Book Review: Feeding the Void by Morgan K. Tanner
Title: Feeding the Void
Author: Morgan K. Tanner
Release date: October 30th, 2023
Huge thanks to Morgan for sending me a digital copy of this one!
I’ve read a bunch of his work and love how brutal and bleak he goes so I was excited to dive into his newest creation!
There’s always something so intriguing about fiction that involves that all-encompassing term ‘the void.’ We all immediately think of this shimmering, moving, amphibian-esque textured, slightly sentient ‘thing’ that fills up space and ingests what gets too close. But there are so many unknowns and it is always the unknown that draws us in.
What I liked: The story follows Jeffery, first in childhood, and then as an adult. As a child, he has a loving mother, distant and standoff-ish father, and a basement he’s not allowed to go down into. He’s warned of a finger monster by his father, a way to try and keep him in his room at night, which works until his mother tells him its all a story and Jeffery visits the basement.
Morgan then takes us to see Jeffery as an adult, fully addicted and within the clutches of the thing that resides on the wall in the basement and takes over for his father and feeds it, ensuring all of its desires are met. We also meet a woman who has struggled with endometriosis, who falls in love and unexpectedly finds herself pregnant. And Morgan keeps the tensions high as those two worlds collide.
The ending, as most often in these types of stories, doesn’t fully close and will keep you wondering about the unknown…
What I didn’t like: I’m not a huge fan of POV shifts and this one goes through a few, first from 1st person POV for part one and then from our different main players once Jeffery is into adulthood.
The biggest thing I found with that POV shift, is with the opening being the POV of a very young child, the first section felt very young-reader. I wondered a few times if this was closer to feel to Morgan’s The Snuggle Zombies than to An Army of Skin. It continued to feel a bit horror-lite as it progressed and ultimately we don’t get much more than what Jeffery does to satiate the void.
This could’ve made for a very nerve-jangling short story, but in it’s stretched form, it becomes thin in some areas.
Why you should buy this: If you’re a fan of Tanner’s break-neck speed of story telling, then you’ll be salivating over this one arriving, especially as it’s been a short span since his last proper foray into longer horror. Jeffery is a maniac that runs the show and his progression into such a dark mental place will pull readers along.
3/5
