A review by ariereads
Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan
4.0
This tiny collection is absolutely glorious. Set in dusty, gritty, sun-drenched Australia, the characters are haunted by pasts both their own and not their own, encountering phantoms that - even to this weary-of-ghost-stories reader - feel at once ancient and entirely new.
A particular standout for its incredibly vivid, dark tone, Bajazzled, involves a man haunted and hunted by sheela-na-gig figures, the line between real and unreal blurred to indistinguishable. On the other hand, the previous story is glowing warm and purely lovely, childhood nostalgia as it could be if dreams and magic truly did come to life.
The contrasts are startling, the book itself is covetable, so tiny, so easy to slip in a bag and read surreptitiously wherever you like. As the best fantasy does, Cracklescape leads the way into other worlds but never lets you get too comfortable there. Highly recommended.
A particular standout for its incredibly vivid, dark tone, Bajazzled, involves a man haunted and hunted by sheela-na-gig figures, the line between real and unreal blurred to indistinguishable. On the other hand, the previous story is glowing warm and purely lovely, childhood nostalgia as it could be if dreams and magic truly did come to life.
The contrasts are startling, the book itself is covetable, so tiny, so easy to slip in a bag and read surreptitiously wherever you like. As the best fantasy does, Cracklescape leads the way into other worlds but never lets you get too comfortable there. Highly recommended.