I nabbed this from the Horror After Dark review list because I like what's going on at Omnium Gatherum. I've read a few books from them now and a couple of them have knocked my socks off. I include this novella in that category.

Carus and Mitch are the names of two girls living alone in a house. Their house is barricaded throughout and the girls only have access to a couple of the rooms. They have live chickens in the dining room. Their mother's locket hangs on the wall.

That's all I can tell you. Why, you ask? The fun that I had with this story was teasing out the truth of the narrative, and I don't want to spoil that for anyone else. I'm still not sure that I have all the answers, but I find as I'm thinking about the story now, a few more things have become clear. (Or have they? I'm not sure!) But I have always enjoyed ambiguous tales and this is definitely one.

I thought this story was well written and cleverly told. I expected answers that I wasn't given, and I liked that. I liked having to work a little bit to understand things. I enjoyed not having everything tied up in a pretty little package. In this way, Tim Major reminds me a lot of Greg F. Gifune and that's the highest compliment I can think of right now.

To summarize, I recommend this novella to lovers of ambiguous and sophisticated dark fiction. I call it sophisticated because this is more than just a straightforward story, it needs the reader's input to be complete. This reader loved it!

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An enjoyably dark and twisted little read that keeps you guessing long after the book is done. ( )