What do you think?
Rate this book
You Will Grow Into Them
The world is a far stranger place than we give it credit for. There, in the things we think familiar, safe, are certain aspects. Our fears and desires given form. Moments that defy explanation. Shadows in our home.
In Malcolm Devlin’s debut collection, change is the only constant. Across ten stories he tackles the unease of transformation, growth and change in a world where horror seeps from the everyday. Childhood anxieties manifest as debased and degraded doppelgängers, fungal blooms are harvested from the backs of dancers and London lycanthropes become the new social pariahs. The demons we carry inside us are very real indeed, but You Will Grow Into Them.
Taking weird fiction and horror and bending them into strange and wondrous new shapes, You Will Grow Into Them follows, in the grand tradition of Aickman, Ligotti and Vandermeer, reminding us that the ordinary world is a much stranger place than it seems.
In Malcolm Devlin’s debut collection, change is the only constant. Across ten stories he tackles the unease of transformation, growth and change in a world where horror seeps from the everyday. Childhood anxieties manifest as debased and degraded doppelgängers, fungal blooms are harvested from the backs of dancers and London lycanthropes become the new social pariahs. The demons we carry inside us are very real indeed, but You Will Grow Into Them.
Taking weird fiction and horror and bending them into strange and wondrous new shapes, You Will Grow Into Them follows, in the grand tradition of Aickman, Ligotti and Vandermeer, reminding us that the ordinary world is a much stranger place than it seems.
336 pages, Paperback
First published May 8, 2017
15 people are currently reading
481 people want to read
About the author
Malcolm Devlin
34 books106 followersMalcolm Devlin’s stories have appeared in Black Static, Interzone, The Shadow Booth and Shadows and Tall Trees. His first collection, ‘You Will Grow Into Them’ was published by Unsung Stories in 2017 and shortlisted for the British Fantasy and Saboteur Awards. A second collection, also to be published by Unsung Stories, is due to be published in Summer 2021. He currently lives in Brisbane.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
July 3, 2017
If there was a guiding theme that bound all of these stories together, I couldn’t tell you what it was. The synopsis says that each story is about transformation and change, which I suppose is accurate but it doesn’t really give you an accurate idea of what to expect. The only thing that I can really say about each story is that they’re specifically arranged to be open to interpretation at the end – they’re all very surreal and have no clear ending, it’s up to you to decide what it all means.
Sadly, this is not my cup of tea when it comes to stories. I may be lazy (I’m totally lazy) and not literary enough to appreciate this style of writing but I like things spelt out for me and the conclusions of the stories to be well and truly concluded.
I can’t really tell you about these stories either as they all have cliffhanger endings and I don’t want to give them away… just know that no two is alike so you’re bound to find something that speaks to you.
That aside, the stories were really original and spectacularly well written, I really savoured every word the author put on the page but again, the style of endings ruined it for me a bit.
If you like creepy, surreal stories and don’t mind pondering over them to get to the deeper meaning – this is a fantastic collection and well worth a read!
Reviewed by Nia on www.whisperingstories.com
Sadly, this is not my cup of tea when it comes to stories. I may be lazy (I’m totally lazy) and not literary enough to appreciate this style of writing but I like things spelt out for me and the conclusions of the stories to be well and truly concluded.
I can’t really tell you about these stories either as they all have cliffhanger endings and I don’t want to give them away… just know that no two is alike so you’re bound to find something that speaks to you.
That aside, the stories were really original and spectacularly well written, I really savoured every word the author put on the page but again, the style of endings ruined it for me a bit.
If you like creepy, surreal stories and don’t mind pondering over them to get to the deeper meaning – this is a fantastic collection and well worth a read!
Reviewed by Nia on www.whisperingstories.com
November 20, 2019
You Will Grow Into Them is a surprising and unpredictable collection of short stories, each touching on something strange, supernatural, or inexplicable. They range from seemingly ordinary situations with a touch of darkness (‘Passion Play’, ‘Songs Like They Used to Play’) to the more explicitly fantastical (‘Her First Harvest’ is set in a world where people grow crops of mushrooms on their backs; ‘We All Need Somewhere to Hide’ features demon-slayers and skin-suits), while some mix the two (‘Dogsbody’ is grittily realistic, except for the fact that a chunk of the population are werewolves).
My unequivocal favourite was ‘Songs Like They Used to Play’. It's one of those stories packed with so much brilliant detail and so many original ideas, you wonder how on earth someone could have managed to come up with it. When I attempted to summarise the plot, I found myself writing several paragraphs – not because there’s too much going on, but because it manages the genius trick of weaving together numerous levels of complicated backstory as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. By the time I reached the weird/intriguing element, I had such a strong sense of Tom’s character that I would’ve followed him anywhere. And what a rich journey Devlin takes him on: from an anachronistic childhood spent in TV-set mock-ups of earlier decades, to an odd little York guesthouse with a secret nightclub tucked away at the end of a hidden corridor. Dislocation, regret, dread; a simmering, disquieting atmosphere. Easily among the best short stories I’ve read all year.
‘Passion Play’ opens the book, and it makes a fantastic first impression. The narrator is a Catholic schoolgirl whose classmate, Cathy McCullough, has disappeared. The two girls were assumed to be ‘best friends’ by adults; the truth is more complicated than that (their uneasy dynamic made me think of the narrator and Harriet in Harriet Said...). What is certain is that Cathy had become obsessed with a person – or symbol? – the girls noticed in some church paintings, referred to as ‘the cross-hatch man’. This small and indistinct figure exerts a chilling influence. A beautifully unnerving story with shades of M.R. James, especially ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook’.
Though I didn’t like it as much as ‘Songs’, ‘Dogsbody’ similarly uses realism to ground its fantasy world. Those afflicted by what’s become known as ‘Lunar Proximity Syndrome’ are regarded with suspicion, and the opening scene finds the narrator, Gil, convinced he’s been rejected for a job because of his status. So being a (one-time) werewolf turns out to be a rather effective metaphor for losing one’s place on the career ladder and, consequently, experiencing downward social mobility. There’s violence beneath the surface as Gil struggles with being perceived differently.
In the historical tale ‘Two Brothers’, William is disappointed to find his brother Stephen behaving differently after he returns from boarding school. At first, it seems the new-found distance between them is simply an inevitable part of growing up. But then William meets a strange boy in the woods. I was slowly sucked into this story and, by the end, I wanted more. It reminded me of two enigmatic novels: The Job of the Wasp and The Children’s Home.
Some of the stories – including ‘Passion Play’ and ‘Two Brothers’, but particularly ‘Her First Harvest’ – are beautifully crafted yet seem to end before the most important moment comes. Similarly, I loved the setup of ‘The Bridge’, in which a couple discover a detailed model of their town in the attic of their new home, but found the resolution anticlimactic.
On the other hand, ‘Breadcrumbs’ has one of the clearest resolutions, but takes a step too far into fantasy; it also has the most offputting protagonist in the book, making it my least favourite overall. ‘We All Need Somewhere to Hide’ comes the closest to a conventional horror narrative, with its hard-as-nails heroine and pulpy plot.
‘The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him’ is a dour drama in which a poisoner's punishment is to re-enact the night of her crime for groups of voyeurs. It‘s set within an interesting, oppressive world – perhaps an alternate history? – which I’d have liked to read more about.
The closing story, ‘The End of Hope Street’, feels like a sort of experimental exercise in cramming together and repeating as many banal details as possible. My eyes began to glaze over after a while. It didn’t work for me.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
My unequivocal favourite was ‘Songs Like They Used to Play’. It's one of those stories packed with so much brilliant detail and so many original ideas, you wonder how on earth someone could have managed to come up with it. When I attempted to summarise the plot, I found myself writing several paragraphs – not because there’s too much going on, but because it manages the genius trick of weaving together numerous levels of complicated backstory as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. By the time I reached the weird/intriguing element, I had such a strong sense of Tom’s character that I would’ve followed him anywhere. And what a rich journey Devlin takes him on: from an anachronistic childhood spent in TV-set mock-ups of earlier decades, to an odd little York guesthouse with a secret nightclub tucked away at the end of a hidden corridor. Dislocation, regret, dread; a simmering, disquieting atmosphere. Easily among the best short stories I’ve read all year.
‘Passion Play’ opens the book, and it makes a fantastic first impression. The narrator is a Catholic schoolgirl whose classmate, Cathy McCullough, has disappeared. The two girls were assumed to be ‘best friends’ by adults; the truth is more complicated than that (their uneasy dynamic made me think of the narrator and Harriet in Harriet Said...). What is certain is that Cathy had become obsessed with a person – or symbol? – the girls noticed in some church paintings, referred to as ‘the cross-hatch man’. This small and indistinct figure exerts a chilling influence. A beautifully unnerving story with shades of M.R. James, especially ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook’.
Though I didn’t like it as much as ‘Songs’, ‘Dogsbody’ similarly uses realism to ground its fantasy world. Those afflicted by what’s become known as ‘Lunar Proximity Syndrome’ are regarded with suspicion, and the opening scene finds the narrator, Gil, convinced he’s been rejected for a job because of his status. So being a (one-time) werewolf turns out to be a rather effective metaphor for losing one’s place on the career ladder and, consequently, experiencing downward social mobility. There’s violence beneath the surface as Gil struggles with being perceived differently.
In the historical tale ‘Two Brothers’, William is disappointed to find his brother Stephen behaving differently after he returns from boarding school. At first, it seems the new-found distance between them is simply an inevitable part of growing up. But then William meets a strange boy in the woods. I was slowly sucked into this story and, by the end, I wanted more. It reminded me of two enigmatic novels: The Job of the Wasp and The Children’s Home.
Some of the stories – including ‘Passion Play’ and ‘Two Brothers’, but particularly ‘Her First Harvest’ – are beautifully crafted yet seem to end before the most important moment comes. Similarly, I loved the setup of ‘The Bridge’, in which a couple discover a detailed model of their town in the attic of their new home, but found the resolution anticlimactic.
On the other hand, ‘Breadcrumbs’ has one of the clearest resolutions, but takes a step too far into fantasy; it also has the most offputting protagonist in the book, making it my least favourite overall. ‘We All Need Somewhere to Hide’ comes the closest to a conventional horror narrative, with its hard-as-nails heroine and pulpy plot.
‘The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him’ is a dour drama in which a poisoner's punishment is to re-enact the night of her crime for groups of voyeurs. It‘s set within an interesting, oppressive world – perhaps an alternate history? – which I’d have liked to read more about.
The closing story, ‘The End of Hope Street’, feels like a sort of experimental exercise in cramming together and repeating as many banal details as possible. My eyes began to glaze over after a while. It didn’t work for me.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
July 8, 2017
I read the occasional short story online, but don't buy them very often, but since I'm trying to step out of my reading comfort zones this year, I thought I would give it a try when Unsung Stories offered me a copy of You Will Grow Into Them to review. It's a collection of horror stories with a fantasy element to them, which varies in strength from one story to the next.
I have to say that as a whole, I didn't enjoy the stories all that much, and it was for the same reason with most: the endings. I felt like most of them left the endings on far too much of a 'draw your own conclusions' note, and I would have preferred to have some more concrete answers to what was going on. Let me quickly hop through each of the stories.
Passion Play - A girl acts out the last steps of her missing friend for a TV appeal. I really wanted to know what had happened to the friend, and how many of the things friends & neighbours thought they had seen were actually true, but the conclusion you get is a bit vague.
Two Brothers - The older brother goes off to boarding school, when he returns for the holidays his younger brother knows something's not right. Again, I wanted concrete answers, and in this one the reader is very much left to draw their own conclusions.
Breadcrumbs - Magic takes over a city tower block and affects all the residents. I think this was the one where I was happiest with the ending, I did quite enjoy how you see the attitudes change over the course of the story, and the gradual acceptance and adaption of the people.
Her First Harvest - on a colonised planet, crops are grown on the humans themselves. This one icked me out a bit, so I skimmed through it - no strong thoughts about it other than the slightly gross factor!
Dogsbody - A few years ago, some people turned into werewolves for a few hours but it's never happened again. I liked this story a lot, seeing the prejudices the main character has been facing and also how his attitude is affecting his whole life. I wanted to know where they would turn into werewolves again but that isn't where the story goes. I guess my own expectations and hopes got in the way a little bit with this one.
We All Need Somewhere To Hide - This had the most promising set up for me. It's an urban fantasy-type story, with a demon hunter as the main character. I feel like there's so much potential in this story for it to be bigger - novella length at least - and obviously in a short story those avenues couldn't all be explored and not all questions could be answered. My favourite story in the collection.
Songs Like They Used To Play - I don't know how to summarise this in one sentence. At one point I thought a cool time travel thing might be happening, but it turns out no. This story was just too weird all around for me, and there are no explanations at all of what was really going on in the spooky house.
The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him - I don't want to give away the twists in this one, because a lot happens in a small space. It was ok, a bit creepy, but not overly memorable or special.
The Bridge - I didn't really understand what was going on in this story that was spooky, or what the story was trying to get at. A bit meh, unmemorable.
The End of Hope Street - Houses on the same street gradually become 'unliveable', killing anyone inside, and the story looks at how the residents adapt. Interesting, but once again, no whys, which was frustrating.
All around, the stories are interesting and have potential, but left me feeling
unfulfilled & frustrated. 5/10. [Review first posted on my book blog; link in my profile. A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.]
I have to say that as a whole, I didn't enjoy the stories all that much, and it was for the same reason with most: the endings. I felt like most of them left the endings on far too much of a 'draw your own conclusions' note, and I would have preferred to have some more concrete answers to what was going on. Let me quickly hop through each of the stories.
Passion Play - A girl acts out the last steps of her missing friend for a TV appeal. I really wanted to know what had happened to the friend, and how many of the things friends & neighbours thought they had seen were actually true, but the conclusion you get is a bit vague.
Two Brothers - The older brother goes off to boarding school, when he returns for the holidays his younger brother knows something's not right. Again, I wanted concrete answers, and in this one the reader is very much left to draw their own conclusions.
Breadcrumbs - Magic takes over a city tower block and affects all the residents. I think this was the one where I was happiest with the ending, I did quite enjoy how you see the attitudes change over the course of the story, and the gradual acceptance and adaption of the people.
Her First Harvest - on a colonised planet, crops are grown on the humans themselves. This one icked me out a bit, so I skimmed through it - no strong thoughts about it other than the slightly gross factor!
Dogsbody - A few years ago, some people turned into werewolves for a few hours but it's never happened again. I liked this story a lot, seeing the prejudices the main character has been facing and also how his attitude is affecting his whole life. I wanted to know where they would turn into werewolves again but that isn't where the story goes. I guess my own expectations and hopes got in the way a little bit with this one.
We All Need Somewhere To Hide - This had the most promising set up for me. It's an urban fantasy-type story, with a demon hunter as the main character. I feel like there's so much potential in this story for it to be bigger - novella length at least - and obviously in a short story those avenues couldn't all be explored and not all questions could be answered. My favourite story in the collection.
Songs Like They Used To Play - I don't know how to summarise this in one sentence. At one point I thought a cool time travel thing might be happening, but it turns out no. This story was just too weird all around for me, and there are no explanations at all of what was really going on in the spooky house.
The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him - I don't want to give away the twists in this one, because a lot happens in a small space. It was ok, a bit creepy, but not overly memorable or special.
The Bridge - I didn't really understand what was going on in this story that was spooky, or what the story was trying to get at. A bit meh, unmemorable.
The End of Hope Street - Houses on the same street gradually become 'unliveable', killing anyone inside, and the story looks at how the residents adapt. Interesting, but once again, no whys, which was frustrating.
All around, the stories are interesting and have potential, but left me feeling
unfulfilled & frustrated. 5/10. [Review first posted on my book blog; link in my profile. A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.]
May 17, 2017
"Maybe I’m susceptible to some lurking horrors more than others, but Malcolm Devlin’s first short story collection, You Will Grow Into Them, gave me the creeps before I even opened the front cover. Is the gritty, textured skin so prominently foregrounded being pulled off—or is it put on, the way one would a glove? Why is the other skin so inhumanly shiny?
Suitably impressed by the dark tenor of this subversive aesthetic—the book’s 'handshake' becomes a tender skin-graft, if you allow the metaphor—I was unprepared for the subtle humour that permeates these stories. In Devlin’s tales, a generous spirit busily hums under the threnody for a dying world.
Given the broad remit of weird fiction, the ten stories collected in You Will Grow Into Them exemplify diversity. They range from the short and scary to the more unsettling or darkly fantastical. I advise reading them in the order they are published, simply because—for me, anyway—it worked nicely. Some may be familiar to Interzone readers, or from elsewhere, but many are fresh to this collection."
[...]
You can find the rest of my review over at the Weird Fiction Review.
Suitably impressed by the dark tenor of this subversive aesthetic—the book’s 'handshake' becomes a tender skin-graft, if you allow the metaphor—I was unprepared for the subtle humour that permeates these stories. In Devlin’s tales, a generous spirit busily hums under the threnody for a dying world.
Given the broad remit of weird fiction, the ten stories collected in You Will Grow Into Them exemplify diversity. They range from the short and scary to the more unsettling or darkly fantastical. I advise reading them in the order they are published, simply because—for me, anyway—it worked nicely. Some may be familiar to Interzone readers, or from elsewhere, but many are fresh to this collection."
[...]
You can find the rest of my review over at the Weird Fiction Review.
July 19, 2017
A truly excellent debut collection from Malcolm Devlin. Anyone who's read his stories in Interzone and Black Static will know what to expect: unsettling weirdness, dark twists and the occasional flash of wholly appropriate humour. Personal favourites were 'Dogsbody' and 'Songs Like They Used To Play', but there's not a bad story among them. All thriller, no filler.
March 28, 2025
Hmmm.
The synopsis on the back of this book of short stories describes a constant theme of change but I didn't always get that if I'm honest.
For a debut collection, these were ok but most of them felt like something was lacking, as if the author had started out with a great idea but then ran out of steam towards the end of each story and didn't know how to finish. There was a lot of ambiguity in the endings.
Particular dislikes were The Bridge, The End of Hope Street and The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him. Their story arcs felt convoluted yet completely pointless. I suppose Dogsbody and We All Need Somewhere to Hide were the best of the bunch.
Overall just an ok collection allowing for the fact they're a debut.
The synopsis on the back of this book of short stories describes a constant theme of change but I didn't always get that if I'm honest.
For a debut collection, these were ok but most of them felt like something was lacking, as if the author had started out with a great idea but then ran out of steam towards the end of each story and didn't know how to finish. There was a lot of ambiguity in the endings.
Particular dislikes were The Bridge, The End of Hope Street and The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him. Their story arcs felt convoluted yet completely pointless. I suppose Dogsbody and We All Need Somewhere to Hide were the best of the bunch.
Overall just an ok collection allowing for the fact they're a debut.
August 9, 2024
In you will grow into them, Devlin uses childhood anxieties, the everyday mundane to create a set of allegories, metaphors & symbolism through each of his short stories. Each of the ten stories are harrowing as much as they are thought provoking. For me personally some stand out more so than others & are more resonating. This is the magic of this collection though… each reader will perhaps interpret a story differently. One story that resonates with one reader might not another. There’s a powerful uniqueness to these short horror stories.
My absolute favourites were Passion Play, The Two Brothers & Breadcrumbs.
Two brothers was very cleverly done. The story was a little slow but atmospheric. Being a younger sibling I related to William very much (if my interpretation was correct) seeing your older sibling go through puberty they do change & to younger eyes it can seem like they’re a completely different person. Maybe their old self needs rescuing? imagination runs high & Delvin symbolised this anxiety perfectly in my view.
Breadcrumbs was FANTASTIC!! Hands down one of my all time favourite short stories. Again my interpretation of this story was a young teen suffering with depression. This was an incredibly powerful story! Her life is so unbearable she makes up stories & through this she makes her own world. The overgrown Forrest I took for a metaphor of everything around her is changing, perhaps natural events in peoples lives are happening but she feels trapped &s stuck in her own existence. The constant comparison to Rapunzel reminded me of a form of her hurting herself… letting her hair grow out & become knotted… not taking care of herself. This one especially I found painfully relatable. This has strong fairytale vibes but more like the older darker ones
A big thank you to influx press for gifting me a copy in exchange for a honest review
My absolute favourites were Passion Play, The Two Brothers & Breadcrumbs.
Two brothers was very cleverly done. The story was a little slow but atmospheric. Being a younger sibling I related to William very much (if my interpretation was correct) seeing your older sibling go through puberty they do change & to younger eyes it can seem like they’re a completely different person. Maybe their old self needs rescuing? imagination runs high & Delvin symbolised this anxiety perfectly in my view.
Breadcrumbs was FANTASTIC!! Hands down one of my all time favourite short stories. Again my interpretation of this story was a young teen suffering with depression. This was an incredibly powerful story! Her life is so unbearable she makes up stories & through this she makes her own world. The overgrown Forrest I took for a metaphor of everything around her is changing, perhaps natural events in peoples lives are happening but she feels trapped &s stuck in her own existence. The constant comparison to Rapunzel reminded me of a form of her hurting herself… letting her hair grow out & become knotted… not taking care of herself. This one especially I found painfully relatable. This has strong fairytale vibes but more like the older darker ones
A big thank you to influx press for gifting me a copy in exchange for a honest review
December 3, 2018
This was recommended to me as a horror/weird mashup, and for the most part I enjoyed it. The horror itself is light, which works well, but for me personally, not all of the stories landed. You can't knock the writing itself or the style, just I'm probably not the target audience for this, as I like things to be a bit more overt. However...the final story 'The End of Hope Street' was pretty damn good, one of the best short stories I've read in a while. I think the fact that it's also the oddest in this collection, is the reason why it really appealed to me. Definitely for the more discerning reader, but if you get a chance to read it, do so, even if it is just for Hope Street.
August 14, 2024
3.5 rounded up.
Finally back in print after its first release in 2017, You Will Grow Into Them dives into the uncertainties and inevitabilities of change.
Devlin questions what happens when change is distorted, uncanny, and downright horrific. This collection isn’t perfect, there’s one or two stories here that feel like they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop but sometimes that’s the point.
What is the creepiest short story you’ve ever read?
Thank you to for the advance copy. Legends as always!
Finally back in print after its first release in 2017, You Will Grow Into Them dives into the uncertainties and inevitabilities of change.
Devlin questions what happens when change is distorted, uncanny, and downright horrific. This collection isn’t perfect, there’s one or two stories here that feel like they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop but sometimes that’s the point.
What is the creepiest short story you’ve ever read?
Thank you to for the advance copy. Legends as always!
December 23, 2022
Passion Play: 3
Two Brothers: 2.5
Breadcrumbs: 4
Her First Harvest: 3
We All Need Somewhere to Hide: 3
Dogsbody: 4
Songs Like They Used to Play: 4.5
The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him: 4
The Bridge: 2.5
The End of Hope Street: 4
Two Brothers: 2.5
Breadcrumbs: 4
Her First Harvest: 3
We All Need Somewhere to Hide: 3
Dogsbody: 4
Songs Like They Used to Play: 4.5
The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him: 4
The Bridge: 2.5
The End of Hope Street: 4
August 22, 2024
Malcolm Devlin’s You Will Grow Into Them is a collection of ten short stories that explore the intersection of the ordinary and the surreal.
Devlin masterfully blends horror, science fiction, and dark fantasy, creating tension and unease with elegant and unsettling prose. His immersive worlds are teeming with unexpected turns that leave you constantly on edge.
As with most short story collections, I enjoyed some stories more than others. Standout stories include We All Need Somewhere to Hide, Two Brothers, The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him and The End of Hope Street. Each is meticulously crafted to evoke a specific emotional response.
I highly recommend this collection to fans of speculative fiction. The stories are richly layered and thought-provoking.
This collection has moments of brilliance, and I look forward to reading more of Devlin’s work.
Thank you so much @influxpress for the copy
Devlin masterfully blends horror, science fiction, and dark fantasy, creating tension and unease with elegant and unsettling prose. His immersive worlds are teeming with unexpected turns that leave you constantly on edge.
As with most short story collections, I enjoyed some stories more than others. Standout stories include We All Need Somewhere to Hide, Two Brothers, The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him and The End of Hope Street. Each is meticulously crafted to evoke a specific emotional response.
I highly recommend this collection to fans of speculative fiction. The stories are richly layered and thought-provoking.
This collection has moments of brilliance, and I look forward to reading more of Devlin’s work.
Thank you so much @influxpress for the copy
June 22, 2020
‘You Will Grow Into Them’ is an anthology of short stories from the pen, computer, word processor or whatever of Malcolm Devlin. Some of them have been previously published in ‘Interzone’, ‘Black Static and ‘Aickman’s Heirs’, which I presume is an anthology. Others have not, so far as one can tell, been published elsewhere. I mention the previous appearances just to make it clear that this is not a ragtag bag of rubbish from the trunk dumped on an unwary public. Hardnosed magazine editors paid good money for most of these stories, so you can rest assured there is quality here.
Passion Play’ was first published in Black Static # 38 and concerns the disappearance of a young girl named Cathy McCullough. Almost the whole story, except for flashbacks, is concerned with her ex-best friend following in her footsteps for one of those re-enactments, trailed by police and media persons. The two girls had discovered something in the background of the pictures which comprised the Stations of the Cross in their local church. Enchantingly, one is drawn into the characters, the background and the mystery. Annoyingly, the ending is vague.
This is also the case with the next story ‘Two Brothers’. Two rather posh brothers live in the country with servants and their stern, aloof father is away most of the time. The elder brother goes to school and comes back different, more like father. The younger is baffled and annoyed by this. Then he goes out into the woods and finds a doppelganger of his brother living wild there, half-starved and dishevelled. How? Why? You never find out.
‘Breadcrumbs’, first published in Interzone # 264 is about some people living in a block of flats when a giant plant starts growing up through it and they begin turning into animals. The characters were intriguing, the prose a delight and the story made no sense. My impression is that this is a very modern kind of weird fiction in which something happens just because it does and the reader goes along for the ride. I went along for the ride on all three of these stories and quite enjoyed it. Honest.
There is a slightly more traditional narrative with ‘Her First Harvest’ which appeared in Interzone # 258 and is Science Fiction. Having come up with the idea of a mineral-rich world with no plant life where the colonists grow crops on their own backs how do you make a story from it? Many writers would have gone for something melodramatic: a disease killing the crops or a marauding insect. Devlin goes the Jane Austen route and shows us a young lady going to her first Harvest Ball, which given the circumstances here is more important than usual. She’s from out in the sticks and making her debut among the sophisticates of the big city. This low key treatment is very effective, though I don’t think the basic idea works mathematically. Can one person grow enough on herself to feed herself? Probably not, so how can a whole population grow enough on themselves to feed themselves? If there are other food sources they are not mentioned. Even so, the concept is so original that the reader is willing to let that go, especially as the story had a satisfying conclusion.
‘We All Need Somewhere To Hide’ has Alce the exorcist ousting a demon and then going home to her nice boyfriend, who has no idea what she does for she tries to keep him well away from the dangerous world of her work. An original concept here is the Sculptor, a kind of supernatural being who can reshape flesh. This was a very moving story and, although the ending didn’t make it absolutely clear what happens next, it gave you a pretty good inkling.
‘Dogsbody’ is an odd werewolf story. There’s a new question on job application forms: ‘On November 17th 2010, were you affected by Lunar Proximity Syndrome?’ Gil McKenzie was and so he’s reduced to working as a building labourer. Obviously, there’s no explanation as to why thousands of people turned into werewolves for three hours on that day, something genetic is one theory, but, even though it hasn’t happened again, no one quite trusts them. I can vouch for the veracity of Devlin’s portrayal of life on a big building site and the story developed nicely with the lead character achieving some self-awareness. Jolly good.
‘The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him’ is set in a totalitarian future ruled over by the Autocrat. A loyal General was poisoned by a treacherous female and the dinner is re-enacted every day with her humbly serving the guests, albeit with no poison. Entrance is limited but Administrator Zeitler holds a lottery every so often and those who draw the winning ticket get to accompany him to the house. Our hero is Dominik, a humble filing clerk seeking promotion. This story delivered an almost Pinteresque sense of menace and had a terrific ending. too.
In ‘The End Of Hope Street’, the dwellings in the titular address become ‘unliveable’ one by one, which means anything inside dies. Most people wake up with a feeling of panic and get out but a few are caught. It’s a close community and some go to live with their neighbours. This is as beautifully delivered as all the other stories with interesting and varied characters true to modern life. Why no one went to the police or the media or an exorcist to solve the problem is not an issue raised.
Like most single author anthologies ‘You Will Grow Into Them’ by Malcolm Devlin is a curate’s egg. Everything is written with a smooth professionalism of the first order. He really gets into the heads of his diverse and interesting characters and delivers the action in fluent prose that many writers will envy. Since this is the ‘new weird’ or ‘magic realism’ or whatever he doesn’t have to explain things or tie up loose ends in the manner of traditional fiction. As with Caitlin R. Kiernan, Devlin does words, character and atmosphere well enough to get away without a solid plot. Actually, there is a plot but sometimes there isn’t an ending. If you like that kind of thing then this is a book you will love. If you find stories without a wrap-up, all clear, everything explained ending really annoying these stories are not suitable. You won’t grow into them. I prefer a good climax but fine writing can make me forgive the lack of it and Malcolm Devlin writes well enough to be forgiven.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
Passion Play’ was first published in Black Static # 38 and concerns the disappearance of a young girl named Cathy McCullough. Almost the whole story, except for flashbacks, is concerned with her ex-best friend following in her footsteps for one of those re-enactments, trailed by police and media persons. The two girls had discovered something in the background of the pictures which comprised the Stations of the Cross in their local church. Enchantingly, one is drawn into the characters, the background and the mystery. Annoyingly, the ending is vague.
This is also the case with the next story ‘Two Brothers’. Two rather posh brothers live in the country with servants and their stern, aloof father is away most of the time. The elder brother goes to school and comes back different, more like father. The younger is baffled and annoyed by this. Then he goes out into the woods and finds a doppelganger of his brother living wild there, half-starved and dishevelled. How? Why? You never find out.
‘Breadcrumbs’, first published in Interzone # 264 is about some people living in a block of flats when a giant plant starts growing up through it and they begin turning into animals. The characters were intriguing, the prose a delight and the story made no sense. My impression is that this is a very modern kind of weird fiction in which something happens just because it does and the reader goes along for the ride. I went along for the ride on all three of these stories and quite enjoyed it. Honest.
There is a slightly more traditional narrative with ‘Her First Harvest’ which appeared in Interzone # 258 and is Science Fiction. Having come up with the idea of a mineral-rich world with no plant life where the colonists grow crops on their own backs how do you make a story from it? Many writers would have gone for something melodramatic: a disease killing the crops or a marauding insect. Devlin goes the Jane Austen route and shows us a young lady going to her first Harvest Ball, which given the circumstances here is more important than usual. She’s from out in the sticks and making her debut among the sophisticates of the big city. This low key treatment is very effective, though I don’t think the basic idea works mathematically. Can one person grow enough on herself to feed herself? Probably not, so how can a whole population grow enough on themselves to feed themselves? If there are other food sources they are not mentioned. Even so, the concept is so original that the reader is willing to let that go, especially as the story had a satisfying conclusion.
‘We All Need Somewhere To Hide’ has Alce the exorcist ousting a demon and then going home to her nice boyfriend, who has no idea what she does for she tries to keep him well away from the dangerous world of her work. An original concept here is the Sculptor, a kind of supernatural being who can reshape flesh. This was a very moving story and, although the ending didn’t make it absolutely clear what happens next, it gave you a pretty good inkling.
‘Dogsbody’ is an odd werewolf story. There’s a new question on job application forms: ‘On November 17th 2010, were you affected by Lunar Proximity Syndrome?’ Gil McKenzie was and so he’s reduced to working as a building labourer. Obviously, there’s no explanation as to why thousands of people turned into werewolves for three hours on that day, something genetic is one theory, but, even though it hasn’t happened again, no one quite trusts them. I can vouch for the veracity of Devlin’s portrayal of life on a big building site and the story developed nicely with the lead character achieving some self-awareness. Jolly good.
‘The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him’ is set in a totalitarian future ruled over by the Autocrat. A loyal General was poisoned by a treacherous female and the dinner is re-enacted every day with her humbly serving the guests, albeit with no poison. Entrance is limited but Administrator Zeitler holds a lottery every so often and those who draw the winning ticket get to accompany him to the house. Our hero is Dominik, a humble filing clerk seeking promotion. This story delivered an almost Pinteresque sense of menace and had a terrific ending. too.
In ‘The End Of Hope Street’, the dwellings in the titular address become ‘unliveable’ one by one, which means anything inside dies. Most people wake up with a feeling of panic and get out but a few are caught. It’s a close community and some go to live with their neighbours. This is as beautifully delivered as all the other stories with interesting and varied characters true to modern life. Why no one went to the police or the media or an exorcist to solve the problem is not an issue raised.
Like most single author anthologies ‘You Will Grow Into Them’ by Malcolm Devlin is a curate’s egg. Everything is written with a smooth professionalism of the first order. He really gets into the heads of his diverse and interesting characters and delivers the action in fluent prose that many writers will envy. Since this is the ‘new weird’ or ‘magic realism’ or whatever he doesn’t have to explain things or tie up loose ends in the manner of traditional fiction. As with Caitlin R. Kiernan, Devlin does words, character and atmosphere well enough to get away without a solid plot. Actually, there is a plot but sometimes there isn’t an ending. If you like that kind of thing then this is a book you will love. If you find stories without a wrap-up, all clear, everything explained ending really annoying these stories are not suitable. You won’t grow into them. I prefer a good climax but fine writing can make me forgive the lack of it and Malcolm Devlin writes well enough to be forgiven.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
May 10, 2017
You Will Grow Into Them, by Malcolm Devlin, is a collection of ten short stories exploring the shadows that lurk beneath the surface of everyday lives. Set in a variety of times and imaginative places, each multi-layered tale offers the reader a glimpse of personal demons, psychological and physical, and the blindness many choose to affect to avoid engaging with other’s pain. Although extraordinary in places, the narrative conjures trials that are all too recognisable. Vividly constructed, these stories resonate with insight, however weird they may at times seem.
The collection opens with Passion Play, in which a teenage girl is asked to appear in a televised reconstruction of the last reported sightings of a missing friend. Although feigning care and concern, the adults take no time to discover her views on this exercise, assuming she will want to help. Told from the girl’s point of view, the undercurrents of fear that pervade a teenager’s life become manifest.
In Two Brothers, twelve year old William awaits the return of his older brother Stephen from his first term at an exclusive boarding school. Forbidden from mixing with the local children, William looks forward to resuming the games they have created together throughout their lives to date. The Stephen who steps down from the train has been changed, a transformation more complex than William first realises.
Breadcrumbs is also a story of transformation although it is more fairy tale in style. Fourteen year old Ellie is home alone when her tower block home, and the city below, are brought to a standstill by an apparent freak of nature. As all around and within are impossibly altered, she must choose to accept and merge with her surroundings or risk everything to break free.
Her First Harvest is set in an alien time and place but also explores the theme of choosing to fit in. A young girl attends her first ball in a metropolis, far from the country home she agreed to leave. There are those who wish to possess her. She seeks pleasure, recognising the transcience of this moment in the life she must surely face.
We All Need Something to Hide deals with the cost of trying to fight society’s unacknowleged demons, and the lengths to which some will go to protect the image desired by those they love.
In Dogsbody the world has been rocked by the sudden appearance of werewolves. Unable to explain why, they are first locked up and then registered and monitored as they attempt to reintegrate with society. Some propose they be culled, fearing a monstrous return. The blighted must live with the knowledge that this may someday happen, defined now by their affliction.
Songs Like They Used To Play explores reality and memory in a wondrously imaginative way. Each person’s life experiences are shared and remembered in edited highlights, with viewers filtering to their own bespoke screens.
The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him considers aspiration, the benefits and costs of taking action in a controlling state.
“they are precious things, children. You fill them up with your hopes and fears and you send them out into the world as though such thoughts will sustain them. But they are their own souls and ours is but one influence upon them. It is sobering indeed to see how willing they are to open themselves to others.”
Set in a small town, The Bridge explores what is valued and the effect of loss. A young couple move into a house vacated by a widower who spent his time constructing a detailed model of the streets where they now live. The husband is intrigued by the detail, and then the omissions. The wife recognises the danger it represents.
The End Of Hope Street is, in my opinion, the oddest of the tales but only because it was the one story I struggled to interpret. It is a story of neighbours, neighbourliness, and of houses that turn against occupants with deadly results.
Whilst reading this collection I was blown away by the quality of the writing and by how much each story got under my skin. They are subtle, empathetic, yet eerily strange; disquieting in places with the accuracy of the human condition portrayed through a darkly playful lens.
I recommend you read this book. It has the power to move, and to challenge the way each reader perceives the everyday.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Unsung Stories.
The collection opens with Passion Play, in which a teenage girl is asked to appear in a televised reconstruction of the last reported sightings of a missing friend. Although feigning care and concern, the adults take no time to discover her views on this exercise, assuming she will want to help. Told from the girl’s point of view, the undercurrents of fear that pervade a teenager’s life become manifest.
In Two Brothers, twelve year old William awaits the return of his older brother Stephen from his first term at an exclusive boarding school. Forbidden from mixing with the local children, William looks forward to resuming the games they have created together throughout their lives to date. The Stephen who steps down from the train has been changed, a transformation more complex than William first realises.
Breadcrumbs is also a story of transformation although it is more fairy tale in style. Fourteen year old Ellie is home alone when her tower block home, and the city below, are brought to a standstill by an apparent freak of nature. As all around and within are impossibly altered, she must choose to accept and merge with her surroundings or risk everything to break free.
Her First Harvest is set in an alien time and place but also explores the theme of choosing to fit in. A young girl attends her first ball in a metropolis, far from the country home she agreed to leave. There are those who wish to possess her. She seeks pleasure, recognising the transcience of this moment in the life she must surely face.
We All Need Something to Hide deals with the cost of trying to fight society’s unacknowleged demons, and the lengths to which some will go to protect the image desired by those they love.
In Dogsbody the world has been rocked by the sudden appearance of werewolves. Unable to explain why, they are first locked up and then registered and monitored as they attempt to reintegrate with society. Some propose they be culled, fearing a monstrous return. The blighted must live with the knowledge that this may someday happen, defined now by their affliction.
Songs Like They Used To Play explores reality and memory in a wondrously imaginative way. Each person’s life experiences are shared and remembered in edited highlights, with viewers filtering to their own bespoke screens.
The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him considers aspiration, the benefits and costs of taking action in a controlling state.
“they are precious things, children. You fill them up with your hopes and fears and you send them out into the world as though such thoughts will sustain them. But they are their own souls and ours is but one influence upon them. It is sobering indeed to see how willing they are to open themselves to others.”
Set in a small town, The Bridge explores what is valued and the effect of loss. A young couple move into a house vacated by a widower who spent his time constructing a detailed model of the streets where they now live. The husband is intrigued by the detail, and then the omissions. The wife recognises the danger it represents.
The End Of Hope Street is, in my opinion, the oddest of the tales but only because it was the one story I struggled to interpret. It is a story of neighbours, neighbourliness, and of houses that turn against occupants with deadly results.
Whilst reading this collection I was blown away by the quality of the writing and by how much each story got under my skin. They are subtle, empathetic, yet eerily strange; disquieting in places with the accuracy of the human condition portrayed through a darkly playful lens.
I recommend you read this book. It has the power to move, and to challenge the way each reader perceives the everyday.
My copy of this book was provided gratis by the publisher, Unsung Stories.
September 16, 2017
There are many factors that make the short stories in the extraordinary collection so compelling. One is that you aren’t quite sure what genre you’re reading, which makes the outcomes unpredictable. That you’re still not sure by the end is no failing of the author; rather it’s that he mixes a uniquely beguiling cocktail of fantasy, science fiction, horror and something I can only describe as Other Stuff. Stories like these tend to get labelled New Weird, but I don’t think that label does them justice. It’s too alienating, and another source of readability is how incredibly moving the stories are.
Take the detail in ‘Passion Play’ in which a girl gets a letter from her absent father telling her how important she is, written in her boozy mother’s handwriting. That the girl in question goes missing following an expedition to an old church makes the situation even more affecting. For some writers, this set-up would be enough, but blended into the narrative is a visceral tale about perceptions of the miraculous, amid the kind of intense horror that has informed so much of our culture and, thus, our understanding of the world.
Both ‘Breadcrumbs’ and ‘Her First Harvest’ feature young female protagonists and deal in uncanny transformation, perhaps as a way of considering the radical alterations of puberty. ‘Breadcrumbs’ channels fairy tales like ‘Rapunzel’ through ‘Eastenders’ via JG Ballard and twists something beautiful out a potentially horrific outcome.
In ‘Her First Harvest’, a young woman debuts at a ball on a planet where nothing grows. As with ‘Two Brothers’ the story explores class repression; it even opens with quotation from Katherine Mansfield. However, instead of ball gowns, the belles sport complex fungal growths, upon which the colony survive in the absence of any other foodstuff. If ‘Breadcrumbs’ is Ballard, this one feels like early Cronenberg, when you knew to take a sick bag to the cinema. Publisher Unsung Stories seems to have a thing about fungus (see also Aliya Whiteley’s wonderful ‘The Beauty’). Indeed, both these Malcolm Devlin stories are not so much ‘You Will Grow Into Them’ as ‘They Will Grow Out Of You’.
All the stories in this collection are well worth reading, but ‘Dogsbody’ is one of my favourites. At first glance, it’s the gallingly contemporary tale about a man who cannot get a regular job, despite being well-qualified. He works on a building site putting up hoarding, along with the usual mixture of masculine types including a couple of Eastern Europeans with unvarnished views on race relations. TTA’s magazine ‘Black Static’ originally published this piece in the uniquely absurd historical experience that was 2016 and the story couldn’t have been more timely.
Like many of the titles, ‘Dogsbody’ operates on more than one level, as does the narrative itself. It takes place on the anniversary of an inexplicable event in a society still reeling from it: the transformation of a random selection of the populace into werewolves. In a stroke of genius on the author’s part, the werewolves are not a danger due to their condition, which I won’t reveal here; just read it.
The protagonist is one of these unlucky people, and is struggling to deal with society’s subsequent rejection of him despite the phenomenon never being repeated. However, is this one-off event to blame for the character’s fate, or something closer to home? When he fails yet again to get a job and meets up with his attractive female interviewer in a pub popular with those like him as well as their ‘fans’, the woman puts him straight in a way both brilliantly bleak and indicative of a wider societal failure.
‘Songs Like They Used To Play’ feels like David Lynch has been let loose on one of those documentaries in which families inhabit a house and lifestyle structured around the past (‘The 1940s House’ etc). It looks at the familial dynamics behind the camera as they blur to such an extent that the protagonist feels like he is literally lost in time. As with the werewolves, the story features fans; this time, it is they who create the strangeness. A series of coincidences brings the main character to a point of convergence of past and present when he brings his ex-boyfriend back to his lodgings, which appear to defy the laws of architecture and thus by implication time and space. There’s a real sense of dread to this story, made worse by the fact that it’s not ‘darkness’ that’s the threat so much as enthusiasm.
The title of ‘The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him’ is pretty much a story in itself, with the narrative proper almost a subtext. All the stories in the collection have the hook of appearing to be about everyday lives, before revealing themselves to be about the strangeness inherent in the ordinary. Here, it’s not the grinding dystopian setting that upsets as much as the tale of supremely ill-judged ambition and misreading of character. One of the ways that bad governments stay in power is their tawdry sleight of hand gimmicks, which serve to keep enough idiots convinced for the whole sorry mess to carry on a bit longer. Here, one of the underlings thinks he has found a solution that he uses to attempt leverage, leading instead to a hopelessly dignified last line.
‘The Bridge’ is a subtle tale about a model of a town in an attic. At first, it’s hard to say what is so uncomfortable about it. Perhaps the way that everyone who discusses the model, built by a widower who left out the civic bodies he felt let him down in his hour of need, does so in such awkward terms. It’s almost as if their pity inspires guilt. Guilt is a form of fear, after all, usually of some abstract reprisal. Are the house’s pregnant new owners worried that the fate that befell the apparently childless widower might befall them?
‘The End of Hope Street’ was nominated for a British Science Fiction Award this year and was my favourite to win. It’s a beautiful tale of resolute humanity in the face of inexplicable destruction. One by one, the houses of Hope Street become uninhabitable. There are no flashing lights or weird sounds during this process; just a lethally subtle change in the fabric of the space that signals its arrival with a sense of profound unease. The people who live in the houses simply realise what is coming, and accordingly vacate their premises, never to return. Instead, they move in with others on the street, which becomes a sort of polite commune.
Interestingly, the notional villain here is not the change but an uptight man who has room to spare in his home but not in his heart, as if his soul has suffered an internalized version of the changes around him. He personifies a meanness revealed in recent real world political developments, becoming an embittered, angry little island of ill-expressed, pointless resentment.
Themes from the other stories in the collection are found in ‘The End of Hope Street’; from the patriarch maintaining his rigidity in the face of extraordinary change to the lovely and properly English evolution of a different but still recognisable community. Here again, the title works in all kinds of ways; the geographical end, the chronological end and the implied opportunity to begin something new.
Similarly, the title ‘You Will Grow Into Them’ is as much a command as it is a comfort to the kid in the baggy trousers; conveying a sense of the inevitable, regardless of what we think we might want. The protagonists in the first stories are children, running through adolescence to adulthood in the final piece. It is as if the author is exploring family from all angles, some of them not of this earth: a bold journey and one I recommend.
Take the detail in ‘Passion Play’ in which a girl gets a letter from her absent father telling her how important she is, written in her boozy mother’s handwriting. That the girl in question goes missing following an expedition to an old church makes the situation even more affecting. For some writers, this set-up would be enough, but blended into the narrative is a visceral tale about perceptions of the miraculous, amid the kind of intense horror that has informed so much of our culture and, thus, our understanding of the world.
Both ‘Breadcrumbs’ and ‘Her First Harvest’ feature young female protagonists and deal in uncanny transformation, perhaps as a way of considering the radical alterations of puberty. ‘Breadcrumbs’ channels fairy tales like ‘Rapunzel’ through ‘Eastenders’ via JG Ballard and twists something beautiful out a potentially horrific outcome.
In ‘Her First Harvest’, a young woman debuts at a ball on a planet where nothing grows. As with ‘Two Brothers’ the story explores class repression; it even opens with quotation from Katherine Mansfield. However, instead of ball gowns, the belles sport complex fungal growths, upon which the colony survive in the absence of any other foodstuff. If ‘Breadcrumbs’ is Ballard, this one feels like early Cronenberg, when you knew to take a sick bag to the cinema. Publisher Unsung Stories seems to have a thing about fungus (see also Aliya Whiteley’s wonderful ‘The Beauty’). Indeed, both these Malcolm Devlin stories are not so much ‘You Will Grow Into Them’ as ‘They Will Grow Out Of You’.
All the stories in this collection are well worth reading, but ‘Dogsbody’ is one of my favourites. At first glance, it’s the gallingly contemporary tale about a man who cannot get a regular job, despite being well-qualified. He works on a building site putting up hoarding, along with the usual mixture of masculine types including a couple of Eastern Europeans with unvarnished views on race relations. TTA’s magazine ‘Black Static’ originally published this piece in the uniquely absurd historical experience that was 2016 and the story couldn’t have been more timely.
Like many of the titles, ‘Dogsbody’ operates on more than one level, as does the narrative itself. It takes place on the anniversary of an inexplicable event in a society still reeling from it: the transformation of a random selection of the populace into werewolves. In a stroke of genius on the author’s part, the werewolves are not a danger due to their condition, which I won’t reveal here; just read it.
The protagonist is one of these unlucky people, and is struggling to deal with society’s subsequent rejection of him despite the phenomenon never being repeated. However, is this one-off event to blame for the character’s fate, or something closer to home? When he fails yet again to get a job and meets up with his attractive female interviewer in a pub popular with those like him as well as their ‘fans’, the woman puts him straight in a way both brilliantly bleak and indicative of a wider societal failure.
‘Songs Like They Used To Play’ feels like David Lynch has been let loose on one of those documentaries in which families inhabit a house and lifestyle structured around the past (‘The 1940s House’ etc). It looks at the familial dynamics behind the camera as they blur to such an extent that the protagonist feels like he is literally lost in time. As with the werewolves, the story features fans; this time, it is they who create the strangeness. A series of coincidences brings the main character to a point of convergence of past and present when he brings his ex-boyfriend back to his lodgings, which appear to defy the laws of architecture and thus by implication time and space. There’s a real sense of dread to this story, made worse by the fact that it’s not ‘darkness’ that’s the threat so much as enthusiasm.
The title of ‘The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him’ is pretty much a story in itself, with the narrative proper almost a subtext. All the stories in the collection have the hook of appearing to be about everyday lives, before revealing themselves to be about the strangeness inherent in the ordinary. Here, it’s not the grinding dystopian setting that upsets as much as the tale of supremely ill-judged ambition and misreading of character. One of the ways that bad governments stay in power is their tawdry sleight of hand gimmicks, which serve to keep enough idiots convinced for the whole sorry mess to carry on a bit longer. Here, one of the underlings thinks he has found a solution that he uses to attempt leverage, leading instead to a hopelessly dignified last line.
‘The Bridge’ is a subtle tale about a model of a town in an attic. At first, it’s hard to say what is so uncomfortable about it. Perhaps the way that everyone who discusses the model, built by a widower who left out the civic bodies he felt let him down in his hour of need, does so in such awkward terms. It’s almost as if their pity inspires guilt. Guilt is a form of fear, after all, usually of some abstract reprisal. Are the house’s pregnant new owners worried that the fate that befell the apparently childless widower might befall them?
‘The End of Hope Street’ was nominated for a British Science Fiction Award this year and was my favourite to win. It’s a beautiful tale of resolute humanity in the face of inexplicable destruction. One by one, the houses of Hope Street become uninhabitable. There are no flashing lights or weird sounds during this process; just a lethally subtle change in the fabric of the space that signals its arrival with a sense of profound unease. The people who live in the houses simply realise what is coming, and accordingly vacate their premises, never to return. Instead, they move in with others on the street, which becomes a sort of polite commune.
Interestingly, the notional villain here is not the change but an uptight man who has room to spare in his home but not in his heart, as if his soul has suffered an internalized version of the changes around him. He personifies a meanness revealed in recent real world political developments, becoming an embittered, angry little island of ill-expressed, pointless resentment.
Themes from the other stories in the collection are found in ‘The End of Hope Street’; from the patriarch maintaining his rigidity in the face of extraordinary change to the lovely and properly English evolution of a different but still recognisable community. Here again, the title works in all kinds of ways; the geographical end, the chronological end and the implied opportunity to begin something new.
Similarly, the title ‘You Will Grow Into Them’ is as much a command as it is a comfort to the kid in the baggy trousers; conveying a sense of the inevitable, regardless of what we think we might want. The protagonists in the first stories are children, running through adolescence to adulthood in the final piece. It is as if the author is exploring family from all angles, some of them not of this earth: a bold journey and one I recommend.
December 16, 2024
Quite a mixed bag here, I’m a fan of short stories but am always looking for links between the stories, it can feel like a jigsaw puzzle linking everything together, in Devlin’s collection I could find no links, instead each story is it’s own little puzzle for the reader to try and unravel. The stories are rather varied in styles, there are faery tales, Demon tales and some proper Twilight Zone moments, all stories seem to be playing on human fears no matter how irrational.
All the stories are open ended, you are left to continue the story in your head and as Devlin slowly reveals the situation I found my brain running through different theories on what was going on. Whilst they are all good some are better than others, two stand out stories for me were “The End of Hope Street” absolutely loved this, such a surreal situation, well written and a chilling ending, it was the sort of story where you can easily imagine this happening on a global scale. “We All Need Somewhere To Hide” was too big a story for the pages it was given, such an awesome idea and I was left craving more.
There is an underlying darkness to the stories but there is also human interest and humour, a little bit for everybody. The first I’ve read by this author and I’ll be coming back for more, recommended reading for fans of the short story.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2024...
All the stories are open ended, you are left to continue the story in your head and as Devlin slowly reveals the situation I found my brain running through different theories on what was going on. Whilst they are all good some are better than others, two stand out stories for me were “The End of Hope Street” absolutely loved this, such a surreal situation, well written and a chilling ending, it was the sort of story where you can easily imagine this happening on a global scale. “We All Need Somewhere To Hide” was too big a story for the pages it was given, such an awesome idea and I was left craving more.
There is an underlying darkness to the stories but there is also human interest and humour, a little bit for everybody. The first I’ve read by this author and I’ll be coming back for more, recommended reading for fans of the short story.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2024...
September 28, 2024
“Sometimes it only take a single word to make the temperature fall. Sometimes it only takes a moment of clarity to reframe the world.”
Malcolm Devlin’s collection consists of ten short stories shaped to make you think about how we navigate life from our youth. Told through the lense of bizarre fiction, these stories centre around the unusual, highlighting how strange the world is and yet we continue to grow with it.
One of the main themes that connected theses stories was the idea of transformation. In each one there was a focal point where this was emphasised amongst the chaos and bizarre story that was being told.
Some of the stories featured are:
“Passion Play”
“Songs Like They Used to Play
“Dogsbody”
“The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him”
“The End of Hope Street”
I found these stories to be entertaining for how strange they were. Some were darker than others, many had twists as well as some dark humour. Overall I thought this was a great mix of weird stories than many would enjoy.
Many thanks to @influxpress for a copy of this collection which is available now.
Malcolm Devlin’s collection consists of ten short stories shaped to make you think about how we navigate life from our youth. Told through the lense of bizarre fiction, these stories centre around the unusual, highlighting how strange the world is and yet we continue to grow with it.
One of the main themes that connected theses stories was the idea of transformation. In each one there was a focal point where this was emphasised amongst the chaos and bizarre story that was being told.
Some of the stories featured are:
“Passion Play”
“Songs Like They Used to Play
“Dogsbody”
“The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him”
“The End of Hope Street”
I found these stories to be entertaining for how strange they were. Some were darker than others, many had twists as well as some dark humour. Overall I thought this was a great mix of weird stories than many would enjoy.
Many thanks to @influxpress for a copy of this collection which is available now.
July 3, 2020
For a debut collection - from very short stories to a couple of novellas - by a largely unknown writer, this is tremendously impressive. The writing is strong, characterisation deft and pointed, strange worlds and environments detailed, and the sense of otherworldliness sustains throughout - more than anything, not one was like the others. I can't agree that too many - or all - of these lack defined endings, or are even left ambiguous; each of them gave me enough character and information to draw endings well before having to apply my own interpretations to them, and they all satisfied.
A couple of the stories didn't quite hit the mark for me (hence the Four Stars), but they were all interesting and readable, and the great majority were remarkable.
A couple of the stories didn't quite hit the mark for me (hence the Four Stars), but they were all interesting and readable, and the great majority were remarkable.
January 7, 2018
This is a tremendously assured collection, showcasing just how clever and subtle a writer Malcom Devlin is. My particular favourites were his fairy tale, "Breadcrumbs", "Dogsbody" for its contained violence and the heart breaking "The End of Hope Street".
January 13, 2021
I usually choose my reading books well, and I often declare a book a LANDMARK one, but this time I shout it from the rooftop.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
October 7, 2017
Great short fiction collection. This is a collection of odd and creepy stories. Highly recommend.
May 22, 2020
Not a horror book per se but there was certainly an air of menace in these stories. I particularly liked the premise of a house becoming unliveable for seemingly no reason at all.
March 10, 2023
A fun book to read with such a diverse range of short stories.
August 4, 2023
Fünft Sterne für "Her first Harvest"! Passion play und We all need a place to hide waren auch jeweils 4Sterne-Geschichten.
May 21, 2025
Suburban hells of various degrees. A timely read.
December 2, 2019
This book is really awesome.
November 19, 2023
Devlin’s brain kind of scares me…but also I love everything he writes. His style and detail is just so beautiful.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews