‘Below’ (Simon Bestwick) & ‘My Name is Ellie’ (Sam Rebelein): More Tales From ‘The Best Horror Of The Year, Volume 12’


I found my copy of ‘The Best Horror Of The Year’, lurking in a TBR pile, the other day and after finishing the deliciously creepy ‘Slipper’, I realised that I wasn’t quite ready to send it back into the depths of Mount TBR just yet. I wanted some short, sharp doses of horror and seeing as the book was right in front of me… Well 😉

It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything by Simon Bestwick but I still remember ‘The Faceless’ and ‘Tide of Souls’ being bloody brilliant, back in the day, so I figured it was a safe bet to give ‘Below’ a shot. Actually, it was a bit more than that. I was really excited to read it. And I won’t lie, ‘My Name is Ellie’ came straight after ‘Below’ so I just kept going. And I’m really glad that I did but I’ll tell you all about that a little further down the page.

It’s another ‘quick thoughts’ post I’m afraid, it’s my first day back after three days off and work… Well, there’s been a lot of it and not a lot of time to get my head round it all. And that’s all I’ll say on the matter, lets talk about those two stories…

‘Below’ (Simon Bestwick)  

A day bunking off school becomes a fight for survival when a sinkhole opens and dumps our two truants in a subterranean world, below the city of Manchester, where to take a step back means death or perhaps even worse…

‘And sometimes – sometimes it’s what’s down there that finds a way out…’

‘Below’ is just relentless, both in it’s pacing (which just doesn’t stop, at all) and in the parade of horrors that Bestwick takes a lot of pleasure in parading before his reader’s eyes. I would if I were him, some of the imagery is just horrifying, an evil mix of Manchester history and… things that should have no place in history at all but have always been there, lurking round the edges or just underneath your feet.

The sense of horror and fear just doesn’t stop, it propels both Martyn and our narrator forward and that keeps us turning the pages to see if they make it but also to see just what else Bestwick has uncovered under the streets of Manchester. While the fate of the narrator isn’t as big as question as it wants to be (unavoidable really, he’s telling the story after all) it’s almost besides the point. ‘Below’ is a tale that’s all about the journey rather than the destination and what a journey it is. Creepy as hell and utterly compelling.

‘My Name is Ellie’ (Sam Rebelein)

Ellie is a ten year old girl who knows things about the world that almost drove her father mad, and still might. That’s ok though, Ellie likes figurines made of ceramic…

‘My Name is Ellie’ is a real slow burner that draws you in and then hits you with the revelation that there is far more to this world than perhaps even Ellie realises and all of a sudden I’m asking myself whether we’re all ceramic figurines to someone out there. Not only can you understand her father’s fear but you can feel it too. Rebelein does bloody well to get all of that down in such a short space and part of that, for me, was down to the slightly hypnotic rhythm of Ellie’s narration. It’s so easy to find that rhythm in her speech, far less easy to get out of it but if you’re like me, you won’t want to anyway; the world that Rebelein paints is far too weird and intriguing to want to leave alone. If you have a copy of ‘The Best Horror Of The Year Volume 12’ then give ‘My Name Is Ellie’ a read, give it another read if you’ve read it already. You won’t regret it.

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