“Some things can’t be spoken about in the light of day. But we can visit our fears at night, in the dark. We can turn them over and weigh them in our hands and maybe that will protect us from them. But maybe not.
The characters in this collection find their aspirations for happy homes, happy families and happy memories dissected and imbued with shimmering menace.
Alone in a remote house in Iceland a woman is unnerved by her isolation; another can only find respite from the clinging ghost that follows her by submerging herself in an overgrown pool. Couples wrestle with a lack of connection to their children; a schoolgirl becomes obsessed with the female anatomical models in a museum; and a cheery account of a child’s day out is undercut by chilling footnotes.
These dark tales explore women’s fears with electrifying honesty and invention and speak to one another about female bodies, domestic claustrophobia, desire and violence. Things We Say In The Dark is a powerful contemporary collection of feminist stories, ranging from vicious fairy tales to tender ghost stories.” - Taken from the blurb.
Kirsty Logan writes her feminist views as well as her own personal opinions and fears about various subjects in her life. One theme she approaches is children, briefly mentioning that she fears having a child and becoming a parent. I cannot lie, reading her fears has seriously made me reconsider children (and just about everything mentioned in this collection). Logan’s dark story telling highlights a lot of fears many women may have in their lifetime, for example, relationships, moving house and, like I said, children. I found it hard to move on from this and pick up a different book as Logan’s writing touched me. I shared a few of her fears and to read scary stories where they come to life, I struggled to come to terms with reality, as I am sure many readers experience.
Logan has a collection of short stories, varying from topics of haunted houses, to nightmarish children, to being kidnapped and abused. Therefore, I send out a warning for those easily offended or upset by tough subjects. I definitely struggled with some of the stories but found that they highlighted fears every woman has. Of course there are the odd stories that most people cannot relate to, for example, not many people have experienced sleep paralysis - a topic touched on in one story.
In this collection we look at depression, the fight women go through just to exist, and the horrors that women experience in day-to-day life. A particular short story I wish to discuss is one found in My Body Cannot Forget Your Body: Fourth Fear. A lesbian couple want to have children, and one of them, Colette, has what the author describes as a “dozen bouncing babies”. Each time Colette has babies, they are all beautiful, well behaved, and angelic. However, her wife, Alison, has just one baby, and the author describes this pregnancy as awful. When her baby is born it is hideous, only depicted as a “damp cloth that seemed to have been chewed by a dog”. At the end of the story, it is mentioned that Colette cannot bring herself to love Alison’s ugly baby, but Alison only loved her own; the only child who came from her and “looked just like her”. I thought this was beautiful as this story of a mother only loving the child, although hideous, but who looks just like her is something I think many women may agree and resonate with.
Characters in this book were very relatable - since most were women and the stories focused on their struggles - and this made the events scarier. I read this book for Halloween - yes, I know it has been a while since Halloween - so I felt it was appropriate for the autumn holiday!
Definitely giving a star for the structure; I don't usually read short stories, so this was a first for me. I found some of the styles of the stories interesting: one written in footnotes; one written as a set of questions; another written as reviews from the perspectives of husband and wife. I shall give another star for the way Logan broke the stories up with interludes of what she was doing at that moment in her retreat. I felt like it brought the reader closer to her and made the fact that these are based on fears more real, and thus enhanced the horror. Another star because of the horror aspect of it; anyone who knows me knows I love a good horror, and Logan definitely delivered. Some of these horrors were fears I didn't even know I had until reading, so I guess I owe her a "thanks" for giving me new nightmares! And simply because I feel this book deserves four stars, a fourth for approaching feminism in a way that most writers do not. Many talk about how amazing women are - which we are, I cannot disagree - however, Logan highlighted just how human we are; fragile and delicate. In this we are not seen as strong independent females, but merely beings who are afraid, not of the unknown, but of what we are capable of. I think that brings feminism to a different level. Logan does not present women in a way where we are the damsel in distress, but as superhumans, using our womanhood and femininity as a weapon against threats such as men, depression and motherhood.
★★★★☆
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