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A Different Kind of Light
“I first read about the 1955 Le Mans Disaster over twenty years ago, but I knew at once there was a story to tell.
When I learned there’d been newsreel footage of the aftermath, footage so appalling it never saw daylight, I also knew what kind of story: a story about how many of us want to see things we aren’t supposed to, even when we insist we don’t.
What I didn’t know was who would tell that story. It took me two decades to realise that it was also the story of two lovers who weren’t lovers, in a world that was falling apart. So finally I began to write, following Ash and Danie into a shadow land of grief, obsession and things worse than death.
Now the story’s written. Open this book, and I’ll tell it to you.
And the film will start to play.”
When I learned there’d been newsreel footage of the aftermath, footage so appalling it never saw daylight, I also knew what kind of story: a story about how many of us want to see things we aren’t supposed to, even when we insist we don’t.
What I didn’t know was who would tell that story. It took me two decades to realise that it was also the story of two lovers who weren’t lovers, in a world that was falling apart. So finally I began to write, following Ash and Danie into a shadow land of grief, obsession and things worse than death.
Now the story’s written. Open this book, and I’ll tell it to you.
And the film will start to play.”
- GenresFictionContemporary
161 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2021
94 people want to read
About the author
Simon Bestwick
91 books83 followersSimon Bestwick was born in Wolverhampton in 1974. He has worked in various jobs, from fast food operative through drama teacher to training administrator. His short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Nasty Piece of Work, All Hallows, Darkness Rising, Extremes 5, and Beneath the Ground. He lives in Swinton, Lancashire, and when not writing can be found indulging his interests: walking, films, literature, rock, folk, and jazz music, good food, and the occasional pint.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 28, 2024
Ashok and Danielle are old friends/lovers who discover an old film of the deadly 1955 crash at Le Mans (a real event) that shows the horrific aftermath – and may have captured something even more terrifying along with it. Their plan to sell it to an unscrupulous collector goes awry; it seems the cursed footage has other ideas. This book scratched every itch for me: the lost media trope, a creepy and original haunting, an investigation-based plot, strong characters and narrative voice. It’s a ghost story... but it’s just as much about Ashok’s slightly pathetic infatuation with Danielle. The novella format is perfect for it – long enough to establish the characters properly and flesh out the world in which they exist (I loved the asides implying a near-future backdrop), not so long that any particular aspect is overcomplicated. Doesn’t put a foot wrong. Loved it.
March 1, 2021
Watching a 1955 film of a car crash has horrific consequences
for two film experts in hair-raising supernatural chiller
Over the year I have read a fair bit of Simon Bestwick and although he is highly respected within the horror community, he undoubtedly deserves to sell many more books than he probably does. This is a seriously talented writer, who is equally accomplished at producing short stories as he is novels and novellas. From his very impressive back catalogue I would highlight The Black Road Trilogy, an apocalyptic dystopian horror nightmare, which begins with Hell’s Ditch (2015), as well as the excellent supernatural tales, The Faceless (2012) and The Feast of All Souls (2016). If you prefer shorter fiction, Simon has several collections as well as other novellas and stories featured in numerous anthologies.
A Different Kind of Light is 166-pages long and had me wondering whether it was a novel or a novella? It is released by the superb Black Shuck Books who have been “publishing the peculiar since 2015” with a strong recent track record for releasing high quality horror, often specialising in the novella format, micro, or other shortish collections. I would happily accept a book for review purely if Black Shuck were the brand behind it, as their name is an absolute mark of quality. Black Shuck also published Bestwick’s micro-collection Singing Back The Dark back in 2018 and a further novella out about now, Roth-Steyr. The latter will shortly be heading to my TBR pile.
A Different Kind of Light was an outstanding novel (or was it a novella?) whichever it was, I devoured it in two sittings in about 150-minutes and it has some genuinely standout creepy scenes and left a lasting impression once the last page was completed regarding what uncertainties might lie ahead for the main character. I am often a very jaded horror reader, but A Different Kind of Light had certain moments that had me on edge and hooked me 100% into how things were going to play out. It has very clever pacing, in which an unexpected supernatural occurrence drops unexpectedly after about 20%, the action then pulls back and is deliberately restrained whilst the plot unfolds, before ramping up proceedings for the satisfying big finish.
The very sly narrative is a major plus point, told in the first person (but not as an unreliable narrator) in which the restrained voice pulls the reader in, almost as if he is saying “come in closer, I want to tell you a tale” and that it exactly what the storyteller, Ash, does. It gives the impression that he is looking back on a period of his life, he is using hindsight, and given the chance to do things different, he undoubtedly would. He gives the impression he is world weary, but why? You will soon find out.
Out of the blue, Ash receives a message from Dani, an old university friend, looking for help in authenticating a piece of vintage sports film footage. Back in the day, Ash and Dani were an on/off item, and although they have had the occasional hook-up down the years, Ash still secretly carries a torch for Dani and would jump through hoops for the chance of a deeper relationship. As the story is entirely seen through Ash’s eyes, we never see directly how things play out for Dani, instead we have to settle for snatched telephone calls, awkward long silences and a sense of creeping dread which only adds to the atmosphere with the pair isolated from each other and in different locations.
The vintage film footage Dani discovers is of the aftermath of the 1955 Le Mans Disaster in which the driver Pierre Levegh crashed into a crowd of spectators, killing 84 and injuring 120 in the deadliest accident in motor racing. In this clever reimagining which uses the crash as the backdrop, there is long lost film footage of the atrocity which shows the broken bodies, death and horrific levels of pain, which look even more realistic as they are in black and white. Both Dani and Ash agree that there is no way the footage could have been faked. They firstly watch a DVD transfer of the original film before travelling to Liverpool to view the original film footage with the buyer and once they authenticate it, act as middlemen in buying it for a third-party collector. But once they watch the original footage something very strange begins to happen and to say any more about the plot would spoil it.
Those well versed in the history of horror might think the story is about the discovery of a Faces of Death style film, which were popular in the 1980s Video Nasty heyday and even though Dani and Ash may well be sourcing the racing film for that type of collector, the story moves in a very different direction. It has more in common with the cursed videotape of the Japanese Ringu, but again takes the basic premise into territory more akin to an Adam Nevill novel.
Building horror novels out of real historical events is much trickier than you might think and A Different Kind of Light genuinely nails it. Other recent successful examples include Alma Katsu’s The Hunger (the Donner Party disappearance), Philip Fracassi’s Shiloh (American Civil War) and Andrew Pyper’s The Resident (the Presidency of Franklin Pierce) and this novella is the equal of all of these books, cleverly utilising a grain of a real-life incident to build a very clever piece of fiction.
When Ash realises there is something very dodgy with the film his research takes the story into unpredictable directions, with the balance of the developing supernatural storyline convincingly balanced with the dynamics between the two main characters and an enticing trip into the origins of the film. A Different Kind of Light was a terrific novella which sits nicely amongst the best work Simon Bestwick has written and Black Shuck have published. Outstanding and highly recommended.
for two film experts in hair-raising supernatural chiller
Over the year I have read a fair bit of Simon Bestwick and although he is highly respected within the horror community, he undoubtedly deserves to sell many more books than he probably does. This is a seriously talented writer, who is equally accomplished at producing short stories as he is novels and novellas. From his very impressive back catalogue I would highlight The Black Road Trilogy, an apocalyptic dystopian horror nightmare, which begins with Hell’s Ditch (2015), as well as the excellent supernatural tales, The Faceless (2012) and The Feast of All Souls (2016). If you prefer shorter fiction, Simon has several collections as well as other novellas and stories featured in numerous anthologies.
A Different Kind of Light is 166-pages long and had me wondering whether it was a novel or a novella? It is released by the superb Black Shuck Books who have been “publishing the peculiar since 2015” with a strong recent track record for releasing high quality horror, often specialising in the novella format, micro, or other shortish collections. I would happily accept a book for review purely if Black Shuck were the brand behind it, as their name is an absolute mark of quality. Black Shuck also published Bestwick’s micro-collection Singing Back The Dark back in 2018 and a further novella out about now, Roth-Steyr. The latter will shortly be heading to my TBR pile.
A Different Kind of Light was an outstanding novel (or was it a novella?) whichever it was, I devoured it in two sittings in about 150-minutes and it has some genuinely standout creepy scenes and left a lasting impression once the last page was completed regarding what uncertainties might lie ahead for the main character. I am often a very jaded horror reader, but A Different Kind of Light had certain moments that had me on edge and hooked me 100% into how things were going to play out. It has very clever pacing, in which an unexpected supernatural occurrence drops unexpectedly after about 20%, the action then pulls back and is deliberately restrained whilst the plot unfolds, before ramping up proceedings for the satisfying big finish.
The very sly narrative is a major plus point, told in the first person (but not as an unreliable narrator) in which the restrained voice pulls the reader in, almost as if he is saying “come in closer, I want to tell you a tale” and that it exactly what the storyteller, Ash, does. It gives the impression that he is looking back on a period of his life, he is using hindsight, and given the chance to do things different, he undoubtedly would. He gives the impression he is world weary, but why? You will soon find out.
Out of the blue, Ash receives a message from Dani, an old university friend, looking for help in authenticating a piece of vintage sports film footage. Back in the day, Ash and Dani were an on/off item, and although they have had the occasional hook-up down the years, Ash still secretly carries a torch for Dani and would jump through hoops for the chance of a deeper relationship. As the story is entirely seen through Ash’s eyes, we never see directly how things play out for Dani, instead we have to settle for snatched telephone calls, awkward long silences and a sense of creeping dread which only adds to the atmosphere with the pair isolated from each other and in different locations.
The vintage film footage Dani discovers is of the aftermath of the 1955 Le Mans Disaster in which the driver Pierre Levegh crashed into a crowd of spectators, killing 84 and injuring 120 in the deadliest accident in motor racing. In this clever reimagining which uses the crash as the backdrop, there is long lost film footage of the atrocity which shows the broken bodies, death and horrific levels of pain, which look even more realistic as they are in black and white. Both Dani and Ash agree that there is no way the footage could have been faked. They firstly watch a DVD transfer of the original film before travelling to Liverpool to view the original film footage with the buyer and once they authenticate it, act as middlemen in buying it for a third-party collector. But once they watch the original footage something very strange begins to happen and to say any more about the plot would spoil it.
Those well versed in the history of horror might think the story is about the discovery of a Faces of Death style film, which were popular in the 1980s Video Nasty heyday and even though Dani and Ash may well be sourcing the racing film for that type of collector, the story moves in a very different direction. It has more in common with the cursed videotape of the Japanese Ringu, but again takes the basic premise into territory more akin to an Adam Nevill novel.
Building horror novels out of real historical events is much trickier than you might think and A Different Kind of Light genuinely nails it. Other recent successful examples include Alma Katsu’s The Hunger (the Donner Party disappearance), Philip Fracassi’s Shiloh (American Civil War) and Andrew Pyper’s The Resident (the Presidency of Franklin Pierce) and this novella is the equal of all of these books, cleverly utilising a grain of a real-life incident to build a very clever piece of fiction.
When Ash realises there is something very dodgy with the film his research takes the story into unpredictable directions, with the balance of the developing supernatural storyline convincingly balanced with the dynamics between the two main characters and an enticing trip into the origins of the film. A Different Kind of Light was a terrific novella which sits nicely amongst the best work Simon Bestwick has written and Black Shuck have published. Outstanding and highly recommended.
May 21, 2021
This is an absolutely cracking read.
It's a haunting, but a different kind of haunting.
When Ash is called in by his long-time friend and some-lover Danie to verify the authenticity of a film, he doesn't know exactly what he's getting into. That fim is on the 1955 Le Mans disaster, one of the worst accidents in the history of motorsport.
When they watch the original film they discover something truly terrifying that makes for a very unsettling novella.
Coupled with the horrors on the tape, the world in which Ash and Danie are living adds to the bleakness. It's a recognisable country falling apart with constant public transport delays and city-white brown-outs. Not exactly the kind of place you want to live if you need to make a fast getaway and you're desperate to keep the lights on.
I loved this.
It's a haunting, but a different kind of haunting.
When Ash is called in by his long-time friend and some-lover Danie to verify the authenticity of a film, he doesn't know exactly what he's getting into. That fim is on the 1955 Le Mans disaster, one of the worst accidents in the history of motorsport.
When they watch the original film they discover something truly terrifying that makes for a very unsettling novella.
Coupled with the horrors on the tape, the world in which Ash and Danie are living adds to the bleakness. It's a recognisable country falling apart with constant public transport delays and city-white brown-outs. Not exactly the kind of place you want to live if you need to make a fast getaway and you're desperate to keep the lights on.
I loved this.
September 4, 2021
I really enjoyed this creepy novella about a piece of haunted film footage. The footage is of the real-life 1955 Le Mans disaster but when two film experts are called in to examine it for authenticity, they discover something much worse. Something which wants to come out…
The story is told from the point of view of one of the protagonists, who keeps making bad decisions, because he’s still in love with the other expert. He’s been in love with her since they went to college together. The book’s voice is disarmingly casual and readable, the doomed love affair and dystopian near-future world they live in are realistic, enthralling and affecting, and as for what’s on the film footage, well, the less said the better, but make sure you have plenty of spare lightbulbs before you start reading. You’re going to need them.
The story is told from the point of view of one of the protagonists, who keeps making bad decisions, because he’s still in love with the other expert. He’s been in love with her since they went to college together. The book’s voice is disarmingly casual and readable, the doomed love affair and dystopian near-future world they live in are realistic, enthralling and affecting, and as for what’s on the film footage, well, the less said the better, but make sure you have plenty of spare lightbulbs before you start reading. You’re going to need them.
April 3, 2021
Simon Bestwick writes great horror. He's not a slash, gore, buckets of blood and flying body parts writer. His horror is much more subtle - and, by its nature, far more terrifying. It leaps out at you from the shadows. A Different Kind of Light is a perfect example of this author doing what he does best, and you'll need ALL the lights on when you read it because...well... the things that gather in the shadows during the course of this novella are most at home in the dark. Or on film. Oh yes, they love being on film. They have an agenda. They even have a name. It was given to them by the previous owner of the film in the story... So, if anyone ever offers to sell you a trunk containing an old film, run away. Don't look back.
But, do read this brilliant story.
But, do read this brilliant story.
May 21, 2021
Read this in a remote lakeland farm whilst on holliday. Scared the sh@@ out of me. Brilliantly written and my favourite horror story this year.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews