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A review by livres_de_bloss
The Haunting Season: The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller and the Perfect Companion for Winter Nights by Natasha Pulley, Laura Purcell, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Bridget Collins, Jess Kidd, Andrew Michael Hurley, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Elizabeth Macneal
2.0
This collection had a strange combination of some of my favourite authors (Natasha Pulley, Laura Purcell), authors who I’ve enjoyed before (Elizabeth Macneal), authors I’ve had bad luck with (Jess Kidd), and some authors I dislike (Bridget Collins, Kiran Millwood Hargrave) so I was on the fence for over a year as to whether to bother with it. In the end, I decided to chance it (mostly because it was on sale).
This book is ultimately let down by the fact that novels and short stories are different mediums and just because a writer does novels well, doesn’t mean their writing will translate to short stories. These didn’t read like short stories (more like excerpts from novels that had been mangled into shorts) and most of them suffered from overwrought prose and bogged-down descriptions that, while might be tolerable in novels, didn’t land right in shorts.
I’m also getting tired of Victorian nonsense - it’s been done to death and many of the stories had a “samey” feel to them as a result of their identikit (bar one) Victorian setting. The spooky enthusiast in me was disappointed that these stories weren’t as chilling/scary as advertised - I’ve read stuff on r/TwoSentenceHorror that’s stuck with me longer than these will. The first two were downright boring and a weak start can be damaging to a collection like this. While a couple of the stories were strong, in many the atmosphere was lacking or nonexistent; without the express shoehorning of Christmas/snow into some, I would have struggled to see the common thread between these stories (apart from the aforementioned Victorian nonsense in 7/8 of them).
The net result was a real mixed bag:
A Study in Black and White: 2
For this one, I had a hard time getting a sense of the time. There were some very outdated terms mixed with quite modern ones which distracted me throughout the story. Chess as a subject doesn’t interest me so I also felt a bit disengaged with the story as there was a fair bit of airtime focused on chess. Overall, the story was fine but not anything new or particularly memorable. The ending wasn’t really the *sharp intake of breath* the author thought it was.
Thwaite’s Tenant: 1.5
Yikes. I didn’t think it possible for a short story to feel this drawn out, overwrought, and meandering but here we are. Glacial pacing aside, most of the text was the self-indulgent, navel-gazing stream of consciousness of the MC peppered with obnoxious outbursts from her bratty kid and hasty generalizations of the ‘all men are bastards’ variety. While some of the others are stretches, this didn’t fit the theme of the book at all - there was absolutely nothing wintery about it!
The Eel Singers: 3
I enjoyed spending time with these characters again! I didn’t feel this worked brilliantly as a short, as there was enough content here for a novella at minimum. I’m glad I had the context of Watchmaker - I’m not sure this would be as engaging for readers unfamiliar with Natasha Pulley’s characters.
Lily Wilt: 3
This one was a bit more gruesome than the preceding stories but it certainly had a darker atmosphere as a result. Despite my best efforts, I’ve never had much luck with Jess Kidd’s novels but this was more engaging than her feature length work in my opinion. The short word count worked in its favour and the pacing was strong compared to the first two stories in the book.
The Chillingham Chair: 4.5
This was a well-crafted and well-paced wee read. The tension and atmosphere were well done and I was quite invested by the end. Again, as with Pulley’s entry, I think this would have worked best as a novella.
The Hanging of the Greens: 2
Super disjointed with wonky pacing and a really rushed ending. I wasn’t feeling much tension here and the writing style wasn’t particularly engaging. Upon reflection, I think the author tried to do too much in too small a space.
Confinement: 4
This was quite spooky! The only things that stopped this from being a cracking story were the waffley flowery writing at the beginning and the graphic description of birth and its after-effects. I think the limited word count really helped this story - the author couldn’t bloat the story out with purple prose and glacial pacing which made Mercies so poor. I was pleasantly surprised by this one.
Monster: 1.5
This was just bizarre and not in a good way. The story was disjointed and I wasn’t expecting so much gratuitous sex in a short story. This was another one that didn’t even try and play to the “theme”, there was nothing wintery, Christmassy, or spooky.
Overall Average Rating: 2.63 Rounded down because I cannot, in good conscience, give this more than two stars.
This book is ultimately let down by the fact that novels and short stories are different mediums and just because a writer does novels well, doesn’t mean their writing will translate to short stories. These didn’t read like short stories (more like excerpts from novels that had been mangled into shorts) and most of them suffered from overwrought prose and bogged-down descriptions that, while might be tolerable in novels, didn’t land right in shorts.
I’m also getting tired of Victorian nonsense - it’s been done to death and many of the stories had a “samey” feel to them as a result of their identikit (bar one) Victorian setting. The spooky enthusiast in me was disappointed that these stories weren’t as chilling/scary as advertised - I’ve read stuff on r/TwoSentenceHorror that’s stuck with me longer than these will. The first two were downright boring and a weak start can be damaging to a collection like this. While a couple of the stories were strong, in many the atmosphere was lacking or nonexistent; without the express shoehorning of Christmas/snow into some, I would have struggled to see the common thread between these stories (apart from the aforementioned Victorian nonsense in 7/8 of them).
The net result was a real mixed bag:
A Study in Black and White: 2
For this one, I had a hard time getting a sense of the time. There were some very outdated terms mixed with quite modern ones which distracted me throughout the story. Chess as a subject doesn’t interest me so I also felt a bit disengaged with the story as there was a fair bit of airtime focused on chess. Overall, the story was fine but not anything new or particularly memorable. The ending wasn’t really the *sharp intake of breath* the author thought it was.
Thwaite’s Tenant: 1.5
Yikes. I didn’t think it possible for a short story to feel this drawn out, overwrought, and meandering but here we are. Glacial pacing aside, most of the text was the self-indulgent, navel-gazing stream of consciousness of the MC peppered with obnoxious outbursts from her bratty kid and hasty generalizations of the ‘all men are bastards’ variety. While some of the others are stretches, this didn’t fit the theme of the book at all - there was absolutely nothing wintery about it!
The Eel Singers: 3
I enjoyed spending time with these characters again! I didn’t feel this worked brilliantly as a short, as there was enough content here for a novella at minimum. I’m glad I had the context of Watchmaker - I’m not sure this would be as engaging for readers unfamiliar with Natasha Pulley’s characters.
Lily Wilt: 3
This one was a bit more gruesome than the preceding stories but it certainly had a darker atmosphere as a result. Despite my best efforts, I’ve never had much luck with Jess Kidd’s novels but this was more engaging than her feature length work in my opinion. The short word count worked in its favour and the pacing was strong compared to the first two stories in the book.
The Chillingham Chair: 4.5
This was a well-crafted and well-paced wee read. The tension and atmosphere were well done and I was quite invested by the end. Again, as with Pulley’s entry, I think this would have worked best as a novella.
The Hanging of the Greens: 2
Super disjointed with wonky pacing and a really rushed ending. I wasn’t feeling much tension here and the writing style wasn’t particularly engaging. Upon reflection, I think the author tried to do too much in too small a space.
Confinement: 4
This was quite spooky! The only things that stopped this from being a cracking story were the waffley flowery writing at the beginning and the graphic description of birth and its after-effects. I think the limited word count really helped this story - the author couldn’t bloat the story out with purple prose and glacial pacing which made Mercies so poor. I was pleasantly surprised by this one.
Monster: 1.5
This was just bizarre and not in a good way. The story was disjointed and I wasn’t expecting so much gratuitous sex in a short story. This was another one that didn’t even try and play to the “theme”, there was nothing wintery, Christmassy, or spooky.
Overall Average Rating: 2.63 Rounded down because I cannot, in good conscience, give this more than two stars.