BOOK REVIEW: OFFSTAGE OFFERINGS BY PRIYA SRIDHAR

Priya Sridhar’s Offstage Offerings is the seventeenth title in Unnerving’s Rewind or Die series which aims to capture the spirit of the video nasty in print, promising monsters and bucket loads of gore. Offstage Offerings jumps right in with a prologue which sees a clandestine tour of the Haunted Basilio Theater end in bloodshed when the tour group stumble upon a gang of gargoyles. It’s a frantic and striking opening which makes good on the promise of the series, but unfortunately the rest of the novella fails to repeat the success of this early encounter.

In chapter one, we meet our protagonist, Vivian. She’s a likeable character, and the best developed of a particularly large cast. She’s working as a counsellor at the Haunted Basilio, leading a group of kids as they try to put on a theatre production. She’s the most relatable character, with her own dreams of making it in theatre, anxieties about working with kids, and having to hold down another job serving ice cream just to get by. Her relationship with her best friend is well-presented too, their love of shark movies offering a touch of humour.
While the gargoyles we’re introduced to in the prologue make sporadic appearances throughout the tale, it is without the excitement of the opening. Instead, the novella becomes more of a mystery as Vivian tries to understand some of the peculiarities of the theatre. Why are some of the areas out of bounds? Why do kids keep dropping out of the programme? And what is that awful smell of rotting meat. While all of these questions offer intrigue, they’re not allowed to develop for quite long enough to really build any suspense.
Offstage Offerings features a huge cast, with other counsellors and the children that are part of the programme, but the relatively low word-count doesn’t offer enough room for all of these characters to be developed. Some of the quirks of the children come across well, such as quiet Marceline and her fondness for sharks, and troubled Terrence, who has a more interesting backstory. Focusing on fewer characters and giving us more time to get to know them would certainly have paid off.
We’re led down a few plot cul-de-sacs, some of which are of real interest. The insistence of Marian, the boss, on performing The Hunchback of Notre-Dame seems to be leading to some interesting parallels, but it never comes to fruition. And when we learn of Marian’s role in the horror and her motivation, again it feels like there was more to come.   
The setting is one of the stronger points of the novella. The Haunted Basilio Theater, with its secrets in the basement, the creepy costume room, and all of the locked doors certainly contribute to the atmosphere of unease and mistrust that Sridhar develops. Coupled with the gargoyles, creatures which feature all too rarely in tales of terror given how sinister they are, Sridhar has an effective aesthetic in place.
When the conclusion comes, and the mystery leads us back to the gargoyles again, their appearance is all too limited and the resolution is too easily earned. Even after this, when it seems a threat still lingers and we could be in for a dramatic ending, it fizzles out all too quickly.
After the bloodshed and mayhem in the prologue, the rest of the novella is simply a little too sanitised. It has so much promise with a great setting and fabulous malevolent creatures, and some aspects of the plot offer real intrigue too, but alas, Offstage Offerings gets lost in too large a cast and loses focus on the creatures for too long, and therefore fails to deliver.

Vivian starts her summer counseling gig at the Haunted Basilio Theater, hoping all the ghosts are harmless. At first, the kids under her wing are more trouble than any random winds rustling the costumes or funny noises from rats. Then her mentor gets the boot, and the kids vanish into the dark recesses. The pigeons on the roof are hostile. The boss says 'don't ask questions,' but Vivian wants answers. She just needs the courage to enter locked doors with the right keys.

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