Utterly unintentionally, I seem to have stumbled upon a number of apocalyptic events in my reading this year.
Normally my own writing tends to be on a smaller scale – quiet horrors that affect a community or a small group of people. Much of what I read has always been the same. This year, the stakes have been far, far higher.
Here are some of those titles:
Architecture – Paul Flewitt
Like many of the books I’m going to mention here, this starts small, and grows in scale.
Early on, we meet Gabriel, dirty and confused: dirty because she’s covered in blood, confused because she has no idea where the blood came from. The only thing she knows is it’s not hers. Worse, this isn’t the first time this has happened. Waking covering in other people’s blood has become something of a routine. We soon come to understand that she is being controlled by something with great power and terrible plans, plans that could change the way we live forever.
Throughout, the writing is tight, the prose depicting some particularly gruesome scenes. The influence of Barker hangs over this one, and if you’re a fan if Barker, or wish to read a story full of intrigue in which the stakes grow ever more serious, I’d recommend Architecture.
The Cryptids – Elana Gomel
This novel was originally released by Bloodshot Books and has been rereleased by Crystal Lake Publishing. Hopefully it will find a happy home there and connect with a few more readers. A cryptid is an animal whose existence or survival is disputed on unsubstantiated – but when if these evolutionary anomalies are quit real, but existing on another plain – and what is someone found a way to open the door to that plane? And what if that event threatened life on the planet as we know it?
What I really enjoyed about this one was the narrative perspective of a cryptozoologist – they thoroughly believed from the start, so we were with them as they got drawn deeper into the strangeness. I also loved the ‘science’ aspect – the idea of quantum communication leading to this door opening, and because that’s where it developed, Silicon Valley becomes the hub of this strangeness.
Of course, once a door is opened, if not closed, anything can come through, and it certainly does here. The novel is a lot of fun; if you’re into strange creatures and their ability to forever change the world, read it.
Adrian Chamberlin – Fairlight
This novel has probably my favourite opening chapters of any I read this year. It’s intense, and boy, does it escalate.
It starts with a horrible situation, a father dropping off his daughter at a hospital as result of her self harming. This leads to a fascinating question: what do you see when you cut yourself? The story them blooms into something epic, a genuinely threatening world-changing scenario. The small town of Fairlight is at the centre of events, but there’s something very fishy going on. The cast of characters are interesting, each playing an essential role in the plot which unfolds at pace, and is constantly evolving. The writing is strong, the action scenes, the creatures and their revolting actions particularly effective.
Even though the stakes are incredibly high, what remains important is the relationships between the characters – we have a father who just desperately wants to save his daughter. I think that’s what’s important if you’re going to ramp up the scale like this. Don’t forget what’s important to each individual. Adrian Chamberlin holds onto this throughout, so it remains tight and intimate at that level, no matter what other consequences may come.
The End – Kayleigh Dobbs
I’m not always the quickest to notice things… when I turned a few pages and was greeted with the words ‘The End’ I’ll admit I was puzzled. It took me a second to recall that this was the name of the collection, and what a fitting end for this collection of tales of apocalyptic events. Maybe the mushroom clouds on the front should have clued me in, too, but as I said, I’m not always the quickest, not this late in the year. It was at this point, actually, that I realised the connection with some of this year’s reading, so it was a particularly fitting read in the last month of 2023.
The best collections feel like the stories belong together. It’s the case here. It never for a second feels like a disjointed selection, but ones written to explore the end. That said, it doesn’t mean we have the same story over and again. Kayleigh Dobbs shows diversity in crafting these stories.
We kick off with ‘The Claim They Stake’. When Billy goes to check on Mr Tiley, his elderly neighbour, his worst fears are realised. Yes, Mr Tiley is a lizard man. But why will no one believe him?
This story leans heavily into lizard-people conspiracies, and as such, Billy is met with disbelief. Even though the story starts with Billy fleeing Tiley’s house, I too doubted his sanity. The story morphs to be about how this conspiracy has affected Billy’s life, his relationships, and his job. It’s an effective opening to the collection.
We move on to ‘Just Like Baking’. Instant menace is brought in by the mention of ‘Thistle Cottage’. Paired with an intriguing title, I was curious from the very start of this one. We move into an ancient ritual which is then hit with a modern sledgehammer to disorient. This story is such fun. Kayleigh’s sense of humour really came across in her collection, Corpsing. This feels like it’s more confident and composed in that voice. Alongside the humour is a healthy does of horror, with some pretty gross imagery in the quickly escalating finish. What I’d noticed, already by this point was that there was a variety in tone here, and it was very welcome. It meant I never quite knew what to expect from the next story.
Also, I did love the simile, “Blacker than the devil’s eyes.”
By the time I reached ‘Catch Fire’, I realised that relationships were a key part of the collection. Here, we have two sisters, Jen who has always been spoilt, and Emily willing to give her one last chance by visiting her house. Things keep escalating here, with Jen’s past crimes becoming more awful in a spoilt way. But when Emily and her husband Matt decide to leave, they find that’s not going to be particularly easy, and what are those strange marks on Jen and her friend’s bodies?
The fourth story, ‘Dead’ was my personal favourite.
The first couple of paragraphs of set up are fantastic, and oh boy does it escalate from there. I don’t want to say too much, but it’s such a great perspective for the start of some apocalyptic. There’s fun in the familiarity of it, and the narrative voice of powerless frustration so fitting.
A collection about the end would need to feature the rapture, but like many of the other stories in the collection ‘Omega’ twists in a wicked way. This is perhaps the most sinister of the stories in the collection, with ideas of trust coming across strongly.
Fittingly, the story finishes with ‘The End’. Here, Kayleigh Dobbs uses a more lyrical style, becoming poetic as it explores what comes after death with a particularly menacing second person narrative.
The End is a great collection. The stories are fun, but also thought-provoking. Some of the scenarios are familiar, but there are original twists. At its heart though, are characters that feel real, characters I wanted to read about, characters I wanted to come out of this okay. Having called her collection The End, Kayleigh was never going to let that happen!
Highly recommended.