Here we are, still in lock down, and I’m writing book reviews. I have to say that books have been my main source of entertainment during this pandemic. I don’t know if it is because my household is watching Frozen (and Frozen II) at least three times a day (a toddler lives here) or if there’s something about the pace of storytelling, but right now, I can’t watch TV. Generally I’m a fan, but I’m having trouble enjoying TV shows right now (and I’ve tried some awesome stuff—I want to revisit Nora from Queens when this is over: Awkwafina is amazing). Instead, I’ve been losing myself in really long books for the last two months. I am presently in the middle of Middlemarch and The Mirror and The Light. So, switching it up for a short story collection was a really nice change of pace—faster without going as fast as TV. Kay Chronister’s Thin Places doesn’t disappoint.
True to the title, Chronister’s settings always play a vital role. She practically takes us on a world tour of hell mouths, and while the locations have this in common (or this type of thing in common), each setting is unique. There is a treacherous swamp that for generations has overtaken what was a once a world like ours (this setting made me think of Jeff Vandermeer’s Area X). There are old school villages in the West. In eastern Europe, there are coastal towns. The borders are political and supernatural, and her characters are besieged by a myriad of demons whose wants vary from blood to life force to babies. The people of these towns make terrible bargains with these devious creatures to maintain their status quo. The cost is always high, and the women of these towns usually bear the brunt of these sacrifices.
One story that I really loved, and is only available in this collection, is “White Throat Holler.” Though this story is quite grim, it is also funny. This is one of the joys of having a younger protagonist: gallows humor really chases the darkness away. This story reminded me of everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Beware the Slenderman to Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” while still being something entirely new and surprising.
“‘I don’t owe them nothing. It’s not a transaction.’
’What is it, then?’ I was thinking of finding my mother hung among the tees, of laying daises over her at the funeral. The mortician driving out to our house and frowning as he said he was so full up that he couldn’t take the body until next Tuesday. But she wouldn’t stink, he promised; he’d still do the embalming.
’Gravy’s burning,’ my daddy said.
’What is it, if it’s not a transaction?’
Neither of us said anything for a while, not all through dinner. Then he laid his silverware down with a clatter and said, ‘It’s a sacrifice. Someone’s gotta be the one gets burned.’”
I did suffer a little impatience at the beginning of the book. The first three stories read like a writing experiment in omissions. For the first story, I was okay with the mystery but then having two additional stories in a row with major moment omissions tried my readerly patience a bit. I’m here to say persevere or skip and go back. There is enough greatness in this book to support experimentation like those stories offer. And they are good stories. It is just a lot to ask of a reader at the front of a book, in my opinion.
Ultimately there’s something in the way that Chronister tells her tales that is matter of fact. Her characters don’t rage long against this status quo. Those who fight often lose. That frustrated me as a reader in a really useful way. It brought the justified rage I feel about our own status quo, especially our racial, gender, and economic injustices, to a boil inside of me. I have a feeling this type of storytelling might be useful in the effort to spur people to action. We don’t get to escape into any revenge that satisfies our blood thirsty desire for justice. There are few happy endings in this book, but maybe happy endings aren’t what we need right now.
Thin Places is Kay Chronister’s first collection and is available now from Undertow Press.
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