Book Review: Next Door: A Collection of Twelve Tales and One True Story by Kimberly Davis Basso
Title: Book Review: Next Door: A Collection of Twelve Tales and One True Story
Author: Kimberly Davis Basso
Release date: October 13th, 2021
Firstly, huge thanks to Erin Al-Mehairi for sending me a copy of this release to read!
If you’ve followed along with my reviewing and supporting others journey, you’ll know I’m a massive fan of discovering new-to-me female authors. I’d not read anything by Kimberly Davis Basso prior to this, and truthfully, I didn’t even really read the synopsis. There’s only so much that a brief summary of a short story collection can do anyways to entice the reader. What I did know, was that if Erin was raving about it like she was, this must be a solid collection and one that I’d like.
Bingo.
What I liked: From start to finish this collection goes from story strength to story strength and each one lives and breathes within its own space so well. It was truly a joy to get continually sucked into each story without any moments of lag or attempting to orient my reading brain. No, Davis (or Basso Davis, apologies if I got that wrong) writes with such a solid writing voice and style that it pushes through even those stories that have plot points that have been done a number of times before. She infuses them with her own charm and that definitely works in this collections advantage.
Case in point – one of the ultimate highlights for me – ‘La Strega Ragna.’ This story did something others often fail to do for me – I’m not a big fan of humor in horror. But this one, telling the story from the POV of the witch that lured Hansel and Gretel into the woods as she struggles to remain living off the grid and alone over hundreds of years was simply phenomenal. Engaging, filled with humorous tongue in cheek moments, I ate this one up.
Other highlights for me were;
‘King of Cape Cod’ – a heartbreaking story of the youngest of four brothers who wants to impress them and go on their little sail boat. He searches the beach for something to show them, but what he finds should’ve been left where it lay.
‘To the Mountaintop’ – all I’ll say is that I love stories set in the woods and this one about going on a hike was a blast.
The other favorite of mine was ‘Drill.’ This was a really grotesque body-horror story about a dental assistant with a unique (and revolting) fetish. I loved this one so much, but I kind of wish it was a lot longer!
Overall, Basso will keep the reader engaged throughout all of these.
What I didn’t like: While I personally loved all of the stories in here, as always I offer the caveat that each reader will experience these stories completely differently than every other reader. I will add – for me it was a bonus – but some may find it a detriment, that this collection didn’t have any overly long stories. Some folks really like a collection to end with a novella but in this case you won’t find that here.
Why you should buy this: Solid from start to finish, I gobbled this one up and that’s saying something because for the last six months or so I’ve been burned out on collections and anthologies. Kimberly’s storytelling prowess was superb and it was really exciting to discover a new author who hit it out of the park with each and every story offered.
Great work!
5/5
