Runalong The Short Shelves - Salo Press’ Infidelities series
Publisher - Salo Press
Published - Out Now
Price £5.00 paperback via https://www.salopress.com/store/
Hellooo!
Slowly, normal reading speed returns and I thought let’s start the week with something a little different a look at a series of chapbooks. Essentially a bound short story. I noted the names of the authors of this series linked just by the theme of Infidelities and thought book let’s give this a whirl. Gentle Reader it was very much worth it
If, When, Never by James Cooper - the starting tale of a kinetic tale of an America that appears to be on the brink of falling apart. Our narrator has a fascinating story linked to watching his father the town’s rogue who will steal from anyone but also sell to anyone and so has a strange place in the community not trusted but accepted. The feel of imminent disaster rises as the boy hears about a gruesome series of murders which in his mind are down to a figure known as The Gasoline Man. Nothing fully unfurls but there is a sense of disaster that pulls things along. It may not fully come to pass but another and another may also lurk on the horizon. Here for me infidelity is to the community and perhaps to the family.
Onamorag by Aliya Whiteley - our narrator is a student back in the family home and finds her relatives are all coming down with a mysterious disease. Her Great Aunt though has a solution and suddenly with the appearance of a pine cone the story moves into magic but does not give any outright explanations. We have also a fascinating sibling relationship as she has to deal with her sister who appears to be hiding things. Our narrator goes against the family secrets but the ending is quite surprising but also about knowing when to leave things well alone. I really enjoyed this tale for all the sense of mysteries hiding under the surface.
I Will Take The Sun In My Mouth by C A Yates - another great tale awaits in this story. We meet a middle aged woman named Silence who finds herself suddenly up against her own personal demon. Yates slowly pulls all the parts of Silence’s life together and what’s led her to this moment. Mental health, parenting and not letting yourself fall into darkness are the themes explored and it culminates into a wonderfully strange yet beautiful final sequence as Silence awaits her final sunrise.
Never Land by Dan Coxon - is a delightfully meta story within a story. It’s about an author named Dan Coxon who at a convention meets a famous but strange editor who asks him to work together again. However Dan has no memory they ever worked together. He finds himself sent the story and here we get into a meta story where a story is found to have parts of Dan’s reality in it. In doing so we get disquiet as to then how real are the events we hear about? How real is any story? Here the craft is how the actual story makes these elements build up a sense of eeriness and dread which the final page leaves us to wonder what awaits our narrator. The infidelity of memory creates a very impressive story.
The Good Man by Andrew Hook - this was an interesting story of five male mechanics living their lives at work and in their social lives. There is a sense of emptiness within their world. They are bound to be masculine roles and yet everything follows the same paths. One though attracts the attention of a beautiful woman. This was the one story that don’t work for me as the ultimate reveal itself felt a little flat and undercut the story.
Overall a really interesting sequence of the strange and weird
