Cascade

by Craig Davidson

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 TRILLIUM BOOK AWARDS

Reminiscent of Stephen King's brilliantly cinematic short stories that went on to inspire films such as The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me, here's a collection crackling with Craig Davidson's superb craft and kinetic energy: in the visceral, crystalline, steel-tipped prose; in the psychological perspicacity; and in the endearing humour.

Set in in the Niagara Falls of Davidson's imagination known as Cataract City, the superb stories of Cascade shine a shimmering light on this slightly seedy, slightly magical, slightly haunted place. The six gems in this collection each illuminate familial relationships in a singular way. A mother and her infant son fight to survive a car-crash in a remote wintry landscape outside of town. Fraternal twins at a juvenile detention center reach a dangerous crisis point in their entwined lives. A pregnant social worker grapples with the prospect of parenthood as a custody case takes a dire turn. A hard-boiled ex-firefighter goes after a serial arsonist with a flair for the theatrical even as his own troubled sister is drawn towards the flames. These are just some of the unforgettable characters animating this stellar collection of tales--Davidson's first in 15 years, since Rust and Bone, which inspired the Golden Globe-nominated film.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Canada, Suspense, Audiobook, Noir, Literature

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2020

About the author

Craig Davidson is a Canadian author of short stories and novels, who has published work under both his own name and the pen names Patrick Lestewka and Nick Cutter

Born in Toronto, Ontario, he was raised in Calgary and St. Catharines.

His first short story collection, Rust and Bone, was published in September 2005 by Penguin Books Canada, and was a finalist for the 2006 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Stories in Rust and Bone have also been adapted into a play by Australian playwright Caleb Lewis and a film by French director Jacques Audiard.

Davidson also released a novel in 2007 named The Fighter. During the course of his research of the novel, Davidson went on a 16-week steroid cycle. To promote the release of the novel, Davidson participated in a fully sanctioned boxing match against Toronto poet Michael Knox at Florida Jack's Boxing Gym; for the novel's subsequent release in the United States, he organized a similar promotional boxing match against Jonathan Ames. Davidson lost both matches.

His 2013 novel Cataract City was named as a longlisted nominee for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Reviews

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review originally published in the October/November 2020 issue of Rue Morgue
..
It’s been fifteen years since Craig Davidson blessed readers with his short story collection Rust and Bone, but who’s counting? The answer is Davidson’s fanbase. We’re counting.
We know that whatever stories Davidson decides to set in the fictional town of Cataract City (the nickname given to Niagra Falls, Ontario) is something special. It’s no surprise Cascade is garnering early buzz since the first collection went on to inspire a movie of the same title. The storyline combined two of the tales from the collection, the titular story Rust and Bone fused with Rocket Ride. The movie was nominated for a host of awards, including a SAG and a Golden Globe.
After finishing Cascade, I wondered which of the six stories would also get that silver screen treatment. They all possess that magical, cinematic quality; vivid word pictures coming to life in the reader’s mind so effortlessly given that Davidson’s command of words and descriptions are brilliantly lush and colorful.
But take caution. Davidson has never been known to be easy one’s emotions. In the acknowledgments, he remarks that these stories are
“...those of a husband and father with dreams and hopes and disillusionments and fears implicitly linked to this, my current stage of life.”
And they are. All six tales share the common bond of family relationships as well as an underlying tension or foreboding.
The intimate, instinctual moments after a car crash. The all-encompassing love and protection between fraternal twins. A pregnant social worker’s love for children not her own. A firefighter wrestling with a generational fascination with fire. All of these characters will capture your heart and cause you concern; their broken bits and pieces, their flaws will leave splinters in your soul. An arresting, memorable collection. Please may we not have to wait another fifteen years for more.

[karen]

MORE CATARACT CITY STORIES??? YES PLEASE!!!

note to self to remember to track this down in case it is only published in canada.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

How's that jumper shot of yours? Still silky? I'm coaching the Cascades. Up in Niagara Falls? Scrappy unit. Couple of intriguing kids.

I'm not a dedicated consumer of short stories, but when I read one that fires up a certain frisson in my brain – a sudden connection to my lived experience that makes me think that the story couldn't possibly have been told any other way – then I consider that to be well-written; it's a totally subjective evaluation, based on a physical, rather than some theory-backed intellectual, reaction. And the stories in Craig Davidson's Cascade simply didn't fire me up. Primarily set in Davidson's fictional stand-in for Niagara Falls, Ontario (Cataract City), the “cascade” of the title references the mighty waterfall, the basketball team in that opening quote, but most importantly, these stories seem to focus on moments of decision or action – the brief equipoise of events before they succumb to the brink – and the results that cascade from those moments. These stories were all interesting, but other than a couple of brief emotional connections, they didn't do much for me. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.) The stories:

The Ghost Lights

You were born into dread, my son. Dan said this one night in the witching hour, alone in Charlie's nursery, his voice clear over the monitor in our bedroom. He was right: to have a baby is to be introduced to a depthless well of worry. A dread you could never have guessed at, not in a thousand years.

A car accident on a lonely stretch of snow-covered backroad begins a quest for survival that transforms a new mother's relationship with her son. Nice build of tension that had me choked up at the end.

One Pure Thing

Many things can be built into one moment. Later, you might have lots of time to tease apart the strands of instinct and causation in search of catharsis or clarity, and if you do, you will find that entwined in those strands are the people and places and events that brought you to that point, guiding you to that heartbeat where everything coming before acted on everything yet to come. Human lives can be ruthlessly reduced to such moments, I think. And once they pass, we have to exist with what we've earned inside them.

The story from which the collection's title derives, semi-pro basketball is used as a microcosm for examining life; lots of (unfamiliar to me) basketball jargon is organically sprinkled throughout – adding interest and credibility – and enjoyably builds to the tension of “the big game”.

The Vanishing Twin

You can never guess the change your life might take until that change comes. That's what Charlie says – well, Charlie says until that change darkens your door, which is classic Charlie-talk but anyway, that's what he says and I believe him.

The story opens on a pair of fifteen-year-old fraternal twins and their lives in a juvenile correction facility, and as the narrative progresses, it becomes apparent that a long ago womb and fraternal love is about all the brothers have in common. Creepy good.

Friday Night Goon Squad

It had begun as a morbid joke – sometimes those were the ones that got you through. “Child apprehension with officer assist,” a.k.a.: the Friday Night Goon Squad. You hatch'em, we snatch'em.

There's a sad irony to this story of a burnt out Social Worker, who has been having trouble conceiving, working hard to safely keep kids in less-than-ideal family situations.

Medium Tough

There's an instant in any procedure when you understand that you hold everything in your hand. The God Moment. Each surgeon feels it differently. For me, this was a moment of awesome, near-paralyzing love. Love for the child beneath my blade: for its life and its capacity to do great things – or if not great, then merely valuable. And it was a moment of respect for their bodies, which I must invade, and for their futures, which I am dutybound to honour.

An oddly carnivalesque tale of a man whose mother's gestational alcoholism led to his being born bifurcated – the left half of his body withered but nimble-fingered enough to become a surgeon, while his right side has the beefed-up super-musculature that makes him a champion arm-wrestler – and the story explores these doubling ideas of twinning, before-and-after, cause-and-effect. (Highlighting that these same themes were seen in earlier stories and the Social Worker from Friday Night Goon Squad makes [what seems to be a somewhat out-of-character] reappearance.)

Firebugs

Fire will grunt and growl and come at you with the soft slithering of a snake. It'll howl around blind corners like a pack of wolves, and gibber up from flame-eaten floorboards and reverberate in a million other strange ways besides. Sometimes it sounds like buzzard talons clawing across pebbled glass. Other times, it'll come for you silent as a ghost: a soft whisper of smoke curling back under a doorway, beckoning you to open it. That's when it's most dangerous – when it's hiding its true face.

A fire investigator is flummoxed by a plague of arson ravaging his town: Should he be looking for an individual or a group? Should he delve further into a story of someone who found himself in a trance of pyromania? Or should he be rerouting his investigation closer to home? An intriguing story with some interesting philosophical bits.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cascade is a collection of six short stories from author Craig Davidson.

I received an advanced copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Craig Davidson’s 2014 novel, Cataract City, is not only my favorite novel of his, but one of my favorites in general. When I saw that Craig was going to release a short story collection set in the world of Cataract City (Niagara Falls, ON), I jumped on it.

The collection begins with The Ghost Lights, a visceral story of a couple and their child moments after a gruesome car crash. This one was one of my favorites as Davidson holds nothing back in describing the horror that can unfold following sudden trauma.

From there, we go to One Pure Thing, the only previously published story in the set of six. This one focuses on a pro-basketball player returning to the minor leagues following an incident in the NBA that had sent him to prison. While I really enjoyed the theme and the message behind this one, a lot of the basketball play-by-play was a bit lost on me. I’m not much of a basketball fan, so that might have something to do with it.

The Vanishing Twin was my favorite of the bunch and the one that most felt inspired by Stephen King, whom Davidson had said molded his style from a young age. It takes place in Juvie where brothers Charlie and Henry have an immense bond. Slowly, Henry begins to notice his brother may be a few cards short of a deck.

Friday Night Goon Squad is a peek into the world of social workers and the tough decisions they have to make on a daily basis. This is an ultimately tragic story where the job is examined as a truly thankless career. Emotions run high in this one. One of the moments in this story brought “The Love Canal” to my attention – a neighborhood on the New York side of Niagara Falls built atop a 70-acre toxic landfill.

Medium Tough follows a surgeon with a deformity that leaves one side of his body much smaller than the other. Despite his handicap, he has managed to succeed in a very difficult field. A character from an earlier story shows up in this one connecting the two stories together. There is some great inspirational writing in this one.

The collection ends with Firebugs, a memorable story about two siblings, one a fire investigator and the other a pyromaniac, as a rash of fires grips Cataract City. There are a few memorable passages in this one where Craig describes the fluidity of fire and the way its devilish dance can grip the average person in its beauty and capability for destruction.

Cascade is yet another strong effort from an already acclaimed writer who has more than proven his talent in a multitude of genres.

I wish I could give this one a 4.5.

[Darryl Suite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloody fantastic. I loved all six stories. Davidson has this addictive kind of rhythm that makes it easy to fly through his stories. Refreshing stories, compelling characters, and provocative imagery. Every story provided me with at least one image that unsettled me. These are intense, sad, and visceral. Loved it.

It was kind of astonishing how knowledgeable Davidson is about all the various subjects he explores. Intense observations and descriptions of fire, pyromania, hypothermia, miscarriages, genetic diseases, juvenile detention centers, child protective services, foster care, basketball, arm wrestling, and on it goes. It's obvious he knows what he's talking about. Does he know everything?? Jeez.

The first story, about a mother and her infant child trying to survive a horrific car accident in the middle of a snowstorm, is worth your time. This story is incredible. Helluva start to an excellent collection.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Craig Davidson's best selling memoir, Precious Cargo, My Year of Driving the Kids on School Bus 3077, was a finalist for Canada Reads. I enjoyed reading the well-written, heart-warming and humourous non-fiction in 2018, and was first to borrow Cascade from our library.

Set in the Niagara Falls of Craig Davison's imagination known as "Cataract City". Cascade shines a shimmering light on this seedy, haunted but magical place. The six short stories in this collection each illuminate fractured but enduring familial relationships: A mother and her infant son fight to survive a car crash in a remote wintry landscape outside of town. Fraternal twins at a juvenile detention centre reach a dangerous crisis point in their intertwined lives. A pregnant social worker grapples with the prospect of parenthood as a custody case takes a dire turn. A hard-boiled ex-firefighter goes after a serial arsonist with a flair for the theatrical even as his own troubled sister is drawn towards the flames. These are just some of the unforgettable characters animating this superb collection.

Cascade is well- written. Craig Davidson demonstrates his ability to have the reader use all five senses - see, hear, smell, feel, and taste.

Reminiscent of Stephen King's brilliantly cinematic stories, Craig Davison's Cascade crackles with kinetic energy, finally honed craft. It has been years since I read Stephen King books because I try to avoid scary dark books.
I almost stopped reading The Ghost Lights, the first short story in Cascades, but I wanted to know how it ended. Oh, yes... These are short stories. Maybe it is just as well that it was open-ended.

This is not a "feel good" and happy book. Instead it opens the eyes wide to see transgressions, sickness, tragedies, horrors and vocal and silent cries for help that surround us in our society, cities, towns, and communities. These are dark stories that make you think!

Thanks to Annapolis Valley Regional Library and the librarians, who manage, organize and keep the libraries running, for the loan of this book.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too long ago it seems everyone was talking about Saturday Night Ghost Club, a book I still haven’t read because our library stubbornly refuses to get a copy. But it certainly made me aware of the author, so when I found a collection of his short fiction on Netgalley, I was eager to check it out. And now I have. And now I no longer care that much about missing out on SNGC, though if you have a digital copy of that to lend, I’d be very appreciative.
Which is to say, I’m not in love with this, I didn’t hate it, it was very much a mixed bag. A mixed bag that displayed obvious and ample talent, but nevertheless didn’t quite wow.
These are pretty long short stories, so there are only six of them in this collection, all set in an imaginary Niagara adjacent Canadian place. It’s a pretty bleak place and these are pretty bleak stories. It didn’t immediately grab attention, but then the Vanishing Twin got closer and then there was a ridiculously dragged out basketball themed story that just about turned me off completely.
Davidson is great on details, bizarrely meticulous on details, in fact, which can work for some readers, but this one found the approach overwhelming. The author also tends to get too busy with the metaphors, often cramming one atop another until the entire thing is one giant impressionistic abstract. It’s meant to hit a certain tone on the heartstrings, but it doesn’t always succeed and as a writing technique it’s really overused here.
After that, the stories improved. A lot. Got much more interesting, more emotionally engaging, got more…Those stories didn’t just emotionally engage, they devastated, quietly, the way slow unfolding tragedies can, the way real life does.
And more often than not you can sift through all the stylistic embellishments and obscene amounts of details and technical lingo to the sheer beauty of narrative storytelling. In those moments the author would shine. And the appeal would be easily understood.
So not the easiest of reads. Nor is it as incendiary as the cover suggest, though fire is heavily featured. But an interesting read all the same. Something different. Something realistically surreal. Something very, very sad. Difficult to recommend outside of fans of tragically devastating slice of life stories, so read at your own discretion and ideally coordinate to an appropriate mood. Thanks Netgalley.

This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/

[Tracy Griffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most depressing books I have read since Requiem for a Dream...
It was like being punched in the gut with words...
Loved it!

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I'm not a huge short story fan, maybe that's an unfair statement, but they are often just so depressing. Or maybe they just feel more depressing than novels? I don't know. Regardless, I can't resist a new Cataract City Universe book from Craig Davidson, short stories or not. As per usual I am just a sucker for anything set in Niagara Falls as I am just endlessly fascinated by the city (on both sides of the border).

While these are all interesting and memorable stories, I did like some better than others. My favourites were the two slightly interconnected ones about the social worker and the doctor - I'd read a novel about those characters for sure.

Craig Davidson gets a lot of comparisons to Stephen King and I think that is apt. I haven't read any of his horror that he's written as Nick Cutter and I don't intend to, but I'm sure it's good if you like horror. If you're a Stephen King fan, as many of my Goodreads friends are, I would recommend checking out Craig Davidson(/Nick Cutter). My favourite is still The Saturday Night Ghost Club!

[Cecilia Lyra · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kind of book you don't want to end but that you also can't put down. 50 stars!

[MargaretDH · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rather slim, tight collection of short stories. I think I prefer Davidson's longer works, mostly because he creates such vivid characters, but I still enjoyed this. We visit a mother dragging her baby out of a car wreck in a snow storm, two fraternal twins in juvie, a social worker trying to keep kids with their possibly unfit parents while she struggle to conceive her own child, an arson investigator and more.

To me, Davidson's strength is getting inside the head of the morally ambiguous, often down on their luck, but all with a relentless drive to survive. In this collection, the best stories were the ones that played to this strength, and that was over half.

If you liked Love and Other Wounds: Stories, you might like this too.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to thank Edelweiss and Craig Davidson for an ARC for the purposes of reading and reviewing.

Davidson’s collection of stories, ranging broadly from selections he has written over a decade and a half ago to just recently, are quite a quirky symposium on human depravity. Tales told of adultery, unstoppable arson, addiction, budding sociopathy and the ironies of pregnancy can depress the most coddled of minds, or it can remind us of the spirit and joy we embrace in our own lives. As it is with good short stories, the characters are densely gripping (save for the military themed story which I wasn’t as much of a fan of), vulnerable and wildly flawed. Two of the standouts included the finale, titled Firebugs, about a brother who was a Firefighter relegated to investigation after an accident seeking answers to a string of increasing arson attacks on the city; and One Pure Thing about a pro-basketball player getting a second chance after a stint in the clink for a sudden burst of violence. Just a real interesting collection of stories; happy to have read this one.

[maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Craig Davidson is one of the best authors to grace this earth, i said what i said.

[John Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book! Davidson is taking his enormous talent to higher and higher levels with each book. The story's are intricate, suggestive, and highly relatable. Exceedingly well-written, emotionally engaging, unique, and sparkling with a fresh imagination. I coulnt put it down until I finished it.

I really do believe it is unique, and brilliant.

All of his stories are literary gems.

[Jennifer Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a great day when Craig Davidson releases a new book, even better when I get my hands on a copy that very day. Reader “Brandon” posted a review that better captures this book that I can (link below). I would add to this my awe at how much research must have gone into crafting these stories. We take a journey into the fields of surgery, fire investigation, social work and more - and are treated to enough details to immerse ourselves into each world. I read this a bit too quickly the first time through to appreciate the theme of siblings that weaves its way through these very different stories - but on second read found myself pondering those dark corners that our imagination can take us when inspiration sparks. “For Charlotte” indeed.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like two of the stories a lot. The others I pushed through to finish.

[Enid Wray · Rating 4 out of 5]

As can be expected from Craig, a(nother) collection of stories ranging from heartbreaking and gut-wrenching, to just plain creepy, to WTF? Impeccably well-researched, covering a wide array of ‘disciplines’ - basketball, medicine, social work, fire-fighting - the connecting link between the stories are, primarily, the family relations and connections between the various characters… and the consequences that ‘cascade’ as a result of their decision making. Also to be expected are the (largely) ambiguous endings… life is complicated and messy, nothing neat and today about it, so why should a short story get tied up with a pretty bow for an ending?

The first of the stories, The Ghost Lights, lands a solid punch to the gut… enough that I had to take a break before carrying on. I was less enamoured of the second and third stories - too much testosterone driving them for my taste, and that I know nothing nor care nothing about basketball not help - but the last three stories - and especially the last - once again, had me completely wrapped up in the telling.

[Paul Preston · Rating 3 out of 5]

CASCADE by Craig Davidson is a collection of seven stories based around his fictional town of Cataract City, a place similar to Niagara Falls.
These are stories that you will ponder over. Outcomes in suspension. Lives on the brink.
Some you will be compelled to tear through, wondering, needing to know what is going to happen. Others you will read because the writing style is so good that it doesn’t really matter what it’s about. The plot runs the gamut with stories about a mother struggling not to freeze to death, child protective services, love for an evil twin brother, to a guy with a manslaughter rap trying to play basketball.
The Ghost Lights was probably one of my favorite cold weather horror stories ever. It was gory, heartbreaking and bone chilling

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

6 short stories centred on characters all living in the fictional town of Cataract City. Though it wasn’t a smeller and did its job as a filler, I don’t think it will ever be mistaken as a bestseller.

1. Ghost Lights (4/5): Motherhood is a harrowing ordeal.

2. One Pure Thing (2/5)

3. The Vanishing Twin (2.5/5)

4. Friday Night Goon Squad (3/5)

5. Medium Tough (3.5/5)

6. Firebugs (3.5/5)

[Barbara McEwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars - Oh yeah! Big characters with big emotions. A very strong collection.

[corndog · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. The writing was excellent and each character had a distinct voice. These are definitely not feel-good stories and I was left wanting to dive into the narrative more.

[Roberto Iacobacci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and Knopf Canada for providing an advance copy via NetGalley. I was pleasantly surprised at this wonderful collection of stories. Craig Davidson has done wonders to create these unique and well written stories. What I appreciated the most is the consistency in his form despite the variety of stories. The creative tension is palpable aided in large part by his compact character development. #Cascade #NetGalley

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What a collection of short stories ! So compelling and visceral. I loved them and hated them at the same time. They were hard to read because of the frightening and graphic details , but those same details draw the reader into the story. I can't believe how one person can know so much about so many things : basketball, fire, the body and it's functioning...........
Craig Davidson is a truly amazing author....great book !

[Kat Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, but rounded up because there's a truly GREAT story in this collection.

I picked this up on a whim in the new fiction section at my library. The stories here are loosely connected by setting in Niagara Falls. These were all very thoughtfully constructed pieces--he's a technically talented writer, at his best when black humor comes through. My problem with a lot of short story collections in general, as much as I enjoy reading them, is that very few of the stories remain memorable months later. A lot of short stories are very . . . competent, technically good, interesting, peppered with snappy dialogue and interesting characters. Over-all, that's how I found the stories in this collection to be.

But "The Vanishing Twin," was something really special, the kind of story I'll be thinking about for a long time. There's an immediacy and fluidity of voice in this one that isn't as readily apparent in the other stories. It's a haunting story that could have easily veered into something over-the-top but doesn't. He toes the line masterfully. One of Davidson's strengths throughout the book is having the confidence to just leave some things unsaid, and that's showcased to great effect here.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

A weird one for me. I found the essence overall here to be overly masculine in a way I couldn’t connect with. Even in the first story I expected the parent narrator to be one of a two dad couple and not a mother. I have never felt this way about another book I have read. The writing is good, perhaps just not my jam. Bonus points for a brilliant cover.

[Christie (The Ludic Reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Craig Davidson book I ever read was actually a book by his alter ego Nick Cutter. The Troop is the gruesome story (and there are parts of this book that are so gross, I had to read the pages through slitted eyes) of a troop of Boy Scouts who, on their annual overnight camping expedition, come face-to-face with bioengineered evil. It was only after I got my hands on The Saturday Night Ghost Club that I realized Craig Davidson and Nick Cutter were one and the same. Since then I have also read Davidson’s Giller-nominated novel Cataract City and I just finished reading his collection of short stories, Cascade. I guess at this point I am going to have to say that I am a fan.

Short story collections aren’t something I read a lot of, and I am not sure why that is because I do love short stories. They’re like these perfect little miniature worlds. There are six stories in this collection and I enjoyed every single one of them.

Davidson writes about family – both biological and found – and about the places that root us (for him it is Cataract City aka Niagara Falls.) None of these stories is tidy – or even necessarily linear – and even better, none of them have tied-up-with-a-bow endings. Ambiguity is a friend of mine. And apparently Mr. Davidson’s.

In “The Ghost Lights”, a car crash leaves a mother and her infant son stranded in s snow storm. The mother has grappled with the whole idea of subverting her own identity after her son’s birth, but now she is “filled with a mindless need to protect.”

“One Pure Thing” returns an basketball player to the court after a stint in jail. In “The Vanishing Twin”, fraternal twins Charlie and Hen looks out for each other in a Juvenile Custody Facility. A social worker looks after a little boy, while waiting for the birth of her own child in “Friday Night Goon Squad.” Each of these stories scratches at the surface of the choices we make, the sacrifices and compromises. Davidson’s writing is assured and nostalgic and I found myself sinking into each of the worlds created by these stories after only a line or two.

Highly recommended.

[Christine Montgomery · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ghost Lights
A survival story. Short, intense and packed with excitement. Excellent pace. I was initially confused by the first person narrative. Because the author is a male, I assumed that he was writing from the p.o.v. of a male. So I thought the story was about a gay couple. I was wrong.

One Pure Thing
An ex-professional baller who spent time in prison resumes playing basketball once he's out. I didn't really enjoy this story. It didn't move me, and I didn't feel anything for the characters.

The Vanishing Twin
Set in a juvenile detention centre, the action revolves around a pair of ne-er-do-well twins. They aren't good kids. I wasn't a fan of this creepy tale.

Friday Night Goon Squad
A pregnant female social worker is burned out. Under her care, is a woman with an IQ of 47 and the woman's young son. This story was hard to read.

Medium Tough
Arm wrestling. NICU. Surgery. Hormones. A brief mention of my hometown (Welland, ON). About sums this one up.

Firebugs
Pyromania.

I guess I'll give the book 4 stars for the writing and 2 for the subject matter.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyrical and haunting, each short story is crisp and unforgettable in Davidson’s collection, where the unifying tie that binds is Cascade. Cascade, a fictional city located northwest of Niagara Falls, shapes itself to be whatever Davidson wants, much like Stephen King’s Castle Rock. Beyond Cascade, though, the stories splinter into the warm, tender, dark, and twisted parts of humanity.

From basketball courts to blizzards promising death, to a surgeon’s Jekyll and Hyde struggle of acceptance to a social worker’s desperate wish to be a mother despite witnessing the worst that can happen to children - each story holds a troublesome facet of what it means to be human. How close to the edge are we when it comes to facing ourselves and those we love? Do we dare to step to the edge?

Thank you to Libro.fm for providing an audio of this work. Each story is read by a different artist and is brilliantly paced with voices that represent the protagonists well. Highly recommended.

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I thoroughly enjoy Craig Davidson's writing, this collection overall didn't come together for me. This collection starts off strong with the story The Ghost Lights, which explores the impact of a moment of sudden trauma. From there I had a hard time relating to anything in the other stories. While the writing is strong, I think I just wanted more connections within the stories, and to the overarching themes of the collection. Though the story The Vanishing Twin was just the perfect amount of twisted and creepy, while also giving off serious Stephen King vibes.

[Deena B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I FLEW through this book of 7 stories, they were all so gripping.
Meaty, gritty, dark.
No matter what the subject in each story, the author seemed an expert on his subjects -
whether about fire(fighting), brain surgery, basketball, what-have-you.
Very well-written!

• In these stories there are a couple of episodes describing animal cruelty/torture that was a bit hard to take.

I WON a copy of this book in a Goodreads Giveaway! Thanks to the author Craig Davidson, Goodreads, and W.W Norton & Company LTD.