AC Wise’s novella Grackle is a masterful example of short-form horror. The story combines folk horror with themes of grief, possession, and the past repeating itself to continuously haunt the present.
Andi is taking a road trip to a town with a strange history in a doomed attempt to reconnect with her sister. Emanuelle, who is seeking a ghost from her own past, unexpectedly joins Andi. During the drive, Emanuelle recounts the tale of Grackle, a story that does not have an ending, and sets in motion a series of events that pull the two of them inside the story.
Wise uses the trope of telling ghost stories in creepy settings to set the mood of the narrative. It feels as though the tale Emanuelle shares during their late night drive envelops them, pulling them towards an ending they cannot escape. The author’s writing style is very atmospheric, and like the motif of the girl going alone into a haunted house, the protagonists’ journey into Drakesburg feels increasingly ill-fated and ill-advised.
Unfolding in Andi’s point of view, with occasional chapters in Emmanuelle’s voice, we learn what has been haunting both of them, and how it interlaces with the tale of Grackle and Drakesburg’s history. But Andi and Emanuelle are not entirely reliable narrators, so the creepy tone set from the beginning only grows, as events grow stranger… or is it all in their heads?
Although only 80 pages, Wise creates a multi-layered tale that feeds into itself in an ouroboros of story-within-a-story, character-within-a-character, and past-within-present.
This novella is perfect for fans of horror, otherworldly mystery, and anyone who feels the past clawing its unwelcome way into the present.
This review first appeared in Aurealis magazine, issue #181.
