BOOK REVIEW: MY DEAD AND BLACKENED HEART BY ANDREW FREUDENBERG

​Dead Memories
 
It’s always a pleasure to pick up someone’s book and then be pleasantly surprised at what you find lurking within. Such is the case with Andrew Freudenberg’s debut collection from The Sinister Horror Company, “My Dead and Blackened Heart.” Contained within this nicely balanced collection are fourteen tales that deliver solid blows to your emotions interspersed with short and sharp punches to your gut. There are certainly a few stories in here that will leave you emitting glottal noises and trying to rid your mind of the indelible images stained in your memories but the real lasting impression is of Freudenberg’s skill at lulling you into a false sense of security.
 
Freudenberg’s stories often sneak up on you like a ninja, catching you completely off guard and defenceless against his precision strike. I think this mainly stems from his subtle and nuanced observations about family life and relationships that add heft and weight to proceedings as he explores the emotional siblings of physical pain and torture. These recognisable aspects of his characters and their relationships certainly add a welcome counterbalance to the occasional jets of arterial blood and viscera that he splatters the pages and your memories with.
 
However, there is very little inkling of what lies in wait for you from the introductory story of a sole survivor marooned at the site of a mining disaster in “Something Akin To Despair.” Yet, as we follow the survey of the utter desolation faced by the survivor, it becomes clear that humanity is a very hard thing to find in the depths of space.  This can best be considered as a bit of a soft introduction to the collection and its prevalent themes yet still packs quite a wallop. The feeling of being lost and separated from the ones you love is explored further in “A Bitter Parliament.” In this, an estranged couple seeking rest and rejuvenation in the country find more than they bargained for lurking close by, watching and waiting. This story certainly does have an odd folklore type vibe to it which is heightened by the claustrophobic atmosphere as Maria and Dan find themselves increasingly feeling like strangers in a strange land.
 
It’s with “Charlie’s Turn” that Freudenberg delivers one of those unexpected sucker punches I was describing. This story just has this really chilling and malicious undertone that slowly ratchets up as Charlie and his brother find that child’s play has very different implications in the adult world. It is certainly a deeply affecting tale that highlights Freudenberg’s skill in grasping the subtle dynamics of familial relationships and twisting them from something familiar into something sinister and menacing. The need to protect and defend those around you from the harsh realities of life is demonstrated in “Pater in Tenebrae” as a family in the midst of an apocalyptic event discover sometimes the enemy isn’t outside but within. It’s another story that will slowly creep up on you without warning with an ending that’s as ambiguous as it is chilling.
 
The next story in the collection, “Milkshake” doesn’t so much punch you in the guts as shred them. A gleefully grim slice of pure thoroughbred horror, this will have you looking at pigs in blankets forever more with roiling stomachs. The sheer visceral horror inherent in this story is nicely contrasted with the quiet horror of “Nose to the Window” as a family decide to spend some quality time together in the face of possible annihilation. It’s certainly a beautifully observed and poignant story about what’s important in life and death and for me is one of the strongest stories in here.
 
Losing that which we hold most dear and what we would be willing to sacrifice to recover it is at the heart of the aptly named “The Cardiac Ordeal.” Faced with the horror of his missing daughter, Shane receives a mysterious offer that will lead him down some very dark paths in pursuit of Emma. It’s another well observed and written story that, much like the preceding story, lulls you into a false sense of security before quietly sliding the knife in and twisting. Damaged people are certainly at the forefront in “Meat Sweets”, the cousin of “Milkshake,” as we take another stomach churning ride into the world of factory farming. Though it shares similar DNA with its kin, this particular story is a far more twisted and malformed relation that delivers another bowel shredding bout of extreme hued horror.
 
The sins of the flesh and how they come back to haunt or indeed hunt you, form the basis of the next two stories. The first of these is “Scorch” about a homeless young couple who seek shelter in an abandoned house only for them to discover that there are far older tenants in residency. It’s a well written ghost story but I have to be honest that it didn’t particularly fire me up and I did feel a little under whelmed considering how good its predecessors were.  Unfortunately, that feeling wasn’t quite abated by “The Teppenyaki of Truth” as a tourist in Las Vegas, Turner, unexpectedly finds himself the guest of honour at a very special celebration. The themes of loss, grief and how you deal with your past and memories run riot through this bloody tale of revenge and retribution yet I did feel somewhat unengaged in the story.
 
How we remember ourselves and our life forms the basis of “Before the Meat Time,” another zombie flavoured tale to chew on and savour. Keeping in with the theme of family that runs rampant throughout this collection, this sister story to “Pater in Tenebrae” reveals that the only real difference in life or death is what type of meat you consume. Recollections of your past and how that can corrupt your present reality is further examined in “Hope Eternal.” In this, a demobbed soldier with post traumatic stress disorder desperately searches for his daughter amongst the ruins of a bombed out London during the Blitz. As he discovers though, chasing after ghosts is all very well and good if you want to achieve some semblance of peace but it’s a different situation altogether if the ghosts of the past are hunting you.
 
The lingering trauma of war and the effects that can have on your own perception inform the frankly bonkers, “The Last Patrol.” Easily the most deranged story in tone this initially had me thinking it was some kind of Mad Max styled story before slowly realising its set in a circus and told from the perspective of three fairly damaged clowns dealing with their own personal battles. The final entry in this collection, “Beyond the Book” continues the haunting theme that has echoed throughout the last few stories by having a good poke at social media interaction and what the nature of memory is in a digital age. Much like this collection started, it closes with a moment of quiet, reflective horror that is just as punchy as its loud and violent siblings.
 
All in all, “My Dead and Blackened Heart” is actually rather good. Although there were two stories that didn’t quite grab me as much as the others, this is a solid  collection of thoughtful and well written stories that will either grab your heart and squeeze or kick you where it hurts. A good job well done, I’d say.