Coralesque and Other Tales to Disturb and Distract

by Rebecca Fraser

A surfer who becomes horrifyingly one with the sea. A new mother’s devastating search for belonging. A stone gargoyle with a violent history. A fisher boy who discovers the real cost of forbidden love. A farmer whose delight at drought-breaking rain quickly turns to terror. A hedonistic rock star who manifests double trouble. A young girl’s chilling sacrifice for justice. A dirty ex-cop with a dirtier secret. An unscrupulous mayor’s solution to rid her city of the homeless…These are just some of the characters you’ll meet in this collection of dark offerings. From the harsh terrain of the Outback, to the depths of the Pacific Ocean, the wilds of Tasmania, dystopian futures, enchanted lands, and the familiarity of suburbia, Coralesque and Other Tales to Disturb and Distract takes readers on a journey into unsettling, unforgiving, and unforgettable territory.

Genres: Horror

168 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2021

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Rebecca Fraser lives and writes on Bunurong Land on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. By day she’s a Library Officer; by night she writes award-winning fiction for children and adults.
Her work has won and been recognised across numerous awards including Adaptable: Turning Page to Screen, The 2023 Readings Children’s Prize, Aurealis Awards, Australian Shadows Awards, Ditmars, and Mornington Peninsula Shire Mayor’s Writing Award.

Rebecca’s publications include three middle grade novels, a junior fiction and young adult novel, a collection of short fiction, and over sixty short stories, poems, and articles in various anthologies, journals, and magazines.

Rebecca chairs and participates in panels at festivals and hosts author ‘in conversations’ at libraries, as well as facilitating creative writing workshops for authors of every age and ability.

She has served as a convenor and on the judging panel of nationally-recognised literary competitions, was the co-founder and now a sponsor of the national youth competition Little Stories, Big Ideas (now run by Express Media) and a proud participant in the Australian Author Pen Pals program.

Rebecca is a member of CBCA, SCBWI, ASA and Writers Victoria.
Say G’day at www.rebeccafraser.com

Reviews

[Andrea Rowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a reading journey! Rebecca Fraser's is a master writer of dystopian and horror. How she inserts such disturbing accounts into such humanity is an absolute storyteller gift! This book has an absolute plethora of intriguing short stories and cleverly crafted poems. The stands out's for me were Little One, Hermit 2.0, Coralesque, Clarrie’s Dam and AVM Initiative. Not just disturbing tales, but stories that settle in your mind. As someone who usually avoids the scary stuff, I was swept up in the evolution of each story, I connected with the characters AND I marveled at Rebecca's sheer talent for moving plot along so cleverly - each story was so eerily believably and unbelievable all at the same time. She's a master. This book is a page turner.

[Muriel Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantasy worlds, possible futures alternate dimensions, Rebecca Fraser's stories visit these and more. A pedlar with unending wares, a young man infected by the sea, a beautiful neighbour who is not what she seems. Eerily disturbing and pleasantly distracting these tales are delicious and decidedly different, each one a morsel to be savored. Highly recommend, even for bedtime reading (cue ghostly laugh).

[Marnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Rebecca Fraser’s collection of short stories in one sitting. They definitely disturbed and distracted me, but also had me completely enthralled. There are one or two that have stuck with me and one that’s pertinent to our current predicament. Well done Bec!

[Kim Robyn Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

riveting stories that kept me hanging out to see what horror lies ahead. Each tale is unique with its own twists and outcome. I thoroughly enjoyed every single story even though each sent a shiver down my spine. I love the descriptive and poetic style that made the collection a pleasure to read.

[Clare Rhoden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriously scary and original stories. Disturb and distract is correct!
Not that I have favourite stories (of course), but the Pedlar story was amazing!

[Pat Janes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Assuming you enjoy the darkly macabre, this is an easy-reading collection of speculative fiction and poetry.

I enjoyed most of the stories, with several being standouts (possibly because I can remember enough of them to correlate the title with the content):
- Don’t Hate Me ‘Cause I’m Beautiful
- William’s Mummy
- Peroxide and the Doppelganger
- Hermit 2.0
- In the Shadow of Oedipus

The poetry did not appeal, but mostly due to meter, not matter.

I always find it astonishing when authors can deliver a compelling and complete story in a mere handful of (or even fewer) pages. That was certainly the case, here.

[Steven Paulsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the privilege of reading this book prior to publication. This collection of dark and weird tales firmly establishes Rebecca Fraser as a captivating storyteller and a gifted, poetic writer. Her stories and poems are impelled by powerful narratives, and no matter where they take you—the past, present or future; the street around the corner; foreign countries; or magical lands—her deft world building has you living, breathing and tasting her creations, and her characters populate these fictions with believable authenticity so we are drawn into the stories hardly realising their artifice. Highly recommended for lovers of dark, weird and horror tales.

[Louise Zedda-Sampson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous collection with a variety of stories and verse. Each piece was different, adding a nice rhythm to the collection.

[Chelsea Pittman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good author can write twenty five completely different stories and yet keep their style impact. Rebecca Fraser has done just that in Coralesque. This is my first time reading her work and I am honestly in love. Every story told a dark, twisted tale that left me wanting more.

While the cover of the book depicts an underwater scene, the stories have a little bit of every genre. Don’t Hate Me ‘Cause I’m Beautiful is just like an episode of Black Mirror. Technology is great until it wants to kill you. The latest model in iMaid has come to the Wattinger household. She’s been handcrafted to fit the role perfectly. But Mrs. Wattinger is beginning to suspect that she is there to do more than clean.

The title story, Coralesque, is a work of art. Brett is in awe of his friend, Saxon. A god on a surfboard. He lives to ride the waves until taking a fall and hurting himself on some coral. Several missed calls and no shows later, Brett goes to check in on his friend. The reveal is like something out of an X-Files episode.

Clarrie’s Dam is the story of an old farm boy home alone while his wife goes to visit the new grandbaby. With his dog at his side, he discovers something is killing wildlife around him. This is no dingo or crocodile.

Highly recommend if you love all tales of macabre. I look forward to reading more of Rebecca Fraser’s work in the future.

Check out this review and more like it at https://www.horrorbound.net/blog/2021...

[Jane Messer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of these stories start with the reassuring feel of realism, then bit by bit slide into the fantastic. There's lightness here alongside revenge and various other sins. Beautifully written, with simple, spare yet vivid prose. Sentences with rhythm, and surprising twists. Often familiar locations - familiar either in real life or from folk tales and myths - of the beach, the town, the castle. That then become strange and disturbing.
A few of the stories ended too predictably, but a really satisfying collection overall.

[Danielle Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are brilliant. My fav was The Little One.