Growing Things and Other Stories
Book - 2019
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ReadingAdviser_Sally
Jul 11, 2019
The house is a New England colonial, blue with red and white shutters and trim, recently painted, the first-floor windows festooned with flower boxes. She stands in the house’s considerable shadow. She was once very small, and then she became big, and now she is becoming small again, and that process is painful but not without joy and an animal sense of satisfaction that the coming end is earned.
ReadingAdviser_Sally
Jul 11, 2019
There’s a monster in the swamp. It eats cats and dogs; small, unwanted children, you know the type; and the occasional beautiful woman. Only rarely, so far, once a century, will it devour the angry torch-wielding villagers—your potential neighbors.
ReadingAdviser_Sally
Jul 11, 2019
I’m terrible at remembering plot and character specifics…if the story is successful, what I do remember and will never forget is what and how that story makes me feel.
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Add a CommentThis is a great collection of stories for those interested in the development of one of the best up and coming horror writers. Paul Tremblay gives us examples of stories that fit his usual structure of presenting a personal, intimate horror framed within a larger more global horror. Here we find stories of kaiju and addiction, apocalyptic plants and dark family secrets, a mysterious ice tower and a father’s suicide. Among these tales of horror we also find some crime stories creatively revealed through descriptions of old vacation snapshots and the confusion of time, space, and memory. Of particular note for fans of Tremblay’s novels, “Notes From the Dog Walkers” and “The Thirteenth Temple” re-introduce some familiar characters. While most of these selections should please any fan of the short story format, a few will mostly appeal to those with a particular interest in the horror genre. At times, the aforementioned “Notes From the Dog Walkers” reads like an essay on the current state of horror writing and fandom.
Comic book fans should be on the lookout for a surprising cameo!
This collection of short stories by Paul Tremblay were in turns unsettling, disturbing and just downright creepy. At times I felt it was a bit scattered and although there seemed to be an underlining theme, it was hard to settle on it. But maybe that was the point. Paul Tremblay is a master of literary horror and Growing Things represents that. If you have read Head Full of Ghosts.... be on the look out! You may find an Easter egg or two.