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The Unheimlich Manoeuvre

Tracy Fahey (Goodreads Author)

4.54 · Rating details · 26 ratings · 15 reviews

The Unheimlich Manoeuvre is a collection of short stories based around ideas of the domestic uncanny – the Unheimlich. The stories in this collection don’t fall into the conventional ‘haunted house’ bracket, but explore the psychological horror that occurs when home is subverted as a place of safety, when it becomes surreal, changes, and even disappears…

In these stories, a ...more

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Hardcover, First, 142 pages

Published July 16th 2016 by Boo Books

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Sep 18, 2016 John McNee rated it it was amazing

There are some wonderful stories here.

Single author collections -especially first ones - can be erratic affairs, a wildly mixed bag, the result of a new author experimenting, trying to find their won voice through different styles. Tracy Fahey doesn't have that issue. Her voice is her own and her obsessions plainly evident. There are themes linking these tales - quiet desperation, domestic disharmony, the troubling nature of the uncanny - but no repetition. Each well-crafted story throws a diff ...more

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Oct 28, 2018 Oliver Clarke rated it really liked it

This review first appeared on scifiandscary.com. I received a free copy of the book to review.

‘The Unheimlich Manoeuvre’ is a beguiling, unsettling collection of short stories that’s well worth your time if you have a taste for subtle, creepy horror. The 13 tales it contains are well written and varied enough to keep things interesting. Despite that variety, there are common themes running throughout the book that makes this feel like a well thought out, deliberate collection rather than the ran This review first appeared on scifiandscary.com. I received a free copy of the book to review.

‘The Unheimlich Manoeuvre’ is a beguiling, unsettling collection of short stories that’s well worth your time if you have a taste for subtle, creepy horror. The 13 tales it contains are well written and varied enough to keep things interesting. Despite that variety, there are common themes running throughout the book that makes this feel like a well thought out, deliberate collection rather than the random hodgepodge that anthologies can sometimes be.
The stories are a mix of the out and out supernatural and what you might call tales of everyday madness, where apparently normal people do unspeakable things. There are ghostly doppelgangers, psychotic spouses, haunted houses and many, many things seen out of the corner of characters' eyes.
This is the horror of suspicion and doubt, where you don’t know if you can trust those around you or your own senses. At times it almost feels Lovecraftian, there is that same feeling of ever present threats lurking unseen in the shadows. Whilst there aren’t any direct ties between them, the stories all feel like they take place in the same universe. This creates a cumulative effect through the book, the terror of each story layering on that of the tales that precede it. It’s as if Fahey is painting different parts of a bigger picture with each story, and whilst that picture isn’t necessarily complete by the end of the book, the parts that are visible are terrifying.
The stories are also tied together by a sense of domesticity. The lives and environments that they revolve around are familiar and consistent. The women Fahey writes about (and the main characters are all women) are convincing and sympathetic. They feel like people you might know, and that makes the stories all the more chilling. It’s as if the events might be taking place in the house next door to you without you knowing.

Short stories can be hard to get right, but Fahey writes such brilliant openings that the reader is immediately pulled you into the narrative. Take these examples:

I’m writing the story of me and Charles Anderson. It’s a story from the year I turned twenty and went travelling. It’s a story of where we went and what came back.

On the third day she finds it on the attic wall. She’s in the middle of the slow but satisfying ritual of stripping wallpaper; first soaking, and then unpeeling back the thick flaps of flock wallpaper from the green-painted plaster beneath.

Ten days after. Everything in my life falls neatly into two divisions: before and after I saw something nasty in the woodshed.

Horror shorts can feel gimmicky, like elaborate shaggy dog stories that revolve around the final punchline, but Fahey’s never do. They leap off the page fully formed and the combination of enticingly creepy scenarios and believable characters is a winning one.
I’ve quite deliberately not gone into detail about any of the individual stories here, because I liked them so much I don’t want to risk spoiling them for you. Suffice it to say that this was the best collection of horror shorts I’ve read this year - it’s convincing, gripping, chilling and filled with a wonderfully macabre imagination. ...more

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Dec 13, 2018 D.K. Hundt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: kendall-reviews

Review Posted On Kendall Reviews - March 21, 2019

Tracy Fahey, an Irish writer of Gothic fiction, is published in more than twenty US and UK anthologies. The Girl In The Fort, her first novel, was published by Fox Spirit Press in 2017, and Black Shuck Books released her second collection, New Music For Old Rituals in 2018. Two of her short stories, ‘Walking The Borderlines’ and ‘Under The Whitethorn’ were longlisted for Honourable Mentions in The Best Horror of the Year Volume 8. In 2017, her deb ...more

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Mar 09, 2017 Priya Sharma rated it it was amazing

This is a very assured first collection. It's been described as domestic horror but it's anything but mundane. Even where the stories are set abroad they have a very claustrophobic quality. Large events that affect whole communities are focused through the microscope of personal interactions, which are beautifully observed. Although there are twists, Tracy Fahey never plays for cheap shocks.
Recommended.

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Oct 24, 2018 Valerie rated it it was amazing

This collection of short stories are definitely uncanny, a few disturbing, a few horrific! They are very subtle, they aren’t gory, bloody but by the end you get that knowledge of wrongness! A good read! Creepy-Long Shadows! Disturbing-Ghost Estate, Phase II, The Woman Next Door, Walking The Borderlines! I could go on & on, just pick this one up and see for yourself!! ...more

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Oct 26, 2016 Yvonne Davies rated it it was amazing

What attracted me to this book was the title. Like everyone else I had heard of the Heimlich manoeuvre but not the unheimlich manoeuvre and thanks to an informative introduction by Cate Gardner, I now know that it is a German word meaning uncanny or weird and these 14 short stories were spot on with this definition.
The stories that stood out for me were:
Coming Back is a story about a girl coming out of a coma and the after effects of her recovery. With the help of a mysterious visitor, she make ...more

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Aug 26, 2018 Christopher Teague rated it really liked it

Although I hadn't read any of Tracy Fahey's fiction, despite her writing being well within my favourite genre of horror, I picked up a copy of this at a recent-ish convention and can honestly say it is one of the best collections I've read in a long-time.

I won't name a favourite story, and although one or two weren't my cup of tea, the quality of writing is superb throughout.

Read this, especially if you like your horror fiction urban and modern with a nod to J G Ballard.

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Sep 20, 2020 Tom Johnstone rated it it was amazing

I first read this book a few years ago in its original incarnation as a limited edition hardback from Boo Books, but it's since reappeared in various formats courtesy of the Sinister Horror Company. I'm so glad I decided to re-read it, especially now it's gained a wider readership!

One of the first thing I noticed when I read the acknowledgments page was the unusually high ratio of original stories to reprints, which made a refreshing change from the tendency of authors to pack their collections I first read this book a few years ago in its original incarnation as a limited edition hardback from Boo Books, but it's since reappeared in various formats courtesy of the Sinister Horror Company. I'm so glad I decided to re-read it, especially now it's gained a wider readership!

One of the first thing I noticed when I read the acknowledgments page was the unusually high ratio of original stories to reprints, which made a refreshing change from the tendency of authors to pack their collections with previously published 'hits'. Often the stories written especially for the collection are in a small minority, but in this one, the original material accounts for over half the stories, which I feel is a brave choice on the part of the author, as these stories have not already been tried and tested 'in the wild'.

If it's a gamble, it undoubtedly pays off, because these previously unpublished tales provide some of the highlights of this excellent collection. One such is 'The Woman Next Door', the story that stuck out head and shoulders above the rest when I read the book the first time around. Telling of a new mother's obsessive envy for her immaculately-groomed neighbour, whose own baby seems to have no impact on her fashionable lifestyle, it's about the bleakest, most unnerving portrayal of post-partum depression and anxiety you could ever read. It showcases one of Fahey's defining core strengths: her acute observation of fault-lines in relationships and her speciality, domestic uncanny, hence the title's play on the German word for 'uncanny', literally 'unhomely'.

Indeed, Fahey's fiction could be said to have much in common with the recently-heralded sub-genre of crime fiction known as domestic noir. One of her main themes is coercive control, predominantly by men, and she covers its entire spectrum, from the patronising, petty nit-picking in 'Papering Over the Cracks', with its echoes of the classic 'The Yellow Wallpaper', to extreme, psychopathic violence and battery in 'I Look Like You. I Speak Like You. I Walk Like You', another outstanding story with a devastating but horribly logical twist.

'Papering Over the Cracks' contrasts a Mark and Donna's conflicting approaches to interior design in a tale where in retrospect the line 'His love of Georgian architecture is one of the things that first attracted her to him' should have been a red flag rather than a point in his favour, especially when he starts putting his cutlery down in a 'precise, irritable way' in response to her deviating from his neo-classical ideals. Watching over their disintegrating relationship is a strange drawing behind the wallpaper of the great aunt whose former house they're in and whose resemblance to the Donna is uncanny in both senses of the word.

There's more domestic disharmony in 'Two Faced', which does what it says on the tin, a tale of two halves, holiday from Hell shown from the divergent viewpoints of long-suffering Kate and fussy-eater Alex, this structure emphasising the mutual incomprehension of the pair, so well-observed it triggered a domestic between me and my own significant other when we both read it!

This story and 'Perfect Pitch' may disappoint those looking for horror in the conventional sense, though there are undoubtedly horrific aspects to the latter in its portrayal of a mind unravelling under stress, while the horror in 'Two Faced' is the horror of each half of the couple's blindness in relation to what's really going on with both of them. If anyone says these stories are not horror, I'd be happy to disabuse them of that view. 'Perfect Pitch' is one of the few stories in the collection where the woman has the upper hand over the man, but the results are far from edifying. The only other one where she eventually gains it is 'I Look Like You. I Speak Like You. I Walk Like You', but at a shockingly terrible price. I won't say too much about this one, because I want you to experience how it plays out for yourself...

Far from all the stories herein are tales of dysfunctional male-female relationships. The dark shadow looming over the narrator's friendship with Charles in 'Walking the Borderlines' isn't that he's a controlling brute (he isn't!), but just their shared perception of a mysterious world beyond most people's awareness, in this charming but melancholy blend of cosmic horror and coming-of-age story.

'Ghost Estate, Phase II' and 'A Lovely Place to Live' both start with a woman going to live in a new Irish neighbourhood to explore economic unease and social insecurity around the housing situation in the Republic after the 2007 crash. In the first of these, the title refers to housing developments partly abandoned due to funds drying half-way through construction, and so makes a nice companion piece to Priya Sharma's 'The Ballad of Boomtown'; while the second suggests with delicious gallows humour the lengths to which some home owners will go in order to protect property values.

Another one of Fahey's core strengths is her way with the 'paranormal investigation' narrative, one she demonstrated effortlessly in 'Playing in Their Own Time', which I read in an anthology and also appears in her subsequent collection New Music for Old Rituals. That story was based around a TV broadcast. The focus of 'Tracing the Spectre' is an art installation, and Fahey creates a vivid ensemble piece, with all the clashing personalities in the heightened situation of a haunted Irish castle. In both this and 'Long Shadows' she also shows her mastery of the killer final line.
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Jan 29, 2017 Robert rated it it was amazing

You can find my full review of The Unheimlich Manoeuvre on my speculative fiction book blog.

Summary: if you can get your hands on this book, do. It is superb. ...more

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Dec 29, 2016 Andrew Garvey rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

Full review of this exceptional collection of horror short stories is here: http://www.spookyisles.com/2017/03/un... ...more

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Jun 24, 2020 Rebecca rated it really liked it

This is my first experience of Tracy Fahey’s work and it’s a very good place to start. Boasting 17 stories, this collection is a great way to try out the author’s writing style and range.

The book starts with a very informative introduction by Ms Fahey about the meaning behind the title and the reasons she wanted to write the book. For me, personally, I didn’t really see the requirement for this until I had read the stories that followed. The way my brain works, I always want to jump straight in, ...more

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Feb 19, 2019 Kimberly rated it it was amazing

I first heard of Tracy Fahey’s The Unheimlich Manoeuvre in a review by Jim Mcleod, the head of the Ginger Nuts of Horror site (I'm a fellow reviewer on the site). Tracy’s book was in his list of top horror books read in 2018. I am a HUGE fan of short story collections, and the review alluded that this book contained the type of darkness I like most.

I’m so glad I picked this one up. The book is a perfect mix of ghost stories, revenge stories and stories about loss. Subject matter aside, I love ...more

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Mar 25, 2020 Ross Jeffery rated it it was amazing

I had the pleasure of reading the deluxe edition of this collection - I’m not sure what is new or added to this collection, but either way it is a sumptuous, horrific gem of a book!

There is a strange heart beating within its pages and the uncanny seems to fester and hang over this book like a vengeful veil - fabulous prose, haunting brilliance, horror in its varying shades - this is a book that needs to be discovered!

Also to top it off the story ‘I Look Like You. I Speak Like You. I Walk Like ...more

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Mar 13, 2020 Angie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

You can see my full review (and all of my other complete reviews) at https://wordpress.com/posts/mediadrom...

Rounded up from 3.5-4 stars for GoodReads.

Overall, this was a great collection of stories. I wish I could rate it higher, because what I liked (which was most of it), I liked a lot, but Two Faced really tanked it for me. If you have some insight into that one, I’d really love to hear it because it really just missed for me in a big way.

That being said, I still think that everyone should g ...more

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Jul 22, 2019 Thomas Joyce rated it it was amazing

Fahey clearly has a style all of her own. It feels very gothic, but the stories mostly have modern settings. Perhaps this is not new, but it felt very fresh to this reader. Stories set in present day housing estates and family situations, but with a classic sense of dread. Brilliant characters, captivating writing and plenty of dread. I'm so glad I picked up this book!

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About Tracy Fahey

Tracy Fahey

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Tracy Fahey is an Irish writer of Gothic fiction. In 2017, her debut collection The Unheimlich Manoeuvre was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award for Best Collection. In 2020, The Unheimlich Manoeuvre Deluxe Edition is released with an accompanying chapbook, Unheimlich Manoeuvres In The Dark, both by the Sinister Horror Company. Seven of her short stories have been longlisted by Ellen Datlow in ...more