 as Mirzoi continues to poke at your nerves with those quick jabs of horror. And by the end, it's tempting to dive straight back in for a careful re-read, to see how the final parts line up with earlier moments you might have seen as throwaway. The Headsman by Cristina Mîrzoi ASIN : B09V32VFZR Publisher : Independently published (14 Mar. 2022) Language : English Paperback : 50 pages ISBN-13 : 979-8431866302 A Book Review by Ben Walker Weaving 10 short stories and an epilogue together, Cristina Mirzoi's The Headsman wears its folklorish influences on its sleeve; from the simple yet effective titles, which evoke memories of reading fairy tales as a child, to the stories themselves, which are both cautionary and cruel. As you may already know, the original fairytales and fables are a lot darker than the gradually sanitised versions kids were given to read through the years, and the ten stories here owe a lot more to those darker originals. From the outset, Mirzoi manages to reach inside your chest and constrict your heart with dread, as men who think they own women are spurred on by their community, or outsiders bring dark secrets to the village where all the stories are set. There are themes of justice and duty, betrayal and longing, all ripe ground from horror to spring up from, which it does from various angles, taking in bloody murder, sexual violence and occasional tinges of the paranormal. It's effectively creepy and unsettling, especially as the horrific parts aren't too drawn out; delivered in short, stark bursts that are pretty much guaranteed to have you squirming. As for the overall concept of having the stories intertwine, each one is headed up by a specific character, which provides different viewpoints on the events that take place, before the epilogue tries to tie them all together. It's easier to make sense of these connections if you read the whole book in one go – a manageable task, as each tale is pretty short. That said, the general mood, settings and character voices all tend to blend together after a while, and the book starts to feel a bit samey by the midway point. It's no less entertaining or effective for it though, as Mirzoi continues to poke at your nerves with those quick jabs of horror. And by the end, it's tempting to dive straight back in for a careful re-read, to see how the final parts line up with earlier moments you might have seen as throwaway. In all, it's nice to see something different done with the standard single author collection concept. While some stories rely on you having read the others to be fully satisfying, there are a few standouts which you could happily re-read without delving back into the others. Well worth a read. The Headsman by Cristina Mîrzoi  Take a glimpse into the world of a headsman, a gloomy village in which each dweller has a secret: an evil witch, a shrewd florist, a naive young man, a foreign merchant, a dreadful husband, a mischievous maid, and a lustful duke. These stories are intertwined, weaving a dark narrative of love, trickery, brutality, and loss. Under the bleak aesthetic, raw human emotions unravel themselves in a gripping story about moral decay. In a world that belongs to the wicked, how far can one walk this path while keeping a clean conscience? The Headsman is a collection of short stories that focus on interconnected characters, sometimes looking at the same event from a different perspective. As a genre, it falls somewhere under dark fiction territory.  THE HEART OF HORROR REVIEW WEBSITESComments are closed.
|
Archives
May 2023
|
RSS Feed
|
|