A Hazy Shade of Winter

A Hazy Shade of Winter
Simon Bestwick
Ash-Tree Press, 2004
ISBN: 1-55310-069-7
Limited to 500 copies

The fourteen stories in A Hazy Shade of Winter are united by their themes of hauntings, choice, and sacrifice. Shunning the easy route of moral ambivalence, Bestwick's protagonists strive to make the right decisions in the face of sometimes crushing odds.

Bestwick's stories give readers a glimpse into the multifaceted nature of evil, from the all-too-human evils of bigotry, despair, lust, corporate malfeasance, fascism, and hatred to the traditionally supernatural evils of infernal powers and bloodthirsty monsters. Yet in each case it isn't the evil itself that fascinates Bestwick, but how humans respond to it.

Many horror writers seek to shock the reader with descriptions of atrocity and turn the monster into the most interesting part of the tale. Bestwick, on the other hand, shows us people grappling with a world they cannot control but seek to negotiate with their soul intact. In "A Hazy Shade of Winter," "Malachi," "Graven" and "The Foot of the Garden," the protagonists choose to take a stand against chaos. These men and women put themselves on the line even though there is no glory at stake, only the risk of great personal loss.

Great ghost stories are as much about the living as they are about the dead. In the burnished-gold nostalgia of "...And Dream of Avalon," a middle-aged man returns to the site of a more innocent time in his life only to discover the danger inherent in valuing the past more than the present. Poignantly well-written, the story is one of the strongest in the collection. Memories also form the core of "Home from the Sea" and "Close the Door, Put Out the Light," with the women in each story choosing very different ways to come to terms with the past that haunts them.

In contrast, the two stories "Severance" and "The Wedding" make ghosts their pivotal characters. In "Severence," mysterious corporate memos seek to right an old wrong, and in "The Wedding," the dead decide to take a stand.

"The Crows" is the odd story out in this collection, but it's no less enjoyable for its gritty deviation from the other works' haunting mood. Using the time-honored opening of a city boy's car breaking down in a desolate rural town, "The Crows" presents a peculiar little mythology of its own as the main character, Dan, must survive a pocket field of hell and defy its watchful, black-feathered gods in order to earn his freedom. Something about this story just cries out to be illustrated.

The last story in the collection may be the most traditional. "Until My Darkness Goes" is a classic ghost story of a dead man's anger and bitterness distilled into his angry comments scribbled in the margins of a used book. Like the rest of Bestwick's work, this novella contrasts the dark and light sides of human nature, but "Until My Darkness Goes" offers the reader less hope than his shorter works.

A Hazy Shade of Winter is a strong and engaging collection of tales that engage the supernatural but are ultimately about human fears, hopes, and courage.

The Harrow's Copyright Information and Disclaimer.