the-little-gift_coverBy Stephen Volk

PS Publishing, out March 2017

What’s the price of happiness?

Stephen Volk has an uncanny knack for creating tales that haunt you in the hours and days that follow you reading them. The characters are so vividly drawn that you almost feel as if you’ve come to know them, you’re so invested in what has happened to them. That very much applies to the central figures – both the narrator and the object of his affection, Ghislaine – in this novella.

Without wanting to spoil the key twists in this tale, it’s a story of roads almost taken and how those can be just as damaging to your mental equilibrium as actually taking the risk could have been. Our narrator has a chance at something that will turn his life upside down, but other parties – and pure chance – have their roles to play in that decision, and things may not work out in the way that he anticipates will bring him happiness. There are horrific elements to the story that you may initially feel are glossed over until you realise their effect on the narrator and the emotions that are aroused in him – and the reader.

Some stunning monochrome illustrations from Pedro Marques pick up on the imagery Volk uses at the start and end of the story and add to the off-kilter nature of the story.

Verdict: An unsettling and haunting tale. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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