REVIEW
The thing is, I really wanted to read this anthology one story per day; however, I didn’t think it possible with the situation of my reading schedule. Add to that, the amount of books I am “currently reading” is quite mental that it feels like reading is more of a chore than anything else. Nevertheless, it doesn’t affect my reading much as multiple books allow myself to freely jump through reads whenever I feel off with one book in particular.
The beginning story was not the most interesting and it gave me a sense of dread. Not because the story was scary, but more so because I had a feeling that I will not enjoy the entirety of the collection if the opening short didn’t click with me. And it became a reality, similar to the overall motif of the story.
In fact, I got through this book without remembering anything in particular from the stories — aside from that story about a couple who went somewhere in Germany and it all went haywire from there. I remembered it quite well from the fact that it was so full of filler that I eventually lost track that it was even a horror story that I am reading. I was so disappointed with that story that I ended up visualizing every part of it whenever I think of the book. It’s not even the title story! Honestly, most of the stories lack the eerie atmosphere that I wanted the stories to have and that weird thought that not even a single one of the stories stuck with me really shocked me.
What I did love about this collection is how they followed a distorted rhythm in the theme of dreaming — whether it be actually dreaming, outside of body experience, or dreaming in the sense of hallucinating. The story stuck with this one singular theme that the consistency of it was absolutely entertaining. It allowed the readers to get a glimpse on the capacity of one single subject to become more. It was fun to watch as the author plays with his work.
It is rather unfortunate that I didn’t connect with the writing as much as I would like. I saw great potential with the style and it was obvious that there was great thought placed upon the theme surrounding the stories. I enjoy the motive surrounding mentality and dreams and how capable Jack Harding was in creating a myriad of work with one singular topic.
