Synopsis:
From the “master of literary horror” (GQ) comes a collection of new stories tracing the limits and consequences of artificial intelligence and “post-human” relationships. Populated by twins stepping into worlds of absence, bears who lick their cubs into creation, and artificial beings haunted by their less-than-human nature, each page sketches a world where our all-too-real feelings of isolation and ecological dread take on an otherworldly tinge.
In Good Night, Sleep Tight, Brian Evenson deftly weaves ethical dilemmas, maternal warmth, and echoes of apocalypse into his most tender, disquieting book yet.
Review:
“Good Night, Sleep Tight,” by Brian Evenson is a terrifying and mesmerising collection in which the very fabric of every story pulses with dread, hums with disquietude and practically screams “something is very wrong.” Each sentence is written masterfully and meticulously, building a relentless sense of unease until it culminates in an inevitable implosion. “Good Night, Sleep Tight,” (GNST for reference) takes no prisoners, and has further cemented Evenson as a horror titan, having left me spellbound but profoundly unsettled, yet again. Thank you Coffee House Press for the ARC, this one emerges from the shadows September 10th 2024.
Evenson has never been an author to shy away from speaking his mind, this time exploring bold, provocative themes such as that of AI, and continuing his long-time affair with ecological and environmental horror. The collection contains 19 stories, all of which manage to create the same pervasive feeling of apprehension and palpable sense that something terrible lurks just beneath the surface. No story in particular fell short, a few completely dazzled me, emerging as standouts.
The very first story was one of my favourites. “The Sequence,” follows twins Selene and Sidra, who are completely inseparable. As you’d imagine, over the years they have played every game under the sun, so this Summer, when Sidra wants to try a new game, Selene is happy to play along. Their grandfather inexplicably became paralysed many years ago, and when the twins discover that hopscotch-ing, skipping and jumping across their garden in a specific sequence, allowing them to glimpse the man in his prime, things take a drastic, supernatural turn- away from the whimsical into the wild. Within 13 pages, Evenson is ticking off themes such as memory and closure, dipping his toes into the cosmic horror sub-genre, and already scaring the bejesus out of readers.
Another of the very best within the collection in my opinion was “The Rider.” Reiter has broken down, and is forced to resort to asking the nearest house to use their telephone. In doing so, he seems to have interrupted a very peculiar game between a father and son- one that he is now obliged to play. I’d argue this story to be the most outright terrifying and unhinged of the collection, reading (rather bizarrely, but objectively brilliantly) like a demonic, “Happy-Valley” Ratatouille. This is a story exploring the loss of autonomy, power dynamics and how quickly the veneer of normality can fade, revealing something very very sinister.
As you’d imagine, the title story “Good Night, Sleep Tight,” is an absolute banger, one that slowly and deliberately creates an atmosphere thick with dread and an impending sense of doom. By the time the climax approaches, the tension has almost become its own entity, breathing down the necks of readers, forcing their hearts to race, and their grip on the book’s pages to tighten. We follow an unnamed narrator, who had a largely normal childhood. Every night, his mother would come in to wish him a good night, tell him to sleep tight, and turn off the lights. His long-standing fear of the dark however, comes from the one in twenty nights, when she would sneak back in, and traumatise him with a scary story, before leaving him alone in the pitch black. As an adult, with his own child, something so cruel is unimaginable to him, and he’s further taken aback as to how his mother can continue to deny this practice all these years later. When he comes to visit with his son, he decides to camp out, and try and catch her in the act, should she try and inflict the same stories upon her grandchild. What he discovers about his own childhood whilst trying to preserve his son’s, changes everything.
In essence, “Good Night, Sleep Tight,” is a masterclass in the art of suspense and psychological terror. Evenson whispers each story in a way that penetrates the very marrow of your bones, leaving you questioning each creak and groan in your own home- this collection lingers long after the lights have been turned out.
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