Fiction Reviews
Elemental Forces
(2024) edited by Mark Morris, Flame Tree Press,
£9.95 / Can$21.95 / US$16.95, pbk, 298pp, ISBN 978-1-787-58866-0
Number five in Mark Morris’ ABC of non-themed Horror anthologies means we have reached E for Elemental Forces which contains 20 stories, plus an introduction by the editor where he writes about the impact of the 'New Terrors' horror anthologies edited by the great Ramsey Campbell. I’m a few years older than Morris and I remember those anthologies fondly too, and like the seminal Dark Forces edited by Kirby McCauley, they were a great introduction to horror writers I had yet to discover. To Morris’ credit of the 20 stories contained here, 16 have been commissioned and 4 have been selected through an open submission process, so well done to those four writers whose stories have been included here, I will watch their careers with interest.
Any editor who chooses stories for an anthology obviously picks what they consider to be the best ones, but I suppose it is the reader who delivers the final judgement, and for me, it is always a mixed bag with some stories being more successful than others which might be due to a combination of factors such as length, writing style, and subject matter. As I have mentioned previously, horror is a wide church ranging from the understated, quiet, creepy story to creature features to gore fests. For some readers, quiet stories may be seen as boring, while for others gore fests can be too extreme. Here, in Elemental Forces, a couple of writers try and walk a tightrope wearing a blindfold by attempting to be horrific and humorous too. I salute their bravery.
In the quiet horror camp, I would have to place stories such as 'I Miss You Too Much' by Sarah Langan which concerns Stella, who is looking after her mother who is dying of cancer, which is horrifying enough, except Stella ran away from home at the age of 18 and now she’s back – big mistake – as she is about to find out in a quiet, understated tale that builds up the tension towards a great ending.
Another story in the quiet camp would be 'The Only Face You Ever Knew' by Gwendolyn Kiste where Catherine turns her back on her fiancé, Veronica, but when she turns round again, there is no sign of Veronica. Eventually she tracks her lover down, but Veronica has no memory of Catherine, and she seems diminished, just like Catherine is by this change in her circumstances.
Laugh? I almost died laughing, and in the humorous camp we have Stephanie who has tried to commit suicide in the toilets at work, but wakes up confronted by a not-so-grim reaper in Annie Knox’s story 'Mister Reaper' and has a choice to make – does she want to live or die? Here we have death run as a business, and two reapers for the price of one with a schedule to keep and souls to reap. It is funny, despite Stephanie’s circumstances.
Also funny is P. C. Verrone’s 'A Review of Slime Material: The Musical' which as the title suggests is about a theatre critic reviewing a musical starring… yes, you guessed it, a slime monster, and it can sing too!
Again on the funny front is' No One Wants To Work Here Anymore', by Christina Henry which concerns the staff and customers of a fast-food outlet being troubled by a demon. Hats off to all three writers for trying to mix humour and horror in different settings populated by world-weary characters whose attitudes and dialogue provide a lot of the humour.
And as for the rest? Well, given that some of the other writers featured include Poppy Z Brite, Tim Lebbon, Tim Major, Paul Finch, Paul Trembley, Laurel Hightower and Nicholas Royle, then you know things are going to turn very dark indeed, either in a subtle, melancholic, heartbreaking sort of way, or all out horror. As mentioned earlier horror is a wide church, supporting a wide variety of original ideas and so it is here with stories involving selling memories, entities, rural festivals, nuclear facilities, missing bodies, serial killers, doppelgangers, mysterious boxes, abusive relationships, unmarked graves, and even dinner.
Elemental Forces is another fine addition to an anthology series that is going from strength to strength, and highlights the range and depth of the horror story and continues the great tradition of British horror anthologies stretching back to the 1950s and The Pan Book of Horror Stories. Here’s to the rest of the alphabet! Recommended.
Ian Hunter
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