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The Things We Cannot Say
"Sebourn gives us a riveting tale of a young woman taking her life into her own hands while her malignant father tries his best to take it back, even in death. The characters are fleshed out, the stakes are high, and the satisfying conclusion caught me completely by surprise!" --Joshua Marsella, author of SCRATCHES. After a father-daughter dinner date takes a bizarre and hurtful turn, Harper Monday finds herself leaving behind everything she knows and crossing the country with a stranger. She's in pursuit of something that she'll never have at the ability to dream. But Harper's father has no intention of letting her go. Even death won't stop him from returning to his daughter's life and working to destroy everyone and everything she knows and loves.
198 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 22, 2021
64 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Mitch Sebourn
34 books23 followersMitch Sebourn is currently working his way through law school while (not so) secretly focussing most of his attention on trying to write The Great American Classic. He has published three novels and a collection of poetry in paperback, as well as a new novel, Watershed, available as a Kindle eBook.
He enjoys reading, writing, hiking, and is looking forward to being married next July.
When he is not sitting atop Tikaboo Peak spying on the inhabitants of Area 51, or scaling the slopes of Colorado's 14ers, he can typically be found calling the Hogs in central Arkansas.
He enjoys reading, writing, hiking, and is looking forward to being married next July.
When he is not sitting atop Tikaboo Peak spying on the inhabitants of Area 51, or scaling the slopes of Colorado's 14ers, he can typically be found calling the Hogs in central Arkansas.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 5, 2021
Mitch Sebourn is a must read for me, his work is so unique and a breath of fresh air to the horror / dark fiction genre.
The Things We Cannot Say takes all the brilliance of his previous work (that I’ve read) and adds a tonne more brilliance. This story in particular focuses on possession - and you might think that you’ve read everything you could about that trope, but Sebourn breathes new life into that tired trope with his unique vision and wonderful prose.
It’s a gripping story that leads the reader with a ring in their nose down to the depths of darkness - it also is an allegory for grief and what happens to a person who has unfinished business, how that anger and unfinished revenge can come back and when it does all bets are off!
The possession side of things in this story are done brilliantly, masterfully in fact, the work is reminiscent of the best possession story of all time - The Exorcist. Sebourn writes this story to within an inch of its life, he keeps the reader on tenterhooks throughout, where one even starts questioning not only the protagonists sanity but even their own!
Again Sebourn is a must read for me and he should be for you too - if you want something different, if you want to discover a new favourite author… check him out! I’m also thrilled to learn that a short story collection is imminent!
The Things We Cannot Say takes all the brilliance of his previous work (that I’ve read) and adds a tonne more brilliance. This story in particular focuses on possession - and you might think that you’ve read everything you could about that trope, but Sebourn breathes new life into that tired trope with his unique vision and wonderful prose.
It’s a gripping story that leads the reader with a ring in their nose down to the depths of darkness - it also is an allegory for grief and what happens to a person who has unfinished business, how that anger and unfinished revenge can come back and when it does all bets are off!
The possession side of things in this story are done brilliantly, masterfully in fact, the work is reminiscent of the best possession story of all time - The Exorcist. Sebourn writes this story to within an inch of its life, he keeps the reader on tenterhooks throughout, where one even starts questioning not only the protagonists sanity but even their own!
Again Sebourn is a must read for me and he should be for you too - if you want something different, if you want to discover a new favourite author… check him out! I’m also thrilled to learn that a short story collection is imminent!
July 20, 2021
4 1/2
This ended up being a very involved tale of brilliant storytelling. Mitch Sebourn has astounding storytelling chops. From the beginning you get a sense of eeriness as the story is told.
A young writer, Harper Monday, is trying to make it as a published author. She has to jump through obstacles set by her malignant father. A little side-note. Her father is dead.
While the story is unfolding, we begin to get a sense this is more than your typical straight forward supernatural story. Instead we get a sinister entity with one goal in mind: To destroy Harper Monday. The supernatural spirit plans to take away every one and every thing she loves.
For the most part, Harper is guided by the spirit of her dead mother, who comes to visit her in times of trouble. After Harper gets out of a bad situation with her father, she learns of his death. Thinking all the bad stuff is over and now behind her, she finds out the evil is just beginning, and her father will do everything he can to make her pay for leaving him behind.
The story is loaded with a gambit of emotions ranging from love to hate, happiness to sadness, grief and agony. An attachment is created to the characters, and Sebourn uses a poignant inner dialogue at times to create extra emphasis on certain events.
It’s easy to see Mitch has done his homework. The Things We Cannot Say is reminiscent of various Stephen King stories, mixed with William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist, but all done with his own spin and twist.
I will say however, the one drawback is it did seem a tad too long for the story it’s telling. Not too long to take away the overall meaning, but a bit long getting to the pay-off. It seems like after the protagonist figures out what’s happening, it takes a while for her to take any sort of action. This doesn't however take anything away from the story.
Overall it’s a very fine piece of dark literature from Mitch Sebourn. He brings the right amount of creepiness. The right amount to make parts of this story unsettling. He’s able to bring a toxic family relationship to the forefront so the situation can be dealt with.
And this makes me want to explore more of Mitch Sebourns work.
This ended up being a very involved tale of brilliant storytelling. Mitch Sebourn has astounding storytelling chops. From the beginning you get a sense of eeriness as the story is told.
A young writer, Harper Monday, is trying to make it as a published author. She has to jump through obstacles set by her malignant father. A little side-note. Her father is dead.
While the story is unfolding, we begin to get a sense this is more than your typical straight forward supernatural story. Instead we get a sinister entity with one goal in mind: To destroy Harper Monday. The supernatural spirit plans to take away every one and every thing she loves.
For the most part, Harper is guided by the spirit of her dead mother, who comes to visit her in times of trouble. After Harper gets out of a bad situation with her father, she learns of his death. Thinking all the bad stuff is over and now behind her, she finds out the evil is just beginning, and her father will do everything he can to make her pay for leaving him behind.
The story is loaded with a gambit of emotions ranging from love to hate, happiness to sadness, grief and agony. An attachment is created to the characters, and Sebourn uses a poignant inner dialogue at times to create extra emphasis on certain events.
It’s easy to see Mitch has done his homework. The Things We Cannot Say is reminiscent of various Stephen King stories, mixed with William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist, but all done with his own spin and twist.
I will say however, the one drawback is it did seem a tad too long for the story it’s telling. Not too long to take away the overall meaning, but a bit long getting to the pay-off. It seems like after the protagonist figures out what’s happening, it takes a while for her to take any sort of action. This doesn't however take anything away from the story.
Overall it’s a very fine piece of dark literature from Mitch Sebourn. He brings the right amount of creepiness. The right amount to make parts of this story unsettling. He’s able to bring a toxic family relationship to the forefront so the situation can be dealt with.
And this makes me want to explore more of Mitch Sebourns work.
December 28, 2021
A fairly good, short novel about demonic possession. It starts out slow, but builds to a nice climax. It offers nothing new, but it comfortably explores some familiar tropes of the genre, including a rousing exorcism scene.
December 24, 2021
Great book
I enjoyed reading this and would recommend to a friend. It was suspenseful and mysterious. I was also glad it ended well!
I enjoyed reading this and would recommend to a friend. It was suspenseful and mysterious. I was also glad it ended well!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews