Spin a Black Yarn by Josh Malerman
387 pages, Paperback
Published August, 2023 by Del Rey
Novellas are often considered the sweet spot in horror. Long enough to do character development, and to build an idea, at the same time, they are short enough to experiment. There is a reason why the four novella collections are some of Uncle Steve's most popular works. Anyone who reads my reviews on the regular knows that I am a Malerman fan. He is a writer’s writer and as wildly successful as he has been the author is still underrated in my opinion.
Let me say that I think 4 Novella (5 in this case) should be a standard product in every author’s catalog.
As a consistent voice in horror, we need these collections from Malerman. An outside observer who doesn’t actually read his work and judges by the mainstream -meme culture of Bird Box might not have any idea just how creative, and experimental he is. I was a huge fan of Malerman’s last novella collection Goblin, you would not be far off if you remembered it as a novel. Those stories were a tad bit more interconnected, but both novella collections all take place around fictional Michigan towns. Both are amazing in their own right.
Recently Brian Evenson, (who I consider to be the best story author on the planet right now), praised this collection for daring experimentation. High praise coming from that author, but that was evident in Goblin. The novellas provide Malerman space to experiment and take risks. That said his novels range from pretty straightforward horror to bold risky works like Pearl or Incidents Around The House, both are experimental enough that they shouldn’t have worked. Through an almost magical alchemy, Malerman has the talent creativity, drive, and lack of fear to write those books. Thanks to the solid commercial value of Bird Box we have an author with the ability to do it.
One of the amazing charms of Spin a Black Yarn is a couple of stories that it should not work. It does. If you want to go in cold and trust me then here is your jumping-off point. I went in cold and was glad I did. The stories in this collection are set in and around a town called Samhatten, the connection to the setting is very slight in the Science Fiction tale Jupiter Drop, but Egorov the longest and closing novella is very much about the setting.
The novella collection in general becomes a puzzle that the author and editor put together of various tones and pace. Knowing Malerman’s reputation as a horror writer it makes sense to open on a traditional horror story like a haunted house tale. “Half the house is haunted,” is not what you expect in the first few pages. I started to think this was a trial run for Malerman soon to be soon-to-be-released work of genius Incidents Around the House. (reviewed that a few months back).
It is not what I thought. Half the House is Haunted is a psychological tale, that plays less on supernatural goings than it does bother/ sister dynamic. It is also about the power of an idea, how something said to a child can become become haunting lifelong fear in the back of one’s mind. Such a simple idea but it's amazing that no one ever made that point before… His sister would never explain what she meant when she would say half the house was haunted.
“I had to ask about it because, I’m almost embarrassed to say, it never left me alone. That Phrase, and the confidence with which she said it, clung to me like clothes in the rain, and no matter what phase of my life I endured, it was upon me.”
A subtle but effective horror tale.
Next up, is Argyle is creepy story that had an amazing set-up. Probably the only critical comment I have on the whole book is this concept was very chilling but I think maybe less might have been more. It is the story of a man on his deathbed who admits to his children that he struggled his whole life with the desire to kill. He tells many stories of close calls, and times he was challenged. I feel the story might have been more powerful if the story focused on the kids trying to determine if he was telling the truth. Still, there are disturbing and chilling moments. The idea of a child sitting through this kinda of confession is chilling to me.
It is hard to pick a favorite as Doug and Judy Buy the House WasherTM could easily have been it. I loved this story, and before you accuse this Phil-Dickian of seeing PKD in every cloud in the sky you should know that Malerman is a huge UBIK fan, so he does like PKD. The House washer story has a very PKD set-up. Two rich suburban people in the near future want to impress their neighbors by paying for an automatic house washer. It will clean the whole house, the catch is you can be in the house or have to be in a glass tube. Since they paid a lot of money they are curious and want to watch.
The setup is pretty goofy, intentionally so as this is surreal SF. It is a weird high-concept tale meant to explore the characters. This is a funny, strange piece of work that I loved. “It’s not every day a product requires its purchasers to remain in a Plexiglass tube as the appliance does its job.”
Jupiter drop...oh boy. As a Malerman fan who primarily reads Science fiction I was excited to see him dip his toes into the field. Now this story is more surreal than true “science” fiction. Being a PKD guy I of course love the weirder more out there SF. The story of a man who pays for a trip through Jupiter’s atmosphere is both ludicrous and awesome at the same time. “The bowels of Jupiter, storms, endless, but only the sounds now, only the music they made.”
The last and longest tale Egorov was a solid character piece that most effectively used the setting. It is a very interesting revenge piece about two brothers who are looking for the murderer of their identical triplet brother. They are part of the Russian immigrant community. A very intense character.
It is my attention to read everything Malerman puts out so I have repeated myself many times. Spin a Black Yarn has everything you look for in a collection. I think the surreal SF stories have been wanting a collection that reads all like that but I am happy with what we have.
Here is the video of Josh and I talking about this book:
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