Book Review | Here In The Night by Rebecca Turkewitz

A collection of 13 short horror stories that explores womanhood, queerness, and intimacy.

I understood that I was not done acquiring things worthy of being lost.

Here In The Night is a beautiful collection of short stories that pack an emotional wallop. I thought the writing is beautifully wistful. It weaves the blossoming of a new relationship versus the longing and regret of a love lost. There are eerie moments, with an aching understanding that perhaps it’s not spirits that are haunting these characters but the life they have led. From a boarding school in Vermont to the coastline of Maine to a highway in rural South Carolina, each story delivers something unique and thought-provoking.

The complex coming-of-age journeys of young women are portrayed compassionately. A teen girl discovers her first love and the pain that comes with it as she creates ghost stories in The Attic.  Tales of the local ghost intrigue the new girl in town, but it’s her secret that haunts her in Crybaby Bridge. In The Nightmares of Jennifer Aiken, Age 29, nightmares and reality collide to create disturbing, emotional snippets of a woman’s life.

The strength of familial connections thrum through the collection. The Last Unmapped Places highlights the magical connection between a pair of twins and the cost of that bond. A young girl is convinced a monster has stolen her father and is willing to do anything to get him back in Northwood. In Four Houses Down, two siblings are curious about their neighbour but what they discover is something unexpected.

If you like literary horror that makes you sad more than scared, don’t miss Here In The Night.

I received a copy from the author for review purposes.

About the author: Rebecca Turkewitz

Photo by Mariam Soliman