LINDSEY’S WRITING PRACTICE: Book Review

Anthology Review: MIDNIGHT GARDEN: Where Dark Tales Grow

Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/MidnightGardenAnthology

Readers who relish dark tales will love this collection of numerous stories that often blend humorous word play to add levity to some very dark situations. For example, this second anthology in the Midnight Anthology Series, MIDNIGHT GARDEN, opens with award-winning author Paul Kane’s “Drip Feed.” The story incorporates light-hearted word-play into a grim setting–the polar opposite of the romantic backdrop in Kane’s “The White Lady,” from the 2023 MIDNIGHT ROOST collection.

In fact, this dark tale unsettled my psyche so much, I almost refused to comment upon it until after I read it a second time. Then, I focused upon its metaphoric interpretation,which is quite valid, especially considering our current world situation. And like many stories in this group, this one reveals some strong feminist themes. Thus, I now urge readers to “hang in there” while they peruse this midnight story.
Likewise, Ell Rodman’s “The Drummer,” set four hundred years ago in “Cull County.”
(yes—look up the noun definition for “cull” to glean this story’s underlying interpretation), projects both in-depth—but frightening images. (Note it ends in a fiery place where the Drummer ”wore fitted black robes, bearing a massive wooden hammer and a dark shield.”) Along with incorporating history into this piece, Rodman’s detailed descriptions of the environment keep readers traveling a mysterious path to the tale’s conclusion.
Also suspenseful but not as grim,, DL Mullan’s “Kurst,” is one of my favorites in this collection. Set in Salt Pines, a village in Arizona, “between dreamy pine peaks and unfathomable horrors,” the story opens when Karen Kurst leaves her editing job to checkout the “Kurst inheritance” on the Toronto National Forest’s eastern edge. After she encounters Sheriff “Bear” Barrett, who offers her background about her inheritance and eading materials, this story takes readers on a wild—frightening—but fulfilling “ride.”
Another favorite, Roberta Eaton Cheadle’s “Amahle’s Demon” reveals how little we often understand about our fellow creatures, which can result in heartbreaking ends. One of six elephants comprising a “sanctuary herd” recently moved to “another kraal near the visitors’ centre, ready for the afternoon tour.” Unfortunately, a much smaller creature—and a human’s ignorance led to an ending that evoked my tears.
Denise Aparo’s “Jack Moon and the Vanishing Book” (also a favorite tale) takes readers on a magical adventure of the mind—or perhaps into a different dimension via a “much sought-after Vanishing Book that steals souls.” While enjoying this other worldly piece, readers may decide whether it’s an earthly adventure or a magical one while enjoying the ride.
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As I mentioned in my review of Midnight Roost, I’m mostly a rom-com fan, and Jon Shannon’s “Stitch” could fall into that category. But with a warning: Yes, it’s a romantic story about the characters Andy, a taxidermist and his wife, Julie, a superb seamstress, and the unusual creations they build together, which many of their colleagues consider bizarre. This tale comes with a warning, too: Its ironic humor is quite dark—and leads to a surprise “tongue-in-cheek” ending.
Julie Jones’s “Black Moon” serves as an allegory much like stories from ancient Greece. In fact, it brings to mind C.S. Lewis’s novel, Till We Have Faces, based upon Greek mythological characters.
In contrast, “Antepenultimate,” Molly Ertel ‘s first person narrative, initially evokes chuckles at the narrator’s obsession with the ticking of an antique “KIT-Cat Klock” that began “talking” to her until the narrator became obsessed with an internal urge that leads her down a terrible—and terrifying path.
Similarly, Kaye Lynne Booth’s first -person narrator in “The Puppet Men,” another of my favorites, awakens in a pitch-black room, where she encounters “A thin sliver of light coming in under the door” that clued [her] “memory” to recount she was sleeping in a dark room in her grandmothers house. There, she also hears “high-pitched , twittering, kind of chirpy” voices coming from her grandmother’s felt puppet collection. As an adult, she remains obsessed with those voices she found so threatening that she puts off back surgery to avoid the anesthetic, which she fears will bring the “evil puppets” back into her life.
In a similar vein, Alex Constance’s “The Peddler,” another “dark” tale, serves as an allegory about the downfalls of greed. And Constance’s description of the peddler, “Ichabod” reminded me of Disney’s Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” especially in Disney’s cartoon version of that tale.

Although Danacka Scrimshaw’s “The Fae Game” at first appears to be a much “lighter: tale than most of those in this collection, the “flip” at its conclusion inspires in the reader feelings that are quite eerie.,

Prolific author Joseph Carrabis penned five stories in this collection, each with merit:

—“Striders,” with a “just desserts” ending, this sci-fi piece gives another nod to feminism
—“Grande Ture,” a short, intense tale that creates a strong statement about AI.
—“The Last Drop,” which illustrates ignorance and bigotry often leads to the opposite of bliss.
—And what I consider Carrabis’s literary masterpiece in this collection,“The Tomb,” a deep tale centering around a blind man who undergoes an operation to retain his sight. Although its plot varies significantly from the Val Kilmer 1999 film, At First Sight. (based upon a true case study by Dr. Oliver Sacks), it shares one of the movie’s sequence of events that creates the stories’ themes about the protagonist: being blind, undergoing an operation that gives him sight, then becoming disoriented when adapting to a visual world—and realizing he had more “sight” in his physical blindness. (Carrabis’s tale contains more “dark” physical drama in its conclusion.)

Aptly scribed with engaging (albeit sometimes weird) characters, all stories in this collection entice readers via their talented, skilled authors. And even if a story is terribly dark, most readers would likely concur it ends with characters reaping well-deserved fates—or “poetic justice,” such as those in Robbie White’s“Fire Sale at the Burdock Family Business” and Zack Ellafy’s “Self-Mutiny,”with its “poetic justice” ending. Indeed, even a narrator reaps his “just dessert in Paul Martz’s “The Blackest Ink.”

And for this well-written collection’s finale, the 2024 Wordcrafter Dark Fiction Contest winner, an engaging but eerie saga,‘The Seagull Man,” by M.J. Mallon unfolds with a detailed description of that bird-like man, who wears grey and white clothes and strolls regularly to the shore with a flock of seagulls circling him along the way. In contrast, “[t]he inhabitants of Cave Birdie knew of the Seagull Man’s reputation, his legend, and avoided contact with him.”

As the tale progresses, the reader learns why his neighbors avoid him—and most likely shares their reaction until the story unfolds in an unanticipated manner—a story that might be defined as a fantastical, especially for this reviewer who’s partial to Rom-Coms, including the eerie ones.

About Lindsey Martin-Bowen

On Halloween 2023, redbat books released Lindsey Martin-Bowen’s 7th poetry collection, CASHING CHECKS with Jim Morrison. Her 4 th collection, Where Water Meets the Rock, was nominated for a Pulitzer; her 3rd, CROSSING KANSAS with Jim Morrison was a finalist in the QuillsEdge Press 2015-2016 Contest. In 2017, it won the Kansas Writers Assn award, “Looks Like a Million.” Writer’s Digest gave her “Vegetable Linguistics” an Honorable Mention in its 85th Annual (2017) Contest. Her Inside Virgil’s Garage (Chatter House Press 2013) was a runner-up in the 2015 Nelson Poetry Book Award. McClatchy Newspapers named her Standing on the Edge of the World (Woodley Press/Washburn University) was one of the Ten Top Poetry Books of 2008. It was nominated for a Pen Award.

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This segment of “Lindsey’s Writing Practice” is sponsored by the Midnight Anthology Series and WordCrafter Press.

Midnight Roost: Weird and Creepy Stories: 20 authors bring your nightmares to life in 23 stories of ghosts, paranormal phenomenon and the horror from the dark crevasses of their minds. Stories of stalkers, both human and supernatural, possession and occult rituals, alien visitations of the strange kind, and ghostly tales that will give you goosebumps. These are the tales that will make you fear the dark. Read them at the Midnight Roost… if you dare. https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Roost-Kaye-Lynne-Booth-ebook/dp/B0CL6FPLVJ

Midnight Garden: Where Dark Tales Grow: 17 authors bring you 21 magnificent dark tales. Stories of magic, monsters and mayhem. Tales of murder and madness which will make your skin crawl. These are the tales that explore your darkest fears. Read them in the Midnight Garden… if you dare. https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Garden-Where-Tales-Anthology-ebook/dp/B0DJNDQJD3

Midnight Oil: Stories to Fuel Your Nightmares: 14 authors bring you 16 dark tales that explore your deepest fears. These are the stories which nightmares are made of. Tales of monsters, mayhem, and madness which will make you shiver in the dark. Read them while you burn the Midnight Oil… if you dare. https://books2read.com/Midnight-Oil