Greener Pastures

When he got back from questioning his mother, he booted up his laptop and opened the bloated file of his novel. It sagged there half-written in its window, the cursor blinking at him. Amanda. She was so murky to him that he couldn't even fictionalize her. His own words rode together as neat and hemmed as cars in traffic. Tuneless things. Dry as his mother's eyes. He'd been plugging square blocks into the round holes of his childhood.

These are not the kind of stories that you should just rush through to get to the spooky bits. Instead, this is a collection of short stories that feel incredibly deliberately structured, down to individual sentences and specific word choices at times, and it demands your active attention. I wouldn't say it was a challenging read so much as this is a book that is best enjoyed slowly.

There was no singular unifying theme throughout, but the latter half had several stories dealing with parenthood, which collectively give the impression of "damned if you do have kids, damned if you don't." Other stories simply had to deal with loss or how relationships change over time and I was left in a pretty sobered mood, almost bummed out after reading it. Not because of the quality - this is so damned good prose - but because of the content and the heavy themes that are tackled.

That is, except for "October Film Haunt," which was just straight-up scary for its own sake and I absolutely loved that entry. Also greatly appreciated the author's notes at the end of the book that detailed his thought process and what he was going for in each story; always a big fan of peeking behind the curtain and I wish more authors should do that.

Don't go into this expecting some quick and cheap horror you can mindlessly thumb through, but don't let my description of it scare you away either.

When I was a kid, I fell is love with A Wrinkle in Time. I read it over and over and over. I loved it so much, that it inspired me to try and write a book myself (I think I was 9 years old). I called it Away We Go, wrote an amazing first chapter, and then realized that it was essentially a variation of the first chapter of A Wrinkle in Time.

So I stopped. No big loss to the literary world.

Over the years, a handful of authors have affected me in the same way; they've been so incredibly good that they have made me wish I was a writer. Harlan Ellison. Kurt Vonnegut. William Faulkner.

And now I can add Michael Wehunt to that list.

Greener Pastures, Wehunt's first book, is an absolutely outstanding collection of short dark fiction. It's so good, in fact, that I put it aside several times because I didn't want to finish it too quickly (especially after "Onanon." Holy cow. I had to take a few days off from reading after finishing that one). It's so good, in fact, that it quickly moved to my "Best Book Read in 2017" spot. It's so good, in fact, that even though I just finished it, I'm going to read it again. Right now.

It is not possible to discuss the stories themselves without spoiling them for you, and that's the last thing I would want to do. I will tell you, however, that every story is a winner. They are creepy and unsettling, and almost always go where you aren't expecting.

On top of that, Wehunt is a helluva good writer. Here's an example:

“I came home the next day and her part of us was all in boxes slashed with black marker strokes. We only saw each other once more before the hospital. I don’t remember what I said to her then either. She had the end of her things in her car and the walls were full of vacant nails. It was one of the last hot days with sweat all over me just from the helplessness of my words I now forget."

That's from the story "Inconsolable" (or maybe "The Inconsolable"--it's listed both ways in the book) and it is amazing. Here's another:

"I remember us going to the Baptist church there the first Sunday, such hope in our breasts. How we saw one another’s eyes crust black one step inside the vestibule and our skin cracking like tree bark."

That's from "Beside Me Singing in the Wilderness," one of the most original takes on a well-trodden horror trope I've ever read.

So, long story short (if that's possible at this point): if you are a fan of the horror genre, do yourself a favor and get this. Read it. Enjoy it. Savor the juicy turns of praise. Perhaps you, like I, will find yourself a new literary hero--one who simultaneously reminds you of your favorite past authors and gives you something to look forward to.

Here's the part where I say

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I received a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review. This is it.

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But it doesn't matter, cause I just ordered a copy from Amazon. That's how much I loved this book.