Moonflower, Nightshade, All the Hours of the Day is a collection of short stories written by J.D. Scott. There are ten stories in total, each one very different from the last, although there are common themes and topics that recur throughout the collection. Some of the stories are quite short, others are longer. The longest story is 'After The End Came The Mall, And The Mall Was Everything', which in my opinion felt quite different from the other stories in the collection.

Scott has a way with words that really makes this book unique. A way of describing things that makes them feel unreal, even if what is being described is completely normal. And then truly surreal things are woven in. I spent a lot of the time I was reading this book not really knowing where I stood, not knowing for certain what was real and what was metaphorical, or a dream or delusion. The whole book was like a strange dream.

All of the stories have an eerie feeling, a dream like quality. We see humanity in all of its weirdness and mundanity. Human connections and disconnections. Love and loss. Explorations of death. Ghosts and the occult show up in more than one of the story, as well as dreams and delusions. There's even a science fiction fantasy dystopian capitalist society, and a bizarre retelling of the Christian Easter.

My ratings for each story individually are as follows:

The Teenager 3/5

Chinchilla 4/5

The Hand That Sews 5/5

Cross 3/5

Moonflower, Nightshade, All The Hours Of The Day 5/5

Where Parallel Lines Come To Touch 5/5

Night Things 3/5

Their Sons Return Home To Die 4/5

After The End Came The Mall, And The Mall Was Everything 4/5

Fordite Pendant 3/5

My overall rating for this book is 4/5. It's an interesting collection of stories that takes the reader on a dream like experience, and really makes you think. I certainly wouldn't consider it easy reading material! It takes some time and some thinking about, but it is well worth a read. ( )