Philip Athans’s Reviews > Dark Tales > Status Update

In the story “Home,” a line that, for me, screams Shirley Jackson:

Ethel Sloane had no intention of antagonizing the villagers by hiring an unpopular plumber.

In "The Man in the Woods" is Phyllis Pasiphae?

This whole anthology seems to share a theme: the terror of the inevitability of hearth and home--or the terror of seeing that closed off, as though a family (in or outside of a house) is a prison not only no one can escape from but that no one can help walk themselves into.

I’ll admit I had a little trouble connecting with “The Good Wife,” but that may be because I read it on Monday morning with a lot of work distractions buzzing around my head.

The first line of the story “A Visit” echoes Shirley Jackson's opening paragraph to The Haunting of Hill House, which us the greatest opening paragraph in the history of literature:

The house in itself was, even before anything happened there, as lovely a thing as she had ever seen.

“Family Treasures” is a fun taste of “dark academia.”

"What a Thought"

An odd thought crossed her mind: she would pick up the heavy glass ashtray and smash her husband over the head with it.

“All She Said Was Yes” is the greatest example of gallows humor I’ve ever read. Delightfully creepy.

“The Beautiful Stranger” is a small story that carries immense emotional weight.