Synopsis:
The Unheimlich Manoeuvre is a collection of short stories based around ideas of the domestic uncanny – the Unheimlich. The stories in this collection don’t fall into the conventional ‘haunted house’ bracket, but explore the psychological horror that occurs when home is subverted as a place of safety, when it becomes surreal, changes, and even disappears…
Just as the Heimlich Manoeuvre restores order, health and well-being, the Unheimlich Manoeuvre does quite the opposite.
Edition:
Kindle e-ARC of the deluxe edition
Disclosure:
I received a review copy of The Unheimlich Manoeuvre from the publisher. They give me no money, nor do they in any way influence my thoughts – those are 100% my own for better or worse. A great big thank you to Justin at Sinister Horror Company!
NOTE: This is NOT the new edition publishing today, but you should (and I should, for that matter) go seek that one out because it has revised versions of these original stories PLUS a brand new tale!
My Thoughts:
This is an interesting collection of stories. Although I didn’t love every story (as is almost always the case in story collections), I did at least enjoy each one. Domestic horror is, in my opinion at least, a highly under-explored aspect of horror fiction – although I’m honestly trying to move away from anything other than the most general genre classifications in these reviews because tbh it’s beginning to feel a little bit like gatekeeping – I feel like I’m always doing this whole, ‘well, it isn’t really this thing, but it’s sort of this thing, but not really this other thing either’ that feels really frustrating, so…I’m probably just not going to do it anymore.
The Stories:
Coming Back
A woman wakes up from a coma to find that she has changed.
This is a totally solid opening story, and gave me a lot of hope for what was to come!
Ghost Estate, Phase II
A housing estate has some surprises in store for a new tenant.
This one was really spooky and I genuinely did not see the end result coming.
Walking the Borderlines
A young woman on vacation makes a new friend who shares her very peculiar gift, and provides her with some much needed insight into it.
I liked the scope of this story – it covered a lot of area and a large amount of time in a few words. It was one of my favorites in the collection.
Long Shadows
A woman suffering from terrible nightmares discovers the monster isn’t confined to her dreams.
This was still a totally good story, but it definitely paled in comparison to its companions.
The Woman Next Door
A new mother struggling with postpartum depression, anxiety, and stress begins to fixate on the calm, composed, and even glamorous single mother next door.
Again, I just completely didn’t see that end coming. I was well and truly shocked.
Tracing the Spectre
An ‘interdisciplinary team of international artists collaborating on two twenty-four hour projects based on artist-led paranormal investigations in Ireland and the US’ pay a visit to Ireland’s Knockamara Castle and find exactly what they were looking for.
While it was definitely well written, the ending felt a little lackluster to me. I wish there had been something just a little…more.
Papering Over the Cracks
During renovations to their new (old) home, which was formerly the home of the wife – Donna’s shut-in great aunt, a couple find a drawing under the attic wallpaper that looks remarkably like Donna. As time passes, Donna fixates more and more on the drawing until she has become completely obsessed by it, and finally uncovers its meaning once and for all.
I loved this story.
Two Faced
Full disclosure: I feel like I didn’t understand this story at all.
A couple on vacation in Vienna visit a mortuary chapel in a monastery, the husband thinks a lot about his mistress and how much he hates his wife with her endless attempts to please him, but then his wife starts crying and suddenly everything is going to be okay.
I really, really didn’t get it. I do however acknowledge that the writing was really well done – I was able to picture everything, even if I couldn’t comprehend it.
Something Nasty in the Woodshed
Okay this one was a really close contender for my favorite too. A woman has to deal with the fallout after discovering that her husband wasn’t the man she thought he was. He was keeping a very nasty secret in the woodshed, which she discovered quite by accident.
I love that it deals not only with the direct consequences, but also the ensuing psychological trauma, and the endless self-flagellation and questioning.
Sealed
A girl whose mother suffered from severe agoraphobia is sent to live with her uncle after her mother dies tragically. She soon begins to exhibit the same rapidly increasing symptoms her mother showed, much to the disgust of her uncle.
The addition of agoraphobia always seems to make for an intense story, doesn’t it?
A Lovely Place to Live
A picture-perfect neighborhood has some very dirty secrets in regards to how they uphold such exacting standards.
It was good, but felt a little heavy-handed at times. The rest of these stories are told with such finesse that this one sort of stood out. I’m sure if read on its own it would probably rate a star higher, but in this collection, it just felt a little coarse.
I Look Like You, I Speak Like You, I Walk Like You
A battered,, traumatized woman exacts her revenge in a most unexpected way.
This one was my absolute favorite entry – it’s gritty, nasty, and all the more horrifying in its feasibility. This is 100% plausible domestic horror at it’s finest.
Looking for Wildgoose Lodge
A woman goes to visit the site of a locally-based and tragic legend her grandmother always used to tell her.
The toll that time takes (alliterationnnn – kill meeeee) is a heavy one, and the story herein seems to be about its ability to diminish even the greatest of things.
Overall Rating:
Overall, this was a great collection of stories. I wish I could rate it higher, because what I liked (which was most of it), I liked a lot, but Two Faced really tanked it for me. If you have some insight into that one, I’d really love to hear it because it really just missed for me in a big way.
That being said, I still think that everyone should go out and buy the new edition (out today) from Sinister Horror Company because I promise, it’s worth a read.
About the Author (from GoodReads):
Tracy Fahey is an Irish writer of Gothic fiction. In 2017, her debut collection The Unheimlich Manoeuvre was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award for Best Collection. In 2020, The Unheimlich Manoeuvre Deluxe Edition is released with an accompanying chapbook, Unheimlich Manoeuvres In The Dark, both by the Sinister Horror Company. Seven of her short stories have been longlisted by Ellen Datlow in her The Year’s Best Horror volumes, and her ‘That Thing I Did’ received an Honourable Mention for the 2019 edition. Her short fiction is published in over twenty-five Irish, US and UK anthologies. Fahey holds a PhD on the Gothic in visual arts, and her non-fiction writing has been published in edited collections and journals. She has been awarded residencies in Ireland and Greece. Her first novel, The Girl in the Fort, was released in 2017. Her second collection, New Music For Old Rituals was released in 2018 by Black Shuck Books.
The Unheimlich Manoeuvre By Tracy Fahey Sinister Horror Company ASIN: B079MDVWQF Originally Published: March 16th 2018 Updated Version: March 13, 2020 Format: E-Book, Hardcover, Paperback 129 Pages (original edition) 182 Pages (new edition)
