BLURB FROM THE COVER
Eighteen tales devoted to mystery and imagination, to other worlds of dreams and nightmares, mediums, odd happenings.
EXTRACT
Disturbing experience at Mrs A-‘s home yesterday evening.
NIGHT-SIDE
REVIEW
Night-Side is a very early collection of JCO published in 1977. All of the stories were previously published in various magazines.
I thought Night-Side was okay but not on a par with her later such as Heat and Other Stories (1991). I particularly enjoyed the title story, Night-Side, The Widows, Lover, Bloodstains and The Thaw.
Unlike her later collections (Heat and Other Stories), no story really stands out. I probably won’t remember any story I read a week from now. There are stories in collections like Heat and Other Stories that I still think about several years later. No story from Night-Side will stay in my head for very long.
I’ve read much better story collections and a lot worse. There are stories like Night-Side and The Widows that could be something great but sort of fizzle out and never quite fulfill their potential.
I didn’t hate the stories JCO offers in Night-Side but I didn’t love them either. I found the majority of them average and couple were even lacklustre. They stories were just so-so. They are a good example of JCO’s earlier work though and you get a glimpse of how great she could be. I still remember the first time I read High Lonesome: w & Selected Stories, 1966–2006 and JCO blew me away. The stories are all well written they just lacked – something.
RATING
