Synopsis:
After a small coastal town is devastated by a hurricane, the survivors gravitate toward a long out-of-service payphone in hopes of talking out their grief and saying goodbye to loved ones, only for it to begin ringing on its own. As more townspeople answer the call, friends and family believed to have been lost to the storm begin searching for a way back home.
Review:
In this devastating return to Brandywine, Virginia, Clay McLeod Chapman yet again rips the hearts from his reader’s chests, and grinds them into a fine, unrecognisable paste. A novelette that simply must be devoured in a single sitting, “Stay on the line,” will not let you off the hook until, with your world somewhat shattered, you finish with it. A short, but far from sweet, examination of loss and the debilitating nature of grief- Clay’s writing, lethally accompanied by the haunting illustrations of Trevor Henderson, has yet again left me feeling empty.
We follow Jenny, whose life has been upended completely, following storm Aubrey. Having lost her partner Callum, she must now raise their daughter Shelby alone and continue to provide, all whilst processing such a devastating loss. Houses are in disrepair, people died, Callum is gone, yet rather peculiarly, and very irritatingly, the decommissioned, crumbling phone booth, dubbed “Ma Bell,” remains intact. Having been unusable for as long as most can remember, when one new widow begins spending hours chatting away, Jenny’s curiosity is certainly piqued. Is the woman simply mad with grief, or has she really reached out and touched someone? When Jenny picks up the phone, she is confused, but largely relieved to find Callum waiting for her on the other side..or at least something that sounds like him.
To me, ultimately, “Stay on the Line,” reads as a reminder to let go, and remain present for the people who are there. Loss is a terrible thing but, as we’ve learnt countless times in horror, trying to bring back what’s gone, whether that’s using a micmac burial ground, or indeed trying to communicate with them via a demonic phone booth, never ends well. Rather we need to grieve, process and carry on. Of course, that’s not to say that in Jenny’s unique position, we wouldn’t snatch the phone in a heartbeat. The people of Brandywine are not just “on the line,” in a technological sense, but are decidedly and firmly on the hook, having had their grief exploited and used against them. As people who are reading a horror novelette, by Clay McLeod Chapman nonetheless, it’s blatantly obvious that this phone booth, and whatever is on the other side, is BAD news, but in the throes of fresh loss, we too would likely fall victim. This is ultimately commenting on the debilitating nature of grief, and how vulnerable loss can leave us.
Chapman’s decision to write “Stay on The Line,” in a second person epistolary style is truly devious in so many ways. By forcing us into the shoes of Callum, the already rather hefty emotional weight is increased by another few thousand kilos. We are no longer simply observing Jenny’s grief… we are the focal point of it. The fact she addresses the reader as “you,” [Callum] demonstrates she is well on the way to making a Louis Creed sort of mistake, clinging on despite the warning signs. Even when the sinister truth about Ma Bell surfaces, the second person elegiac narration remains- perhaps showing some remnants of hope remain, even when reality is calling. This creates a dialogue between the living and dead, in which the reader is trapped in a weird, liminal space. As love begins to transform into an obsession, a desperation, a longing, we begin to feel complicit in this supernatural, emotional manipulation. It’s unsettling and strangely intimate, we feel incredibly close to the narrator, yet are also absent.
You can expect a review of “Ghost Eaters,” toward the end of the month, but until then, I simply need to recover. I feel Chapman has reopened the wounds he left with “Kill Your Darling,” (which FYI is coming out on September 24th) and rubbed salt right into them. A “feel-bad,” read, that’s sure to ruin your week… why wouldn’t you? A brief but unforgettable dive into the depths of grief, “Stay on the line,” is calling- pick it up.
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