The Uncanny Gastronomic: Strange Tales of the Edible Weird (edited by Zara-Louise Stubbs)

 

"Sweeter than honey from the rock,

Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,

Clearer than water flow'd that juice;

She never tasted such before,

How should it cloy with length of use?"

Goblin Market, Christina Rossetti

The Uncanny Gastronomic: Strange Tales of the Edible Weird (edited by Zara-Louise Stubbs) was published last year as part of the British Library Tales of the Weird series.

The introduction reads like a shortened version of the PhD, curious but on the dry side.

"The uncanny gastronomic, at its core, literalizes the inherent weirdness of food, quering the many ways our appetites can begin to define our very sense of ourselves".

Blurb:

"A brush with the mushroom devil whets the appetite. The meat at the werewolf's table is a dish to relish. Dessert with London's cannibal club may be the cherry on top.

From fairy tales and folklore focused on magical foods and strange eating came an enduring tradition of writers playing with food and the uncanny. In the fiction of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries this tradition thrived, with themes of supernatural consumption, weird transformation and sensual euphoria as key ingredients.

Raiding this dark pantry of writing, this new collection presents a feast of sixteen classic tales, two poems and one essay, with choice morsels by masters of the macabre including Shirely Jackson, Franz Kafka, Angela Carter and Roald Dahl.

Each story and poem comes with a short introduction to the author (very informative and useful if you want to expand your to-read list).

The division of chapters into a menu while being amusing, is slightly artificial, i.e. done for the purposes of style rather than relevance. 

Contents

Introduction: an aperitif

An Appetizer: Human Horror

The Laboratory by Robert Browning is a typical example of the poet's style. This is a dramatic and pompous monologue of a woman who is plotting the demise of her lover's new love interest with a deadly poison. The formal structure of 12 quatrains juxtaposes with the dark, frenetic thoughts of the crazy lady.

Brilliant, if you enjoy this Victorian poetic genre, less so, if you find the dramatics tedious. 3/5

The Measure of My Powers by M.F.K Fisher (1919) is one of the essays collected in The Gastronomical Me. The author takes a trip down memory lane, talking about the cook named Ora, hired by the family during Fisher's childhood, the creative meals she cooked, and the older generation's antagonism towards her dishes. Grandmother who loves "plain good food" (including rather revolting sounding steamed soda crackers with hot milk) is having conniptions on seeing the spicy meals cooked by Ora, and feels justified when a terrible thing happens. 4/5

A Fasting Artist (aka A Hunger Artist) by Franz Kafka is a third-person narrative about a performing artist who starves himself while sitting in a cage for public display. He prides himself on fasting for weeks and living on water. Despite his fame, the artist is constantly dissatisfied, he feels belittled and wants to prove that he doesn't cheat. Over time, such performances go out of fashion, public loses interest, and the artist feels misunderstood. 

The overall theme is rather anti-gastronomic, and reads as an ironic criticism of the artistic airs and pretensions. 3/5

Like Mother Used to Make by Shirley Jackson is a slightly odd choice for this volume. If you expect a horror story in Shirley Jackson's style, you might be disappointed. There is nothing supernatural or eerie in the story. 

It's a rather mundane tale of an awkward Englishman who finds himself entertaining an unwanted guest, and he doesn't know how to extricate himself from the uncomfortable situation. Imagine younger Hugh Grant character. David is a fastidious, prim man who prides himself on keeping his little flat clean and well-organised. He is also very proud of his growing china and cutlery collection. Having invited his neighbour Marcia for dinner, he is forced to entertain an unwelcome guest of Marcia. 3/5

A Main Course: Supernatural Appetites

Goblin Market is a narrative poem by Christina Rossetti, telling the story of Laura and Lizzie who are tempted by goblin merchants offering them exotic fruit. Penniless Laura offers a lock of her hair as a payment, and gorges on the juicy fruit in a frenzy. She cannot hear the goblins any longer and pines for their forbidden fruit. As the time goes, Laura is getting feeble and affected with an unknown malady. Her sister Lizzie ventures in the dark, looking for the goblins and their dangerous offerings. She manages to save her sister by using her cunning. 

This classic poem has been interpreted and re-interpreted a hundred times, explaining the symbolism of the forbidden fruit, the allegories of female sexuality, temptation and redemption. 4/5

The Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet is a classic tale of a young man who is looking for a remote place to stay, when he comes across an isolated cottage. 

"It was the exact kind of abode that I had been looking after for weeks, for I was in that condition of mind when absolute renunciation of society was a necessity. I had become diffident of myself, and wearied of my kind. A strange unrest was in my blood; a barren dearth in my brains. Familiar objects and faces had grown distasteful to me. I wanted to be alone".

A widow with a young ailing daughter Ariadne welcome him in their abode. The man is immediately smitten with the pale beauty of Ariadne. The accursed cottage proves to be more than the artist bargained for. While predictable (the title is obviously being the main spoiler), it is also very atmospheric. 4/5

Gabriel-Ernest is a 1909 short  story by Saki. It starts with a warning, "There is a wild beast in your woods..." The narrator meets a young werewolf in his woods, who preys on little children. The lycanthropy in this tale represents the symbol of adolescence. This Gothic horror reads as a parody of the genre, with a good dose of irony. 4/5

To Serve Man is a sci fi story by Damon Knight, first published in 1950, and reprinted numerously. It tells about three alien emissaries who arrive on Earth with supposedly altruistic purposes of helping the humans. The aliens are humanoid pigs. They promise assistance with the most complex issues and offer to send groups of volunteers to their home planet to learn more. One of the interpreters working with the aliens doesn't believe in their altrusim and tries to discover the truth. While the ending is not a true shocker, as you expect a twist, it's delivered with panache. 5/5

The Company of Wolves by Angela Carter is a provocative retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, with an emphasis on the burgeoning sexuality of a young girl. The first half of the story is as a short essay on werewolves, which moves onto the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, a precocious child on the brink of womanhood. Carter turns an already violent fairy tale into a rather nauseating paedo's dream. Some critics analyse it as a defiant feminist tale. 1/5

#54 by Jim Crace is a chapter from The Devil's Larder (2001), a novel of 64 vignettes on all things food-related. #54 is dedicated to mushrooms - two pages on a mysterious encounter with a devil in the woods, searching for mushrooms. 3/5

A Palate Cleanser

The Watering Place by Virginia Woolf is a melancholic, quirky vignette. Like an artist, creating a sketch of a scene in a few fluid lines, Woolf gives a brief description of a small seaside town and a snippet of a conversation overheard in the cafe. The smell of fish permeates everything around, and lingers like a dejecting trace.

"Like all seaside towns it was pervaded by the smell of fish." The description of inhabitants as having a shelly look, and the overall dismal atmosphere, makes a depressing observation. Being one of the few last pieces before Woolf's death, it gives a dispirited mood. 4/5

Dessert: A Taste for Human Flesh

Cannibalism in the Cars by Mark Twain, published in 1868, is a dark ironic tale, describing the acts of cannibalism when the train is stuck in the middle of nowhere for days due to the heavy snowstorm.

It is a satire on the political system of the USA: the passengers have elections, where they decide the fate of their comrades, discussing all the pros and cons of each candidate. The ending of the story leaves it open to interpretation. 3/5

The Price of Wiggins's Orgy by Algernon Blackwood:

Samuel Wiggins has been a secretary to a philantropist for twenty years. "Soup kitchens had been the keynote of those twenty years, the distribution of victuals his sole objective. And now he had his reward - a legacy of £100 a year for the balance of his days". He wants to celebrate the unexpected legacy, and for the first time in his life goes to West End to dine in a restaurant. Not used to drinking wine, he enjoys a couple of bottles and gets rather intoxicated. The phantasmagoric, scary events that follow his opulent dinner could be interpreted as a result of intoxication. 4/5

A Madman's Diary by Lu Xun was first published in 1918. By challenging common way of thinking, it is considered to introduce a new language in Chinese literature.

The main protagonist (who wrote the diary) is obsessed with cannibalism, and sees it everywhere around him, including his own family and neighbours from the village. His reasoning as to why they want to eat him is convoluted and totally ungrounded. The madman quotes the Confucian classics, where cannibalism has been mentioned, which supposedly justifies his way of thinking.

You can read it as a metaphor of a free-thinking character who doesn't want to accept the traditional norms and beliefs. 3/5

Roald Dahl's The Pig, a cautionary tale for the grown-ups, proved to me once again, just why I don't like his style of writing. It is pretty revolting and disturbing, from start to end. A baby named Lexington loses his parents in unrealistic bizarre circumstances, and is adopted by an elderly aunt who brings him up as a vegetarian. They live in the countryside, surrounded by nature, looking after their animals and growing vegetables. Lexington becomes a talented cook who loves creating imaginative dishes. On his aunt's death, he goes to New York, to be fleeced by his lawyer, and discovers the taste of meat. The ending is truly vile.

Dahl is a classic of children's literature, and has acquired a huge following of fans, but I've never been one of them. His books are thoroughly unpleasant and unnecessarily cruel and nasty. 1/5

A Digestif: On Human Love

Berenice by Edgar Allan Poe: strange and eerie, Gothic and macabre. Including it in this volume, however, is questionable. 

"Berenice! - I call upon her name - Berenice! - and from the gray ruins of memory a thousand tumultous recollections are startled at the sound! Ah, vividly is her image before me now... Oh, gorgeous yet fantastic beauty!... And then - then all of mystery and terror, and a tale which should not be told".

Egaeus, a sickly young man, has known Berenice since childhood. While he has been sickly all his life the sweet little girl was a picture of health and vivacity. As a young woman, she becomes stricken with a strange malady. Her health and looks deteriorate. Egaeus proposes to her out of sympathy. He becomes obsessed with her white teeth. The ending is not for the fainthearted. 4/5

Sinister and freakish? Definitely. Related to the theme of  the book? No, the inclusion of this story is rather tenuous, as technically the gastronomic aspect is missing. 

Witches' Loaves by O'Henry has been one of my favourite short stories for a long time, ever since I read it as a young teen. An old spinster Miss Martha Meacham is running a bakery. One of her frequent customers always buys two loaves of stale bread. Miss Martha is lonely, and compassionate. She dreams of helping the shy customer, but sadly, her efforts bring a calamitous result. She acts out of kindness and also hope for her own future, invisaging a possible relationship. You feel sympathy for both Miss Martha and her customer. It's an empathetic tale, infused with irony. 5/5

There is nothing uncanny, strange or eerie in this story, and as much as I love it, this volume is not the right place for it to be included in.

Lovers by Silvina Ocampo is a slightly surreal insight into the inner lives of two people. They meet in secret to partake in a little feast of four sugar-laden treats from the bakery. They eat in unison, devouring every crumb and bit of cream. Shared passion for food is their way of demonstrating their feelings for each other. "With greater energy and speed, but with identical pleasure, they began chewing and swallowing once more, like two gymnasts exercising at the same time". 4/5

Under the Jaguar Sun by Italo Calvino, one of the greatest Italian writers, is a story set in Mexico. It examines "the dichotomies of religious and sensory ecstasy". The sense of taste is the dominant theme of this peculiar and even outlandish story. A couple are travelling across Mexico, exploring both cultural and culinary secrets of the country. The young woman Olivia gets over-excited when a topic of a human sacrifice is introduced. Rather than being put off by his lover's interest, the male narrator imagines himself being consumed. "I was insipid, I thought, without flavour. And the Mexican cuisine, with all its boldness and imagination, was needed if Olivia was to feed on me with satisfaction".

I wanted to like this story, but I'm not sophisticated enough to appreciate the nuances. 3/5

I wasn't sure whether to keep the rating of each piece, after all, isn't it quite presumptious to rate the classics? Yet, the grade in each case doesn't judge the quality of writing, and is really a matter of personal taste and emotional appeal. 

This is the third book in the series that I read, and the one I liked the least. 

Have you read any books from this series, and is there a particular book that you would recommend for me to read next?

Fear in the Blood: Tales from the Dark Lineages of the Weird (ed. by Mike Ashley)

"As I stooped to reach it I felt someone pull my dress from behind. I fancied I had caught the train in something, and I turned to disengage it. But the folds were perfectly free, and I returned to my original design of ringing the bell... My first impusle was to examine my dress. Yes! There on the new velvet was the distinct impress of a little hand where the material had been grasped abd pulled, just about on a level with my knees" (The Haunted Nursery, by Florence Marryat)

I've been collecting books from the British Library - Crime Classics for a few years, as I love their book designs. Every time I check out online what the latest additions are, I come upon suggestions for British Library Tales of the Weird. I enjoy reading paranormal/ghost stories, and have added a few to my wish list. It was one of the Insta reels though that made me search for the books properly. 

Unsure whether I want to start another shopping spree of the series I might or might not like, I decided to borrow a couple of books in the library before making up my mind.

My first foray in the series is Fear in the Blood: Tales from the Dark Lineages of the Weird (edited by Mike Ashley).

The concept of the book is the literary bloodlines, the writer's skills and talents passed down through the generations in families.

As it happens, quite a few families have passed their writing genes to descendants. Charles Dickens and his family are probably one of the better known ones. Among his descendants you can find such writers as Mary Angela Dickens, Monica Dickens and Mary Danby. All of them happened to turn their hand to tales of the supernatural.

Mike Ashley explains, "Which is the theme of this volume. I have selected six literary families and chosen stories from different generations to show how an interest in dark tales has passed down the bloodline".

The table of contents lists six literary families:

The Marryat Family (Frederick and Florence Marryat),

The Sheridan and Le Fanu Families (Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Rhoda Broughton and Sarah Lefanu),

The Hawthorne Family (Nathaniel Hawthorne, Julian Hawthorne and Hildegarde Hawthorne),

The Dickens Family (Charles Dickens, Mary Angela Dickens, Monica Dickens, Mary Danby)'

The Pangborn Family (Georgia Wood Pangborn, Edgar Pangborn and Mary C. Pangborn),

The Aiken Family (Conrad Aieken, Martin Armstrong and Joan Aiken)

The stories vary in style and literary skill, some appear very old-fashioned and quaint, bordering on overly sentimental, some are quite brutal and harsh, and all of them explore the world of the eerie and strange.

I had to search and read the synopsis of a couple of stories to help me understand the plot, as I found them rather confusing and convoluted. One of them is the classic story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Browne, published in 1835.This atmospheric story is set in the Puritan New England, and deals with the themes of depravity and self-scrutiny. 

Most of the classic stories in the volume left me indifferent, and hard to relate to. It's the stories by modern writers that I found more intriguing and spellbinding. 

The three stories worth highlighting are:

Fran Nan's Story by Sarah Lefanu is set during the foot-and-mouth outbreak in the early 2000s.

Fran the junior haidresser at the salon tells her tale, while doing the customer's hair.

Her Nan shared the tale about the old man and his three-legged border collie Jess who disappeared in the moors. 

The old farmer is desperate to save the remaining healthy sheep and move them away from being destroyed. He takes his loyal companion collie Jess on a perilous night trip through the moors.

During the trek, the dog goes missing, and the old man pines for her, waiting for her to reappear at the farm. 

"No, he said. "I seen her. I seen a dog with three legs. She were standing there on the old drovers' track. I knows it were my Jess. She were a-calling me. But when I got to where she were, she warn't there no more".

It's not a horror story, but a tale of the deep bond between a man and his best friend.

The Secret Ones by Mary Danby is a thought-provoking tale of the outcasts of the society.

It deliberately doesn't specify who the family members are, they are nameless. They could be unfortunates fleeing the wars, asylum seekers in search of a peaceful life.

"The husband, the wife and the wife's sister arrived by boat one fear-grey dawn". They are starving, and to survive, search for scraps of food among the heaps of rubbish. They hide from the hostile people.

"They were the last members of a vast family to make the journey and were disheartened to find the land of their dreams to be one of hate, not plenty".

The story takes a sinister turn and has a shocking ending. And while there are hints through the narrative at who the family members are, the revelation at the end will make you wince.

Woggelbeast by Edgar Pangborn explores the themes of unfulfilled dreams, hope and loss.

Molly lives with her husband Danny. She is a traditional housewife, whose life is centred around the needs of her husband. Molly is 41 and childless. She believes that to have a child at this date would need a miracle.

Lonely Molly finds the most unusual companion in Wogglebeast. To this magic creature she pours her heart and tells of her heart's desire.

"There had always been something about Molly to make you think of a little girl playing with dolls".

This is a poignant moving story of a woman who dreams of having a child.

The sad tale resonated deeply, as it addresses the loneliness of a gentle soul who yearns for a child, and tries to find imaginative in the mundane. 

It was a promising introduction to the series, and I've alredy started reading another book from Tales of the Weird called Polar Horrors.

Are you familiar with British Classic Tales of the Weird series? Is there a book that you would recommend?

The Hollows by Mark Edwards

 

"Now that I was alone, what David had said about being able to feel the energy of what had happened here came back to me. I could sense it. An imprint in the air, the memory of an evil act stamped upon this place".

"All three of us turned our heads towards the woods, and a sensation of dread trickled down my spine. A shadow moved in the trees. Shifting light. Wind stirring branches. But it was easy to imagine something else at work. Something alive and ancient that had lived among these trees since they were saplings.

Everett's territory?

Or the territory of something he worshipped?"

The Hollows by Mark Edwards is a dark psychological thriller, with Gothic undertones.

Tom Anderson and his daughter Frankie arrive to a cabin resort amidst the woods during the grand opening week. Their cabin is on the far side of the resort. "Nestled in the trees, the cabin - like all the cabins here - was brand new. Its windows gleamed in the sunshine. This was our home for the next ten nights".

Frankie is upset because there is no Wi-Fi here. The father is adamant, "that was the whole point of coming here. To get away from everything. No social media. No YouTube. No news. A whole week and a half without staring at a screen. Just you and me". Of course, both of them get the Wi-Fi withdrawal symptoms almost immediately.

The father plans to spend "quaity time" with his daughter, doing archery, boating on the lake, horse riding and many other outdoorsy activities. 

Tom is a Brit, who's being married to an American. Now that they are divorced, he sees his daughter once a year when he visits the States. He lives frugally, saves all year to be able to afford these holidays with Frankie. Tom is a music journalist, with a dwindling career. "I was wounded. The slow death of my career. The breakdown of my marriage. The loss of my daughter".

Their next cabin neighbours, David and Connie are super excited about the opening of the resort. Their podcast on true crime and serial killers is gaining popularity, and this trip is meant to boost the numbers of their audience.

Apparently, the Hollows has being widely advertised on The Snugg Guide, a dark tourism website, for the 20th anniversray of the Hollows Horror.

"As Connie and David took it in turns to tell me the story of what had happened here almost exactly twenty years before, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, as of someone were standing behind me, blowing cool air on to me".

Long before the resort was established, this area was popular with schools and campers.

Twenty years earlier, in July 1999, two teachers were killed. They were left naked on the flat rock, with pagan symbols painted in blood around them. The theory was that the murder was some kind of an offering, a sacrifice. A local teenager, Everett Miller, a loner with interest in crazy-ass bands, was the main suspect. He has never been caught, having disappeared without any trace, most likely gone across the border to Canada.

Murder-obsessed, ghoulish tourists flock to the resort to mark the chilling anniversary.

Despite his misgivings about the dark topics, Tom is intrigued and even motivated. "I didn't want to get ahead of myself, but if a great story had just landed in my lap - or rather, I'd landed in its lap - maybe this was my chance to start again. I had often thought about relaunching myself as a different kind of journalist. Could this be my chance to do just that?"

The first step would be to dig more information about the case, read the old files, chat to some locals, and if the story proves worthy, pitch it to some editors. "I tried to keep my excitement in check, but it was hard. Because when you've been starved of hope for so long, it's hard not to snatch it when you see it dangled before you".

David and Connie stay at the Hollows with their teen son, Ryan. 

When Ryan and Frankie venture to the nearest small town, called Penance, to access the Wi-Fi, they are not impressed with the creepy junkyards, crumbling houses and broken windows, and the air of shabbiness about the place. The locals are hostile and threatening. Frustrated, Ryan does a selfie with a homeless man asleep in the shadows by the memorial, with an offensive message, "Come to the asshole of the world! Penance, ME..." The hashtags are as offensive: #shithole #vacationfromhell

This Instagram post will come back to bite them. It appears that some of the locals don't take kindly to the disrespectful, derogatory social media posts. Ryan and Frankie get trolled with vengeance.

The strange, disturbing things start to happen in the resort. 

Tom and Frankie's dream trip is rapidly turning into a horror story. Will the time run out before they are able to uncover the truth? 

The story alternates between Tom (in first person narrative) and Frankie (third person), with some other voices contributing to the plotline.

The atmosperic creepy setting is done skilfully to build up tension and suspence. The dark ancient woods, the sound of distant, unseen chimes, a sinister town of Penance. You get references to the classic horror films, as well as Edwards' previous books (in the Acknowledgments he mentions that he has left several Easter eggs for his readers).

There are the creepy twins that would make you think of The Shining. "They were behind her, walking at the same pace as her, side by side. She caught the girl's eye and the girl's lips curled into a smile. Except it wasn't a real smile. It was the kind of expression an alien who was trying to imitate human emotion might make. The boy did the same, and now Frankie was certain they were twins. They looked like two dolls who had rolled off the same production line".

It touches upon such a crucial issue as chidren and social media. "We give kids access to these new online tools, like Instagram, but they don't always have the emotional maturity to use them". It might not be a cautionary tale for our times as such, and not does it try to be one, but it does make you think of the dangers and pressure of social media.

If you enjoy thrillers and horror stories with the nightmare holiday camp settings, The Hollows is a proper page-turner. I read it in one day. Dark, creep-inducing, suspensful horror.

The Hollows is currently available for £1 on Amazon, or free for Prime Reading/Prime Amazon subscribers.

Legacy by Chris Coppel

"She simply exists. She has become pure evil. Most of the time she doesn't even take human form. She feeds on suffering and pain. If she can't find it naturally, she will create it herself."

If someone bangs on your door in the middle of the night to leave a mysterious heavy crate, from an anonymous sender, without any clue as to what might be hidden inside, you and I would most likely not accept the unexpected package or take it in the house.

Craig Edmonds, the main protagonist of Legacy by Chris Coppel, however, doesn't think twice. He has no idea what is inside this super heavy and solid crate, but brings it in. In the morning the whole family gathers around the package to open it. Inside they find an antique mirror.

 "It was quite something. It was obviously old. Very old. The mirror had yellowed with time and was pitted. It had backing missing along most of its edging and a small crack across the top right-hand corner. All in all, it wasn't in great shape... The frame was the kicker. It appeared to be hand carved from what Craig guessed was walnut... It certainly wasn't the work of an artisan yet there was something intrinsically beautiful about its artistic naivety".

Jenny, Craig's wife, insists that the mirror should go up on the wall, touching the floor, looking like a doorway or portal.

The Edmonds live in an old remote house, built by an early settler to Southern Utah in the late 1800s. They love their little house, even if it's too small for four of them. The unexpected delivery of the mirror leaves Craig slightly unsettled. Somehow it feels wrong. 

A sheriff in the high desert of Southern Utah, Craig used to be an elite Marine sniper. It took him many years to to recover from the psychological trauma of his military life, as well as his very traumatic childhood.

The demons of the past, nonetheless, pale in comparison to the horrors which arrive in their house with the mirror. It hides the dark secret.

The mirror strikes terror into the family dog, who wouldn't come close to it, as if sensing something unholy. Strange occurences follow: the attic suddenly becomes infested with all kinds of vermin, soon turning into a vile giant throat with rattlesnakes, etc, yet the baffled Edmonds don't connect the dots.

The weird and dangerous events escalate, not just in the house, but in the nearby community. Craig is at a loss. Until he meets Ahote, an old Native American, (his name means restless in Hopi) who offers his help to fight the evil. This enemy is much worse than any Craig has encountered in his life as the marine. He is fighting against time and the essence of unspeakable evil, trying to save his family.

What Craig and his family don't know is that the mirror is indeed a portal for an ancient witch Beyath who needs to venture into the world of the living every twenty five years to keep herself immortal. All the ungodly events happening in the house come just before the arrival of Beyath as she intends to transition from the fifth realm and take on her original mortal form.

"She had fed the light fourteen times starting in 1643... She had witnessed almost 400 years of change in the old realm... The days when she cared about what went on within the old realm were long gone. She now had only one focus. To follow her bloodline and feed the light".

With the assistance of Ahote, Craig must time travel twenty five years into the past to defeat the 16C English witch with a taste for immortality.

Ahote himself is a powerful adversary of all things evil, but he is not strong enough to battle Beyath alone. Craig's talents from his days as the marine would come helpful. "His actions as a sniper played a big part in causing the stress that had almost destroyed him, however, Craig recognised that it was also a part of what had made him who he was".

Will Craig and Ahote be able to stop the witch on their travel back in time before her evil destroys his family forever?

As we follow Craig's story, we also get to know his background, from tragic childhood (both his parents die in a murder/suicide) and awful realities of the orphanage, to the stark distressing truth of his years as the marine. 

Potential triggers: murder, child abuse, PTSD, witchcraft.

Legacy is a chilling, immersive and compelling Gothic story. Its genre is a combination of sci fi, horror, and fantasy with elements of time travel. The book casts a sense of slowly-rising dread from the first pages. A horror story to chill the marrow. If you're sensitive, don't read this story at bedtime.

Many thanks to Chris Coppel and Henry Roi for my e-copy of the book!