The Atrocities: Jeremy C. Shipp
Reviewed By Steve Stred
For as long as I’ve followed Mr. Shipp on Twitter we’ve been Facebook friends, I’ve continually been meaning to buy and read his release ‘The Atrocities.’
Recently, the book popped up when I bought a different ebook and I thought, ‘Ah-ha! Time to do it!’
Instead of adding it to my TBR list, I began reading it that very night.
What I liked: ‘The Atrocities‘ is a gothic Rorschach test. Beautifully written, with some truly haunting passages, Shipp works hard for the reader to stumble over sleight-of-hand paragraphs along the way to have us guessing the entire time.
The book opens with the young woman arriving at the manor, having to first make her way through a hedged maze filled with hideous statues. Once there, she learns she’s been hired to help the daughter of the house to accept where she is in ‘life.’
From there, Shipp fills the story with nightmares, odd characters and strange events. This was a novella that hummed along and packs a lot into a short page count.
Throughout, I was trying to guess what was going to happen and never once did I guess right!
What I didn’t like: There are moments in here that I wish were expanded upon so I maybe would’ve completely got what Shipp was going for. For the most part, this one never read over my head, but a few spots had me rereading it to figure out what was trying to happen.
Why you should buy this: Tor.com puts out some amazing stuff and ‘The Atrocities‘ fits in nicely with the other releases from Tor I’ve loved. Shipp is a fantastic storyteller. He created some moments that felt like I was watching a Del Toro movie.
If you love schizophrenic gothic works, this will be right up your alley.
The Atrocities
When Isabella died, her parents were determined to ensure her education wouldn’t suffer.
But Isabella’s parents had not informed her new governess of Isabella’s… condition, and when Ms Valdez arrives at the estate, having forced herself through a surreal nightmare maze of twisted human-like statues, she discovers that there is no girl to tutor.
Or is there…?
You can buy The Atrocities from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Steve Stred
Steve Stred is the author of a number of novels, novellas and collections. He has appeared in anthologies with some of Horror’s heaviest hitters.
He lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with his wife, son and their dog OJ.
You can follow Steve on Twitter @stevestred
You can follow Steve on Instagram @stevestred
You can visit Steve’s Official website here
Leave a Reply