Nightmare“The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones
“Clown Town” by Dan Stout
“The Cello in the Cell” by David Janisch
Reviewed by László Szegedi
Nightmare publishes stories every month not only on its website but produces and publishes two of those three as podcast episodes on Spotify, as well. While I really admire their effort to use this medium, I couldn’t enjoy the casting of the narrators this month. Both have great voices and talent but their reading just didn’t fit to the stories they read: Susan Hanfield proved to sound a little bit more cheerful than the subject of her story required, and Stefan Rudnicki felt a bit dry and factual. Thus, I rather enjoyed those stories simply reading them, but I still suggest our readers to check this audio series as the editors put a great show together.
“The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones
School shootings are a very important topic about which I haven’t seen too much serious discussion except from some threads on twitter. The author takes it seriously, showing all aspects and roles in such a tragic situation, as well as the absurdity this postmodern world brings upon the children and the teachers.
She also introduces a magic device we all wish people would have in order to escape such a situation.
True to the name of this magazine, here the escape is not sweet nor safe: it’s really frightening, and the main characters can’t rest for long.
The adventure is scary and thought-provoking, and the text shows the author’s great imagination, making the story definitely worth reading.
“Clown Town” by Dan Stout
The author uses the phenomenon of coulrophobia or being afraid of clowns as a setting for the story. Just as the protagonist faces clowns in a strange town, the story ends suddenly, exactly where an intro of a TV show episode would. So, we get to know basically nothing about the characters, their motivations, or the fate awaiting them.
“The Cello in the Cell” by David Janisch
The nameless protagonist is sentenced to prison for a crime we don’t have a chance to get to know exactly. As surreal as the premise of this story is, so surreal does the punishment get: the protagonist must learn to play cello by heart. The whole situation and conditions he is forced to live by in the prison are so bizarre they reminded me of the short story “In the Penal Colony” by Franz Kafka, both having a surreal torture device as punishment and showing the symbols of the same surrealism of our existence in the world, but with a slightly different tone.
During my reading, I started to play the piece on Spotify which the protagonist has to learn, and the streaming service went on playing other compositions from the same author, which created an aethereal atmosphere in my bedroom. The resolution of the story, along with this music provided a great analogy to going through our lives, learning new things, and trying to get things done. An interesting story, I will share it with my friends as it will begin many conversations for sure.
László is an SF enthusiast living in middle Europe, who also writes songs in the attic.