Dark Screams: Volume Three
Edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar
Hydra, an imprint of Random House
May 12, 2015
Reviewed by Tim Potter
The third volume in Freeman and Chizmar’s Dark Screams anthology series delivers the same high quality big name contributors as the prior two volumes. This volume features four original stories, published here for the first time, and only one that was previously published. Jack Ketchum’s new tale, “Group of Thirty,” is the stand-out and is an early contender for best short fiction story of the year. The nihilistic “The Lone One and Level Sands Stretch Far Away” by Brian Hodge is also a beautiful story published for the first time here. Peter Straub’s contribution is interesting and entertaining, while new stories from Darynda Jones and Jacquelyn Frank are light but fun.
Peter Straub starts things off with “The Collected Short Stories of Freddie Prothero.” The story is reprinted here, having first appeared in Cemetery Dance’s anthology Turn Down the Lights. It is a fun and thought provoking piece about the state of academic studies on English literature. It’s also a very interesting exercise in word-play. It took more than one reading to uncover all this fascinating story has to offer.
The second story, which appears here for the first time, is the stunning “Group of Thirty” by Jack Ketchum. The story is that of an aging horror writer who is asked to speak for a group of readers and his thoughts about his writing and the legacy he will leave behind. The story takes a truly unexpected turn and becomes a philosophical treatise on horror stories and imagination. Those familiar with Ketchum will doubtless be left wondering how fictional, or autobiographical, this story is. This is arguable his finest work in the last decade.
“Nancy,” by supernatural romance scribe Darynda Jones is a light-hearted, at least at the outset, ghost story set against the backdrop of high school alienation. The story behind the ghost is interesting and develops and twists nicely and gives the reader barely enough time to keep up. The story’s strongest and weakest points, however, are both with the narrator of the tale. She is never named, the new girl in school, and her voice is clear and her narration is genuinely funny. Unfortunately the character is never developed, she is simply a bystander to the ghost story that plagues the small town in which she lives.
Jacquelyn Frank, the prolific author of paranormal novels, delivers the only flat story of the collection. Like Jones, she chooses high school as the setting for her story. An obsessive young man attempts to win the love of his crush by confining her to his bedroom. The story brings to mind John Fowels’s The Collector but doesn’t have any new ideas of its own.
The final story is the longest, probably approaching novella length, and it’s a beauty. Brian Hodge delivers “The Lone One and Level Sands Stretch Far Away,” a title that makes more sense once the story has been read. It is a supremely bleak exercise in nihilism as seen through the eyes of two very different characters. The story’s first person narrator is drawn away from his marriage by his new and mysterious neighbor Marni. She brings him into a group of urban explorers, people who creep through deserted buildings that can be found in any big city. Her pessimistic outlook on life and the world become central to the story, her life spend dreaming romantically about the end of the world. Marni’s tag, left behind to mark her passage through the deserted buildings, sums up the theme of the story perfectly: “give me immortality or give me death.” As the narrator of the story points out, if those are your two goals you know you’ll end up getting one.
Dark Screams: Volume Three is a solid collection, with Ketchum’s and Hodge’s entries each being worth the price of admission. When you pick it up, though, make sure to read all five stories as one of the highlights of this series is that readers will almost certainly be introduced to at least one new author.
- Midian Unmade – Book Review - September 30, 2015
- Wolf Land – Book Review - September 16, 2015
- Convalescence – Book Review - September 7, 2015
- Rage Master – Book Review - September 3, 2015
- The Art of Horrible People – Book Review - August 28, 2015
- Greasepaint – Book Review - August 26, 2015
- Bonesy – Book Review - August 17, 2015
- Dark Screams: Volume Four – Book Review - August 13, 2015
- Trust No One – Book Review - August 10, 2015
- The Monstruous – Book Review - August 3, 2015
