Review: Behold the Void

Behold the Void by Philip Fracassi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Behold the Void by Philip Fracassi is a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ dark and creepy collection of short horror fiction, but it is not your typical conglomeration of "feel good" scary slasher tales. Fracassi takes us on a journey to explore what is just beyond the horror experienced by his characters, and makes us ask the question, "What if the end of the story, isn't the end of the terror?"

Reading this collection brought to mind some of the chronologically early tales of the Shannara series by Terry Brooks, where he explores the battle between the opposing forces of "The Word" (order, light, love) and "The Void" (chaos, darkness, hate). The battle rages on in BEHOLD THE VOID, but Fracassi shows us that the chaos of The Void stems from, and is strengthened by, love, rather than being its complete opposite.

Each of the nine stories here are good on their own, and when combined as they are in this collection the result creates a building sensation of dread and heightened anticipation for what comes next. You know that things aren't as they seem, and while the reader may move on to the next tale, the characters in Fracassi stories remain. And their future is left to our imaginations.

Fracassi delivers a twisted tale with SOFT CONSTRUCTION OF A SUNSET, which had a Twilight Zone feel to it, and reminded me a bit of Stephen King's GRAY MATTER which appeared in his Night Shift collection.

Another standout for me was FAIL-SAFE in which a boy, desperately wanting to be grown up enough to make his own decisions, suddenly finds himself having to do just that - and his choice will determine his fate and that of his family.

I really enjoyed MANDALA - but I struggled with this story the most. Not because it wasn't a good story - it was - but because it was the one that I felt the most grounded in "reality" and hit closest to home. The one in which the "normal" events involving two boys whose typical summertime play gets out of hand, putting one's life in danger, seemed too possible. I think it would succeed even without the fantastic aspects, and those additional elements only added to the story's suspense and horror.

Dark. Creepy. Atmospheric. Unsettling. Recommended.

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