shame, loses his way. Opening with the warning from the third person narrator ‘He had set out…
-Reviewed by Elinor Walpole- Unthank Books’ second Unthology opens with the note from the editors: ‘We are sure that all of these stories deliver on the surprise factor, engender in us real thought, and enable us to look at the world with different eyes and our balance readjusted’. The collection is formed from a broad sweep…