Night In Our Veins, by Paul Edwards

Gravestone Press, 2023

ISBN: 9781786958617

Available: Paperback

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

Night in our Veins is a short story collection that is a mixed bag in terms of quality.  Some are pretty darn good, some are not.  Enjoying this will depend on the type of short stories you like, to be clarified below.  They are horror stories, but tend towards a particular style.

The author’s general focus in most of the stories is usually on the interactions between the characters, not on what they are doing, or what is done to them.  Interesting things DO happen to the protagonists, but that’s not usually the primary point of the story.  Plot devices are used to facilitate communication between the characters, and how they react to outside stimuli.  In other words, these stories tend to be the “”character study” sort.  There are some really good ideas in here, such as going back to WWI to visit dead relatives, and random holes in reality that simply appear for a time.  But these ideas take a backseat to the characters themselves, and what they say and think.

Enjoying this collection will hinge on the reader.  Those that like stories with a lot of human interaction and the drama it brings will probably be quite satisfied with most of the stories, while those more interested in a dynamic plot might want to pass on this one.  There are a few stories where both sides of that coin marry together perfectly, “Without You I’m Nothing” and ‘”he Unseen” are the ones that spring to mind. I really liked a lot of the ideas, and would have liked to seen some of them fleshed out more and made into the primary focus of their stories  The ‘”random holes” one was a great idea, but I was left with questions. Where did they come from?  What REALLY happens when you step into one?  The writing for the stories was reasonable, but I was left wanting these intriguing ideas more fully developed.

Bottom line: recommended for fans of character-driven stories.

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson