Black Static #60, September/October 2017

“Skyshine (or Death by Scotland)” by Carole Johnstone

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

This British magazine of horror fiction celebrates its tenth anniversary with a quartet of dark and mysterious tales.

Leading off the issue is the novella “Skyshine (or Death by Scotland)” by Carole Johnstone. It begins with three short, seemingly unrelated sections. The first is an excerpt from a book published in the year 2021. It deals with an unexplained event with devastating consequences. The second is a newspaper article from 2012. It describes a strange incident in which a group of dogs leaps off a cliff, resulting in the death of a teenage boy. The third is an account of a meeting of government officials. It reveals a plan to place certain mental patients on a placebo. After this introduction, the narrative concerns a young woman who has been in a mental hospital for several years. She is discharged on the placebo, and tries to learn how to live in the modern world. Many of her problems involve the ways in which men treat women. Eventually, during a final encounter, the disparate elements at the beginning of the story come together. This is an introspective character study with a touch of science fiction and psychological horror. The way in which it depicts the relationship between the sexes may be controversial.

Two university students are the main characters in “The Shuttered Child” by Tim Lees. They travel to Paris in 1968 to join the student demonstrations. Running from the police, they find shelter in a tavern. An elderly man tells them about a terrifying ceremony he witnessed in a French village before the First World War. Decades later, their lives are changed by what they were told. This is a grim allegory of the high price that may be paid in the struggle for a better world.

“The Swans” by Ray Cluley depicts a mother and child taking a trip on a canal boat. The woman makes a gruesome discovery, which she hides from her son. Strange events occur, mostly involving swans. The two characters sometimes act in odd ways. This is an elliptical tale with symbolism that is not always clear. It reminded me of the opaque horror stories of Robert Aickman.

Rounding out the magazine is “Langwell Sorrow” by Stephen Hargadon. The narrator meets a man in a pub who tells him about an obscure football team from an unknown town. He tracks down the village, which is not listed on any map. His journey leads to an unexpected discovery. The point of the story seems to be the narrator’s search for a way to escape his lonely existence.

Victoria Silverwolf should have pointed out that, in this case, “football” means “soccer.”