Nightmare“My Containment” by Shannon Scott
“There are three children jumping over a can outside a bodega” by Mark Galarrita
“Backseat Kiss” by James Tatam
Reviewed by László Szegedi
“My Containment” by Shannon Scott
The world the author guides us in is a parallel water world where mermaids live together with humans. Our heroine, a lonely mermaid, gets into trouble while speaking with an “American”, who seems to be the most interesting character in this story. As he lures her into a trap, she begins to explore the human world, the details unknown to someone who has only lived underwater. I know these details should have been interesting but they actually felt repetitive and didn’t get my attention.
As the plot unfolds, it is hard to decide which part is more terrifying, but somehow all of them feel too easy, without real depth. The author concentrated on the shallow frightening motives more than the real scary motives behind them.
“There are three children jumping over a can outside a bodega” by Mark Galarrita
The always-changing social media and the people’s addiction to them is frightening in itself. The author raises this to another level with a terrifying live stream “outside a bodega” on TikTok. The character and the background of the man doing the livestream are well-detailed and interesting. It’s also great that mothers are warning their children about tiktokkers, even if it is overdone a bit.
The show on the livestream turns pretty quickly violent. But the reaction of the crowd watching it is also overdone and unrealistic, even within the frame of the story. As the plot goes on and turns the scene into a real nightmare, the readers don’t get the depth of what’s going on, only the frightening surface.
“Backseat Kiss” by James Tatam
This is the story of a relationship turning into boredom, told by the male protagonist. He tells mostly about the female counterpart, AJ, but her character feels cliché since we can only read about her actions, not her background or her motivation.
The narration is filled with all kinds of obscene details, so be prepared for them. What makes it interesting is the stoic tone in how the events are detailed, just like Albert Camus did in “The Stranger.” Even though the plot turns supernatural, the protagonist relates it using the same neutral voice. It generates great tension, but not enough to move the reader, hiding the lack of depth in the plot.
László is an SF enthusiast living in middle Europe, who also writes songs in the attic.