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Here in the Night
The thirteen stories in Rebecca Turkewitz's debut collection, Here in the Night , are engrossing, strange, eerie, and emotionally nuanced. With psychological insight and finely crafted prose, Here in the Night investigates the joys and constraints of womanhood, of queerness, and of intimacy. Preoccupied with all manner of hauntings, these stories traverse a boarding school in the Vermont woods, the jagged coast of Maine, an attic in suburban Massachusetts, an elevator stuck between floors, and the side of an unlit highway in rural South Carolina.
At the center of almost every story is the landscape of night, with all its tantalizing and terrifying potential. After dark, the familiar becomes unfamiliar, boundaries loosen, expectations fall away, and even the greatest skeptics believe--at least fleetingly--that anything could happen.
These stories will stay with you.
"Yes, disembodied voices howl. Floors creak. Hearts pound. But the real terror of Rebecca Turkewitz's unforgettable stories only begins with the eerie manifestations. Here in the Night explores the terror of human relationships, of regret and betrayal, the incalculable risk of love. Filled with piercing wisdom and the ache of understanding, these stories explore the undead dreams that trail all of us, and illuminate the debts that bind us, like ghostly chains, to one another."--Erin McGraw
"What mystifies and delights me most about Here in the Night is that a story collection chock-full of hauntings and the haunted, ghost stories both (apparently) real and (probably) imagined, and harrowing deaths by drowning and other violences, should be so tender and generous and flat-out lovely a read. It's a gorgeous book--wise and charming and moving and fun."--Michelle Herman
"Rebecca Turkewitz's Here in the Night is a treasure chest of psychological terror, and--as with the tales of Shirley Jackson, or Kelly Link, or Carmen Maria Machado--the terror is submerged, in the periphery of a character's eyesight, lingering just off the page. Turkewitz is a master storyteller, and her debut collection is a triumph."--Nick White
"In Rebecca Turkewitz's collection of short stories, even the most ordinary moments are suffused with magic and ghosts. Yet her characters feel as real as anyone you might meet, rendered with deep empathy and complexity. Here in the Night is a rich, vibrant and enthralling book."--Dan Chaon Fiction.
“On the simplest level, the collection reads as a stunning mix of creepy tales; on a deeper level, its hauntings double as metaphors for the dangers that girls, women, and those viewed as outsiders navigate on a regular basis. In subtle but striking prose, Here in the Night captures the psychological terrors laced throughout people’s everyday lives.” –Foreword Reviews
“Turkewitz’s nimble prose switches on a dime between soft and sharp, poignant and brutal, alien and achingly familiar. At the heart of each story, however, lies tenderness, magnified and made more precious by the dangers that surround it. This is a triumph.” -Starred Review in Publishers Weekly
"These stories are R.L. Stine for adults. And that is the equivalent of a two-thumbs up from Siskel and Ebert. Turkewitz nails the atmosphere of every story and flexes her muscles with thoughtful characters you’ll want more pages of. This feels like an instant re-readable collection once the sky turns gray and leaves start falling." -- Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
At the center of almost every story is the landscape of night, with all its tantalizing and terrifying potential. After dark, the familiar becomes unfamiliar, boundaries loosen, expectations fall away, and even the greatest skeptics believe--at least fleetingly--that anything could happen.
These stories will stay with you.
"Yes, disembodied voices howl. Floors creak. Hearts pound. But the real terror of Rebecca Turkewitz's unforgettable stories only begins with the eerie manifestations. Here in the Night explores the terror of human relationships, of regret and betrayal, the incalculable risk of love. Filled with piercing wisdom and the ache of understanding, these stories explore the undead dreams that trail all of us, and illuminate the debts that bind us, like ghostly chains, to one another."--Erin McGraw
"What mystifies and delights me most about Here in the Night is that a story collection chock-full of hauntings and the haunted, ghost stories both (apparently) real and (probably) imagined, and harrowing deaths by drowning and other violences, should be so tender and generous and flat-out lovely a read. It's a gorgeous book--wise and charming and moving and fun."--Michelle Herman
"Rebecca Turkewitz's Here in the Night is a treasure chest of psychological terror, and--as with the tales of Shirley Jackson, or Kelly Link, or Carmen Maria Machado--the terror is submerged, in the periphery of a character's eyesight, lingering just off the page. Turkewitz is a master storyteller, and her debut collection is a triumph."--Nick White
"In Rebecca Turkewitz's collection of short stories, even the most ordinary moments are suffused with magic and ghosts. Yet her characters feel as real as anyone you might meet, rendered with deep empathy and complexity. Here in the Night is a rich, vibrant and enthralling book."--Dan Chaon Fiction.
“On the simplest level, the collection reads as a stunning mix of creepy tales; on a deeper level, its hauntings double as metaphors for the dangers that girls, women, and those viewed as outsiders navigate on a regular basis. In subtle but striking prose, Here in the Night captures the psychological terrors laced throughout people’s everyday lives.” –Foreword Reviews
“Turkewitz’s nimble prose switches on a dime between soft and sharp, poignant and brutal, alien and achingly familiar. At the heart of each story, however, lies tenderness, magnified and made more precious by the dangers that surround it. This is a triumph.” -Starred Review in Publishers Weekly
"These stories are R.L. Stine for adults. And that is the equivalent of a two-thumbs up from Siskel and Ebert. Turkewitz nails the atmosphere of every story and flexes her muscles with thoughtful characters you’ll want more pages of. This feels like an instant re-readable collection once the sky turns gray and leaves start falling." -- Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
171 pages, Paperback
First published July 21, 2023
4 people are currently reading
563 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Turkewitz
2 books15 followersRebecca Turkewitz is a writer and high school English teacher living in Portland, Maine. She is the author of HERE IN THE NIGHT (Black Lawrence Press, July 2023). Her fiction and humor writing have appeared in The Normal School, The Masters Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Electric Literature, The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in fiction from The Ohio State University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
July 17, 2024
I was drawn to this book’s cover as soon as I saw it. When I discovered the book was a short-story collection by an independent press, my wish to read and review it increased. The genre of stories is also to my liking—psychological tales that almost read like ghost stories, but are not, at least not unambiguously. These “ghosts” mostly exist in the minds of the characters, but one or two of the stories will leave you wondering about their reality nevertheless.
Thank you to Black Lawrence Press for a copy of the book, which was given to me for review purposes.
*
Please see my full review at Atlantic Northeast (page 17, depending).
(Added February 28, 2024)
Thank you to Black Lawrence Press for a copy of the book, which was given to me for review purposes.
*
Please see my full review at Atlantic Northeast (page 17, depending).
(Added February 28, 2024)
November 21, 2024
The stories certainly weren't bad and I enjoyed the majority of them. As far as short story collections go, however, these weren't particularly unique or life-altering.
November 8, 2024
3.25 - this is a solid short story collection that had very clear through lines in terms of themes and subject matter, but it’s nothing necessarily new. Most of the stories commentate on the female experience and intersperse it with elements of horror, which is becoming more and more of a popular combination as contemporary work continues to get released, but I don’t think there were any stories in here that really did it in a new and interesting way that excites me.
The writing was good, and there were a few images that were strongly compelling as well as some stories that had some interesting turns. I found that I lost enjoyed the flash fiction featured in this collection, as it felt like Turkewitz was able to accomplish the same feelings within a page and half that she was able to accomplish in 20+ page stories, which felt impressive considering how little space there was to do so. Since the themes and subject matter were all pretty much the same in these stories, there weren’t any that particularly stood out to me as being unique, but I will say I do think the hinting of supernatural elements but the lack of use of them was intriguing.
I don’t think this collection is bad by any means, but the subject matter is familiar and I don’t think any of the stories did anything that particularly spoke to me. If you’re a fan of “Her Body and Other Parties” or other such content, I think you’ll definitely enjoy this collection more than I personally did.
The writing was good, and there were a few images that were strongly compelling as well as some stories that had some interesting turns. I found that I lost enjoyed the flash fiction featured in this collection, as it felt like Turkewitz was able to accomplish the same feelings within a page and half that she was able to accomplish in 20+ page stories, which felt impressive considering how little space there was to do so. Since the themes and subject matter were all pretty much the same in these stories, there weren’t any that particularly stood out to me as being unique, but I will say I do think the hinting of supernatural elements but the lack of use of them was intriguing.
I don’t think this collection is bad by any means, but the subject matter is familiar and I don’t think any of the stories did anything that particularly spoke to me. If you’re a fan of “Her Body and Other Parties” or other such content, I think you’ll definitely enjoy this collection more than I personally did.
April 21, 2024
One of the best short story collections I have read in a really long time. Haunting in every sense of the word, some are creepy (The Nightmares of Jennifer Aiken, Age 29 made me resolve not to read the rest of the book before bedtime) or just plain tense (I held my breath through all six pages of the title story) but each one has at their core that universal truth - both beautiful and terrible - that life and loving is tightly coupled to loss and grieving. Highly recommend.
June 25, 2024
This is a wonderfully written debut collection of inclusive, creepy short stories. I wished it kept going on when I got to the end. Can't wait for more works by Rebecca Turkewitz!
September 29, 2023
(3.5/5)
Though slightly uneven from story to story and not exactly what I was expecting, I nevertheless really enjoyed this short story collection. Multiple stories really gripped me, and I'm incredibly glad to have picked it as my first spooky read of the season. As far as debuts go it shows a ton of promise, and I would love to see what this author could do in a full length novel.
Though slightly uneven from story to story and not exactly what I was expecting, I nevertheless really enjoyed this short story collection. Multiple stories really gripped me, and I'm incredibly glad to have picked it as my first spooky read of the season. As far as debuts go it shows a ton of promise, and I would love to see what this author could do in a full length novel.
July 19, 2025
I didn't know I'd become a campus legend until the reporter from The Lantern called. I was still living in Ohio, about an hour northeast of Columbus, but I hadn't been back to OSU in over twenty years. I was impressed that AJ had found me. All she had was my first name, Grace, and the story about my awful night in the elevator. [...]
The Grace from the legend that AJ recounted was a strange and obsessive student. She kept weird hours and often worked through the night in her studio, painting huge canvases that she only ever showed her favorite professors. One of these late nights, she got stuck in the elevator after the building had emptied out. As the hours stretched on, she lost her grip on reality. She beat the doors until her hands were bruised and bloody and then drew cryptic symbols all over the walls. When the custodian discovered her the next morning, she talked only in grunts. She died a few years later under vague but mysterious circumstances. Her furious ghost returned to the art building to get revenge on the university and all the happy, still-sane students. She stopped the elevator between floors, scrawled angry messages on the walls, plunged the elevator into darkness, hummed a disquieting, wordless tune, and watched with disdain as undergrads cowered in the corner and jabbed at the door open button.
"So obviously you're not dead," AJ said, "which has really broken this story wide open. But aside from that small detail, how much of the story is accurate?"
First two sentences: I've been working the front desk of the Leavitt Hotel for three years, but booking rooms and greeting guests is only part of my job. It took some persuading, but William, the owner, lets me haunt the place.
Vital statistics: Author's home: Lives in Maine, but holds a MFA in fiction from The Ohio State University (my alma mater)!
Year written: 2023
Length: 168 pages
Setting: each short story has its own setting, but all occur in modern time
Genre: short stories that skirt the edges of horror. Little things just aren't right so to speak.
Read if: you are looking for a short, entertaining read, that isn't so scary you won't be able to sleep, but will raise the hairs on your arm up just a tad. Also recommended to lovers of GOOD prose.
My two cents: This collection of short stories was a pleasant surprise--not really horror, but dancing along the edges of our fears, it was a bit like The Twilight Zone in book form. And I can't say enough good things about the prose. Some of the best writing I've read so far this year! Given 4 stars or a rating of "Excellent." Highly recommended as a library check-out, and recommended as a purchase for lovers of paranormal.
Other favorite quotes: Why not entertain the idea that, for a few brief moments, the past can spread like a deep soft bruise into the present?
~~We stayed out awhile longer, Julie sniffling her way through the rest of our conversation. Then I walked Julie back to my apartment and set her up on the couch, a blanket tucked around her. I considered the ways she'd been both right and wrong about William and me. I thought about whether it mattered how or even if I loved him, whether any of that trumped a settled, pleasant life.
~~Anne tried to remember the every detail of their kissing. She finds it remarkable how similarly she feels physically when she recalls the kisses and the ghost story. Both memories elicit a frenzied, irrepressible response, like something throwing itself against the walls of her stomach and chest.
~~ My mother is not fragile, but her emotions run close to the surface and she isn't afraid to show them. Even still, she's sturdy and imposing; she carries herself with her shoulders back and her head up. She has eyes so dark that sometimes her pupils get lost in them, and when her stare falls on you, it often seems like a challenge or a dare.
~~Ben took her to the top floor of the house, where a small window looked out over a row of rooftops and, beyond that, the inky spreading emptiness of unlit corn and soybean fields. Perhaps the Midwest did offer plenty of opportunities for hauntings, with so much of its land lurking outside the reach of the light.
~~I was out cold for several minutes and when I opened my eyes the world swam in front of me like a television channel that wasn't in focus.
~~A year and a half earlier my mother had died in a car accident, swerving on the highway to avoid a crashed motorcycle. She was in the hospital for two days, but she never woke up. I had spent my time since then steering my thoughts away from her absence, trying to outrun the wave of sadness that trailed behind me. That summer I was just starting to resurface, finding that I didn't have to be so protective of my thoughts, which wouldn't wander quite so quickly to darker places during moments of stillness. I felt like I was climbing out of a murky body of water and the world was clearing again, taking on crisp outlines that I hadn't realized were missing.
~~My dad and I were trying to mask my mother's absence with more absence, widening the hole she'd left in our lives until we couldn't see the edges of it, until it was so big that it wasn't recognizable as a hole.
~~I understood, then, that even with all that I had lost, I was not done losing. I understood that I was not done acquiring things worthy of being lost. I understood that love is not a thing that stays buried for long. I closed my eyes and I listened to the storm rage.
The Grace from the legend that AJ recounted was a strange and obsessive student. She kept weird hours and often worked through the night in her studio, painting huge canvases that she only ever showed her favorite professors. One of these late nights, she got stuck in the elevator after the building had emptied out. As the hours stretched on, she lost her grip on reality. She beat the doors until her hands were bruised and bloody and then drew cryptic symbols all over the walls. When the custodian discovered her the next morning, she talked only in grunts. She died a few years later under vague but mysterious circumstances. Her furious ghost returned to the art building to get revenge on the university and all the happy, still-sane students. She stopped the elevator between floors, scrawled angry messages on the walls, plunged the elevator into darkness, hummed a disquieting, wordless tune, and watched with disdain as undergrads cowered in the corner and jabbed at the door open button.
"So obviously you're not dead," AJ said, "which has really broken this story wide open. But aside from that small detail, how much of the story is accurate?"
First two sentences: I've been working the front desk of the Leavitt Hotel for three years, but booking rooms and greeting guests is only part of my job. It took some persuading, but William, the owner, lets me haunt the place.
Vital statistics: Author's home: Lives in Maine, but holds a MFA in fiction from The Ohio State University (my alma mater)!
Year written: 2023
Length: 168 pages
Setting: each short story has its own setting, but all occur in modern time
Genre: short stories that skirt the edges of horror. Little things just aren't right so to speak.
Read if: you are looking for a short, entertaining read, that isn't so scary you won't be able to sleep, but will raise the hairs on your arm up just a tad. Also recommended to lovers of GOOD prose.
My two cents: This collection of short stories was a pleasant surprise--not really horror, but dancing along the edges of our fears, it was a bit like The Twilight Zone in book form. And I can't say enough good things about the prose. Some of the best writing I've read so far this year! Given 4 stars or a rating of "Excellent." Highly recommended as a library check-out, and recommended as a purchase for lovers of paranormal.
Other favorite quotes: Why not entertain the idea that, for a few brief moments, the past can spread like a deep soft bruise into the present?
~~We stayed out awhile longer, Julie sniffling her way through the rest of our conversation. Then I walked Julie back to my apartment and set her up on the couch, a blanket tucked around her. I considered the ways she'd been both right and wrong about William and me. I thought about whether it mattered how or even if I loved him, whether any of that trumped a settled, pleasant life.
~~Anne tried to remember the every detail of their kissing. She finds it remarkable how similarly she feels physically when she recalls the kisses and the ghost story. Both memories elicit a frenzied, irrepressible response, like something throwing itself against the walls of her stomach and chest.
~~ My mother is not fragile, but her emotions run close to the surface and she isn't afraid to show them. Even still, she's sturdy and imposing; she carries herself with her shoulders back and her head up. She has eyes so dark that sometimes her pupils get lost in them, and when her stare falls on you, it often seems like a challenge or a dare.
~~Ben took her to the top floor of the house, where a small window looked out over a row of rooftops and, beyond that, the inky spreading emptiness of unlit corn and soybean fields. Perhaps the Midwest did offer plenty of opportunities for hauntings, with so much of its land lurking outside the reach of the light.
~~I was out cold for several minutes and when I opened my eyes the world swam in front of me like a television channel that wasn't in focus.
~~A year and a half earlier my mother had died in a car accident, swerving on the highway to avoid a crashed motorcycle. She was in the hospital for two days, but she never woke up. I had spent my time since then steering my thoughts away from her absence, trying to outrun the wave of sadness that trailed behind me. That summer I was just starting to resurface, finding that I didn't have to be so protective of my thoughts, which wouldn't wander quite so quickly to darker places during moments of stillness. I felt like I was climbing out of a murky body of water and the world was clearing again, taking on crisp outlines that I hadn't realized were missing.
~~My dad and I were trying to mask my mother's absence with more absence, widening the hole she'd left in our lives until we couldn't see the edges of it, until it was so big that it wasn't recognizable as a hole.
~~I understood, then, that even with all that I had lost, I was not done losing. I understood that I was not done acquiring things worthy of being lost. I understood that love is not a thing that stays buried for long. I closed my eyes and I listened to the storm rage.
October 24, 2023
(originally reviewed at
thelibraryladies.com
)
Thank you to Rebecca Turkewitz for sending me a copy of this book!
We are starting to wind down the Halloween Season, as the holiday is next week and the various creepy plans that I have for the month are coming to a head (“Hocus Pocus” night with ladyfriends? Check. “Practical Magic” night with more different ladyfriends? Check. “Lost Boys” party at the local Alamo? CHECK AND MATE!). And as we continue our horror lit journey for the month, we are now coming to a book that felt a little different than my usual horror fare. “Here in the Night” by Rebecca Turkewitz was sent to me by Turkewitz herself (thank you again!), and I was expecting another short stories horror collection with blatant scares, sub genre jumping, and the usual fare for the horror fan who wants smaller tales to read at their own leisure. But when I sat down and started reading, I realized that “Here in the Night” was something far different from what I was expecting, and that it was something very special because of it.
Like I always do, I will highlight my three favorite stories and then review the collection as a whole.
“Warnings”: Members of a school track team run in a desolate area, the warnings of predators and strangers at the back of their minds until something they never thought could happen, happens. This is one of the shorter stories in the collection, more like a flash fiction tale, but I loved the structure, written in a ‘we’ narration, speaking like a chorus and speaking for the track team as a whole and beyond. This story felt like an expanded take on the Calvin and Hobbes quote (which I’m probably butchering) ‘this is one of the things you figure will happen to someone else, but unfortunately we’re ALL someone else to someone else’. It’s scary and sad and sobering, and all achieved in maybe two pages.
“Here in the Night”: On June 12th 2016, Ellie and Jess are returning from a visit to Ellie’s family, and seeking out updates on the Pulse Nightclub massacre as they drive down an isolated country road in rural North Carolina. As their grief and anxiety builds, they question their differences in reactions as well as their differences in upbringings. Almost definitely the most heart wrenching story in the collection, Turkewitz captures the trauma, the grief, and fear, and the questions that were swirling in the queer community after this horrific hate crime happened, examining two women in a relationship who find themselves upset at the world as well as at each other amidst the fear and uncertainty. There’s the slow build of their relationship tension, but then a whole other tension about the potential danger they could be in in the moment, perhaps heightened due to the mass shooting on their minds, which make for some very unnerving beats as well as emotional ones.
“Crybaby Bridge”: Sam is a teenager who has just moved to small town Indiana after an incident in her old community in the big city, and has trouble fitting in with other girls on her basketball team. While at a sleepover they tell her the story of Crybaby Bridge, a haunted spot in town that is supposedly roamed by the ghost of a young woman who drowned her baby and then killed herself, and Sam finds herself drawn to the tale. I love a scary story about urban legends, and “Crybaby Bridge” does a really good job of spinning a familiar tale while subverting it in ways that I didn’t expect. I really loved Sam as a character, as she is so complex and nuanced and could read like a ‘not like other girls’ trope but is so much more. It’s also a great exploration of how urban legends can make villains out of victims and turn them into spectral monsters.
But I had a hard time picking my favorite three stories because I really enjoyed all of them. They are definitely horror stories, but they all flow so smoothly and read like literary ruminations on love, loss, grief, and trauma, and never in a way that felt like it was trying too hard (which can be a big sticking point for me when it comes to the idea of ‘literary’ horror; if you have to hammer home you’re ‘literary’, it just makes you seem like you think you’re more valid than genre horror, and I hate that). Turkewitz can peel back the layers of the human condition and find the scary things, be they real life or supernatural or perhaps ambiguous, usually framed within a female or queer experience. The stories here are effective but never feel over the top, and there were multiple times I said to myself ‘I really like this’ as I finished up one story and moved on to the next. Not a clunker in the bunch, and in my experience that is rare in a short stories collection.
I urge horror fans who are hoping to find something a bit more ruminative to seek out “Here in the Night”. These stories will unsettle you, but they will also bubble up emotions as they tug at your heartstrings. I am spreading the word on Rebecca Turkewitz. Check this book out.
Thank you to Rebecca Turkewitz for sending me a copy of this book!
We are starting to wind down the Halloween Season, as the holiday is next week and the various creepy plans that I have for the month are coming to a head (“Hocus Pocus” night with ladyfriends? Check. “Practical Magic” night with more different ladyfriends? Check. “Lost Boys” party at the local Alamo? CHECK AND MATE!). And as we continue our horror lit journey for the month, we are now coming to a book that felt a little different than my usual horror fare. “Here in the Night” by Rebecca Turkewitz was sent to me by Turkewitz herself (thank you again!), and I was expecting another short stories horror collection with blatant scares, sub genre jumping, and the usual fare for the horror fan who wants smaller tales to read at their own leisure. But when I sat down and started reading, I realized that “Here in the Night” was something far different from what I was expecting, and that it was something very special because of it.
Like I always do, I will highlight my three favorite stories and then review the collection as a whole.
“Warnings”: Members of a school track team run in a desolate area, the warnings of predators and strangers at the back of their minds until something they never thought could happen, happens. This is one of the shorter stories in the collection, more like a flash fiction tale, but I loved the structure, written in a ‘we’ narration, speaking like a chorus and speaking for the track team as a whole and beyond. This story felt like an expanded take on the Calvin and Hobbes quote (which I’m probably butchering) ‘this is one of the things you figure will happen to someone else, but unfortunately we’re ALL someone else to someone else’. It’s scary and sad and sobering, and all achieved in maybe two pages.
“Here in the Night”: On June 12th 2016, Ellie and Jess are returning from a visit to Ellie’s family, and seeking out updates on the Pulse Nightclub massacre as they drive down an isolated country road in rural North Carolina. As their grief and anxiety builds, they question their differences in reactions as well as their differences in upbringings. Almost definitely the most heart wrenching story in the collection, Turkewitz captures the trauma, the grief, and fear, and the questions that were swirling in the queer community after this horrific hate crime happened, examining two women in a relationship who find themselves upset at the world as well as at each other amidst the fear and uncertainty. There’s the slow build of their relationship tension, but then a whole other tension about the potential danger they could be in in the moment, perhaps heightened due to the mass shooting on their minds, which make for some very unnerving beats as well as emotional ones.
“Crybaby Bridge”: Sam is a teenager who has just moved to small town Indiana after an incident in her old community in the big city, and has trouble fitting in with other girls on her basketball team. While at a sleepover they tell her the story of Crybaby Bridge, a haunted spot in town that is supposedly roamed by the ghost of a young woman who drowned her baby and then killed herself, and Sam finds herself drawn to the tale. I love a scary story about urban legends, and “Crybaby Bridge” does a really good job of spinning a familiar tale while subverting it in ways that I didn’t expect. I really loved Sam as a character, as she is so complex and nuanced and could read like a ‘not like other girls’ trope but is so much more. It’s also a great exploration of how urban legends can make villains out of victims and turn them into spectral monsters.
But I had a hard time picking my favorite three stories because I really enjoyed all of them. They are definitely horror stories, but they all flow so smoothly and read like literary ruminations on love, loss, grief, and trauma, and never in a way that felt like it was trying too hard (which can be a big sticking point for me when it comes to the idea of ‘literary’ horror; if you have to hammer home you’re ‘literary’, it just makes you seem like you think you’re more valid than genre horror, and I hate that). Turkewitz can peel back the layers of the human condition and find the scary things, be they real life or supernatural or perhaps ambiguous, usually framed within a female or queer experience. The stories here are effective but never feel over the top, and there were multiple times I said to myself ‘I really like this’ as I finished up one story and moved on to the next. Not a clunker in the bunch, and in my experience that is rare in a short stories collection.
I urge horror fans who are hoping to find something a bit more ruminative to seek out “Here in the Night”. These stories will unsettle you, but they will also bubble up emotions as they tug at your heartstrings. I am spreading the word on Rebecca Turkewitz. Check this book out.
December 17, 2023
A high school English teacher who lived on the south shore of MA, then southern NH, then coastal Maine has written a collection of short ghost stories of haunted women. What is haunting them is far more poignant than the supernatural. Very Good.
November 30, 2023
So so good! Some of the stories were just creepy, others incredibly freaky, some sad but nearly all of them left me feeling unsettled in some way. The writing was so amazing, and allowed me to really put myself in each of the stories, whether they were were a page or 10. All of them were so compelling - I couldn’t even think of stopping in the middle of any of them, I had to get to the end even when I knew I would likely not get full closure.
Becca did such an amazing job, and I couldn’t put it down! Definitely something I will reread (hopefully around spooky season next time!) for years to come.
Becca did such an amazing job, and I couldn’t put it down! Definitely something I will reread (hopefully around spooky season next time!) for years to come.
February 22, 2024
3,15⭐️
At this late hour- 2
Search party- 3
The attic - 3
The nightmares of Jennifer Aiken, age 29 - 3
Warnings - 4
Here in the night - 1
The elevator girl - 3
Northwood - 3
Crybaby bridge - 4
The last unmapped place - 4
Deserving of you - 4
Sarah Lane's school for girls - 3
Four houses down - 4
At this late hour- 2
Search party- 3
The attic - 3
The nightmares of Jennifer Aiken, age 29 - 3
Warnings - 4
Here in the night - 1
The elevator girl - 3
Northwood - 3
Crybaby bridge - 4
The last unmapped place - 4
Deserving of you - 4
Sarah Lane's school for girls - 3
Four houses down - 4
August 7, 2023
This was a fantastic debut collection! I loved the way it fused literary fiction with horror elements and focused on predominantly female and queer characters.
Turkewitz is a natural story teller with a strong ear for witty banter, a great feel for pacing, and deep insight into the emotional worlds of her characters. The stories are well-ordered with good variation in length, style, and point of view so the reading experience never feels repetitive. (I loved that the collection included a story written from the "we" perspective, another rendered in vignettes, and several flash pieces.) Even the minor characters are memorable, and the stories pack a strong emotional punch. My favorite part was the way Turkewitz alternated between stories with more traditional horror elements (ie ghosts) and stories about real-world horrors, particularly the many violences facing girls, women, and queer communities. That juxtaposition made the stories about real violence hit especially hard. The collection made me think deeply about the social function of horror and the many horrors of contemporary life.
All the stories were good but two that especially stood out for me were both about queer relationships. In "The Attic," two teenage girls begin a secret romance right as one of them is about to move. Turkewitz made these characters so real and vulnerable. She has such a good understanding of high school social dynamics and speech patterns, and I was devastated for the main character and her mom. In "Here in the Night," we meet a queer couple driving home from visiting family the same day as the Pulse night club shooting. The women have different backgrounds and personalities and thus have very different approaches to coping with the tragedy. Turkewitz does an excellent job revealing the subtle tensions in their relationship and building the story's suspense so that the ending feels absolutely terrifying.
If you like Carmen Maria Machado, definitely give this a read! These stories are exquisitely crafted in terms of language and character but never slow or difficult to read. It would be a great pick for book clubs, schools, and libraries. I'm excited to read what Turkewitz writes next.
Turkewitz is a natural story teller with a strong ear for witty banter, a great feel for pacing, and deep insight into the emotional worlds of her characters. The stories are well-ordered with good variation in length, style, and point of view so the reading experience never feels repetitive. (I loved that the collection included a story written from the "we" perspective, another rendered in vignettes, and several flash pieces.) Even the minor characters are memorable, and the stories pack a strong emotional punch. My favorite part was the way Turkewitz alternated between stories with more traditional horror elements (ie ghosts) and stories about real-world horrors, particularly the many violences facing girls, women, and queer communities. That juxtaposition made the stories about real violence hit especially hard. The collection made me think deeply about the social function of horror and the many horrors of contemporary life.
All the stories were good but two that especially stood out for me were both about queer relationships. In "The Attic," two teenage girls begin a secret romance right as one of them is about to move. Turkewitz made these characters so real and vulnerable. She has such a good understanding of high school social dynamics and speech patterns, and I was devastated for the main character and her mom. In "Here in the Night," we meet a queer couple driving home from visiting family the same day as the Pulse night club shooting. The women have different backgrounds and personalities and thus have very different approaches to coping with the tragedy. Turkewitz does an excellent job revealing the subtle tensions in their relationship and building the story's suspense so that the ending feels absolutely terrifying.
If you like Carmen Maria Machado, definitely give this a read! These stories are exquisitely crafted in terms of language and character but never slow or difficult to read. It would be a great pick for book clubs, schools, and libraries. I'm excited to read what Turkewitz writes next.
July 18, 2023
Loved it, wrote a review and submitted it to CALYX—exactly the sort of collection I might hope to find reviewed there! An excerpt:
Turkewitz explores childhood then jumps forward to nostalgic adulthood, as her characters hope to understand what they cannot leave behind. Sometimes she tells what’s coming and even so, readers are not prepared. Each story ends just before we expect it to end, before we are entirely clear what’s happened, often right at the place we anticipate being slammed with intention and explanation. It is unsettling, but Turkewitz’s intention seems to be to unsettle readers—not to terrify but to inspire uncertainty. Neither what we are seeking nor what we get is what we expect.
These stories are haunted by literal ghosts and also the ghost of what we cling to and the injustices society imposes.
Turkewitz explores childhood then jumps forward to nostalgic adulthood, as her characters hope to understand what they cannot leave behind. Sometimes she tells what’s coming and even so, readers are not prepared. Each story ends just before we expect it to end, before we are entirely clear what’s happened, often right at the place we anticipate being slammed with intention and explanation. It is unsettling, but Turkewitz’s intention seems to be to unsettle readers—not to terrify but to inspire uncertainty. Neither what we are seeking nor what we get is what we expect.
So we kept silent, tolerating a mystery that allowed both of us to go on living in the worlds we had constructed for ourselves.
These stories are haunted by literal ghosts and also the ghost of what we cling to and the injustices society imposes.
October 22, 2023
The stories in this collection are ghost story-adjacent. Most of them feel like something supernatural is about to happen, or just happened, but there is nothing explicitly supernatural in the narratives. The ghost story aspect is how Turkewitz approaches the exploration of young people (girls and young women in these tales, but much of the substance is not restricted to gender) become who they are, and the range of feeling from disquiet to horror when regarding the opportunities left behind to have become someone else, whether by choices or by circumstances.
There is a youthful flavor to the writing as whole - meaning you can tell the author herself is young and hasn't quite mastered all the details of the craft - but the level of skill in storytelling is admirable and enjoyable. Do yourself a favor and find a copy of this book.
There is a youthful flavor to the writing as whole - meaning you can tell the author herself is young and hasn't quite mastered all the details of the craft - but the level of skill in storytelling is admirable and enjoyable. Do yourself a favor and find a copy of this book.
Read
November 5, 2023If you're looking for literary short fiction that is horror-adjacent, this debut collection is for you. These stories form a queer, feminine landscape and take place in spaces where ghosts have been or are expected. What Turkewtiz does with local legends is memorable and pleasing.
October 4, 2023
This story collection is an absolute delight, full of gorgeous sentences that make me want to be a better writer, characters that feel fully real, and keen insight into the morass of being a person. These stories also have some genuine scares that infected my dreams in the best way! It would be impossible to pick a favorite story here, but The Last Unmapped Places and Sarah Lane’s School for Girls and the titular Here in the Night are all richly beautiful and deeply felt. An absolute must-read.
October 18, 2023
I first read Turkewitz's fiction in Electric Literature's Recommended Reading. I enjoyed the shorty story there ("The Last Unmapped Places") so much that I pre-ordered HERE IN THE NIGHT. As soon as I started reading the collection, I recommended it to friends. Turkewitz is a talented writer and storyteller with believable, relatable characters. I really enjoyed this collection and look forward to setting more of her work on shelves!
September 21, 2023
I loved these stories. Rebecca Turkewitz is a writer to watch.
October 3, 2023
Good stories but not very spooky.
March 25, 2025
Just spooky enough for this fraidy cat!
December 28, 2023
“I understood that I was not done acquiring things worthy of being lost.”
Here In The Night is a collection of 13 short stories that explores womanhood, queerness, and the darkness and longing that lurks inside of us. I thought the writing is beautifully wistful, like how it weaves the blossoming of a new relationship versus the regret of a love lost. There are eerie moments, with an aching understanding that perhaps it’s not spirits that are haunting these characters but the life they have led. My favourite stories:
The Nightmares of Jennifer Aiken, Age 29 - nightmares and reality collide to create disturbing, emotional snippets of a woman’s life.
The Attic - a teen girl discovers her first love and the pain that comes with it as she creates ghost stories in an attic.
Crybaby Bridge - tales of the local ghost intrigue the new girl in town, but it’s her secret that haunts her.
Northwood - a young girl is convinced a monster has stolen her father and is willing to do anything to get him back.
The Last Unmapped Places - explores the magical connection between a pair of twins and the cost of that bond
If you like literary horror that makes you more sad than scared, don’t miss this book!
Thank you to the author for a review copy.
book blog | twitter | instagram
Here In The Night is a collection of 13 short stories that explores womanhood, queerness, and the darkness and longing that lurks inside of us. I thought the writing is beautifully wistful, like how it weaves the blossoming of a new relationship versus the regret of a love lost. There are eerie moments, with an aching understanding that perhaps it’s not spirits that are haunting these characters but the life they have led. My favourite stories:
The Nightmares of Jennifer Aiken, Age 29 - nightmares and reality collide to create disturbing, emotional snippets of a woman’s life.
The Attic - a teen girl discovers her first love and the pain that comes with it as she creates ghost stories in an attic.
Crybaby Bridge - tales of the local ghost intrigue the new girl in town, but it’s her secret that haunts her.
Northwood - a young girl is convinced a monster has stolen her father and is willing to do anything to get him back.
The Last Unmapped Places - explores the magical connection between a pair of twins and the cost of that bond
If you like literary horror that makes you more sad than scared, don’t miss this book!
Thank you to the author for a review copy.
book blog | twitter | instagram
August 13, 2024
This collection of stories was unexpected in the best way. It filled me with a nostalgia I didn't realize I was so longing for. That feeling of being a child, whose braved the long dark hallway in the dead of night to use the bathroom, and while you creep back to bed you know you can't look behind you, because if you do you'll see it there. And in those last desperate feet you sprint the distance and jump into the covers. The strange comfort that fear brings. The way the world feels fuller when you believe, with all of yourself, that there was something following you through that darkness.
The writing and characters in these stories was perfectly natural, relatable. I quickly cared for the plight of them all and was a little sad to reach the end of their tale. I'd be eager to read a longer story from this author.
An amusing coincidence; I read and finished the last story in this collection on August 13th, which happens to be the very day that story took place on. The kind of coincidence that's so unlikely its almost eerie. And I think that's the perfect feeling to end on.
The writing and characters in these stories was perfectly natural, relatable. I quickly cared for the plight of them all and was a little sad to reach the end of their tale. I'd be eager to read a longer story from this author.
An amusing coincidence; I read and finished the last story in this collection on August 13th, which happens to be the very day that story took place on. The kind of coincidence that's so unlikely its almost eerie. And I think that's the perfect feeling to end on.
May 23, 2025
A really cohesive debut collection of short stories. They all had a very similar feel to them, but distinct enough for them not to bleed into each other. The writing style and tropes draw very much on classic American gothic elements, but didn't feel derivative or cliched in any way.
I loved the normalisation of queer relationships throughout almost every story. The queerness wasn't the focus of the storyline, but in the titular story, it did add to the sense of dread for the main characters stranded in the South who are heckled for kissing.
Standouts were "Warnings" - a great example of microfiction that explores the safety (or lack of it) when women exercise; "Here in the Night" - a classic story of women who break down in the middle of nowhere and then are helped by a stranger, but with a surprisingly touching, sapphic ending; and "The Last Unmapped Places" - a beautiful story of sisterhood and twins.
I bought this collection a while ago after reading Turkewitz's satire on McSweeney's, and am really glad I took a punt. Really keen to see what she writes next, and impressed further as she's a high school teacher like myself and proud of her finding the headspace in between that demanding job to write.
"I don't know what's happening to me. I feel like I don't have any edges anymore. The way I used to feel only with you, I feel that way with everyone."
"Love and horror are so easily conflated; the boundary between passion and terror is not always clear."
"To know a place, you have to know its ghosts."
I loved the normalisation of queer relationships throughout almost every story. The queerness wasn't the focus of the storyline, but in the titular story, it did add to the sense of dread for the main characters stranded in the South who are heckled for kissing.
Standouts were "Warnings" - a great example of microfiction that explores the safety (or lack of it) when women exercise; "Here in the Night" - a classic story of women who break down in the middle of nowhere and then are helped by a stranger, but with a surprisingly touching, sapphic ending; and "The Last Unmapped Places" - a beautiful story of sisterhood and twins.
I bought this collection a while ago after reading Turkewitz's satire on McSweeney's, and am really glad I took a punt. Really keen to see what she writes next, and impressed further as she's a high school teacher like myself and proud of her finding the headspace in between that demanding job to write.
"I don't know what's happening to me. I feel like I don't have any edges anymore. The way I used to feel only with you, I feel that way with everyone."
"Love and horror are so easily conflated; the boundary between passion and terror is not always clear."
"To know a place, you have to know its ghosts."
August 1, 2023
Wow! I loved this book of short stories! Rebecca has a remarkable way of making me think I am reading about a ghost or haunting so as a reader, I sit back and relax, thinking it's a story that can't possibly relate to me. Suddenly, I realize the story is a subtle portrayal of life, of lives and I am struck by the universality and poignancy of the experiences of her characters: love, loss, feeling isolated and different. I recommend this book to any and everyone. It's a bit like being surprised by an image, then you realize it's only a mirror and you feel relief but suddenly you spot something in the mirror floating by.
March 1, 2024
This was a solid collection of short stories. I really enjoyed how varied and unique and different each story felt, even when so many of them centered around New England. Each narrator and voice was clear, special, and each story took on a shape and life of its own. So many of these stories, even the once touched by a supernatural spark of darkness, felt like they existed beyond just the words on the page, that the story continued, it wasn't contained in the few short pages it lived in the book.
October 21, 2024
I thought this book was inaccurately promoted. The writing is good, the stories are pretty good, but I never got the feeling that these were trying to be horror stories, despite what the back cover testimonials lead one to believe. Halfway through I readjusted my expectations for these stories, and once I started thinking of them as lit fic instead of horror, I enjoyed them a lot more. I still felt like some were stronger than others, but overall this was an enjoyable collection.
August 12, 2024
There are many hauntings in this collection, but none are very scary (which is a good thing). The stories feature young women navigating losses (many missing parents here) and friendships complicated by class differences and differences in levels of, shall we say, risk aversion. These are tales in which somebody will always try to confront the ghost.
September 23, 2024
This was SUCH an excellent collection of literary horror stories, I loved that none of them were overtly supernatural but still had a lot of tension and dread mostly stemming from the psychology of the main characters. Also, I wasn't expecting so much queer representation so that was a nice surprise as well.
October 6, 2025
In this book of ghostly tales of disconnected people, the stories set moods of fog and night, spirits of lost loves, and missed opportunities. The characters are sometimes out of step with the workaday world, yearning for things they cannot describe. Emotions run high, and the experiences shine a light on people who feel they are the "other".
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