Big Dark Hole

June 18, 2021

One can encounter a myriad of strange and otherworldly things in a big dark hole; sometimes, we discover these holes in the most unexpected places. This new short story collection explores the extraordinary that lurks just behind everyday life. Some of its subjects are truly otherworldly, like tiny fairies who risk their lives in a daring rescue ("The Bookcase Expedition"), an angel whom one must wrestle to secure a professorship ("The Match"), or spirits trapped in a never-ending circle of violence who suck others in with them ("The Jeweled Wren"). Others are about weird events or beings that mark our lives, like a monkey in the woods ("Monkey in the Woods"), or a drainage system that a young boy is compelled to explore ("Big Dark Hole"). VERDICT In this collection, Ford ("The Well-Built City" trilogy) serves up a variety of staples from the sci-fi/horror buffet: monsters, ghosts, fairies, and even a creepy carnival. Exacting language and well-drawn characters give these stories enough depth to satisfy both sci-fi/fantasy fans and literary fiction readers. Seamlessly blending the surreal with the mundane, Ford gives readers an innocuous ride to places they never knew they wanted to go. Recommended for fans of Neil Gaiman and Ursula Le Guin.--Elisabeth Clark, West Florida P.L., Pensacola

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 15, 2021
Fifteen tales of horror, suspense, and macabre encounters that recount moments when the fantastic finds a crack in our everyday world. Ford is a prolific writer with a shelf of well-deserved rewards for his novels, but short stories are his sweet spot. Armed with the paranoia of Poe, the psychological terror of Shirley Jackson, and Stephen King's empathy for everyday people, this latest collection is both subtle and nightmare-inducing, depending on the story. The opener, "The Thousand Eyes," is a noir-tinged period piece about a mysterious bar, an obsessed painter, and a frightening singer with a "voice of death." Many of the stories are subdued creature features: "Hibbler's Minions" is about a flea circus gone awry while "From the Balcony of the Idawolf Arms" features a werewolflike shape-shifter. Finding the minor magic in the everyday world is another thread, but the shifts in style between stories are impressive, from gothic horror in "Inn of the Dreaming Dog" to mythology in "Sisyphus in Elysium" to the long-suppressed grief in the title story. Several of the stories--some of the most experimental and intriguing--find the author narrating his own experiences through fantastical events. In "The Match," sporadic writing teacher Ford is informed that in order to keep his job, he must fight an angel, as one typically does in academia. Elsewhere, in "Monster Eight," the author's fictional counterpart has a run-in with the local monster just doing his "monster thing," and in "The Bookcase Expedition," he witnesses a minor war between fairies and spiders. In "Five-Pointed Spell," the final story and one of the longest, Ford deftly spins a tale that starts with shades of Duel or Mad Max and turns into something that more closely resembles The Blair Witch Project. A collection of wonderfully creepy gems in which each story goes its own way, to frightening effect.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.