Big Dark Hole

by Jeffrey Ford

A Jeffrey Ford story may start out in the innocuous and routine world of college teaching or evenings on a porch with your wife. But inevitably the weird comes crashing in. Maybe it’s an unexpected light in a dark and uninhabited house, maybe it’s a drainage tunnel that some poor kid is suddenly compelled to explore. Maybe there’s a monkey in the woods or an angel that you’ll need to fight if you want to gain tenure. Big Dark Hole is about those big, dark holes that we find ourselves once in a while and maybe, too, the big dark holes that exist inside of us.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Collections, New Weird

288 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2021

About the author

Jeffrey Ford is an American writer in the Fantastic genre tradition, although his works have spanned genres including Fantasy, Science Fiction and Mystery. His work is characterized by a sweeping imaginative power, humor, literary allusion, and a fascination with tales told within tales. He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he studied with the novelist John Gardner.

He lives in southern New Jersey and teaches writing and literature at Brookdale Community College in Monmouth County. He has also taught at the summer Clarion Workshop for science fiction and fantasy writers in Michigan. He has contributed stories, essays and interviews to various magazines and e-magazines including MSS, Puerto Del Sol, Northwest Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Argosy, Event Horizon, Infinity Plus, Black Gate and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

He published his first story, "The Casket", in Gardner's literary magazine MSS in 1981 and his first full-length novel, Vanitas, in 1988.

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

FINALIST FOR THE 2022 LOCUS AWARD—BEST COLLECTION! Winners announced 25 June 2022.

I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA LIBRARYTHING'S EARLY REVIEWERS. THANK YOU.

My Review: Dudebro Jeffrey Ford voice on full Technicolor display...if you've never read Ford's stories, you're either going to hate the hell out of that voice from giddy-up to whoa, in which case give the collection a miss; or you're going to see the voice as its own continuing character, the kind-of career-long Rod Serling of the author's imaginative universe. I liked the voice from my first encounter and if you don't, bail instantly.

These aren't Horror Stories, they're atmospheric tales of strange and uncongruent realities that look a lot like consensus reality. As is the statutory requirement for story-collection reviews on my blog, I herewith employ the Bryce Method of giving a line or two and a rating to each of the fifteen included stories individually.

[Jon Von · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intelligent and imaginative collection of light, weird stories.

[Kevin James · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars, Ford writes some very intriguing and very weird stories with a lot of heart and humor

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

These short stories are weird, quirky and a delight to read. Mr. Ford has a distinct voice that really connected with this reader. Some of my favorite stories were "The Thousand Eyes", "The Jeweled Wren", "Not Without Mercy", and the title story "Big Dark Hole".

Full disclosure: I attended junior high and high school with Jeff and, as my last name starts with "For", sat behind him in home room and many of our classes. Cheers!

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning, smart...visceral. Jeffrey Ford is authentic. His knowledge of folklore lends depthful magic to his stories. His voice is his own. As someone who has lived between New Jersey and Ohio, I find his evocative imagery eerily homey and accurate. I sometimes forget I'm reading fiction when I read Jeffrey Ford.

[Ben Loory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorites: "The Thousand Eyes," "Not Without Mercy," "Thanksgiving," "Five-Pointed Spell," and especially "The Match"

[Seth Augenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

As good as a collection gets.

[Kieran · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wtf was that? Awful. Terrible. Very disappointing.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird, uncanny, and with hefty doses of wry humor and images to haunt your dreams, this is a fantastic collection of speculative fiction. Each story slips the weird into reality without apology, pummeling the characters with actions, images, and turns of fate that can be ignored no more easily than they can be understood--and it is wonderful. Additionally, even though the stories are unconnected in terms of story/plot, the continuation and progression of themes offers a cohesiveness that seems rare in collections that don't themselves become repetitive, and there's no way to consider this collection repetitive. True, the locale and the MCs sometimes feel overly similar, but not in a way that really affects the stories or experiences left for the reader, and I ended up speeding through this collection without being able to put it down.

One caveat I will give...for me, the weakest story by far was the last in the collection, which seemed to simply fizzle away into nothing after building and building forward. That took me out of the collection on a somewhat sour note, and I wish I'd read that story earlier so that I could end on a higher note. Some of my favorites in the collection included "The Match", "The Bookcase Expedition", "Big Dark Hole", and "Thanksgiving".

Recommended for all lovers of weird fiction. I can't wait to read more of Ford's work.

[Eric Orchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every story is a thing of wonder. Just brilliant.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeffrey Ford is categorized as a horror writer, and while it's true there's a fair amount of blood and gore in many of his tales, I think this is too narrow a categorization. What he really is, is a writer of blue-collar strangeness, to coin a phrase. Most of his characters are living with modest means, taking the jobs they need to survive, and then something really strange happens. As in, supernatural strange.

I can't figure that there's a 'moral' or 'point' to every Ford story; I get the sense he just writes what comes to him, however strange it may be. It's true that many of these stories look like thinly veiled autobiographical sketches: A lot of them deal with a middle-aged (or upper) couple, living in a hundred year old farmhouse in the country, sitting on their porch drinking in the evening. The man is often a writer and teacher of fiction at a local college. All this is true of Jeff Ford. But then....something strange happens.

Anyhow, that's all to say that Ford's stories aren't predictable because I don't think that even he knows where he's going with them until he gets there. But they're interesting. He's not categorized as “New Weird” writer either, but if the shoe fits....

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these stories were genuinely creepy.

I’m not sure why the publisher picked the one short story as the book’s title other than it’s attention grabbing because I thought that particular story was one of the weaker ones.

My favorites were the one about the monkey and the one about the haunted house.

I wasn’t so much a fan of the stories where nothing really happened.

It took me a while to figure out that Ford actually inserted himself and his wife as characters into a few of these stories because apparently I’m dumb.

[Danny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories of everyday life tinged with dark fantasy. Tends toward characters I presume mimic the author's life experience of being a writer or writing professor, but that just lends authority to the flavors existential dread that pop up. Not gory, just creepy for the most part.

[Karen Heuler · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I love about these stories is the familiar, companionable tone. It's like he's sitting with you, leaning across the table, telling you about something that happened to him or someone he heard about. No matter how horrifying or troubling it is, it's always human and perfectly natural and you can feel it in every nerve in your body. My favorite might be Big Dark Hole itself because I keep seeing that kid in that hole--but my favorite might be different tomorrow, because I'm still thinking about these stories after I close the book.

[Gillian French · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeffrey Ford is my favorite speculative fiction writer for a great reason: his accessible, down-to-earth, at times laugh-out-loud funny storytelling style used to address universal human struggles and quandaries. This is borne out beautifully in Big Dark Hole; from attack monkeys hiding in the woods to a Christmas tree that won’t be tossed out without a fight, in the end, it’s all about perception, the unreliability of memory, and human fragility. I loved this collection.

[Jessica Blackwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read a review of this book and was excited to read it... If this book was a voice, it would be monotone. Each story had potential to change the voice but it didn't. Bueller?

[Ryan Berger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The rating is a bit more of a reflection of the best stories in the collection, which are tremendous, and maybe not the best reflection of the collection as a whole where I think maybe a little less than half the stories are kind of duds. But the one's I'll highlight are worth the price of the ticket and I'm incredibly excited to read more Ford in the future.

Ford has a pretty consistent tone throughout most of his stories, and I found that by far the best bits were when he deviated the farthest from his kind of voice-y tone. The POV character in most of these stories is a king of bumbling, semi-sarcastic artist character. Sort of a horror version of a Judd Apatow character (which I know sends a lot of people screaming for the hills for reasons you don't necessarily want from a collection of horror short stories).

But just when you think you have some stories figured out, Ford throws a knuckleball of a line that corrupts the whole story in a delicious psychological horror twist. Sometimes it's unnervingly subtle, and sometimes it's loud and abrasive-- but it's always interesting in a way that I find so much horror to be formulaic. Even the stories I didn't like in this collection have some kind of redemptive originality even if the overall effect fizzles or the tone of the writing just can't get the fire lit.

Some highlights:

Hibbler's Minions -- HOOO BOY I love a good carnival story. Love reading about fucked up carnies. Something about it is so ripe for the macabre side of the entertainment industry and this one is soooooooooooooooooo fucking good. Dark, atmospheric, air tight with so many fun characters. A really great set up and ending. Hooting and hollering.

Sisyphus in Elysium - This is potentially my favorite thing anyone has done with a Greek myth in the world of fiction. I don't even know what this kind of hyperbole would even be encroaching on. This is a beautiful, brilliantly told story about one of our oldest and most profound myths. Also, notice that the two stories I enjoyed the most are the ones by far unlike everything else in the collection (where Hibbler's Minion's is a dark quasi-noir and Sisyphus in Elysium is told with a distinct mythological narrator).

The Jeweled Wren - Thank god somebody knows how to write subversive metafiction about horror that isn't just an onslaught of references. A breath of fresh air. Staple this to the skull of like, 20 of the most popular horror writers right now. This is maybe the only attempt at a story like this (There's a Nabakov one (of all writers!) called Symbols and Signs that also kind of accomplishes the same effect) that's actually landed the plane and didn't make me groan the entire time. Crisp, effective, and maybe the most brightly lit sign that advertised Ford as someone who knows a thing or two about horror.

Honorable mentions: "The Thousand Eyes" (Another strong voice that broke from the norm), "Monster Eight"(Idk if I've ever read a story like this before in my life-- I was annoyed and disinterested the entire time and then the last page is such a wicked neck-snapping reversal I came all the way back the other end and loved it), and "Monkey in the woods" (Better version of the title story that's getting at a very similar idea). Also "Thanksgiving" was kind of funny. Definitely going to dig it up again on Turkey Day.

[Ashton · Rating 1 out of 5]

This collection was the definition of mediocre. If Ford were a better writer, the stories could have fulfilled their potential; if he was a worse writer, it would have been unreadable. Nearly every protagonist is based off of himself - an aging writing professor and author moves to a old farmhouse in Ohio where vaguely strange things happen. It goes so far that the recurring "wife" character often has the name of his real wife, Lynn. There's also a bit of male writer syndrome going on - I was truly stunned to read the line "I double-timed it as fast as my bubble butt could carry me," which completely destroyed any semblance of spooky atmosphere to, presumably, let us know that the character was female.

I really disliked how little buildup there was in each story. Each one starts with some exposition and then jumps right into something that could be scary if there was any time to be scared of it. Most of the characters treat the horror like it's just another day, and many stories end with "well, that was weird." I understand that Ford is trying to make things more mysterious but it falls flat. Actually, I think the real horror is that the author seems to be trapped writing the same boring story about his life and never actually creating anything meaningful or truly worthwhile.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of these stories involve older men who teach college writing, write fiction on the side, enjoy a comfortable relationship with their wives, stay up late smoking and drinking, and then weird things happen to them. Often the story drifts off into inconclusive weirdness that seems to have little to do with the initial setup. Frequently a twist is thrown in at the end that totally upends the reader's understanding of the story.

It would be fair to label most of the stories as horror. I did not particularly care about any of the protagonists, which is just as well, as they usually come to bad ends, one way or another. However, the premise of each story was intriguing, and I felt compelled to finish each story, once I began reading.

The stories were well crafted, well-paced, and had little fat on the frame, but in the aggregate did not appeal to me. If you enjoy weird, dark, literary fantasy and science fiction, you might really enjoy this collection of stories, and give it a higher rating than I did.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love, love, love Jeffrey Ford. He is quirky, unexpected, and always creates memorable stories. His narrative style is straight forward and sounds like an old friend sitting down to tell you how his day went. And from this undemanding and companionable basis, the most whimsical and uncanny stories just pour forth. What I love most about his writing is the sense of the unfathomable. Things are disquieting. There's a sense of unease. Yet it's also in a familiar setting and doesn't sound so bizarre that it drifts into the implausible. Perhaps everyone is playing a trick on the protagonist? Unreliable narrator? Perhaps he just doesn't remember it exactly? You have the sense that there are multiple levels of meaning here, but you don't always understand. And neither does the protagonist. Many of the endings are simple yet defy full comprehension. But it's more satisfying that way because it leaves the reader thinking about the story long after reading it.

[Lord Humungus · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the brilliance of _A Natural History of Hell_ I was a little disappointed with this collection. One problem with collections is you'll see a lot of similarities between the stories when they're all gathered together, but that's expected.

Most of the stories here are well written and occasionally feature some really excellent turns of phrase. But I felt the stories were a little too mundane, fictions thinly draped over the author's real life. Sure the author injected some of his signature weird or spine-tingling elements, but most of the time they led nowhere or never got more unnerving than, say, weird noises one might hear while home alone in the dark.

I hope to get something meatier from the author next time.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Ford's work and his latest story collection is proof yet again as to why. His stories here continue the trend of focusing on versions of him and his wife, intersecting with the supernatural in some way. That's not the only type of story here, of course, but I would say he's gotten less fantastical and more grounded in reality as the years have gone on. Still, stories like "Sisyphus in Elysium" still tickle that old fantasy that was more prevalent in his earlier work. Stories like "Hibbler's Minions," "Monkey in the Woods," "Thanksgiving," and the title story were standouts in a strong collection.

Oh, and there are only 202 pages in this book, not 288 as listed here.

[Lisa Frankenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are a weird, warm blanket to keep my company in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep. While the stories don’t always have definitive conclusions, it didn’t matter—they’re about the storytelling from our spotty memories, recounting events that we didn’t fully understand when they happened and still can’t figure out now.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't care for most of these short stories. Definitely on the atmospheric horror side of spec fic. I think if I were to pull favorite/s, it would be The Jeweled Wren and *maybe* Big Dark Hole. I liked parts of Not Without Mercy.

[Hayden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid collection from Jeffrey Ford, full of stories and characters that feel like they were pulled from dreams.

[Adrienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's some real gems in here (Thanksgiving in particular is stellar) but all the stories starring a bumbling author drag the book down by the end.

[Kristine Pagsuyoin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like short stories and this book of stories is perfect for October.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Dark Hole was a bright and shiny collection from one of my favorite authors, Jeffrey Ford. Every story was a keeper.

[Krysten]

I did that thing again where I decided to DNF a book even though I only had like 20 pages left. I just don't *wanna*.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like all of Ford's work, terrific stuff.