The Shadow over Portage and Main

by Keith Cadieux (Editor)

Winnipeg is a place of extremes. Winters are fierce and relentless. Summers are unbearable hot. It has been both the murder and auto theft capital of Canada and the Slurpee capital of the world. It is a place that exerts an influence, that marks and changes its inhabitants. This anthology features writers who have all lived in Winnipeg for a time and been inspired, horrified, changed by that experience. Contributors include David Annandale (Gethsemane Hall), Jonathan Ball (Ex Machina, Clockfire, The Politics of Knives), Keith Cadieux (Gaze) and new voices from the University of Manitoba?s creative MA program. The stories here capture a tone of history, dread, violence, weird, and sometimes even whimsy; a tone that only Winnipeg exudes.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror

291 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 28, 2016

Reviews

[Gail · Rating 2 out of 5]

Curiosity. Crime. Cold. Chills. Winnipeg.
Winnipeg disrupts many things as it disrupted my alliterative first line.
I found this book to be hit-and-miss, as is per usual with a book of short stories by multiple authors on the loosely similar theme of the weirdness that is Winnipeg. Not that a book on that subject is usual. I found the constant change of authorship to be distracting, as some of the writing styles weren't all that polished or to my taste. Kind of like Winnipeg. All in all, it was interesting, some of the stories stuck with you, and others faded or were frankly sickening in their desperate attempts to be edgy. Kind of like Winnipeg. I wouldn't recommend it to anybody, but I lent it to my sister. That's contradictory. Kind of like Winnipeg. After some of the stories, you might wonder if there was a point. Kind of like Winnipeg.

[Tyrannosaurus regina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was deeply impressed by the quality of fiction in this anthology, which was consistently high. Maybe I felt it was more so because the vast majority of stories were definitely to my taste, but there wasn't a dud in the bunch. I picked up the book because of the setting, because there is a certain thrill to recognising bits and pieces of a place you know, but it just ended up being so much more than that. Winnipeg IS strange and a little gothic and these stories captured that often without even naming it. And I have to say, that preface is one of the most bleak and perfect things I've ever read about the city.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have rated this collection of short stories higher if I liked the horror genre depicted through the writings of these Winnipeg authors. Quality writing, creepy and disturbing content.

[Louella Lester · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a fan of the horror genre but I enjoyed this book.

[Max]

some of the stories in this anthology felt like little puzzle pieces of fiction i've been looking for since i started devouring horror when i was 12, and some were just... there. somehow even that reminded me of winnipeg and made sense. there is a particular flavor of gothic here, and i agree about the way this city shapes us as artists and leaves a mark, no matter when you get here or how long you stay for.

as of this year, winnipeg is 150 years old. it feels ancient and young all at once. it has countless underground tunnels and weird little doorways. some of them are easy to find (side entrances, emergency exits that don't lead anywhere, the attics built into north end houses with the tiny doors) or in plain sight. some swallow you up when you least expect it.
it also has skywalks and tall buildings that reflect the sunset when you're stuck in traffic, or waiting on a friend downtown. it's flat but there's a feeling of being jostled along whether you like it or not, while still getting nowhere. we repair our potholes every single year and the city becomes a maze of construction in the summer, then a labyrinth of snowbanks taller than most cars or people in the winter. the other week my mum swerved around a pothole almost as big as the jeep and we both swore out loud, then went back to our conversation like it never happened. winnipeg is somehow a place that is never happening and always happening. it's hard to describe to people who haven't been here.

this anthology explores how simultaneously extreme and mundane winnipeg is, how we learn to understand our surroundings without needing to know or explain them, how even the architecture feels like people give up for good reasons and the next people who come along just build on top of it. i'm glad i found it. it made me... make more sense to myself.

[[on hiatus, probably forever] The rockabilly werewolf from Mars · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it a bit hit-or-miss, but it was interesting to see horror fiction set in my home city.

[Dave Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who knew the true ethos of of hometown was horror.
It's an anthology of short stories, so expect some hits and some misses, but an intriguing collection of Winnipeg centric, Winnipeg fueled fiction from born and bred Winnipegers