Spin a Black Yarn is the new collection of novellas from Josh Malerman, released last week into the wilds of the USA, but not in the UK until next year for some reason. Amazon’s US site is good for something I suppose.
Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I am something of a fan of Mr Malerman, and he still hasn’t let me down with this collection. There are 5 very different novellas and all equally good.
Half The House is Haunted – first off, that has to be one of my favourite titles of all time. Robin and Stephanie live in a huge house in Samhattan. They’re 6 and 8 years old respectively at the start of the story and Stephanie takes great delight in telling her little brother that “Half the house is haunted” but won’t tell him which half.
Is she just torturing her brother because she can, or is there really something in the house?
This is told in alternating sequences from the points of view of both siblings and quickly builds up an almost unbearable atmosphere. We revisit the siblings and the house at two later stages in their lives, and the house is no less scary.
Argyle – The back cover states “a dying man confesses to homicides he never committed”. Until I read this story, I never realised that that statement is deeply ambiguous and that one of the meanings, despite not sounding scary, is actually pretty damned disturbing if used correctly. And boy does Josh use the idea correctly. One of the more psychologically disturbing stories I’ve read from any author for a long time.
Doug and Judy Buy the House Washer – Josh’s warped sense of humour is on full display in this slice of science fantasy weirdness. This is the sort of plot idea I would have expected from Ray Bradbury at his wildest.
Doug and Judy are Assholes. We can be quite certain about that. The story opens with a full page list of all the people who think they’re assholes, and there’s not many people in existence missing from the list. They’ve just bought a new gadget that washes the whole house from top to bottom. While the house is being washed, they have to sit in a large glass tube in the middle of the living room and watch as the miracle liquid fills the house. They soon find their own pasts and personalities are due for a spring clean as well.
This is probably my favourite story in the collection.
The Jupiter Drop – We now take the leap into full blown science fiction as Steve Ringwald goes on the ultimate sightseeing trip and is dropped in a see-through capsule through the atmosphere of Jupiter itself. His experiences in the capsule lead him on an odyssey through his own past. This is similar in theme to the previous story, but with a nice central character and without the grim humour. There are a few real scares in this story too.
It shouldn’t be surprising that Josh can write science fiction as well as this; after all, his breakthrough novel was an alien invasion apocalypse tale. But I was completely blown away by this story more so than anything in the Sturgeon collection I read earlier in August.
Egorov – the final story in the collection and we go back in time to the days before houses had electricity as standard. In the little Russia district of Samhattan, one of a set of identical triplets has been murdered. His brothers track down the killer and “haunt” him with the aim of driving him mad.
I was unfortunate enough to be eating my lunch when Egerov has his own special dinner on page 324/5. Not the best thing to read while you’re trying to eat.
Once this story really gets going it’s very good indeed, but it took me a while to get into this one. It’s still an excellent end to an excellent collection.
Josh Malerman once again shows how versatile he is as a writer, showcasing psychologically twisted horror, deliciously black humour, dastardly revenge plots and mind-bending science fiction. Each of these stories is radically different to the others, but all still recognisably Josh.
If you want this in the UK, you’ll need to go online for it so do that. If you’re in the US, just buy it.
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