BOOK REVIEW: BLACKER AGAINST THE DEEP DARK BY ​ALEXANDER ZELENYJ

Superb genre-defying anthology threaded with a deep sense of melancholy 
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If you read fifty single author anthologies in 2019 you’re unlikely to come across any as varied and as difficult to classify as “Blacker against the Deep Dark”. Amongst the thirty-one inclusions there are very few of what you might call ‘traditional’ horror stories, instead Zelenyj writes very lyrical pieces which combine horror with fantasy, mythology, comedy, science fiction or magical realism. A deep sense, often quite beautiful, of melancholy is threaded throughout many of the stories. Almost as if the reader has lost something important, but what?  Most range from a few pages to several which are over thirty, most averaging around ten. The beauty of this collection was that after the conclusion of one story the reader had little idea of the direction the next selection might take, or even which genres it might straddle. I applaud that level of literary ambiguity.
 
“Blacker against the Deep Dark” was almost 400-pages and I would recommend reading it slowly as the stories have more impact if digested piece by piece. Due of review commitments I read the book faster than I would have liked and I felt it was slightly too long and could have benefited from a few entries being cut. I recall Adam Nevill saying of his superb collection “Some will not Sleep” an important aspect was in deciding what not to include, resisting the temptation to include everything, and this anthology might have had more impact if it was shorter. But the stories were so wide ranging the ones I might axe could be the favourite of another reader, it was that kind of book.
 
Overall I thought the longer stories were amongst the strongest and had the greatest emotional pull. Many of the very short pieces were lost within such a large anthology and came across as moody pieces of flash fiction which were not fully formed, and probably were not meant to be. The longer offerings were often more traditional short stories, with engaging characters and clever plots which resonated long after reading. Call my old fashioned, but I thought they worked the best.   
 
There were too many great stories to mention individually, so firstly I’m going to pick out some of my favourite longer entries, and group them together when they have vague similarities. Both Highway of Lost Women and The Priests had little in common except that both were beautifully observed character studies. In the former four young women Alex, Darcy, Billie, Sam discover a naked line of women standing across the middle of the road whilst driving along a remote highway. The plot then back-flips to how they got there and beautifully taps into the feelings and insecurities of the women before going full circle.  The Priests was a different type of character study and in some ways looked at the failings of man. Pastor Garfield meets a horribly deformed character known as the Priests, whom resembles triple Siamese twins (should such a thing exist) and is so ugly he frightens and disgusts everyone he meets. After the Pastor welcomes Priests into his home, the poor unfortunate tells his moving story to Garfield calling for tolerance, mercy, and humanity, qualities he rarely sees.
 
Some entries leaned heavily on science fiction and there were two particular stand-outs. With top billing was Journey To The End Of A Burning Girl an outstanding tale of a new very dangerous drug Verntellus which leads to speculation that the substance has a weird transportation property. After digested the user vanishes, leaving behind strange ashen imprints of themselves called signatures, burned into the surface of their last known location. The story is very dark, oozes hopelessness, taking in a number of characters including the police who are all seeking the drug for their own reasons. We Are All Lightless Inside is also well worth a look, in this peculiar story diseases can take physical form and soldiers battle an eternal role for mankind’s survival against these living viruses.
 
Freaky monster story with a soft centre From Parts Unknown was another of my favourites. Youngster Danny Fields watches his favourite wrestler Monster Rollinski who is a legendary champion of the local wrestling scene. After one particularly ferocious match-up Danny meets his idol and realises he may not be human. It was a very gentle story, examines the human condition, a theme in many of the stories and signs off with a great ending which will have you cheering. Kill Them and Kill Them (and Pray for Something Good) was not quite so gentle and concerns Burton Chosky who is a controversial and truly foul comedian who claims he is going to retire after one final show which everyone in town wants to watch. But not all goes to plan in this crazy show!
 
Other standouts included Ocean Closes at Midnight a Bermuda Triangle inspired story of a lost pilot coming to revisit the love of his life; Private Poison a tale set in the Vietnam War, Murphy realises his girlfriend has been unfaithful and the thought of revenge keeps him going through the horrors of the war. Finally, Flowers of Heaven which was perhaps the closest to a traditional horror story in the anthology. Anna discovers her dead mutilated cat, her father, Pastor Harold Weir, whilst he is consoling her spots a demon frolicking in the background. Full of dark imagery, but at a mere seven-pages long, I felt the story could have been longer. Like a number of the other stories it had an ending open for further exploration.
 
Of the shorter stories Hush Honey and Give Daddy Back His War Hammer at only three pages was one of my favourites, nasty, but packed a real punch (or hammer). The other two were quite funny; The Bloodmilk People was a very odd story about a guy who makes an ungodly mess in the bookshop bathroom. The shop-worker, once he discovers the rank mess, curses himself for letting the customer use the toilet in the first place, however, and very strangely, the customer then explains why he made such foulness in the first place. A very odd story, but I really liked it. Finally, Spiderpartment was another quite light-hearted tale, a couple realise their neighbours might not be human when they spot a spider driving a tiny car speeding across their floor. But, after all, if the neighbouring spider is not causing them any harm is it any of their business?
 
Simply put there is a massive range of high-quality stories on offer in “Blacker against the Deep Dark” and you’ll truly be spoilt for choice if you enjoy weird fiction beyond the boundaries of traditional horror. At least twelve of the inclusions have been published in magazines and journals of which the longer stories were the strongest. As I previously said, it’s not meant to be read quickly and will be best enjoyed in small doses. Experimental, off-the-wall, trippy, melancholic, bizarre and unique are all ways of describing Alexander Zelenyj’s mammoth anthology. Treat “Blacker against the Deep” as a lucky-dip and you’ll soon find plenty of stories to tickle your fancy and who knows where it might take you.   
 
4/5

 BLACKER AGAINST THE DEEP DARK BY ​ALEXANDER ZELENYJ

From a man having a conversation with the shadow of a human being blasted into a wall by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, to a pastor giving shelter to the most bizarre individual to ever walk the Earth; from a secret group at war with the physical manifestations of disease that have run rampant for ages, to a pair of detectives trying to solve the mystery of a deadly otherworldly drug that legend says holds the power to open the gates to Paradise. These, and other dark and weird tales...

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