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You'll Know When You Get There
"Am I walking toward something I should be running away from?" - Shirley Jackson
A woman returns home to revisit an encounter with the numinous; couples take up residence in houses full of sinister secrets; a man fleeing a failed marriage discovers something ancient and unknowable in rural Ireland . . .
In her introduction, Lisa Tuttle observes that "certain places are doomed, dangerous in some inexplicable, metaphysical way", and the characters in these stories all seem drawn in their own ways to just such places, whether trying to return home or endeavouring to get as far from life as possible. These nine stories by Shirley Jackson Award winner Lynda E. Rucker tell tales of those lost and searching, often for something they cannot name, and encountering along the way the uncanny embedded in the everyday world.
A woman returns home to revisit an encounter with the numinous; couples take up residence in houses full of sinister secrets; a man fleeing a failed marriage discovers something ancient and unknowable in rural Ireland . . .
In her introduction, Lisa Tuttle observes that "certain places are doomed, dangerous in some inexplicable, metaphysical way", and the characters in these stories all seem drawn in their own ways to just such places, whether trying to return home or endeavouring to get as far from life as possible. These nine stories by Shirley Jackson Award winner Lynda E. Rucker tell tales of those lost and searching, often for something they cannot name, and encountering along the way the uncanny embedded in the everyday world.
198 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2016
108 people want to read
About the author
Lynda E. Rucker
99 books47 followersMy short stories have appeared or will appear in such places as The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, The Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Weird Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Black Static, Postscripts, Nightmare Magazine, and Supernatural Tales. (Full fiction bibliography here.) I also write a regular column on horror for Black Static. My first collection of short fiction, The Moon Will Look Strange, was published in 2013 by Karōshi Books. I wrote a short horror play, “#goddess,” that was presented as part of a horror anthology play, “The Ghost Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” and ran from March 7-19, 2016 at the Tristan Bates Theatre in London. I won a 2015 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Short Story for my story “The Dying Season,” which appeared in Aickman’s Heirs. My new collection, You’ll Know When You Get There, is available now from Swan River Press.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 2, 2020
talented author; disappointing collection. my complaints are hard to put into words. the author's prose is often impressive. she can create atmosphere: as other reviews have noted, her ability to establish a sense of place, the specificity of it and the details, the feeling of the locale... excellent, her greatest strength. I liked her focus on women in nearly all of the stories; indeed, the only story that I actively disliked is the sole tale told from a male's perspective - "Widdershins", which I found both too on the nose and very unconvincingly characterized. she knows her classic authors as well - the depressing "Who Is This Who Is Coming" is practically an ode to M.R. James and the chilling "Queen in the Yellow Wallpaper" mashes together Ambrose Bierce and Charlotte Perkins Gilman to strong effect.
and yet, and yet... I did not particularly enjoy this book. I found it to be an often dreary experience and the characterization mainly left me cold and vaguely irritated (and that includes the three stories mentioned above). I did think "This Time of Day" was pretty compelling, and its image of a town under a lake issuing a sinister siren call to the broken was haunting. and I loved the collage style of "The House on Cobb Street" with its various blog entries and newspaper articles etc., and its free-floating feeling of dread was powerful. that was a very strong story and disturbing to contemplate. but the rest... eh, just not feeling them.
😕
"The Receiver of Tales" - a woman listens
"Widdershins" - a man goes counter-clockwise
"The House on Cobb Street" - the couple are erased
"Where the Summer Dwells" - a woman remembers
"Who Is This Who Is Coming" - a woman is alone
"Queen in the Yellow Wallpaper" - a woman invites
"The Wife's Lament" - a woman descends
"This Time of Day, This Time of Year" - sisters, underwater
"The Haunting House" - a woman dreams
and yet, and yet... I did not particularly enjoy this book. I found it to be an often dreary experience and the characterization mainly left me cold and vaguely irritated (and that includes the three stories mentioned above). I did think "This Time of Day" was pretty compelling, and its image of a town under a lake issuing a sinister siren call to the broken was haunting. and I loved the collage style of "The House on Cobb Street" with its various blog entries and newspaper articles etc., and its free-floating feeling of dread was powerful. that was a very strong story and disturbing to contemplate. but the rest... eh, just not feeling them.
😕
"The Receiver of Tales" - a woman listens
"Widdershins" - a man goes counter-clockwise
"The House on Cobb Street" - the couple are erased
"Where the Summer Dwells" - a woman remembers
"Who Is This Who Is Coming" - a woman is alone
"Queen in the Yellow Wallpaper" - a woman invites
"The Wife's Lament" - a woman descends
"This Time of Day, This Time of Year" - sisters, underwater
"The Haunting House" - a woman dreams
Want to read
August 20, 2016This is copy 33 of 100 numbered copies of a total print run of 400 printed. This hardcover copy is also signed and dedicated by Lynda E. Rucker.
September 14, 2016
Having had no familiarity nor prior experience with Lynda E Rucker, I purchased this book on the strength of its publisher. I put a lot of stock in the work that Brian J Showers chooses to publish on his Swan River Press imprint so 'blind purchases' like this are not uncommon for me where he is concerned. I've always been pleased with the results.
But never, so far as I recall, quite so pleased as I was with this collection. I'm a fan of ghost stories as a general rule. It doesn't take much to get me to enjoy them. But the tales assembled here are a cut above much of what I read and I find myself yearning to have discovered Ms. Rucker's work years ago just so that I could have enjoyed it for even longer.
Rucker's voice in these stories is a mournful one. Despite a sort of ethereal beauty that resonates from the jacket art to the text in these yarns, the tales are fraught with bitterness, resentment, confusion, alienation, isolation, and a terrible sense of loneliness. Not inappropriate, given the context, of course. Restless spirits and malevolent hauntings rarely find much truck with happy, stable, self-confidant folk of stalwart heart. No, each and every POV in these chilling little vignettes is there for a reason. And, often as not, that reason is a deep-seeded sense of brokenness or, in the least, a close attachment to a broken loved one.
But this sort of melancholy and sense of displacement fit the theme of the work perfectly. The characters are earnest and well-constructed and easy to get attached to, almost surprisingly so, given the brevity of some if the stories. But the sorrow and hopefulness (all too often abandoned for its antithesis) in each of their breaths is palpable and you inevitably find yourself sharing their various dooms.
Despite the strength of Rucker's individual voice, the profound influence of several past masters is clearly evident all across the work. Some of these were elucidated upon in her closing remarks at the end of the book, so it is possible that I am seeing influences that weren't actually there. But I felt them nonetheless, both ones she mentioned and others besides.
The opening tale was only one bucket of grue short of being spiritually at home in Barker's early Books of Blood. Other stories were obvious homage, including a delightful tip of the hat to M.R. James, a very worthy entry into 125 years of collected fiction within the Robert Chambers 'Yellow Sign' mythos, and an eerie, subtly erotic tale of longing and missed opportunities that is so environmentally reminiscent of Karl Edward Wagner (like Rucker, a native of the American South) that it gave me chills.
Overall, there is really a lot to love here for fans of compelling, broken characters, haunted landscapes, and hungry spirits lurking just below the surface of the psyche...or the water. I couldn't be happier with this book and will be seeking out pretty much everything else Ms. Rucker has written in hopes of more weird tales presented in her unique voice. In closing, I want to strongly recommend pairing this book with a Marissa Nadler record. They synergize gorgeously and elegantly.
But never, so far as I recall, quite so pleased as I was with this collection. I'm a fan of ghost stories as a general rule. It doesn't take much to get me to enjoy them. But the tales assembled here are a cut above much of what I read and I find myself yearning to have discovered Ms. Rucker's work years ago just so that I could have enjoyed it for even longer.
Rucker's voice in these stories is a mournful one. Despite a sort of ethereal beauty that resonates from the jacket art to the text in these yarns, the tales are fraught with bitterness, resentment, confusion, alienation, isolation, and a terrible sense of loneliness. Not inappropriate, given the context, of course. Restless spirits and malevolent hauntings rarely find much truck with happy, stable, self-confidant folk of stalwart heart. No, each and every POV in these chilling little vignettes is there for a reason. And, often as not, that reason is a deep-seeded sense of brokenness or, in the least, a close attachment to a broken loved one.
But this sort of melancholy and sense of displacement fit the theme of the work perfectly. The characters are earnest and well-constructed and easy to get attached to, almost surprisingly so, given the brevity of some if the stories. But the sorrow and hopefulness (all too often abandoned for its antithesis) in each of their breaths is palpable and you inevitably find yourself sharing their various dooms.
Despite the strength of Rucker's individual voice, the profound influence of several past masters is clearly evident all across the work. Some of these were elucidated upon in her closing remarks at the end of the book, so it is possible that I am seeing influences that weren't actually there. But I felt them nonetheless, both ones she mentioned and others besides.
The opening tale was only one bucket of grue short of being spiritually at home in Barker's early Books of Blood. Other stories were obvious homage, including a delightful tip of the hat to M.R. James, a very worthy entry into 125 years of collected fiction within the Robert Chambers 'Yellow Sign' mythos, and an eerie, subtly erotic tale of longing and missed opportunities that is so environmentally reminiscent of Karl Edward Wagner (like Rucker, a native of the American South) that it gave me chills.
Overall, there is really a lot to love here for fans of compelling, broken characters, haunted landscapes, and hungry spirits lurking just below the surface of the psyche...or the water. I couldn't be happier with this book and will be seeking out pretty much everything else Ms. Rucker has written in hopes of more weird tales presented in her unique voice. In closing, I want to strongly recommend pairing this book with a Marissa Nadler record. They synergize gorgeously and elegantly.
May 31, 2017
This second collection by Shirley Jackson Award winner Lynda E. Rucker further demonstrates her mastery of the short story form. The eeriness of each tale is cumulative, one odd elision of ideas building upon another until a sense of dread is inescapable. The settings--often sites frequented by travelers or temporary tenants--underscore a natural fear that the world around us may be unreal, or may evaporate at any moment. Connections and relationships are slippery, easily lost. Our thoughts and emotions are not enough to sustain us.
This is story writing at its best, reminding the reader with every perfectly turned phrase that life, no matter how vivid or beautiful, is ephemeral. Highly recommended.
This is story writing at its best, reminding the reader with every perfectly turned phrase that life, no matter how vivid or beautiful, is ephemeral. Highly recommended.
October 19, 2016
've been a fan of Lynda E. Rucker's fiction since reading her debut The Moon Will Look Strange, a fantastic collection of strange and haunting fiction. Her second collection, You'll Know When You Get There, is if anything even better.
The first story, The Receiver Of Tales, is the perfect opener, introducing the reader to many reoccurring themes in the collection as a whole. Rucker's central character is isolated, both physically and emotionally, leaving her vulnerable to the events that follow. The Receiver Of Tales is a story about stories and how they might shape us: a idea represented here by the fact the titular tales are physically scrawled into the protagonist's body. Stories might be things we literally can't escape from.
Many of the finest tales in this book are about the intersection between fiction and reality and the darkness to be found there. Rucker's knowledge of the writers who have come before her is clear, but never deployed in an obvious, derivative or cheap way. There are nods to M.R. James, Charlotte Perkins Gillman, Robert W. Chambers and Shirley Jackson, but Rucker's work stands proudly apart from any of her influences. Indeed, a story like Who Is This Who Is Coming?, a narrative set firmly in M.R. James country, might be considered a warning about the dangers of identifying too closely with such past masters of horror, lest what we see in their works turns out to be all too true. It's quite simply a masterpiece.
What also comes across is how damn good Rucker is at evoking a sense of place, both the physical character of a landscape and how it might affect the people within it. The stories take us from the Irish countryside of Widdershins (one of the scariest stories here), via the American lakes in This Time of Day, This Time Of Year, to a strange and decaying forest which doesn't appear on any map in The Wife's Lament. Into these places stumble Rucker's characters, unsure of the rules that govern these landscapes until it might be too late.
One of the finest pieces here, quietly devastating, is Where The Summer Dwells. A nostalgic, elegaic piece about the American South and the way we might be haunted by our memories, it's a horror story which aspires to more than mere scares. It is, in the most heartbreaking sense of the word, beautiful.
And then, there's not one but two stunningly original takes on the haunted house story. The House on Cobb Street is a twisted masterpiece: the titular house may or may not be real, and its unclear if those haunted were real either. Also in doubt is the reality of the abode in The Haunting House; does it exist outside the confused narrator's dreams of it? Regardless, she leaves her life behind to try and find it (and maybe find the mysterious being she has dreamt might be inside it) as if it were calling to her. "Journeys end in lovers meeting", indeed.
It's a brilliant end to what is, quite simply, one of the short story collections of the year. You'll Know When You'll Get There is available in a beautiful hardback edition from Swan River Press.
The first story, The Receiver Of Tales, is the perfect opener, introducing the reader to many reoccurring themes in the collection as a whole. Rucker's central character is isolated, both physically and emotionally, leaving her vulnerable to the events that follow. The Receiver Of Tales is a story about stories and how they might shape us: a idea represented here by the fact the titular tales are physically scrawled into the protagonist's body. Stories might be things we literally can't escape from.
Many of the finest tales in this book are about the intersection between fiction and reality and the darkness to be found there. Rucker's knowledge of the writers who have come before her is clear, but never deployed in an obvious, derivative or cheap way. There are nods to M.R. James, Charlotte Perkins Gillman, Robert W. Chambers and Shirley Jackson, but Rucker's work stands proudly apart from any of her influences. Indeed, a story like Who Is This Who Is Coming?, a narrative set firmly in M.R. James country, might be considered a warning about the dangers of identifying too closely with such past masters of horror, lest what we see in their works turns out to be all too true. It's quite simply a masterpiece.
What also comes across is how damn good Rucker is at evoking a sense of place, both the physical character of a landscape and how it might affect the people within it. The stories take us from the Irish countryside of Widdershins (one of the scariest stories here), via the American lakes in This Time of Day, This Time Of Year, to a strange and decaying forest which doesn't appear on any map in The Wife's Lament. Into these places stumble Rucker's characters, unsure of the rules that govern these landscapes until it might be too late.
One of the finest pieces here, quietly devastating, is Where The Summer Dwells. A nostalgic, elegaic piece about the American South and the way we might be haunted by our memories, it's a horror story which aspires to more than mere scares. It is, in the most heartbreaking sense of the word, beautiful.
And then, there's not one but two stunningly original takes on the haunted house story. The House on Cobb Street is a twisted masterpiece: the titular house may or may not be real, and its unclear if those haunted were real either. Also in doubt is the reality of the abode in The Haunting House; does it exist outside the confused narrator's dreams of it? Regardless, she leaves her life behind to try and find it (and maybe find the mysterious being she has dreamt might be inside it) as if it were calling to her. "Journeys end in lovers meeting", indeed.
It's a brilliant end to what is, quite simply, one of the short story collections of the year. You'll Know When You'll Get There is available in a beautiful hardback edition from Swan River Press.
July 15, 2023
Favourite stories: The House on Cobb Street, Where the Summer Dwells, The Haunting House
March 14, 2017
A perfectly sized book of nine spooky weird stories written by a Shirley Jackson award-winning author. These are modern but classically vibed ghost and haunted hour stories. The concepts are original and each story deals with personal elements such as family struggles, PTSD, and loss. There is not a lot of violence or scary monsters in these stories but they still remain eerie enough to remain interesting. I actually read the first story A Receiver Of Tales to my young daughter and she loved it.
I enjoyed all nine stories in this book but a few notable favorites such as Widdershins, a story about a man trying to escape his past in Ireland mixed with some dark Irish folklore. Who Is This Who Is coming, is another of my favorites which I really Identified on a personal level. The idea of completely absorbing yourself in art as an escape from the real world is brilliantly declared in this bleak tale. Another favorite is This Time Of Day This Time Of Year which is about a young female marine, Josie, returning back from Iraq and is having difficulty adjusting to civilian life. She decides to escape to a piece of family property on a river and brings her youngest sister Ellen with her. Josie and Ellen discover a city under the river and Josie disappears into it. Ellen is already dealing with the loss of her sister to war and now has to cope with losing her to this drowned city. It really is a brilliant story. The final story The Haunting House is an original spin on the haunted house story. The reader is with Lucy who is trying to track down a house that she has never been to but has haunted her dreams since she was a child. Despite Lucy coming from an affluent family she has had her fair share of struggles and feels that finding the house that is haunting her dreams will make her whole.
I think Shirley Jackson comparisons are apt. If you are a fan of some of the older ghost stories and weird tales then this book will be right up your alley. There are nods to Robert Chambers and HP Lovecraft among the stories. I have Rucker's other more well-known, The Moon Will Look Strange, which I will definitely read at some point. Rucker is flexing her literary chops and I look forward to sharing more of her work with my daughter in the future.
I enjoyed all nine stories in this book but a few notable favorites such as Widdershins, a story about a man trying to escape his past in Ireland mixed with some dark Irish folklore. Who Is This Who Is coming, is another of my favorites which I really Identified on a personal level. The idea of completely absorbing yourself in art as an escape from the real world is brilliantly declared in this bleak tale. Another favorite is This Time Of Day This Time Of Year which is about a young female marine, Josie, returning back from Iraq and is having difficulty adjusting to civilian life. She decides to escape to a piece of family property on a river and brings her youngest sister Ellen with her. Josie and Ellen discover a city under the river and Josie disappears into it. Ellen is already dealing with the loss of her sister to war and now has to cope with losing her to this drowned city. It really is a brilliant story. The final story The Haunting House is an original spin on the haunted house story. The reader is with Lucy who is trying to track down a house that she has never been to but has haunted her dreams since she was a child. Despite Lucy coming from an affluent family she has had her fair share of struggles and feels that finding the house that is haunting her dreams will make her whole.
I think Shirley Jackson comparisons are apt. If you are a fan of some of the older ghost stories and weird tales then this book will be right up your alley. There are nods to Robert Chambers and HP Lovecraft among the stories. I have Rucker's other more well-known, The Moon Will Look Strange, which I will definitely read at some point. Rucker is flexing her literary chops and I look forward to sharing more of her work with my daughter in the future.
January 1, 2018
Se acerca al 4.5.
Tal como dice Lisa Tuttle en la introducción, cuentos sobre casas y lugares encantados. No hay ninguno malo, y unos cuantos están francamente bien. Mis favoritos: "Who Is This Who Is Coming?", "The Queen in the Yellow Paper" y "This Time of Day, This Time of Year".
Tal como dice Lisa Tuttle en la introducción, cuentos sobre casas y lugares encantados. No hay ninguno malo, y unos cuantos están francamente bien. Mis favoritos: "Who Is This Who Is Coming?", "The Queen in the Yellow Paper" y "This Time of Day, This Time of Year".
April 18, 2020
This book saved my sanity.
On a weekend when the Coronavirus was taking over the UK, tap dancing on my mental health, and causing most people distress, I lost myself in this wonderful collection.
The stories contained within You'll Know When You Get There by Lynda E. Rucker, reflect old masters such as M.R. James, Shirley Jackson, Robert Aikman. The collection opens with The Receiver of Tales, which is possibly my favourite story in the collection. An artist, a writer, a need to collect stories. I loved reading the story notes and finding the inspiration for this particular tale.
The nightmarish The House on Cobb Street is told from the viewpoints of Vivian Crane and a collection of articles. It is tense, affecting, and haunting. Who is this who's coming? is a well-written and affecting homage to M.R. James. Having watched the BBC series, Ghost Stories for Christmas, several times, the images in this story were so familiar and well drawn.
We have come to Carcosa. In The Queen in the Yellow Wallpaper, the protagonist and her husband move to an isolated house - Carcosa - to look after her husband's sick sister. A house that is as sick and as affected as it's owner.
Finally, there is a warmth to The Haunting House, a story about a place that haunts across time and space. A wonderful ending to an outstanding collection.
On a weekend when the Coronavirus was taking over the UK, tap dancing on my mental health, and causing most people distress, I lost myself in this wonderful collection.
The stories contained within You'll Know When You Get There by Lynda E. Rucker, reflect old masters such as M.R. James, Shirley Jackson, Robert Aikman. The collection opens with The Receiver of Tales, which is possibly my favourite story in the collection. An artist, a writer, a need to collect stories. I loved reading the story notes and finding the inspiration for this particular tale.
The nightmarish The House on Cobb Street is told from the viewpoints of Vivian Crane and a collection of articles. It is tense, affecting, and haunting. Who is this who's coming? is a well-written and affecting homage to M.R. James. Having watched the BBC series, Ghost Stories for Christmas, several times, the images in this story were so familiar and well drawn.
We have come to Carcosa. In The Queen in the Yellow Wallpaper, the protagonist and her husband move to an isolated house - Carcosa - to look after her husband's sick sister. A house that is as sick and as affected as it's owner.
Finally, there is a warmth to The Haunting House, a story about a place that haunts across time and space. A wonderful ending to an outstanding collection.
November 17, 2018
I have no problem at all giving this book five stars.
Lynda Rucker's stories are little gems, each one gleaming with their own light, no two quite the same as any of the others. Yet there is an underlying consistency to the overall collection. The mood throughout is as if moving through a dream that is at once unnervingly familiar, yet cleverly imaginative. We follow the protagonists in each story down dark hallways, into deep woods and along bleak, windy shorelines, always glad we journeyed along, if never quite safe and secure in where we are heading.
This is one of those books I will come back to in the future. And I'll certainly be looking for more of her work as well.
Lynda Rucker's stories are little gems, each one gleaming with their own light, no two quite the same as any of the others. Yet there is an underlying consistency to the overall collection. The mood throughout is as if moving through a dream that is at once unnervingly familiar, yet cleverly imaginative. We follow the protagonists in each story down dark hallways, into deep woods and along bleak, windy shorelines, always glad we journeyed along, if never quite safe and secure in where we are heading.
This is one of those books I will come back to in the future. And I'll certainly be looking for more of her work as well.
January 25, 2021
Rucker is often full of rhapsodies. Rhapsodies sometimes upon the edge of hard-consonantal near-rationalisation, also upon the soft edge of never coming back, of becoming attenuated, distaff-diaphanous…
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
August 4, 2017
Amazing collection! My favorite stories were "The House on Cobb Street," "Who is This Who is Coming?," "The Queen in the Yellow Wallpaper," "The Wife's Lament," and "The Haunting House," but I liked all of the stories here. The book is beautifully designed, too.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews