Runalong The Short Shelves - Remains Issue 3
Publisher - https://remains.uk
Price - £8:99
This issue of Remains has been hit by a publishing problem but just in time for my Christmas break it kindly arrived and feels a suitable time to resume the Short Shelves where I delve into a magazine or podcast’s output. Remains is a quarterly print magazine edited by Andy Cox of Black Static fame focusing on horror fiction and beautifully edited by Richard Wagner.
In this issue I read
Atrophy Wife by Gary McMahon
This is a tale about consequences. Our narrator and his teenage friend are in the woods and discover the body of a murder victim. They don’t solve the crime, we never find the culprit and instead what’s d see is how someone suddenly sees the world is not the safe thing they thought it was and how that follows them forever. It’s quite haunting and the open ended ness of he take makes it more powerful.
Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch by Alison Littlewood
After quite a claustrophobic tale we move to modern day Route 66 and a trip to a strange desert ranch of junk and trees holding glass bottles. Two teenage brothers get swept up into the mystery of this eerie place and the question here is wha consequences it creates. There is a great sense of growing wrongness in one of the characters and exactly how bad could things now get for one of our narrators? The lack of closure as to can they get out of their predicament really makes it click uncomfortably
Loon By Danny Rhodes
This is a very eerie tale our narrator is quite happy with boundaries stating as they are. While in love with his girlfriend he can’t commit any further. Rhodes really helps us feel someone who is clearly afraid of full commitment and enjoying staying out in the country while his partner stays in town but the countryside is always a little strange itself. What starts off as a tale of uncomfortable relationships morphs cleverly into folk horror that seeks to trap someone who is never keen to commit even when it hurts themselves. Quite memorable
Pebbles by Stephen Hargadon
A new partner to a mother and child goes on holiday with them to the beach. The daughter creates a whole new pebble family and our narrator finds a secret diary telling their stories. He starts to worry what impact these disturbing tales have on the girl. I enjoyed this bit to me the ending felt mismatched to the story and a little too blunt.
Hiroshima Is Another Word for Love by Andrew Hook
This tells the story of two people having an affair in Hiroshima before the bomb. A French man and a Japanese woman they so nearly commit before going their separate ways. I had a mixed reaction to this there are scenes of loss and tenderness but for me it didn’t quite have a successful conclusion brining all these ideas together.
Gehenna by Steve Rasnic Tem
This was my favourite tale in the issue. An elderly cancer patient is having treatment while strange events unfold in the news. This is a fascinating quiet apocalypse. Without spoiling the client idea it’s the idea of the world just slowly losing any hope, any desire for a future and feels incredibly downbeat and all the more troubling as a consequence. A very smart story well worth reading.
Inheritance With Teeth by Tori Fredrick
I really liked this story too as an elderly family matriarch is taken to an event by her family. It’s got lots of interesting ideas here; the elderly seeing themselves lose control; how we still feel young even as we get older but it’s also about what we did to survive and the ultimate reveal of this woman’s secret and how it neatly plays into the family event is very well executed.
Snuffbot by Kailee Pederson
This is a fascinating bit of SF horror told by an android that is being used to make social media content where various horrible things are done to it such as being hit by a train. What makes this work is our narrator is so matter of fact about this work, she had real affection for her owner and is keen to help but we see how this relationship is very much one way and the realisation of what he plans next hits hard and yet means she finally gains some autonomy herself. The horror is more here human greed, selfishness and the desire to enjoy watching people being hurt which actually makes the final scene quite powerful and liberating.
There is also a new running feature Letters From New America by James Sallis - honestly not sure yet. The first instalment is a wonderfully strange tale involving an intelligent fridge, a couple and a mysterious issue, it’s fascinating but need to see where this is going.
It’s a fascinating edition and well worth a look. It seems the printing issues are resolved so I look forward to reading more of this as the year progresses.
