Gifts for the One Who Comes After

by Helen Marshall

Ann VanderMeer (Introduction)

Helen Marshall's second fiction collection offers a series of twisted surrealities that explore the legacies we pass on to our children. A son seeks to reconnect with his father through a telescope that sees into the past. A young girl discovers what lies on the other side of her mother's bellybutton. Death's wife prepares herself for a very special funeral.

• ISBN10: 1771483032
• ISBN13: 9781771483032
• Publish Date: 16 September 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Chizine Publications
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 360
• Language: English

Reviews

[Lianne]

I won an eCopy of this collection from the publishers via Twitter. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/10/17/review-gifts-for-the-one-who-come-after/

Gifts for the One Who Comes After is an interesting mix of stories. They can be eerie, disturbing, and haunting, but a central theme that brings all of these stories together is that they feature the subject of family and the interpersonal relationships, whether it be with a lover or a friend or a community. A lot of the stories also feature themes of life, making decisions and sticking to them, anxieties about growing up and new family members coming along, etc.

Intermingled with these stories are elements of magic and the weird featured with the everyday. As a result, it makes the former feel like an everyday occurrence of the world a particular story takes place in, which is very interesting. As expected from a collection featuring “the weird”, there’s also a lot of grimness and death. Some scenarios may disturb readers.

Like any other short story collection, there were some stories that intrigued me more than others. I would recommend this short story collection for readers of short stories, and readers of horror, fantasy, science fiction, and the new weird. Oh, and if you’re looking for a haunting read close to Hallowe’en ;)

Rating: 3.5/5