"When Things Get Dark: Stories inspired by Shirley Jackson" edited by Ellen Datlow

 

When Things Get Dark: 

Stories inspired by Shirley Jackson

Edited by Ellen Datlow

A book review

When Things Get Dark is an anthology of purposely written stories inspired by or in tribute to Shirley Jackson.  I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that although I consider myself a fan of speculative fiction, I had never read any anthology curated by the legendary Ellen Datlow, the editor of this volume.  Now, I can understand better why her name is held in such high esteem in the publishing community – this book is a real cracker.  For a start, the contributing authors are all well-regarded, prize-winning writers.  It would be unfair to single out specific authors, since practically all of them are household names in the horror and speculative fiction community.  So here is the full list of the eighteen featured stories and their respective writers:

Funeral Birds – M Rickert
For Sale by Owner – Elizabeth Hand
In the Deep Woods; The Light is Different There - Seanan McGuire
A Hundred Miles and a Mile – Carmen Maria Machado
Quiet Dead Things – Cassandra Khaw
Something Like Living Creatures – John Langan
Money of the Dead – Karen Heuler
Hag – Benjamin Percy
Take Me, I am Free – Joyce Carol Oates
A Trip to Paris – Richard Kadrey
The Party – Paul Tremblay
Refinery Road – Stephen Graham Jones
The Door in the Fence – Jeffrey Ford
Pear of Anguish – Gemma Files
Special Meal – Josh Malerman
Sooner or Later, Your Wife Will Drive You Home – Genevieve Valentine
Tiptoe – Laird Barron
Skinder’s Veil – Kelly Link

As is wont to happen in such anthologies, some stories may be more striking than others, but none are duds.  Perhaps more importantly, despite the different styles and approaches typical of each specific author, the result is a cohesive one which breathes the same atmosphere of Shirley Jackson’s writing.  In her introduction, Datlow explains that she wanted the contributors to “distill the essence of Jackson’s work into their work, to reflect her sensibility.”   She identifies as the defining elements of the classic author’s approach “the strange and the dark underneath placid exteriors… comfort in ritual and rules, even while those rules may constrict the self so much that those who must follow them can slip into madness”.

These themes do underlie many of the stories, which often find horror in domestic life by revealing disturbing undercurrents in parent/child relationships – for instance in the creepy Tiptoe by Laird Barron or Joyce Carol Oates’ Take me, I am free. Some of the stories adopt a realistic worldview, others are overtly supernatural.  Some of the best pieces, however, are not really one or the other, but are more whimsical in nature, bordering on symbolism/magical realism.  Such is the case with the closing novelette, Skinder’s Veil by Kelly Link, in which a housesitter gets more than he bargains for, including encounters with anthropomorphic animals.  Or Josh Malerman’s Special Meal which, despite having no supernatural element to it, was, to this reader, the scariest, most nerve-racking of the lot.    

Datlow states that she did not want authors riffing on Jackson’s own works.  Some of the featured stories however do appear to be very obviously referring to specific stories or novels by Jackson.  Unsurprisingly, the Haunting of Hill House is channelled in a number of haunted house tales, such as Elizabeth Hand’s For Sale by Owner and Seanan McGuire’s In the Deep Woods; The Light is Different There.  Ghosts of other sorts appear in Money of the Dead by Karen Heuler, Refinery Road by Stephen Graham Jones and M. Rickert’s Funeral Birds.  Quiet Dead Things by Cassandra Khaw has the same small-town horror feel to it as Jackson’s notorious The Lottery.  Sooner or Later, Your Wife Will Drive You Home by Genevieve Valentine is a thoughtful piece of feminist Gothic, but also references The Bird's Nest by having all the female characters sport names which are variants of "Elizabeth".

Titan Books have got a winner here: a thrilling encounter with the uncanny courtesy of the some of the best contemporary horror writers. 

Kindle Edition

Expected publication: October 12th 2021 by Titan Books