Synopsis:
From the mind of Stoker and British Fantasy award-nominated author Philip Fracassi comes fourteen stories of the macabre that will frighten, disturb, and ensnare readers in a dark web of twisted tales.
In these pages you’ll find talking corpses and deadly tombs, misguided exorcists, technology gone wrong, blood-soaked prison riots, and enough vengeful spirits and haunted objects to fill a grave.
With an introduction by bestselling author Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl), Traps and Specters will chill, thrill, entertain, and leave you gasping in shock and terror at the horrors waiting within.
Review:
It’s the critical consensus that Philip Fracassi can WRITE– bold, all caps. What his latest collection “Traps and Specters,” has confirmed to me however, is that he can write pretty much anything. Whatever he wants. From haunted jukeboxes to utterly bizarre love affairs, undead celebs to historical riots, technological failures to tomb raids and booby traps to one story in particular that planted itself so firmly in my subconscious that it graduated from a scary short to an actual, genuine nightmare- it’s safe to say you get a whole lot of bang for your buck here. Gorgeously written, highly entertaining, and all with a chameleonic versatility (we all know horror is an elastic genre, but Fracassi stretches it to limits that risk taking an eye out) this is definitely one of the stronger collections I have read, as characterised by my greedy back to back consumption of it. It’s out September 22nd from the indomitable Shortwave Publishing.
As I say, this is an enviously versatile collection, truly no two feel remotely alike, but yet they remain in some capacity true to that title- traps and specters. Let’s start with traps. Time and time again our generally short-lived protagonists, often with us in tow, realise they have been steered, maneuvered, cornered, outright baited into some rather awkward situations. The horror of them is that stomach drop, the realisation such a fate is engineered. What has happened has not just happened, but been done to them. And of course traps are even more fun when they’re occasionally laid by specters, those are simply the rules. Fracassi gives us, alongside some human monsters, creatures, entities, things that go bump in the night, the sentient mummified corpse of Reese Witherspoon and not one but two nasty grandmothers. It’s a simple, rather broad premise, not one I spent much time considering whilst I was reading, and yet it does the perfect job at making such an expansive collection cohesive, maintaining a throughline in something so delightfully varied.
Shall I shut up and tell you about some of the stories? Fine. Let’s begin at the beginning with “D7,” which Fracassi previously published as a stylish little novelette through Shortwave- glad to see it collected here. It follows a couple called Jack and Diane who fancy a drink, and happen across Happy’s Bar and Grill. Contrary to the name, the vibe in there isn’t great, and it’s even more of a dampener when they find they are trapped, trapped no less, by a haunted jukebox. It’s a slightly wacky, but genuinely creepy story of dancing and vengeance in which novelty soon gives way to tension and terror.
My other favourites largely come in a batch, the lot starting with “Point Oh One.” This is a cyber-punkish mobster story which follows Charlie, a gambling addict in the near future who is told when, to the minute, he is going to die… also in the near future. This is like “They Both Die At The End,” meets “Goodfellas,” meets “Black Mirror,” and the ending lands with the most sickening of thuds. Clever.
That’s followed by “Betrothed,” which is a story about love and commitment, morality and mortality. It’s the very definition of simple but effective and follows Dietrich and Eleanor who have been together for 30+ years and are set to stay together when they are buried. It feels rather in conversation with the next story, easily the strangest of the bunch (in a collection which, as stated, contains Reese Witherspoon’s mummified corpse) “My Love Do Not Wake.” It follows Olivia who is soul-numbingly bored in her marriage to Henry. It’s rather hot, and when Henry comes home with a summer haircut, a very unusual relationship starts to blossom- best left unspoiled I think. It’s a dreamlogic, weird, wacky, kinda sexy story about desire, dissatisfaction and karma to be read with a perpetually raised eyebrow.
My favourite of the bunch however, and in my opinion, the most effective in the sense of being genuinely frightening, is “Dream of Me.” It follows Jenna whose Nana (Fracassi really does seem to have a thing about nasty grandmothers) gifts her a dream diary for her birthday, shortly before she passes away. This story from the very beginning is an exquisitely calibrated escalation of dread and it’s deliciously ironic that a story about a dream diary gave me one hell of a nightmare.
Shortwave seems to be at the very top of its anthology game at the moment, with Nat Cassidy’s “I Know A Place,” blowing me away earlier in the year, and this release being nothing short of essential. A funny, frightening, moving, bizarre, thoughtful, completely scrumptious collection, I come away craving more Fracassi, more shortwave, and more Reese Witherspoon zombie horror.
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