{"id":13532,"date":"2021-07-12T20:16:33","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T20:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/?p=13532"},"modified":"2023-01-03T13:34:53","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T13:34:53","slug":"cheslyn-myre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/archive\/cheslyn-myre\/","title":{"rendered":"[Review] Cheslyn Myre"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Cheslyn Myre<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Paul Gorman visits the troubled town of Cheslyn Myre<\/em> in Dan Weatherer\u2019s new novella, and wants to see more\u2026<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The word \u2018parochial\u2019 is almost always used pejoratively, but it needn\u2019t be. It\u2019s commonly used to dismiss something as being only of local concern, as if there\u2019s a mythical \u2018centre\u2019 which is more relevant or important than the \u2018local\u2019. After all, we all live \u2018local\u2019 lives. Dan Weatherer\u2019s new novella is entirely parochial, and none the worse for it. \u2018The town of Cheslyn Myre is dying\u2019, we are informed in the opening sentence, and through this curious introduction we are given a rundown of the various socio-demographic problems of this moribund Staffordshire mining village. Now, I\u2019m aware I\u2019ve used the work \u2018local\u2019 so often that I\u2019ve triggered your League of Gentlemen<\/em> (UK, 1999-2017) alarm. But Cheslyn Myre is no Royston Vasey. Oh, it\u2019s horrible enough alright, but there\u2019s nothing funny going on here.<\/p>

The highly atmospheric prologue is set in 1835. Eight year-old Eddison faces his first day in the mine with his father. Surely the spooky stories his Dad has told him about life underground are all there is to fear? No. You can almost feel the mud and grime as the fear mounts during the boy\u2019s first foray into the subterranean world of the pit. For the rest of the book \u2013 although Weatherer\u2019s story rips along at a furious pace in highly readable prose \u2013 it never again quite evokes the same degree of claustrophobia.<\/p>

\"\"The story is largely set in the hot summer of 1986. Locals are turning on, and murdering, each other in horrible ways. A woman kills her husband with a pair of garden shears, and in a scene reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange<\/em> (UK, Stanley Kubrick, 1971), an elderly drunk is killed by a gang whose \u2018veins [are] greased with alcohol, making them impervious to the cold.\u2019<\/p>

Our three adolescent heroes \u2013 Matthew, Alicia and Tobin \u2013 are desperate to alleviate the boredom of the holidays, and unwittingly stumble on the causes of the town\u2019s malaise. They embark on some proto-urbex (urban exploration), investigating the ruins of the local \u2018Air Ministry\u2019. As a fan of 20th Century ruins I wanted to know more about this place, and felt it could have been explored further, rather than just as an entranceway to the mine workings beneath. That said, it conforms perfectly to Mark Fisher\u2019s definitions of both \u2018Weird\u2019 and \u2018Eerie\u2019 (The Weird and the Eerie,<\/em> 2016). There\u2019s a keen sense of wrongness to this place, devoid of life (\u2018something in the air was warning him that he didn\u2019t belong there, that his allowed time was ended\u2019), and there\u2019s a fine, creepy image of weird architecture: a door \u2018with no more building behind it.\u2019<\/p>

The central characters are briefly but efficiently sketched out. Matthew is scared of change, and scarred by the memory of his father\u2019s suicide. Alicia has an even darker family secret, and Tobin is haunted by an imaginary sibling, although it transpires that perhaps she isn\u2019t so imaginary after all.<\/p>

During the exploration, Matthew has an accident which leaves him able to perceive a strange orange mist which seems to gather around the town\u2019s evil deeds. The kids return to the mine to seal off the cause and stop the mist. But things buried or repressed only stay that way for so long, as anyone who\u2019s read IT<\/em> (Stephen King, 1986) will know. Cheslyn Myre<\/em> shares with King\u2019s blockbuster the motif of children returning as scarred, flawed adults to inflict a final defeat on a terror they only suppressed as children. In so doing, Cheslyn Myre<\/em> taps into an area that\u2019s very au courant<\/em> in British horror: the resurfacing of things long-thought buried.<\/p>

Cheslyn Myre<\/em> works well as a novella; extraneous details are kept very vague, which is fine, but for a book named after a town I\u2019d have liked a better sense of that town. As a result, one of the drawbacks \u2013 not that it stopped me enjoying this brisk little horror tale \u2013 is that, other than isolated incidents, we\u2019re left with no real feel of a community, and don\u2019t get a satisfactory sense of that community tuning on itself in the same way as, for example, Needful Things<\/em> (Stephen King, 1991).<\/p>

I\u2019d happily read an expanded version, perhaps with a subplot: the rush to the climax feels very short and too straightforward. The book also ends very suddenly, with little real sense of the true nature of what lurks beneath the town. That said, Cheslyn Myre<\/em> is an effective and gripping horror novella, well worth your attention.<\/p>

Purchase a copy of Cheslyn Myre<\/em>\u00a0by clicking the image below…<\/p>

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPaul Gorman\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Paul is a regular reviewer for Horrified, and has had his short fiction and reviews published in several outlets. His story \"The Reeds\" can be found here at Horrified, and STORGY will shortly publish \"The Engineer\". Paul is on Twitter as @PaulG303 and writes at https:\/\/intothegyre.org\/<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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More To Explore<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTales From The Crypt (1972)\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t
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Tales From The Crypt 1972 \/ Freddie Francis Where does one start with examining arguably Amicus\u2019 greatest portmanteau film? Well, for me, wiping away the<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tRead More \u00bb\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tThe People That Time Forgot (1977)\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t
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The People That Time Forgot 1977 \/ Kevin Connor The success of Amicus\u2019 first two Edgar Rice Burroughs-based fantasy adventures in 1975 and 1976 led<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tRead More \u00bb\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tAt The Earth’s Core (1976)\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t
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AT THE EARTH’S CORE 1976 \/ Kevin Connor Amicus\u2019 first foray into the science fiction adventure, The Land That Time Forgot (UK, Kevin Connor, 1974)<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tRead More \u00bb\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Paul Gorman visits the troubled town of Cheslyn Myre in Dan Weatherer\u2019s new novella, and wants to see more\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2030],"tags":[1875,524],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/cheslyn-myre-feat.jpg?fit=1113%2C1339&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122683,"href":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13532\/revisions\/122683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}