SING YOUR SADNESS DEEP BY LAURA MAURO

6/8/2019

Some authors make such a powerful first impression with you that you can still remember where and when you first encountered there work. Laura Mauro is one of those authors when I first read her story When Charlie Sleeps in Black Static 37 way back in 2013 I knew even at that early stage that we were looking at the emergence of a potent and commanding voice in horror fiction.

Six years later the genre has been given the gift that is her debut collection Sing Your Sadness Deep from the ever-reliable Undertow Press. Bringing together the very best of her short fiction with a couple of new stories, this collection confirms, cements underlines three times in thick black ink, or take your pick of any other overused phrase like these, the fact Mauro is one of the most ingeniously talented writers out there.

Mauro has this special gift for creating stories that on the surface have this unique sense of beauty as the horror unfolds, but dip below the surface, or take a moment to read between the lines or in the spaces created by the punctuation, and what you will find is a burning passion and anger at the inequalities in the world. There is a hypnotic poetic brilliance to her prose, that embraces and engulfs you in its subtle yet vivid imagery.

The opening story to this collection is a perfect example of this, Mauro masterfully combines a sense of wistfulness with a deep sense of foreboding and an anger at those who despise anyone who may be different from them. Mauro's love for Japan is evident here with a tale involving the discovery of something that that can be best described as a Kitsune. The sense of fragility that both of the main characters have is palpable, and the sense of freedom that they both feel towards the end of the story is a joyous escape from the tension and dread that Mauro layers on throughout the story.

The Grey Men is another favourite of mine, packed full of wondrous imagery this tale is one of those stories that has just the right level of ambiguity to it that allows for readers to make their own views upon what it was really about. My take on this story is that it is one of the most heartfelt and honest looks at depression and disillusionment committed to the page. It is one of those stories that, after reading it, leaves you with an unshakable sense of emptiness and sadness. Some might argue that this isn't what you should feel after reading a story, but just as in real-life horror doesn't always have a happy ending.

Talking of ambiguity, Red Rabbit couldn't possibly be more ambiguous, and yet it works perfectly, sometimes you don't need to have everything explained for a story to be exceptional. Strange as Angels is another story that has an ambiguous nature. It is perhaps the most graphic of all the stories present in this collection, both in terms of the horror that ensues, and in terms of the brutal and graphic discourse on the complete and utter breakdown of an already broken and toxic relationship. Where The Grey Men left you feeling empty, this one will leave you feeling shattered on the inside.

Looking for Laika is another superlative story, about obsession, and the need for us to rituals to keep us sane and the badness away. This moving story of a brother who recounts stories of the Russian dog that was sent into space, is, if you can say this, the most heartwarming story in the collection, even if you come to the understanding that you cannot stop the inevitable from happening no matter how hard you believe in your rituals. A brutally honest look at the pressures and heartache associated with OCD

I've never liked mirrors, and The Looking Glass Girl does nothing to abate my fear of them, this wonderfully creepy story of a spirit trapped in a hand mirror will send a shiver down your spine

Laura Mauro's When Charlie Sleeps, this creepy and unsettling tale of three women who must care for a monster in a bathtub that seems to be an integral part of London. When he sleeps and is happy, London is happy, but when he is angry or disturbed, London suffers riots, crashes and social unrest. A wonderfully creepy and intimate tale with whose ending sent a shiver down my spine. Who is Charlie and where does he come from, these things are never really answered, but that doesn't matter. But let's hope and pray that Charlie isn't pushed into doing something really nasty with the rise of Boris.

Just know that when you hold this book in your hands, you are holding the first collected works of a writer, that if there is any justice in the world, will be talked about and discussed for generations to come. Laura Mauro smashes the notion that horror has no literary merit or substance. With writers like her, Georgina Bruce, Priya Sharma, Tracy Fahey, Chris Kelso, Kit Power and many others championing the horror genre, it cannot help but drag itself out of the literary ghetto.

Sing Your Sadness Deep, will have you running through every emotion, from joy to despair, from warmth to revulsion, with its transcendent look at the human condition.