A Review of Ellen Datlow’s “When Things Get Dark”
Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson
Ellen Datlow is a celebrated editor of books, and she has put together this latest anthology featuring both well-known and lesser-known authors, including Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen Graham Jones, Cassandra Khaw, and Kelly Link, among others. This collection is a celebration of all things Shirley Jackson, at least more so when it comes to her reputation as being a horror writer. (Even though her work is mostly psychological fiction, and, perhaps save for her controversial short story “The Lottery,” she generally came to the horror genre late in her career.) Datlow has collected stories that are inspired by Jackson’s work, but the one hard and fast rule was that the authors brought together for this book were instructed to not write about Jackson or her life. Rather, her stories and novels were to be used as a springboard to imagine what Jackson might have written if she were at work today. The results are pleasantly surprising in that some stories feature queer characters or persons of colour. However, like any collection or anthology, there are both bangers and clangers here.
The good news is that the bangers tend to outweigh the clangers, and even the lesser stories are all enjoyable in some way — you could find things to admire about, say, Cassandra Khaw’s “Quiet Dead Things,” such as the evocative use of language, even though you might have to re-read it to catch important plot points that seem buried on a first reading. (Because the narrative is quite confusing if you’re not paying close attention.) However, the best stories in this collection generally (not always, but generally) avoid copying Jackson’s writing style, and are first-rate thrillers that could stand alone outside of this work. The book is also slightly front-loaded and back-loaded, which is where you’ll usually (not always, but usually) find the true standout gems. However, there are a few stories here that feel as though they are the beginnings of a much longer piece of work, offering little in the way of a satisfying conclusion. This is true of the first story in the collection: “Funeral Birds” by M. Rickert. The piece is about a nervous lady who becomes haunted by the ghost of the woman she has killed, but even though the piece ends with a sort of resignation of fate, there seems to be more to the story that needs to be told. The same is also true of Seanan McGuire’s “In the Deep Woods; The Light is Different There,” which is a well-written tale of a woman who goes to live in a haunted lake house. However, the story just ends before it gets going.
I might be sounding churlish, though, by addressing the flaws of this anthology first because there are some diamonds among the dross that would make a still-living Jackson proud. I loved Elizabeth Hand’s “For Sale by Owner,” which is a disturbing tale of what can go wrong if you’re three middle-aged ladies who love to trespass in empty houses. Similarly, “Hag” by Benjamin Percy is a pulse-pounding thriller about a crime reporter investigating a possible murder, only to become embroiled in a sort of The Wicker Man-style cult. (And I know that Jackson didn’t write the screenplay for The Wicker Man, which goes to illustrate that the best stories of this bunch are more loosely inspired by Jackson’s work.) Richard Kadrey’s “A Visit to Paris” — a story about a woman who has murdered her family and is wracked with guilt — is just as enjoyable. Josh Malerman (best known for writing Bird Box) successfully captures the paranoia of Jackson’s work with “Special Meal” — a tale about why it is best if you don’t know any math. Even though all of these stories are great, Datlow saves the very best one for last: Kelly Link’s “Skindler’s Veil.” It’s about a housesitter who experiences some very weird happenings and it is a knock-out. This story goes to show why Link is a master of the short story, even if this one is more of a novella. (I hope this is a tease that we’re going to get a proper novel out of Link someday.)
Overall, I was quite impressed with When Things Get Dark and I was pleased to see that the occasional author didn’t take the obvious horror genre route, opting instead to focus more on matters of the mind, rather than the supernatural. Jackson is a mixed bag when it comes to being an author for me: the only novel of hers that I haven’t read is The Haunting of Hill House but have found that her novels do tend to either drag or be overly pessimistic towards the human condition. This makes her a bit of a tough read at times, never mind the fact that she wrote of a specific time and a specific place that is now long gone. Thus, it’s telling that when authors in this anthology merely offering a blatant pastiche of Jackson’s work — such as Joyce Carol Oates’ “Take Me, I Am Free” and Paul Trembley’s “The Party” (which is a rewrite of Jackson’s The Sundial in short form) — the result is a strikeout. In the same breath, the good stories make up for the bad, so my main criticism might be that Datlow could have cut some of the 18 stories presented here and just have gone with the cream of the crop. Padding aside, When Things Get Dark is a largely successful endeavour that shows just how much of an influence Shirley Jackson had with her writing. Though the anthology is not always spooky, some of the stories here will make your hair stand on end. Warts and all, this was a pleasant read and one that fans of Jackson’s work should be curious enough to check out.
Ellen Datlow’s When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson will be published by Titan Books on September 21, 2021.
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You may also be interested in the following reviews: Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson’s Four Novels of the 1940s and ‘50s, Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart Is a Chainsaw, Cassandra Khaw’s Nothing But Blackened Teeth, and Kelly Link’s Get in Trouble.
Get in touch: zacharyhoule@rogers.com
