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Restless Legs
Pat's parents didn't believe his symptoms were real. Big mistake....
ebook
First published April 12, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 20, 2015
I really enjoyed this well written tale. Tabitha Ormiston-Smith is one of my favourite writers. She creates well written stories that are carefully crafted and entertaining. Her use of language is superb and appears effortless but, in fact, is a complex skill very few authors have.
Restless Legs is exactly what I’m talking about. At first I didn’t understand how this was a horror story but as the plot unravelled and the tension built I suddenly realised I had been drawn into a state of ease only to be shaken out of it again at the story’s ghastly climax.
We begin in an everyday situation of a little boy who wouldn’t settle in bed at night time and the all too familiar frustration of his parents. He has restless leg syndrome which I don’t think is fully understood by his parents. Well, not till something really weird and horrid happens and …. Well, you had better read it for yourself as I’m not one to give away the ending.
If you enjoy well written stories of any genre, you’ll love this short story. I certainly did!
Restless Legs is exactly what I’m talking about. At first I didn’t understand how this was a horror story but as the plot unravelled and the tension built I suddenly realised I had been drawn into a state of ease only to be shaken out of it again at the story’s ghastly climax.
We begin in an everyday situation of a little boy who wouldn’t settle in bed at night time and the all too familiar frustration of his parents. He has restless leg syndrome which I don’t think is fully understood by his parents. Well, not till something really weird and horrid happens and …. Well, you had better read it for yourself as I’m not one to give away the ending.
If you enjoy well written stories of any genre, you’ll love this short story. I certainly did!
April 21, 2015
Tabitha Ormiston-Smith's "Restless Legs" is an entertaining little almost-light horror story. "Light" perhaps is not quite the right term, but while the piece is by no means comic, neither does it enmesh us in creepy otherworldly stalking, demonic possession, or strange and bloody ancient rites. The end, however... Well, 'tis anything but light, and the suddenness is eerily shocking.
On the one hand, young Pat is an ordinary lad living in a land where a slightly frazzled Mum and Dad enjoy a glass of red in the evenings, and speak in charming Commonwealth-isms such as "Ta, love." On the other hand, there is something not quite right in the boy's "restless legs" syndrome; in the common vague horror of childhood, though, adults never believe in strange fancies that are not dreamt of in their philosophies.
Really, about the plot, not much more can be said, lest the somehow-expected-though-unguessable ending be given away. Suffice it to say that plotting is subtle and deft, as can be seen in the characterization of the lad's youth by his thoughts and apprehensions before his age happens to be voiced, by the interweaving of the coming ominous full moon and secret pre-Christian ceremonies with the more mundane news of the telly, and by the telling contrast between the immediacy and interiority of the third-person-limited narration revealing the troubled boy and the ironically superficial and untroubled third-person-dramatic point of view that reveals his parents.
"Restless Legs" is charming and disturbing, with a horror still unexplainable even after the carefully crafted hints and warnings, and Tabitha Ormiston-Smith leaves the reader with a pleasant case of the shivers.
On the one hand, young Pat is an ordinary lad living in a land where a slightly frazzled Mum and Dad enjoy a glass of red in the evenings, and speak in charming Commonwealth-isms such as "Ta, love." On the other hand, there is something not quite right in the boy's "restless legs" syndrome; in the common vague horror of childhood, though, adults never believe in strange fancies that are not dreamt of in their philosophies.
Really, about the plot, not much more can be said, lest the somehow-expected-though-unguessable ending be given away. Suffice it to say that plotting is subtle and deft, as can be seen in the characterization of the lad's youth by his thoughts and apprehensions before his age happens to be voiced, by the interweaving of the coming ominous full moon and secret pre-Christian ceremonies with the more mundane news of the telly, and by the telling contrast between the immediacy and interiority of the third-person-limited narration revealing the troubled boy and the ironically superficial and untroubled third-person-dramatic point of view that reveals his parents.
"Restless Legs" is charming and disturbing, with a horror still unexplainable even after the carefully crafted hints and warnings, and Tabitha Ormiston-Smith leaves the reader with a pleasant case of the shivers.
December 29, 2015
I absolutely adore this story, I first read it in a collection of short stories by this author, and I cannot help but love everything she puts out. Have you ever had fun reading a story? I do! Every time I read her work! She is by far one of my favorites and I am currently reading Dance of Chaos by her and everything she writes is SOOOooooo entertaining!!!! <3
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews