The wrong grave by Kelly Link
Text Publishing, 2009. ISBN 9781921520730.
(Age 14+) Recommended for those who like their stories strange and
scary, author
Kelly Link has written a unique collection of horror/fantasy stories to
keep the
reader awake at night. Reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's work, these short
stories are
compelling and unusual reading. In The Wrong Grave, Miles
decides that
he wants
to retrieve the poems that he put in his girlfriend's coffin, but has
an
unpleasant surprise when he opens the grave and digs up what seems to
be the
wrong girl. The wizards of Perfil live in high towers in a marsh, but
the
reader isn't sure if they exist or what they can do. Magic
for Beginners is a strange tale of
Jeremy whose friendships revolve around watching a weird TV show that
doesn't
appear regularly. In The Faery Handbag, a grandmother carries
around a
handbag, which may have a man-eating dog in it, or is it a whole
village? The
Specialist's Hat is the most frightening of all the stories, with
twin
girls
encountering a scary babysitter who joins them in a game to show
what it
is like to be dead.
Link's stories are unpredictable and creative, leaving the reader
gasping at
the sheer strangeness of her imagination and the deviousness of her
plots. I
won't easily forget the dead girl whose hair writhed like snakes or the
character Fox in the TV show The Library.
Making the stories even more appealing to teenagers are the insightful
comments
about girlfriends, kissing, parents and friendship that quietly appear
in each
story. Subtle humour is threaded throughout the tales and takes the
edge off
the horror. Shaun Tan's sketches at the beginning of each story are
also a
delight.
This is certainly a collection that I found so original that I will be
seeking
out Link's other works.
Pat Pledger