Book Review | The Inconsolables by Michael Wehunt

A terrifying, thoughtful collection of ten uncanny stories that explores life and death through the eyes of characters in challenging situations.

Death was as present in the blank spaces of the map as it was in the creases of their house, but the reminders — a mound of earth piled on a shoulder, a broken deer, memorial crosses draped with rotting flowers — swept by in her peripheral vision, only there for an instant. She had to keep her eyes on the road. 

– Is There Human Kindness Still In The World?

The Inconsolables is a collection of short stories that lingered long after I was done reading. I revelled in the unique horrors here and how the scares built and crawled instead of jumping at me. Just as in the author’s previous collection, Greener Pastures, I was struck by the images crafted within the horrors. Like a hand reaching up towards a window, a mime sneaking a look over a restroom wall, a mass of bodies in the dark, and a figure on all fours, hiding.

There’s a recurring theme of loss or potential loss in this collection. In my favourite story, Is There Human Kindness Still in the World?, a grieving woman visits rest areas and finds an unexpected enemy. A sinister mime haunts a couple in a broken marriage in The Tired Sounds, A Wake. An old woman wonders if she made the right choices in her long life in Hoolow. A man grapples with a certain dark future as everyone else leaves him behind in the science-fiction-tinged An Ending (Ascent).

I love found footage horror so it was a thrill to learn this collection has three stories set in the same universe as October Film Haunt: Under The House from Greener Pastures. The Pine Arch Collection is told via emails, where a character finds themselves being filmed without their knowledge. How could descriptions of video clips be so unnerving? It made me feel as if I was watching the footage myself! It Takes Slow Sips focuses on a man whose disturbing behaviour leads to something more. Vampire Fiction looks at a man who remembers a childhood memory after his family left him.

The Inconsolables is an incredible collection of memorable horror stories that left a strong impression on me. Bonus points for the beautifully creepy illustrations and the Story Notes that gave background information to each story!

About the author: Michael Wehunt

Photo by Daniil Onischenko