‘The Skin of Her Teeth’ – Ronald Malfi (From the collection ‘Ghostwritten’ – Titan Books)

 

The Bank Holiday Weekend may be well and truly over (at least until the next one comes along) but it left a final present in that the rest of the working week is that little bit shorter. Today feels like a Tuesday but it isn’t, is it? No, it isn’t :o)

Anyway, we’re all about short reads here at the moment (a natural fit for a shorter week); mostly because of work, partly because it’s still far too hot for anything more substantial, but also because yesterdays Covid vaccination is starting to make its presence felt.

In the spirit of ‘trying to focus on my shelves instead of the shelves in Waterstones’, I thought I’d (finally) check out Ronald Malfi’s ‘Ghostwritten’ collection. I had a lot of fun with ‘They Lurk’, and four novellas means four posts here, so it all made kind of sense.

And in the spirit of ‘keeping things nice and simple’, I’m starting off with the first novella in the collection. That made sense too ;o)

Page Count: 86 Pages

A lot of money is riding on whether the screenplay of ‘The Skin of Her Teeth’ will be delivered, at all, and Gloria Grossman takes a trip to the country, on a mission to see just what is stopping her client from finishing the piece. Her client cannot finish the screenplay though, not when the book itself will not let him…

The premise of the ‘Ghostwritten’ collection is made clear on the cover; ‘Books Can Be Deadly’. A pile of unread books can certainly be bad for ‘reading morale’, maybe that’s just me though ;o)

Anyway… Horror fiction isn’t short of subject matter involving books that will drive you mad if you read them. I’m always happy to read about these books (big ‘Evil Dead’ fan here) but I’ll admit to not feeling massively excited about starting my ‘Ghostwritten’ read here. After all, if you’ve read one ‘evil book’ tale, you’ve read them all, haven’t you…?

Not necessarily…

With ‘The Skin of Her Teeth’, Malfi gives us a fresh take on the age-old question of whether the book was better than the film. In this case, the book itself wants to have the final word (or more accurately, eat the final word…) and that is creepy enough on it’s own, especially when you see just what one paperback is capable of, And if that wasn’t bad enough, Gloria’s desperation to close the film deal will set her right up against a book that sets it stall out by eating her cat…

And if that wasn’t creepy enough for you…

Malfi proceeds to take things up a notch with his reveal of what is driving the book to be the only version of its own story. The end result is deeply unsettling and brings a lot of stuff into sharp focus, at just the right time. And I loved how it all ends, I certainly didn’t see that coming. There is more than one way to quieten an unquiet spirit, Malfi took a risk and I really think it pays off here.

That’ll teach me not to think that I’ve seen it all… With ‘The Skin of Her Teeth’, Ronald Malfi takes an admittedly familiar concept and makes it all his own. I now officially have high hopes for the remaining three novellas in this collection ;o)