Static

by Justine Bothwick

‘Justine Bothwick lays a breadcrumb trail of striking and unsettling images, which the reader follows into uncanny territory, the aptness of which becomes painfully clear. A clever and quietly powerful story’ - Alison Moore

12 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2021

About the author

Justine Bothwick grew up in Kent and Hampshire, and studied in London. In 2005, she moved to Italy and now teaches English in an international secondary school in Rome. She is married to a Roman architect. Together they have a flat in the city with a small balcony on which she grows her ever expanding collection of plants and watches the local birdlife.

Justine is a graduate of the Manchester Writing School’s Creative Writing MA programme. She has short stories published in The Lonely Crowd, Fictive Dream, Confingo Magazine, and Virtual Zine, and forthcoming with Nightjar Press. Her work was highly commended in the Bath Short Story Award 2020. Her debut novel – In the Mirror, a Peacock Danced – will be published with Agora Books in June 2021.

Reviews

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enchanted Island
Review of the Nightjar Press chapbook (April 2021)

Saying very much about Static, especially to explain the title, would be a spoiler. The setup is that a surfer is beachcombing on an apparently deserted beach when he is stopped from hauling away a piece of petrified wood by a mysterious young woman. He is then invited up to a house for a meal and drink, but all is not as it seems.

This was my third selection from Nightjar Press and each has impressed with their different styles and themes and their effective and evocative writing. Author Justine Bothwick also has published a full-length novel In the Mirror, a Peacock Danced (July 2021).

I read Static as part of my initial batch of selections from the limited edition short story chapbooks published by Nightjar Press. Nightjar is run by Nicolas Royle, author and editor, who is probably best known for his annual selection of Best British Short Stories (2011+ and ongoing) and for the recent book-obsessive memoir White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector (2021).

[Michael Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very accomplished story, subtle in the way it unfolds but written in vividly sensual language. A man on a paddle board reaches a local island, and is invited by a woman he meets to a vast, flamboyant mansion. That in essence is the plot, except that the story’s impetus derives from intriguing shifts in the protagonist’s inner world, which is fraught with schisms, and increasingly hallucinogenic, as his sense of personal reality, and agency, slip away. He is constantly beset by the voice of his dead mother, who addresses stinging criticisms about his character, mainly to his father, who is silent. For me this device lent the story a particular authenticity – at one time I worked with people who heard voices, and recognise the phenomenon of a presence that doesn’t speak, but may augment, validate, or perhaps ameliorate a primary voice.

It would ruin the story to say much more, but the descriptive passages are superb, and accumulative in their effect. I found this a deeply unsettling story and an excellent example of its genre.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this short story which appears to be suggestive that all life is worthy of preservation regardless of whether it was effectual or even if it hasn't yet ended. Quietly disturbing.

[Paul Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Nightjar Press] (March 2021). SB. First Edition. 188/200. Signed. 12 Pages. Purchased from Nicholas Royle.

Atmospheric and frightening.