THE DEEP ONES: "Reading in Bed" by Joan Aiken

CharlasThe Weird Tradition

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THE DEEP ONES: "Reading in Bed" by Joan Aiken

2AndreasJ
Editado: Jun 16, 2022, 1:23 am

You can't really call this horor, despite the presumptive threat to the lieutenant's spiritual well-being, but I thought it an enjoyable diversion.

And I hope it will dissuade the Deep Ones from any plans of reading in bed they may harbour :p

3housefulofpaper
Jun 18, 2022, 8:18 pm

For a long time I believed Joan Aiken was solely a children's author and although her work was offered up, via readings on the BBC, through the Puffin Club (Puffins being Penguin Books' childrens imprint, and my school having a kind of corporate membership of the club), I never read any of her work when I was a child. In fact this is only the second story of hers I've read (the other was a ghost story I remember as rather tongue-in-cheek). That New Yorker article in >1 semdetenebre: suggests I was missing out.

This was a slight story, but an "enjoyable diversion" as AndreaJ says, all the same. The balance between the folk tale mode and the modern fiction mode (e.g. the observation about seaside shops) reminds me of the childrens fiction I did read back in the '70s, but I think I undervalued the artistry behind it at the time.