Runalong The Short Shelves - Remains Issue 2

Publisher - https://remains.uk

Published - Out Now

Price - £7.99 - quarterly subscriptions also now available

Lovely to have some headspace again and short fiction is appealing. As luck would have it my copy of Remains arrived on my doormat and it was a sunny afternoon. What more does anyone need than a little horror for an hour or two and this was a really good issue.

Big Death by Abi Haynes - a fascinating mosaic style story starting with a grumpy mortician and then slowly weaving back and forth in time telling us of the start and downfall of The Positive Death Society how a good idea that comes out of love actually turns pretty horrific. Hard not to think of a recent U.K. news story in this space and it delivered so well a supernatural angle and balanced the helping side of the world of funerals with its darker macabre side. An engrossing intense read and a great start.

Doors of the Close by Sarah Read - hugely enjoyed this too! Colin just as he is about to take some drugs sees a scary figure both a knife and hears a scream. But as Colin is a drug addict and very much down on his luck the only person he can tell is his childhood friend Brandon. There is gorgeous character work with these two that really are the heart of the story as we get to see how they got to where they are in their lives and then this supernatural occurrence ensnared both of them. Horror is less about just things happening to bad people and more often pure bad luck and even helping someone can turn badly. This has a lovely atmosphere of urban gothic also as we move into the less than sunlit alleyways of the local community that definitely feel malevolent as the story progresses.

Otto by Rhonda Pressley Veit - this is the magazine’s novella and outs a delicious slow burn. We follow retiree Glover Rose on the beach of Devilwood. It’s a slow burn story and the horror is for most of it an undercurrent. However that is so we get invested in Glover Rose’s story we feel his family connections, the community he is now part of and there is just some lovely scenes that build us a picture of this complex and sensitive man who falls in love with a woman and finds a dog by her unsettling. Horror needs some light and this offers someone a chance at love and of course there may be a price then to pay. The haunting beach landscapes and sense of inevitability to restore really work to create a modern gothic tale I just loved to get immersed in. By the end we understand, like and care for for Glover Rose which of course means we also care about where he may end up.

Slow As Honey by Alexander Glass - all horror readers know that when a group of archaeologists open a previously unknown tomb there will be trouble and Glass’ modern day tale definitely heralds this however what makes the story work is the choices afterwards. A tomb where an unknown body is soaked in honey is a fascinating unnerving image and then we also find an unexpected connection with our narrator that tinges the story with tragedy and just possibly a touch of finding peace that really makes this work very well in just a few pages.

His Beautiful Melusine by Laura Elliott - a powerful dark erotic tale about people trapping one another. Our narrator meets a former teacher of hers and an affair begins. This is about being lost on one another, finding hidden depths and yet the horror is exactly who is entrapping whom? Lots of powerful sea imagery and thoughts on art and passion it’s disquieting in all the right ways.

Finally Matt Hill conducts an interview with the author Nina Allan about their new book A Granite Silence. I loved how this explored the way this true crime tale is feeling connected to Allen’s more speculative works and I have to say very tempted.

Another very strong issue for this new quarterly magazine! I also have to once again highlight Richard Wagner’s stunning artwork throughout.