It is dark and the wind scalpels its way through the cracks in the wooden walls, the spaces between the logs where the newspaper no longer holds back the elements. When the wind rushes in, the fire moves back a bit, as if letting someone scoot past to get to their usual seat in church. Winter is on the way.
Your mother is already in a fitful sleep. Her shoulder twitches occasionally, and she makes small fear noises. Your brother sits in the rocking chair in front of the fire. He does not blink. He stares into the flames, like he is waiting for a message, a sign, a reason to move.
So begins the first story, How We Quit The Woods, in Jeffery X Martin's (Black Friday) new book Stories About You Volume 1. If you read Black Friday you'll know Martin as an engrossing writer and Stories About You possess that same ancient/ritualistic rhythm, that same sense of experience that Black Friday had. But this time Martin has added a twist. The title is quite literal. YOU are the star of each story. The whole book is written in the second person. Hold on. I know what you're thinking and yes, it works.
While not every story is a horror story enough of it is for you creep fans. Martin can deliver the dread by the truckload with literary skills to back it up.What I found most interesting was the meditative quality of the stories, they're almost hypnotic the way YOU the reader is always being addressed.Also, as with Black Friday, emotion is one of Martin's most powerful weapons. He's not just trying to shock or scare you-he's trying to get at your heart.
I don't think a book of second person short stories could be pulled off by just anyone. To even go for such a project takes balls and to pull it off with such style takes a mind and imagination like Martin's. Stories About You is very cool and really enjoyable. Screw the mainstream cookie cutter supermarket paperbacks, embrace a writer with class and style, fiends!
You can get Stories About You HERE.
I don't think a book of second person short stories could be pulled off by just anyone. To even go for such a project takes balls and to pull it off with such style takes a mind and imagination like Martin's. Stories About You is very cool and really enjoyable. Screw the mainstream cookie cutter supermarket paperbacks, embrace a writer with class and style, fiends!
You can get Stories About You HERE.