2019 fantasy/horror. Melissa, or Mouse, goes to rural North Carolina
to clear out her dead grandmother's house. But it turns out that she
had secrets, and some of them outlived her…
This is, in effect, fanfic of an early horror classic—but to name
that story would spoil some of the fun of discovery, so I shan't. But
there's a journal, and maybe it was just the ravings of a man edging
into dementia, but maybe it wasn't.
What this also is is a portal fantasy with real people in it, ones
who neither gladly throw away their lives in the real world to go off
and have adventures, nor run away at any slight hint of peril. Maybe
it was just a noise in the woods. And if your dog's run off, you don't
casually leave him behind.
(Bongo the coonhound is a major character in his own right.)
Mouse finds friends, but will they be allies in the face of high
strangeness? What do the Things beyond the woods actually want,
anyway? And that's why I call this fantasy/horror; it's not just the
horror stance of "here is a scary thing, I will try to survive it",
but more the speculative fiction stance—the ones I tend to prefer, at
least—of "what does it want and how does it work". Rather than just
taking a spooky phenomenon for granted, Mouse (and the reader) wants
to know what's going on, and of course things tip over from
"interesting" to "far too dangerous" faster than she can get away.
It is a little inconclusive, perhaps. She survives with damaged sanity
but soul (and dog) intact, but They are still out there. The pace,
especially in the early parts, is quite slow; but I was so caught up
in the writing and the exploration that I found I didn't mind at all.
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