Dead Reflections

by Carol Weekes

[elvinagb]

This interesting and very readable collection of a short novel (Dead Reflections), several short stories and two poems was not something I would normally pick up and read but I'm sort of glad I did. Carol Weekes' descriptions and dialogue are very well done and the atmosphere of all the pieces has just enough creepy weird things going on to make you look over your shoulder on dark nights. The title story "Dead Reflections" will have me looking more closely at old mirrors and "Smoke and Leaves" makes me want to avoid traveling carnivals.
For some reason a small detail in "Weather System" bothers me. The hydro goes out but the father keeps checking the time on the stove clock. It would make more sense if he checked it on his cell phone, but as I said it's a small detail.
We have all had experiences where a storm, a house, a stranger on the road has given us the creeps but they usually are just that, a bad feeling. In this collection the bad feelings are followed by some very bad things happening.