I would like to thank the author for a copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Drugstore Indian Press
Published – out Now
Price – £14.99 paperback £2.99 ebook
HAND-ME-DOWNS was planned as a themed collection almost from the start. I'd written a story, "Thirty-Two Tumbling Teeth", only in retrospect, realising that what I'd been writing about was a sort of reversed inheritance. It was a neat notion and I wanted to explore it more. How ideas get passed on along with objects bequeathed by the dead to the living. The transference of personality traits and emotional baggage between parents and children, spouses, siblings and friends along with the tangibles of inheritance. I found myself taking a particular interest in the traits of toxic masculinity. And, like I say, found that horror was exactly the right medium to be telling those sorts of tales. The right kind of light to shine to expose those sorts of truths." —Neil Williamson
The joy of a short story collection from an author you admire is that you’re in safe hands but also, you know they have enough variety and skill to surprise you. I’ve been a fan of Neil Williamson’s work for some time so becoming aware that there was a new collection out this year how could I refuse Hand-Me-Downs a themed collection of short tales all based around the idea of objects that have been left for someone. I was delighted to say this is one of the best collections of the year and was a huge delight to read even as it sent me to some darker places.
‘Thirty-Two Tumbling Teeth’ this title alone should pull you in as it starts the collection and the tale of a man who looks after 24-hour laundry services and finds teeth left behind in the machines manages to be both creepy and heart wrenching as we trace back our main character’s life and how he got to this point. It’s a spellbinding tale.
While in ‘The Family Axe’ we follow two young children looking for firewood in the forest. Williamson mixes family drama with an growing sense of folk horror. Are children fated to just follow their family’s footsteps, is there a possibility f escape or is history too strong. The story hovers on deciding which way to go and keeps the tension in the reader as t where we will end up all the way to the final page.
With ‘Bunting’ a relative goes to see the side of the family that he is ignored by other parts of the family. This story mixes how someone is not fitting in and what’s to find people that understand him. The ending suggests that this will may never be a smooth experience though.
Then we have a mournful tale in the form of ‘The Sea Gate’ our character was not a fan of their homophobic grandmother but has fond memories of staying at their grandparents and being entranced by a wrought iron gate. Now he has moved this to their home but the family history of the gate is a calling. It’s a story about asking can you move on from the past or let it consume you?
I really liked ‘The Death House’ a cottage bequeathed to the ex-partner of our narrator where a perhaps not completed ended love mixes with a dangerous secret of the house and explores how far people will go to keep what they want. The way this morphs from relationship drama to something much spikier and troubling is very powerfully delivered.
A simple spice tool is the catalyst for ‘A Little Seasoning’ where our narrator explores how his boyfriend who is a trainee chef is delighted to finally get his uncle’s tool that always makes any dish taste better. This is a story of desire that goes rampant and the way this particular spice works makes people go to greater and greater extremes as they seek a new experience. A tale of love and madness all in one bite.
I also really liked our meek narrator in ‘An Antique Puzzle Box of Unknown Provenance’ there is here a mystery object in the aforementioned puzzle box but the real mystery is the relationship between our narrator and the person trying to solve the mystery. Here are hidden depths and secrets in this tale that are slowly revealed and shows us the story is something much sharper edged than we first expected.
So with ‘The Truckle’ our two main characters have been given a block of cheese from the locals as they flee the rat-race pressures of London. In some ways folk horror about outsiders coming into a perfect village is not unusual but this story also explores anxiety about when life gets too much, and relationship and work pressures overpower people. As such the charcet5vwork here as the mysteries are investigated feels quite modern and refreshing but gruesomely revealed as well!
With ‘A Found Letter’ we appear in the most middle-England middle aged environments of Bargain Hunt, antiques and people very much stuck into their routine. But our narrator finds a gift from an estranged friend raises up all sorts of unhappy secrets. What hides below the surface of this tweeness is the heart of this story and who is in danger is left ambivalent all the way to the final sentence. The way passions are so well hidden gives the story its power.
Off to Germany for ‘ Die Hasslichen Blumeen’ where an estranged son is left to deal with his father’s funeral. There is little love lost here but death stirs all kinds of memories not helped by him meeting people who never saw that side of their father and leads to a much stranger conclusion where in the most unusual of ways our narrator finally gets some well-earned closure that I suspect no one will see coming.
With ‘Down To the Roots’ a wealthy man who always wants more is finally going back to his childhood home. Its facing back to your past and can you escape it. He is a complicated yet greedy man and so we wonder what exactly awaits him and can he do any better. Williamson leads the final scene to us to decide upon.
We get a historical mystery in the form of ‘The Cold Case’ where we get a grotty Scottish tale of a deeply unpleasant unsolved crime. The real horror though is what the case means for anyone who investigates it. Does evil just help create more evil even in people with the best of motives? It’s a deeply unsettling tale that suggests that there is no escape for anyone that should easily leave a shiver on the spine.
Jumping back to the 21st century we get ‘Five Vapes In A Shoebox’ where a mother is finding out what her son was hiding. What could though just be a tale of parental punishment though becomes much more tragic, supernatural and powerful as the deeds of the past appear to be casting a final spell on this duo. The sense of a large trap finally closing is palpable.
Then in ‘A Little Ray of Sunshine’ it’s a tale of a drug few can resist. It is though a lot more complicated than that and this is a tale that I have had the pleasure of reading before and think its for the reader to discover but its well worth your time.
Finally, ‘The Salted Bones’ has a man fixated by two young women with an x-ray showing writing on their bones. He seeks them out to discover the secret, but this story is also a skilled misdirection as its about the obvious things we tend to ignore more than the stranger secrets of the family we are about to meet. An unsettling tale with a clear message about our world is awaiting you.
An incredibly well written collection that takes us to so many unusual places combined with perfect storytelling and character work that I very strongly recommend this to readers!
