Book Review: Spin a Black Yarn - Josh Malerman

 

“Spin a Black Yarn” is a collection of horror novellas by Josh Malerman. I’ve read three books by Mr. Malerman; greatly enjoyed two and found one to be an okay read. For me, these are novellas but I cannot say there were all horror. The first story, “Half of the House” I found to be more about an older sibling terrorizing a younger sibling. It was more weirdly creepy than horror - and the rather open ending and reasoning for the terrorizing I found very odd. The second story, “Argyle” touches on an oddity - what if you suppressed your killing urge for the entirety of your life? The ending was a bit predictable, but it was an interesting story idea - even if, for me, a bit too dragged out. The third story, “Doug and Judy Buy a House Washer(TM)” I couldn’t help but compare to one of my favorite short stories “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury. What happens when a computerized thing seemingly has a mind of its own? Again, I found this story an interesting idea, but again, it was a titch too long for my taste. The fourth story, “Jupiter Drop” again was an interesting idea and I even liked the little bit of science-fiction thrown in, but again, it didn’t completely work for me. The final story, “Egorov” again was an interesting idea and decently executed - triplets at birth, one killed, the other two surviving brothers trying to discover their sibling’s killer. What worked was the “translated from the Russian” style. It was dark and it’s the longest story in this book. While I still think Mr. Malerman is a talented writer, this collection of novellas didn’t work for me. There were a number of ambigutious endings (does the House Washer expose everyone’s secrets or was it acting as judge/jury for this couple?) and while I’m okay with a lot of dialogue, these stories seemed to rely upon dialogue to tell the story a bit more than I liked. Overall, three stars - great story ideas, but sadly they didn’t always work.