Synopsis
The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls is the debut short story collection from the author of FROST BITE and CHOPPING SPREE.
The Dead Spot. A corner drenched in shadow. An earthquake’s epicenter. The part of a roller coaster ride where the car rounds the final curve and all force dissipates, leaving those trapped beneath the safety bar feeling sick and hollow.
The Dead Spot is a heart-wrenching collection of seventeen stories where lost girls and women live and die, where they laugh, cry, and disappear from view around that final curve.
Review
A huge thank you to the author for the eARC!
The feeling of being “lost” has that somewhat undefinable, untethered sensation, something that Angela Sylvaine captures masterfully in her collection, The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls. Within these pages, we see the various degrees of “lost” in girls who feel unmoored, unhinged, and unsettled in the bleakest of circumstances resulting in varying degrees of revenge, tragedy, or well, horror. The depths of darkness explored across these stories hold a magnifying glass to the unique female experience in addition to themes of loss, abuse, neglect, and obsession. Sylvaine handles these topics expertly across the board, but a few stories felt particularly worthy of further exploration.
The very first story of this collection, “Astronaut Dreams,” sets the tone for every entry following in its wake. Sylvaine pulls a fairly creative twist on the name of a creature that is no stranger to horror: zombies. However, Sylvaine doesn’t write about the walking dead starving for brains, she writes about “zombees,” a mutated insect out for blood in the landscape of a world fueled by genetically modified crops. I wish I could state this more eloquently, but, how cool is that?! As if that wasn’t enough to set the tone, Sylvaine writes the main character, Ellie, with quick, purposeful characterization that hooks us within seconds. In fact, this is a constant throughout this collection and something that felt so thoroughly impressive given the short span of these tales.
Speaking of impressive characters, Delilah, featured in “Antifreeze and Sweet Peas,” demonstrates the cycle of familial violence stemming from her own father’s brutality. As a baker, Delilah spends her days providing sweet treats to her customers. However, a special ability allows her to determine which of these sweet-toothed patrons are killers. As the saying goes, “No crime goes unpunished,” and Delilah uses her charm to dish out what these men have coming. The catch? Keeping the secret of this ability from her daughter, Sweet Pea, or as she prefers now in her late teen years, Penny. Laced with equal parts sweetness and sorrow, “Antifreeze and Sweat Peas” is my favorite part of this collection demonstrating the fierceness of motherhood and the complexities of justice.
Lastly, “Mr. Chew” feels like Sylvaine’s own take on urban legends such as Slenderman in which a nursery rhyme comes to life. Cammie feels a strong sense of responsibility for her biological younger brother, Jason, and her younger siblings in her foster home. Despite the abuse she suffers at the hands of her foster mother, Cammie steps up to endure whatever pain she can so her siblings remain out of harm’s way. And like any normal big sister, she must impart the legend of Mr. Chew, a grotesque entity who consumes those he pleases, theoretically of course. Mr. Chew couldn’t possibly be real. Sylvaine writes with an unflinching hand of darkness and unique horror, giving way to one of the most disturbing entries within the confines of these pages. “Mr. Chew” is downright horrifying.
A unique examination of a rather compelling central theme, The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls thrives in the darkness of the female experience, delivering one of the most enthralling collections in modern horror fiction. Angela Sylvaine’s ability to establish such a strong ethos with each and every story is nothing short of impressive. Make no mistake, these are bleak stories that revel in the darkest corners of horror, shaping what it truly means to feel “lost.” The Dead Spot succeeds in its concise deliverance of utter terror combined with its distinctive feminine perspective and is, simply put, a must-read.
The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls releases on May 21, 2024, from Dark Matter INK.
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