[BOOK REVIEW] WE FEED THE DARK TALES OF TERROR, LOSS & THE SUPERNATURAL BY WILLIAM P SIMMONS

27/8/2021

a puzzling ,perceptive piece of truth which sounds like fiction ( or is it the other way around?) addressing some facts from the author’s own life.

WE FEED THE DARK
Tales of Terror, Loss & the Supernatural
By William P Simmons
Shadow House 2021

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

It is a pleasure to welcome back William Simmons after a very long hiatus. Thirteen years ago Simmons, a successful horror writer and editor, suddenly disappeared from the scene due to health problems and other personal reasons. The present book,aptly entitled We Feed the Dark, a mix of old and new material, represents his long awaited return.

The opening story “ A Fabulous, Former Darkness” is a puzzling , perceptive piece of truth which sounds like fiction ( or is it the other way around?) addressing some facts from the author’s own life. The narration connects, in a full circle, with the last tale “ Feed the Dark” where the main character is actually Simmons fighting against his personal demons embodied in the Night Man, whose arrival is feared yet awaited for the definitive showdown against the ENEMY, that is The Dark. So, this collection is also a kind of exorcism, which hopefully will allow the author to leave behind his bad times and his dark memories in order to fully return to his normal life and his work.

Bookended by the above stories, the volume assembles a bunch of good tales such as the fascinating but disquieting “ The Dead Boy in the Wall”, the creepy “The Right Size” , describing an annual family reunion where a certain jacket will fit only the unlucky person whose destiny is set, “ The Woman Beneath” a sad story where a woman is used and cheated, “ Little Plastic Men” featuring a a Ken doll becoming both the witness of a marriage’s breakup and a tool of vengeance and the disturbing “ Telling Stories in the Dark” portraying a man who must keep telling stories to his kids to save them by the dangers lurking in the dark.

Sometimes the real horror is our inability to maintain good human relationships, first of all inside our families, as shown in the gloomy “ Echoes” and “ Naughty, You?”

The volume also includes a couple of old stories which obtained Honourable Mentions in some Year’s Best collections: “They Never Come Back” a tense, excellent tale describing a family’s breakdown after the death of a son, with a terrifying ending in a cemetery, and “The Wind When It Comes”, a tale of desperation revolving around an old couple with little left to tell each other, living an empty life in the middle of nowhere.

Now that Simmons is back, we are looking forward to more of his new stories.