by tony jones Last time I reviewed a Philip Fracassi novella for Ginger Nuts of Horror I was on a flight to Sweden, this time I’m heading in the opposite direction bound for Ireland. These shorter works of fiction sure are neat travelling companions and pulling in at a brief 47 pages “Shiloh” certainly caused plenty of distractions on the way to the Emerald Isle. Since I discovered this author eighteen months ago I’m become a huge fan of his clever novellas and strikingly original short stories. “Shiloh” is a fascinating addition to his impressive back-catalogue of weird tales, is it a short novella or long short story? Who cares, either way it is an excellent read. “Shiloh” was originally released as a very limited edition by Mount Abraxas Press which is long since sold out, with the trade edition to follow in mid-April, via Lovecraft E-Zine Press, which will include the Kindle and other ebook releases. There are elements of cosmic horror in the tale, but other than that “Shiloh” does not have any other direct Lovecraft influences. “Shiloh” will undoubtedly be more recognisable to American readers than us over here in the UK, as the “Battle of Shiloh” was both a strategic and vicious battle in the American Civil War which saw over 25,000 deaths, fought over two days in April of 1862. Fracassi’s story is his peculiar spin on this famous battle, seen from the point of view of twin brothers Henry and William, infantry soldiers in the Confederate Army (the South). Both are young men proud to be fighting for the South and desperate to draw blood, see the enemy die and protect each other’s backs. When the battle starts nobody is prepared for the sheer scale of it, which is conveyed nicely by the author. First off, the battle scenes were terrific. They were visceral, realistic, atmospheric, noisy and brutal, easily pulling the reader into the boiling cauldron of thousands of evenly matched soldiers fighting over small scraps of land. Blood flows, limbs are shorn, and it’s hard to tell who is winning or losing in the mass confusion as orders fail in the mass slaughter. Of course, this is a horror spin on a famous true event, so at a certain point in the story one of the brothers who is dead on his feet and fighting to return to his wounded twin starts to see weird visions tracking dying or soon to be dead soldiers. Is he hallucinating or are the hounds of hell arriving to revel in the sheer volume of death? I don’t want to say too much about the direction the second half of the story heads into, generally the second day of the battle. However, as things get weird the story is still loosely based upon fact, if you have any knowledge of the real Battle of Shiloh you might know what I am eluding to, but I will provide no further spoilers myself. It’s strange stuff but is nicely balanced with the first act of the novella and a clever use of a truly ‘weird fact’ which I looked up after a tip from the author. Bringing supernatural beings into the centre of the American Civil War is not something you read every day, Fracassi recently said this about the fun he has with literary mash-ups: “I have a tendency to mix genres. The Civil War setting intrigued me because what I like to do in my stories is take Ingredient A and mix it with Ingredient B to come up with something that hopefully reads as fresh. I’m a big fan of mash-up genre pieces, both in literature and in other mediums, so it was fun for me to take a historical war story and combine it with supernatural horror.” As with all of Fracassi’s works he has the knack of drawing the reader into his world incredibly quickly and with few words draws believable and likeable characters. As the battle rages you’ll be thrusting your metaphorical bayonet along with Henry whose point of view of story it is seen from, whether you’ll still be cheering him on in the second day I’m not so sure. “Shiloh” is a brief but very enjoyable read from one of the best writers of short horror fiction in the business. Tony Jones  MY LIFE IN HORROR: WE WILL BURY YOU PART 2
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