Apex Back Catalog Blog Tour: GREENER PASTURES by Michael Wehunt – Review

Greener Pastures by Michael Wehunt
Published by Apex Book Company on March 4 2017
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 198
Format: Finished paperback
Source: Purchased
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I’m thrilled to be helping Apex Books promote their Back Catalog Blog Tour! I’ve been reading and reviewing Apex books for years now, and their quality has just gotten better and better. I can’t stress enough that if you are looking for cutting edge, original and high quality speculative fiction, you just won’t find another publisher who cares as much about their content and nurturing new writers.

The nitty-gritty: Odd and unsettling, Michael Wehunt’s stories are glimpses into Twilight Zone-like worlds where horror is just another everyday occurrence.

Michael Wehunt is a new-to-me author, but cruising around blogs and social media sites over the years, I kept seeing his name pop up. When Lesley Conner at Apex Books invited me to participate in Apex’s Back Catalog Book Tour, I immediately jumped at the chance to finally read Wehunt’s debut short story collection. And it was really good. Greener Pastures is a collection of eleven stories, eight of which are reprints and three of which are original to the collection. As with most short story collections, I didn’t love all the stories, but overall I was impressed with Wehunt’s weird sensibility and oddly affecting way of shining a light on the inevitable passages of life: birth, marriage, divorce, death and loss. Here are some of my favorites:

Greener Pastures

The title story was one of the best. A trucker is desperately trying to get home for his young daughter’s birthday, but when he stops at a rest stop for a break, he meets another trucker who tells him about the dark places in between, the lonely places that call to us. I loved the bittersweet emotions of the trucker, who loves his daughter and wants to be with her on her special day. But the rest stop seems to be a trap and the reader doesn’t know if he’ll even be able to leave. This story was unsettling and sad.

The Devil Under the Maison Blue

A dead jazz musician hangs around in order to help a young woman who has been raped and impregnated by her father. This was a very weird story dealing with horrific and uncomfortable themes, and I loved the way Mr. Elling, the musician, is able to use his music to rectify bad situations. In this case, his music compels Gillian to bravely confront the devil (her father).

October Film Haunt: Under the House

Wehunt tackles the “found footage” style of storytelling by paying homage to such films as The Blair Witch Project. Four horror fans get together each year and make a pilgrimage to the site of a popular horror film. This year it’s a cult movie called Under the House, and the friends decide to spend the night in the house where the film was made, trying to reenact each scene in the movie.

This story was spooky and somewhat upsetting. I definitely got a Blair Witch vibe from it, as the house starts to slowly drive them crazy. As in many of Wehunt’s stories, it’s not always clear what is real and what isn’t. When a prop from the movie actually turns up in the house, you know things are only going to get weirder.

Word of warning to dog lovers: there are two dogs in this story and both have bad things happen to them. If you’re sensitive about such things, I’d skip this one. Also, the cover illustration depicts the events in this story!

Deducted From Your Share in Paradise

One day, a bunch of women fall out of the sky and land in a remote trailer park. One by one, the residents take the women under their wings, and soon something odd begins to happen. Turns out, the women are fallen angels, cast out of heaven, and they’re looking for a way to get back.

One young man simply wants to leave the trailer park, a depressing environment where a man named Daddy Pardon makes the residents pay him a percentage of their paychecks as protection money. His adventure with “his” angel takes a different path than the others. I found this story to be strange and oddly magical, wistful and hopeful at the same time.

Dancers

Mae’s husband has just had an exorcism, and unbeknownst to him, Mae has captured the devil that came out of him and trapped it in a mason jar. This story was a bittersweet look at a couple who were never able to have children of their own, and instead, poured their energy into the two Japanese oak trees in the garden. I’m not sure I understood this story in the end, but that’s OK because I loved the dark, Lovecraftian atmosphere and the feeling of regret and sadness that permeated it.

A Thousand Hundred Years

I loved this story about the loss of a child. Jandro is divorced and only sees his young daughter Virginia a few times a week. One day, he takes her to the park, but she inexplicably disappears. When a neighbor gives him a projector, he sees the images of his daughter in the park come to life. This story touches on several fears, losing a child, and the fear of deportation, and I thought it was very effective.

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Wehunt’s brand of horror is often subtle. You don’t always see it right away, but you know it’s there lurking right around the corner. I found it refreshing to read stories that aren’t “in your face” bloody horror but were open to interpretation. I didn’t always understand what the author was trying to do, but he never failed when it came to evoking an emotional response. Unsetting and strange, I loved discovering Michael Wehunt, and I’m eager to read more of his fiction in the future.

Big thanks to Lesley Conner for asking me to take part in this fun event!