Growth: Collection Review
Hello dearest reader!
Have I got a treat for you! I stumbled upon this author and her collection through Twitter and I am so glad I did! Onwards!
The Author
Elin Olausson is a Swedish horror writer. Her dark fiction has appeared in The Ghastling, Luna Station Quarterly, Nightscript, and other publications. Her debut collection, Growth, was published in June 2022. She also has interviews posted on Ginger Nuts of Horror and Tales From Between.
Elin’s rural childhood made her love and fear the woods, and she firmly believes that a cat is your best companion in life. She lives in Sweden. — Olausson’s website
You can follow Olausson on Twitter and Instagram.
The Collection
Twenty dark tales of psychosocial horror fill the pages of Elin Olausson’s stunningly creepy short story collection debut. Three sisters live isolated in the wilderness, unbothered, until their world shatters with the arrival of a stranger. A young man revisits the childhood home where his sister danced and his mother died. A woman is promised the house of her dreams and goes mad when she doesn’t get it. Two evil teens stand united against the world, until one of them falls in love. In an abandoned asylum in the desert, a girl chants her own name.
The Review
As I mentioned before, I stumbled across this collection and author on Twitter. She was kind enough to send me a copy for an honest review and I can confidently say that if you are a fan of eerie horror, of Shirley Jackson, of The Haunting of Bly Manor, you will love Growth — I know I did!
Each story revolves around the theme of family — mothers and sons, brothers and sisters, fathers and daughters. Some stories, like “Roadkill”, are set in a post-apocalyptic world where nothing is as it once was. Some stories, like “Honey, Silk, Gold” are brutal and disturbing.
All the tales are beautifully written with a sense of decadence, despair, and poetry.
Overall, this was one collection where there wasn’t a story I disliked. Of course, there were many that I enjoyed more than others: “Roadkill”, “Uncle”, “Snow White”, “Mother Spook”, and “Honey, Silk, Gold” — each ones of these was striking in its prose and haunting in its themes.
“Snow White” in particular has a truly eerie setting and cast of characters, along with an ending that still has me wondering (in a good way!) This story in particular reminded me of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived In the Castle in tone and imagery.
So if you’re a fan of unforgettable, atmospheric horror, this is a must have collection!
8/10
x PLM
