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Strange Is the Night
Over cocktails an executive describes to a friend the disturbing history of a strangely potent guardian angel. A young mom tries to perfect and prolong her daughter's childhood with obsessive parenting. A critic's petty denouncement of an ingEnue's performance leads to a theatrical night of reckoning. A cult member makes nice for a parole board hearing years after committing an infamous crime.
A multiple Shirley Jackson Award nominee, S.P. Miskowski serves up an uncompromising collection of thirteen modern tales of desire and self-destruction. Strange is the Night offers further proof that Miskowski is--as Black Static book reviewer Peter Tennant notes--"one of the most interesting and original writers to emerge in recent years.
A multiple Shirley Jackson Award nominee, S.P. Miskowski serves up an uncompromising collection of thirteen modern tales of desire and self-destruction. Strange is the Night offers further proof that Miskowski is--as Black Static book reviewer Peter Tennant notes--"one of the most interesting and original writers to emerge in recent years.
249 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2017
5 people are currently reading
170 people want to read
About the author
S.P. Miskowski
45 books256 followersS.P. Miskowski is a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. Her books have received four Shirley Jackson Award nominations and two Bram Stoker Award nominations. Her second novel, I Wish I Was Like You, won This Is Horror Novel of the Year 2017 and a readers' choice Charles Dexter (A)ward from Strange Aeons.
Miskowski's stories have been published in Nightmare Magazine, Vastarien, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Supernatural Tales, Black Static, Identity Theory, Strange Aeons and Eyedolon Magazine, and in numerous anthologies including Haunted Nights, The Madness of Dr. Caligari, October Dreams 2, Darker Companions: Celebrating 50 Years of Ramsey Campbell, The Best Horror of the Year Volume Ten and There Is No Death, There Are No Dead.
She is represented by Danielle Svetcov at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency and by Anonymous Content (film/TV rights).
Author site:
https://spmiskowski.wordpress.com/
Miskowski's stories have been published in Nightmare Magazine, Vastarien, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Supernatural Tales, Black Static, Identity Theory, Strange Aeons and Eyedolon Magazine, and in numerous anthologies including Haunted Nights, The Madness of Dr. Caligari, October Dreams 2, Darker Companions: Celebrating 50 Years of Ramsey Campbell, The Best Horror of the Year Volume Ten and There Is No Death, There Are No Dead.
She is represented by Danielle Svetcov at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency and by Anonymous Content (film/TV rights).
Author site:
https://spmiskowski.wordpress.com/
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 15, 2017
I was introduced to Miskowski’s work at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulhucon last year in Portland, Oregon. I picked up a copy of her short story “Stag in Flight” and am glad it didn’t get consigned to the Eternal To Read Pile (The pile. We shall not speak of the pile.) I was immediately drawn to her style and afterwards looked forward to reading more, now fulfilled with Strange is the Night.
Strange is the Night collects thirteen of Miskowski’s short stories, including the aforementioned “Stag in Flight”. The stories are definitely in the category of the Weird. While there are some moments of surrealism involved from time to time, the draw of the stories that is most consistent throughout them is what I can only express as the bizarre hidden within the ordinary. Miskowski has a beautiful gift of expressing two worlds at once; the normal, sometimes banal world and the inner, utterly strange world the former is filtered through. A good example of this is “Fur”, a story that almost meandered until the final paragraph when the crux of the story was revealed and it became a completely different story with disturbing focus.
Miskowski’s marriage of the two worlds left me wondering many times if a particular story was supernatural or not in nature. I still haven’t come to a decision on that, and am not sure if it even matters. The stories achieve their sorts of closures, and none of them are comfortable. I’ve found myself ruminating on “what really happened” in different stories many times since finishing the book, and that’s when I knew it had me. Miskowski is definitely a strong voice in Weird literature, and you would not be doing yourself a disservice in reading Strange is the Night.
Strange is the Night collects thirteen of Miskowski’s short stories, including the aforementioned “Stag in Flight”. The stories are definitely in the category of the Weird. While there are some moments of surrealism involved from time to time, the draw of the stories that is most consistent throughout them is what I can only express as the bizarre hidden within the ordinary. Miskowski has a beautiful gift of expressing two worlds at once; the normal, sometimes banal world and the inner, utterly strange world the former is filtered through. A good example of this is “Fur”, a story that almost meandered until the final paragraph when the crux of the story was revealed and it became a completely different story with disturbing focus.
Miskowski’s marriage of the two worlds left me wondering many times if a particular story was supernatural or not in nature. I still haven’t come to a decision on that, and am not sure if it even matters. The stories achieve their sorts of closures, and none of them are comfortable. I’ve found myself ruminating on “what really happened” in different stories many times since finishing the book, and that’s when I knew it had me. Miskowski is definitely a strong voice in Weird literature, and you would not be doing yourself a disservice in reading Strange is the Night.
January 5, 2018
Another great book from one of my favorite authors. Strange Is The Night is a collection of 13 stories of what Miskowski does best. The book opens strong with a twilight zone style story called A.G.A. or “Avenging Guardian Angel” about a man who is discovering that all the awful things happening to people who have crossed him may not be a coincidence. This Many is a seriously eerie story about an uninvited guest at a children’s birthday party.
I had previously read a few of these stories, either in another anthology, or in chapbook form. Therefore Somnambule, Stag In Flight (see previous review of chapbook), and Strange Is The Night were all rereads for me, but totally just as great the second time around. Ms. X Regrets Everything is one of the most violent of the stories in the book, and is also one of the most humorous. It is also one of my favorites. Another favorite was the vicious monster story Animal House.
Overall the book is great and I highly recommend it to established fans of Miskowski’s work. If you like weird fiction that is a perfect blend of macabre and literary the pick up Strange Is The Night. Miskowski is a brilliant writer of dark short fiction. I can’t wait to read more.
I had previously read a few of these stories, either in another anthology, or in chapbook form. Therefore Somnambule, Stag In Flight (see previous review of chapbook), and Strange Is The Night were all rereads for me, but totally just as great the second time around. Ms. X Regrets Everything is one of the most violent of the stories in the book, and is also one of the most humorous. It is also one of my favorites. Another favorite was the vicious monster story Animal House.
Overall the book is great and I highly recommend it to established fans of Miskowski’s work. If you like weird fiction that is a perfect blend of macabre and literary the pick up Strange Is The Night. Miskowski is a brilliant writer of dark short fiction. I can’t wait to read more.
October 17, 2017
"This book speaks on its own terms. Miskowski writes well about the tedium and anxiety of work (as seen in 'Death and Disbursement' and 'Fur'); she unveils the vile ignorance and delusions of misogynistic men (most notably in the aforementioned 'A.G.A.' and 'Strange is the Night'); she writes frequently and insightfully about regret and memory and the complicated correspondence between expectation and reality. She attends to all of these thematic threads with artistry and formidable intelligence."
Read the full review on Unnerving Magazine's website.
Read the full review on Unnerving Magazine's website.
January 11, 2018
***this review originally appeared on The Ginger Nuts of Horror website***
Reading an S.P. Miskowski story is a lot like being in one. While engaged in a seemingly mundane, everyday act, you gradually feel an increasing unease creeping up your spine. It’s subtle enough that you think you can shake it, but you can’t, and soon enough that unease gives birth to dizzying paranoia. By the time you’ve wised up enough to what’s going on to recognize that said paranoia is not unwarranted, you’re all too aware that the darkness you thought was intruding on your life was in fact already there. In truth, it has always been there. It is a part of you. What’s more, you are a part of it.
Bringing together ten stories previously published elsewhere along with three all-new tales, Miskowski’s new collection, Strange is the Night, is full of damaged souls, the sort that beg you to reach out and give them a hand even while a voice in the back of your mind screams at you to run away.
To wit, “This Many” introduces us to Lorrie, a well-meaning but ultimately self-absorbed mother more interested in giving her daughter the childhood she herself never had than the one the young girl actually wants. Her misplaced priorities are brought into sharp focus when a mysterious woman shows up to the child’s birthday party, splattered with blood stains and reeking of rot.
Elsewhere, in the vaguely Kafkaesque “Stag in Flight,” Benny, an antisocial agoraphobe searches for a reason to live while under a pall of suicidal depression, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Rejecting society’s fixation on manufactured happiness in favor of transformative misanthropy, Benny finds unexpected companionship in the form of a hungry, skittering insect.
Such an emphasis on broken and jaded people results in Mikowski’s fiction frequently coming across more as quietly tragic than outwardly horrific. Though irregularly tinged with surprising hints of dry humor, Strange is the Night is built atop a foundation of sadness and regret far more haunting than any skull-faced specter or furniture-flinging poltergeist. Miskowski doesn’t shy away from more overt genre archetypes, your monsters and murderers and what-have-you, but she isn’t afraid to peel back the smooth skin of normality to expose a more familiar foulness either. The hulking, razor-taloned beast that prowls the namesake domicile of “Animal House” is scary, but the buried traumas and careless cruelties concealed by its cash-strapped collegiate victims prove even scarier.
What draws you in to these tales is the depth of Miskowski’s characterizations and the seemingly effortless quality of her prose. It’s not just the confident, conversational smoothness that propels you through them at a rocket-powered pace, nor is it simply the skillful use of detail through which Miskowski evokes a concrete sense of place without ever bogging things down in descriptive excess. It’s the conviction, the harsh, heartbreaking earnestness which all but erases the line between audience and text. It makes you feel less like you’re reading words on a page and more like you’re experiencing real events as they actually happen, even at the height of their uncanny strangeness.
Some of these stories are so simple as to be brilliant, such as “A.G.A.,” which is told entirely through the dialogue of a pair of drinking buddies, one of whom observes a peculiar coincidence: anyone and everyone who’s ever wronged him meets a grisly accidental end, almost as if he’s got a particularly vengeful guardian angel watching over him. Still other tales resist explication, pulling raw emotional power out of mystery and murk; in “Death and Disbursement” a life insurance agent endures increasingly abusive phone calls from an apparently senile client. Is he descending into dementia, though, or is there something else afoot, something unseen and unheard lurking on the other end of the line, terrorizing an old man? How? Why? Miskowski keeps the answers just out of reach.
Horror, it must be said, is often at its best when it defies understanding. After all, understanding requires order, and order puts people at ease. When horror has a scapegoat, a creature or killer you can point to and say “That’s the Other,” then even the most outlandish situation is, if nothing else, comprehensible. It may be dangerous but at least it has parameters, boundaries which limit it to a decidedly human sphere. But if mankind were to brush up against something truly Other, is it not more likely that it would not come in some recognizable form, that we would not manage more than an incomplete glimpse of the whole picture, and that we would not be afforded satisfactory explanation?
That is why the stories in Strange is the Night are so effective. Miskowki understands that there is horror in not knowing. More importantly, she understand that, even in our daily lives, in our own hearts and minds, in the reflections we see in the mirror every morning, none of us really knows as much as we think we do.
Reading an S.P. Miskowski story is a lot like being in one. While engaged in a seemingly mundane, everyday act, you gradually feel an increasing unease creeping up your spine. It’s subtle enough that you think you can shake it, but you can’t, and soon enough that unease gives birth to dizzying paranoia. By the time you’ve wised up enough to what’s going on to recognize that said paranoia is not unwarranted, you’re all too aware that the darkness you thought was intruding on your life was in fact already there. In truth, it has always been there. It is a part of you. What’s more, you are a part of it.
Bringing together ten stories previously published elsewhere along with three all-new tales, Miskowski’s new collection, Strange is the Night, is full of damaged souls, the sort that beg you to reach out and give them a hand even while a voice in the back of your mind screams at you to run away.
To wit, “This Many” introduces us to Lorrie, a well-meaning but ultimately self-absorbed mother more interested in giving her daughter the childhood she herself never had than the one the young girl actually wants. Her misplaced priorities are brought into sharp focus when a mysterious woman shows up to the child’s birthday party, splattered with blood stains and reeking of rot.
Elsewhere, in the vaguely Kafkaesque “Stag in Flight,” Benny, an antisocial agoraphobe searches for a reason to live while under a pall of suicidal depression, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Rejecting society’s fixation on manufactured happiness in favor of transformative misanthropy, Benny finds unexpected companionship in the form of a hungry, skittering insect.
Such an emphasis on broken and jaded people results in Mikowski’s fiction frequently coming across more as quietly tragic than outwardly horrific. Though irregularly tinged with surprising hints of dry humor, Strange is the Night is built atop a foundation of sadness and regret far more haunting than any skull-faced specter or furniture-flinging poltergeist. Miskowski doesn’t shy away from more overt genre archetypes, your monsters and murderers and what-have-you, but she isn’t afraid to peel back the smooth skin of normality to expose a more familiar foulness either. The hulking, razor-taloned beast that prowls the namesake domicile of “Animal House” is scary, but the buried traumas and careless cruelties concealed by its cash-strapped collegiate victims prove even scarier.
What draws you in to these tales is the depth of Miskowski’s characterizations and the seemingly effortless quality of her prose. It’s not just the confident, conversational smoothness that propels you through them at a rocket-powered pace, nor is it simply the skillful use of detail through which Miskowski evokes a concrete sense of place without ever bogging things down in descriptive excess. It’s the conviction, the harsh, heartbreaking earnestness which all but erases the line between audience and text. It makes you feel less like you’re reading words on a page and more like you’re experiencing real events as they actually happen, even at the height of their uncanny strangeness.
Some of these stories are so simple as to be brilliant, such as “A.G.A.,” which is told entirely through the dialogue of a pair of drinking buddies, one of whom observes a peculiar coincidence: anyone and everyone who’s ever wronged him meets a grisly accidental end, almost as if he’s got a particularly vengeful guardian angel watching over him. Still other tales resist explication, pulling raw emotional power out of mystery and murk; in “Death and Disbursement” a life insurance agent endures increasingly abusive phone calls from an apparently senile client. Is he descending into dementia, though, or is there something else afoot, something unseen and unheard lurking on the other end of the line, terrorizing an old man? How? Why? Miskowski keeps the answers just out of reach.
Horror, it must be said, is often at its best when it defies understanding. After all, understanding requires order, and order puts people at ease. When horror has a scapegoat, a creature or killer you can point to and say “That’s the Other,” then even the most outlandish situation is, if nothing else, comprehensible. It may be dangerous but at least it has parameters, boundaries which limit it to a decidedly human sphere. But if mankind were to brush up against something truly Other, is it not more likely that it would not come in some recognizable form, that we would not manage more than an incomplete glimpse of the whole picture, and that we would not be afforded satisfactory explanation?
That is why the stories in Strange is the Night are so effective. Miskowki understands that there is horror in not knowing. More importantly, she understand that, even in our daily lives, in our own hearts and minds, in the reflections we see in the mirror every morning, none of us really knows as much as we think we do.
April 23, 2018
In a daring, horrific collection, S.P. Miskowski has wowed again with stories of variety, and a keen understanding of the art of quiet horror. Miskowski understands how quickly a reader can be lost, how easily their attention can be swayed or distracted, her utilization of crisp prose and nightmarish imagery ensuring her grasp on the human conscience is always taut and rigid. Through 13 tales, the author takes the readers on a roller coaster ride through a collage of dreamy, often disturbing, chronicles that centralize around believable characters and in-depth examinations of the people she creates. Miskowski wastes no time in establishing motive, personality, and protagonists that are as different from one another as the moon is from the sun.
We open Strange is the Night with a clever, fast-paced story titled “A.G.A.” Primarily narrated through dialogue, the witty banter between our two leads quickly transforms into speculative horror, with the author never leaving the setting, whilst covering a variety of ghastly incidents in a playful, lighthearted manner. It isn’t until the end that we realize just how interesting and unexpected this collection is going to be.
Next up is “Lost and Found,” which begins calmly enough, though a dream-like atmosphere is employed throughout. Meta in some of its themes, the narrator delves into their fascination with a relatively unknown author and attempts to relive moments of the belated writer’s life. Spiraling into a slow, meticulous degradation of the narrator’s health — both mental and physical — we find ourselves stunned at the end of the story, as Miskowski offers yet another clever twist to her already brimming arsenal of narrative techniques.
S.P. Miskowski has a knack for consistently anchoring an atmosphere in the reader’s mind, before flipping the narrative unconventionally, and this couldn’t be more true with “This Many.” One of the most disturbing tales in the collection, we are offered a story of a children’s party that evolves rapidly from a study of motherly resentment towards others, to full blown horror. The ending is thrilling and nail bitingly intense, but most of all, devastating for the inflicted.
“Somnambule” picks up right where “This Many” left off, in regards to the high velocity horror. A story within a story within a story, it’s quite remarkable to consider how eloquently and seamlessly this narrative is sewn together. Miskowski’s expert handling on character-driven storytelling is on full blast, and the strange, dream-like themes carry us home for a cliffhanger of an ending.
Something that Miskowski handles masterfully in the collection is her handling of phobias and mental illness. She tackles these subjects with an unrivaled level of appreciation for the depths in which these conditions can affect lives. Pair this realistic and thoughtful approach with a few doses of horror and we have ourselves a handful of stories that will likely stick with the readers for a long time to come. “Fur” is one of these, and we expect after reading it, most readers might think twice before ignoring that sudden, light itch on their arm or leg.
“Animal House” chronicles several college tenants in an old house who find a new roommate that isn’t quite what she seems. Though most of the story is innocent in nature, Miskowski quietly inserts moments of peculiar happenings with the new roommate, which eventually culminate in perhaps the worst return from winter break ever put into print.
As we mentioned earlier, Miskowski handles mental illness in a gentle, though deeply unsettling way. “Stag in Flight” is the greatest example of the author’s ability to capture into words topics such as agoraphobia and paranoia. The reader is literally transported into the mind of someone inflicted with these illnesses, and the depth in which Miskowski illustrates it is one of the most thought-provoking and disturbing narratives in recent memory. Nearly stream of consciousness, the tale is a fast-paced, deeply disturbing look into a man’s mind, who has contemplated suicide and finds himself seeking the help of a therapist. The thing that seems to finally bring him happiness? You guessed it. A stag beetle. Unnerving, hauntingly realistic, and fantastical, “Stag in Flight” is one of the best stories in Miskowski’s collection.
“Ms. X Regrets Everything.” Yes, the story we quoted at the beginning of the review. Talk about messed up. Talk about upsetting. Miskowski pits the reader into a sequential narrative that bounces between time periods, each section unveiling further detail about Ms. X and how she came to be institutionalized. Visceral, and at times completely bizarre, this story unfolds a disturbing mystery fast and if you don’t keep up, it’ll leave you behind in the bloody dust. At first we’re led to think that maybe there should be some sympathy for Ms. X, but as the story moves along, this notion is quickly washed away. Innovative and demented, “Ms. X Regrets Everything” is all that a horror short story should be. We can only marvel at its conciseness with such an unorthodox structure.
Some of the tales in Strange is the Night are more psychological horror than speculative, and “A Condition for Marriage” is a prime example. No one handles quiet horror quite in the way that Miskowski does, and this story is evidence. We see how far sisters will go to protect one another, and just how important it is to appreciate the little things in life, like vacations to Hawaii and tiki idols.
“The Second Floor” unleashes more psychological horror, this time with a bit of supernatural currents. The attention to detail that Miskowski presents is unrivaled, and her ability to dive into a fictional life, craft its foundations, its sorrows, the regrets and small intricacies that make someone human, are all on stage. She grips us with an instant bond to the narrator, and surprises us with a fascinating twist that seems to jump out from nowhere.
If you’ve ever worked in customer service, you know how insane and unreasonable people can be. If you’re handling their money, it’s even worse. If they’re a bit senile? Much worse. In “Death and Disbursement,” we are plunged into these everyday struggles. Our protagonist is damn good at her job, since she can turn off her compassion switch and instantly find indifference towards her clients. Though, we quickly find that maybe the old man on the other line isn’t as senile as we thought, and perhaps this was the one time our lead should have kept that switch on.
Hard-to-like protagonist? Check. Mixed feelings of who to root for? Check. Equal amounts frustration, pity, and an inability to stop turning the pages? Check. Excellent depictions of the rotten, nihilistic side of humans? Check. In the eponymous tale “Strange is the Night,” we get all of the Miskowski trademarks. The author dives into a few themes that were explored in I Wish I Was Like You, primarily theater critics. What is it with these guys? Needless to say, this time our protagonist experiences a fate much worse than Greta ever did.
Picking the last story for a collection is always a challenge. Do you want to go out with a bang, like in Fracassi’s Behold the Void? Or do you want to ease on the breaks and let the readers glide into the finish line, like in Padgett’s The Secret of Ventriloquism? Well, Miskowski chose the former. “Water Main” is one of the more explosive tales in the collection, no pun intended, and starts off innocent enough. By the end of the story, we’re gripping the final pages of the book white knuckled and perspiring from the temples. One of the most supernatural pieces in the collection, Miskowski plants a few Ligottian horror elements into a scenario that is boiling over with terror. If you have something around the house that’s been needing fixing, and your loved one has been begging you to call a maintenance guy to the house for whatever reason, you may want to consider making that call. Sooner rather than later. Who knows where they might go in frustration, and what they might see. “Water Main” yields horrific imagery and some truly disgusting, stomach churning scenes that will stick to the back of your thoughts like gum on your shoe.
Miskowski’s Strange is the Night shines with variety, defeating all expectations and providing readers with one of the most unique and innovative collections in recent memory. Each tale is different, each piece basking in the warmth of a writer whose confidence is unrivaled, whose execution is one-of-a-kind. Miskowski has a voice that is easily recognizable, a tenacity that is stunning, and an attention to detail that is sparse in today’s literary climate. We highly recommend picking up a copy of Miskowski’s collection. We guarantee that it will impress, wow, and definitely hook you as a constant reader for one of the most exciting up-and-comers working today.
We open Strange is the Night with a clever, fast-paced story titled “A.G.A.” Primarily narrated through dialogue, the witty banter between our two leads quickly transforms into speculative horror, with the author never leaving the setting, whilst covering a variety of ghastly incidents in a playful, lighthearted manner. It isn’t until the end that we realize just how interesting and unexpected this collection is going to be.
Next up is “Lost and Found,” which begins calmly enough, though a dream-like atmosphere is employed throughout. Meta in some of its themes, the narrator delves into their fascination with a relatively unknown author and attempts to relive moments of the belated writer’s life. Spiraling into a slow, meticulous degradation of the narrator’s health — both mental and physical — we find ourselves stunned at the end of the story, as Miskowski offers yet another clever twist to her already brimming arsenal of narrative techniques.
S.P. Miskowski has a knack for consistently anchoring an atmosphere in the reader’s mind, before flipping the narrative unconventionally, and this couldn’t be more true with “This Many.” One of the most disturbing tales in the collection, we are offered a story of a children’s party that evolves rapidly from a study of motherly resentment towards others, to full blown horror. The ending is thrilling and nail bitingly intense, but most of all, devastating for the inflicted.
“Somnambule” picks up right where “This Many” left off, in regards to the high velocity horror. A story within a story within a story, it’s quite remarkable to consider how eloquently and seamlessly this narrative is sewn together. Miskowski’s expert handling on character-driven storytelling is on full blast, and the strange, dream-like themes carry us home for a cliffhanger of an ending.
Something that Miskowski handles masterfully in the collection is her handling of phobias and mental illness. She tackles these subjects with an unrivaled level of appreciation for the depths in which these conditions can affect lives. Pair this realistic and thoughtful approach with a few doses of horror and we have ourselves a handful of stories that will likely stick with the readers for a long time to come. “Fur” is one of these, and we expect after reading it, most readers might think twice before ignoring that sudden, light itch on their arm or leg.
“Animal House” chronicles several college tenants in an old house who find a new roommate that isn’t quite what she seems. Though most of the story is innocent in nature, Miskowski quietly inserts moments of peculiar happenings with the new roommate, which eventually culminate in perhaps the worst return from winter break ever put into print.
As we mentioned earlier, Miskowski handles mental illness in a gentle, though deeply unsettling way. “Stag in Flight” is the greatest example of the author’s ability to capture into words topics such as agoraphobia and paranoia. The reader is literally transported into the mind of someone inflicted with these illnesses, and the depth in which Miskowski illustrates it is one of the most thought-provoking and disturbing narratives in recent memory. Nearly stream of consciousness, the tale is a fast-paced, deeply disturbing look into a man’s mind, who has contemplated suicide and finds himself seeking the help of a therapist. The thing that seems to finally bring him happiness? You guessed it. A stag beetle. Unnerving, hauntingly realistic, and fantastical, “Stag in Flight” is one of the best stories in Miskowski’s collection.
“Ms. X Regrets Everything.” Yes, the story we quoted at the beginning of the review. Talk about messed up. Talk about upsetting. Miskowski pits the reader into a sequential narrative that bounces between time periods, each section unveiling further detail about Ms. X and how she came to be institutionalized. Visceral, and at times completely bizarre, this story unfolds a disturbing mystery fast and if you don’t keep up, it’ll leave you behind in the bloody dust. At first we’re led to think that maybe there should be some sympathy for Ms. X, but as the story moves along, this notion is quickly washed away. Innovative and demented, “Ms. X Regrets Everything” is all that a horror short story should be. We can only marvel at its conciseness with such an unorthodox structure.
Some of the tales in Strange is the Night are more psychological horror than speculative, and “A Condition for Marriage” is a prime example. No one handles quiet horror quite in the way that Miskowski does, and this story is evidence. We see how far sisters will go to protect one another, and just how important it is to appreciate the little things in life, like vacations to Hawaii and tiki idols.
“The Second Floor” unleashes more psychological horror, this time with a bit of supernatural currents. The attention to detail that Miskowski presents is unrivaled, and her ability to dive into a fictional life, craft its foundations, its sorrows, the regrets and small intricacies that make someone human, are all on stage. She grips us with an instant bond to the narrator, and surprises us with a fascinating twist that seems to jump out from nowhere.
If you’ve ever worked in customer service, you know how insane and unreasonable people can be. If you’re handling their money, it’s even worse. If they’re a bit senile? Much worse. In “Death and Disbursement,” we are plunged into these everyday struggles. Our protagonist is damn good at her job, since she can turn off her compassion switch and instantly find indifference towards her clients. Though, we quickly find that maybe the old man on the other line isn’t as senile as we thought, and perhaps this was the one time our lead should have kept that switch on.
Hard-to-like protagonist? Check. Mixed feelings of who to root for? Check. Equal amounts frustration, pity, and an inability to stop turning the pages? Check. Excellent depictions of the rotten, nihilistic side of humans? Check. In the eponymous tale “Strange is the Night,” we get all of the Miskowski trademarks. The author dives into a few themes that were explored in I Wish I Was Like You, primarily theater critics. What is it with these guys? Needless to say, this time our protagonist experiences a fate much worse than Greta ever did.
Picking the last story for a collection is always a challenge. Do you want to go out with a bang, like in Fracassi’s Behold the Void? Or do you want to ease on the breaks and let the readers glide into the finish line, like in Padgett’s The Secret of Ventriloquism? Well, Miskowski chose the former. “Water Main” is one of the more explosive tales in the collection, no pun intended, and starts off innocent enough. By the end of the story, we’re gripping the final pages of the book white knuckled and perspiring from the temples. One of the most supernatural pieces in the collection, Miskowski plants a few Ligottian horror elements into a scenario that is boiling over with terror. If you have something around the house that’s been needing fixing, and your loved one has been begging you to call a maintenance guy to the house for whatever reason, you may want to consider making that call. Sooner rather than later. Who knows where they might go in frustration, and what they might see. “Water Main” yields horrific imagery and some truly disgusting, stomach churning scenes that will stick to the back of your thoughts like gum on your shoe.
Miskowski’s Strange is the Night shines with variety, defeating all expectations and providing readers with one of the most unique and innovative collections in recent memory. Each tale is different, each piece basking in the warmth of a writer whose confidence is unrivaled, whose execution is one-of-a-kind. Miskowski has a voice that is easily recognizable, a tenacity that is stunning, and an attention to detail that is sparse in today’s literary climate. We highly recommend picking up a copy of Miskowski’s collection. We guarantee that it will impress, wow, and definitely hook you as a constant reader for one of the most exciting up-and-comers working today.
August 18, 2022
A great collection of some of Miskowski's shorter work. Great characters realised fully, with some very good moments of dread. The title is apt for the collection, with most giving a "strange" vibe. The author chooses to focus on character development, detailed setting and tense atmosphere with an added emphasis on strained familial relationships and friendships, and every story delivers, thanks to a strong storyteller who writes haunting prose in an inimitable minimalist style.
April 15, 2022
Rounded up a li'l bit, but these are creepily effective stories, yes indeed.
May 24, 2021
When choosing my next book I rarely opt for short stories. I usually lean towards a story that I can sink into, one that consumes my imagination when I have to put down the book to engage with the real world. But this is pretty much the only S.P. Miskowski book I had not read and I was going through S.P. Miskowski withdrawal. I was not disappointed. The thing about her short stories is that each reads like an episode of a much longer narrative. S.P. alludes to an ongoing life that provides a backdrop for this one horrific moment.
When reading a collection I rate each story as I finish it. There are 13 stories: 3 stars for two, 4 stars for seven, and 5 stars for three. I did not read one because it violated my personal comfort zone. (My sensitivity threshold for horror is extremely low so don't let that discourage you.) Of the three 5 star stories, I read "Lost and Found" once before in "The Hyde Hotel" (James Everington, editor). It was my favorite story then and it remains my favorite. It is a slow, almost soothing, creep of a story that reminds me the best scares are those you can see yourself facing. "The Second Floor" is an untraditional things-that-go-bump-in-the-night … my personal favorite kind of horror. In "Water Main" when I read 'Nancy was tired of playing the grownup' I instantly understood her desperation. Having been the grownup in one too many relationships I know exactly what Nancy was willing to do to escape that life for one where she would never be responsible again.
When reading a collection I rate each story as I finish it. There are 13 stories: 3 stars for two, 4 stars for seven, and 5 stars for three. I did not read one because it violated my personal comfort zone. (My sensitivity threshold for horror is extremely low so don't let that discourage you.) Of the three 5 star stories, I read "Lost and Found" once before in "The Hyde Hotel" (James Everington, editor). It was my favorite story then and it remains my favorite. It is a slow, almost soothing, creep of a story that reminds me the best scares are those you can see yourself facing. "The Second Floor" is an untraditional things-that-go-bump-in-the-night … my personal favorite kind of horror. In "Water Main" when I read 'Nancy was tired of playing the grownup' I instantly understood her desperation. Having been the grownup in one too many relationships I know exactly what Nancy was willing to do to escape that life for one where she would never be responsible again.
October 16, 2022
I just finished Strange is the Night a collection of spooky sorry stories by S. P. Miskowski, and I'm so enamored by her writing, it makes me mad that almost none of her books have more than 100
Reasons to read her work:
-I will literally try any femme horror writer, tbh bc that genre is so oversaturated with male voices
-I love the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Washington specifically, which I'm assuming it's where she's from) setting to a lot of the stories I've read, and how she uses the passive aggressive overly polite ethos that is so ingrained in that area to add to the unsettling vibe of her stories.
-I will always stan an unrepentant, amoral central character. I love it when an author is able to make me root for and Sympathizer w or protagonist while simultaneously pointing out that their perspective is obviously wrong.
-Miskowski is the master of subterfuge. Often times the typically most interesting part of these stories is happening in the sidelines and you get so caught up with the protagonist's weird opinions or bad choices that you don't even notice the cool and interesting storyline developing on the side. This also left me wanting more at the end of most of these stories.
Hoping to try some of her longer work soon, but for now let me just heartily recommend this collection, I guess to any fans is spooky books!
Reasons to read her work:
-I will literally try any femme horror writer, tbh bc that genre is so oversaturated with male voices
-I love the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Washington specifically, which I'm assuming it's where she's from) setting to a lot of the stories I've read, and how she uses the passive aggressive overly polite ethos that is so ingrained in that area to add to the unsettling vibe of her stories.
-I will always stan an unrepentant, amoral central character. I love it when an author is able to make me root for and Sympathizer w or protagonist while simultaneously pointing out that their perspective is obviously wrong.
-Miskowski is the master of subterfuge. Often times the typically most interesting part of these stories is happening in the sidelines and you get so caught up with the protagonist's weird opinions or bad choices that you don't even notice the cool and interesting storyline developing on the side. This also left me wanting more at the end of most of these stories.
Hoping to try some of her longer work soon, but for now let me just heartily recommend this collection, I guess to any fans is spooky books!
May 16, 2019
The thirteen stories here collected strike each one differently: they capture the reader’s imagination from the first to the last word, involving him in a realistic and well-finished setting without resorting to long descriptions; they also involve the reader with their characters which are different and yet somehow alike. These are human figures who feel a sense of frustration, unsuitableness or solitude, frightful or frightened, who act and suffer in a reality that is a true reflection of today’s America. With a light touch, S.P. Miskowski combines irony, empathy and cynicism, going deep into her characters’ psychology and showing to us how the normality of daily life is little by little phagocyted by a horror with different faces from where there can be no way out nor redemption.
August 13, 2018
The kind of horror I like is insidious, incremental, mundane. I like how a birthday party for a child can hold a terror for the future, a fear that can’t be argued away, how a conversation between friends can end in dread. I like it because life is strange and maddening and people wear expressions like masks and live life like a mask. Miskowski’s stories blend horror and crime, and it’s obvious they were meant for each other, a marriage of convenience that turned into necessity. There’s something both classical and new about her stories, a creeping confirmation that yes, this is what we always suspected.
March 3, 2020
I love the characters, their flaws, their phobias. The stone cold main characters amused the shit out of me. The first story charmed me to no end, one of my faves so far this year. This is the author to read when you study the flavour and feeling of setting. Complex characters. Some of the dialogue blows me away.
Most of the stories had forgettable plots for me. Didn't find the slow burn creepy satisfying. Perhaps I've gotten addicted to over the top plot and cheap thrills, grotesqueries. This nuance was lost on me.
However, I wholeheartedly recommend the book to folks that want to study the craft of constructing setting and character.
Most of the stories had forgettable plots for me. Didn't find the slow burn creepy satisfying. Perhaps I've gotten addicted to over the top plot and cheap thrills, grotesqueries. This nuance was lost on me.
However, I wholeheartedly recommend the book to folks that want to study the craft of constructing setting and character.
April 27, 2021
This is a great collection.
After reading these shorts I feel like I know something about the actual person behind the stories, which is one of the highest compliments I can pay a writer. I don't think there was a single dud in the collection and even though these were penned years apart, the writing style was strong and even throughout all the stories presented.
I picked this up because I wanted to give the author a fair chance seeing as how I wasn't completely sold on "I Wish I Was Like You" and I'm very glad I did. Eagerly awaiting everything and anything I can get my hands on by her from this point forward!
After reading these shorts I feel like I know something about the actual person behind the stories, which is one of the highest compliments I can pay a writer. I don't think there was a single dud in the collection and even though these were penned years apart, the writing style was strong and even throughout all the stories presented.
I picked this up because I wanted to give the author a fair chance seeing as how I wasn't completely sold on "I Wish I Was Like You" and I'm very glad I did. Eagerly awaiting everything and anything I can get my hands on by her from this point forward!
September 26, 2019
Finally found one of her books at our public library, and I really enjoyed Strange Is the Night. I've always preferred novels to short stories, but each one of these tales appealed to me. The title story was perhaps the weirdest of the bunch, but even the less strange ones were great. She especially seems to be able to relay atmospheric descriptions often driven by odors and fragrance. The Seattle based tales dripped with moisture and darkness.
August 20, 2023
Loved this. I'd forgotten it was in my Kindle list, it's like I got myself a treat for later.
Miskowski has the rare ability to connect and engage with the reader in the reduced space of her short fiction just as effectively as she does in her novels. While I miss getting to spend the time with the story that I would in her novels, the benefit of these short works is that there's plenty of variety to enjoy.
Miskowski has the rare ability to connect and engage with the reader in the reduced space of her short fiction just as effectively as she does in her novels. While I miss getting to spend the time with the story that I would in her novels, the benefit of these short works is that there's plenty of variety to enjoy.
January 26, 2021
In the last few years, I somehow knew that this author had become a favourite writer of mine, a literary tantaliser supreme. This book finally shows me exactly why this is the case.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of my observations at the time of the review.
December 14, 2017
I love the name of this book and I enjoyed the stories in it.
July 16, 2018
There were definitely stories in this collection that held my interest more than others, but on the whole an interesting read. Easy to read.
December 17, 2018
A few strange stories, some VERY VERY strange. Makes for good reading.
January 13, 2019
Miskowski is a promising author of weird fiction with lots of good stories in her first collection right here. I feel like the collection is more than the sum of its parts and I particularly praise the fact that rather than writing homages to other weird writers of the past she is confident enough to cultivate her own unique style.
Fur (6/10)
AGA (7/10)
This Many (7/10)
The Second Floor (7/10)
Lost and Found (3/10)
Death and Disbursement (8/10)
Strange is the Night (4/10)
Somnambule (7/10)
Stag in Flight (5/10)
Water Main (8/10)
Animal House (6/10)
Mrs X Regrets Everything (5/10)
A Condition For Marriage (5/10)
Fur (6/10)
AGA (7/10)
This Many (7/10)
The Second Floor (7/10)
Lost and Found (3/10)
Death and Disbursement (8/10)
Strange is the Night (4/10)
Somnambule (7/10)
Stag in Flight (5/10)
Water Main (8/10)
Animal House (6/10)
Mrs X Regrets Everything (5/10)
A Condition For Marriage (5/10)
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