PositiveSignal HorizonFor me, there’s no greater thrill than seeing an author use fiction as a platform to examine their original driving urge—art itself. A Spectral Hue by Craig Laurance Gidney is one such book ... the book unfolds as an exploration of timelines...but it’s most gripping moments are in its non-supernatural beginning ... Unfortunately, A Spectral Hue’s slimness and large cast of characters keep it from reaching its full potential, although not to the point of dismissal. Gidney’s a strong writer and his characterizations are quick and effective—populating his novel on fringe art with believable fringe people ... A Spectral Hue sticks more landings than it misses ... In an alternate universe, this could have been a Straubian 600 page epic, complete with interweaving plotlines, set in a rich world of outcasts and academics alike. But in ours, we get a tamer, but still appreciable achievement—a short, fast read that makes up for what it lacks with what it offers.
Seong-Nan Ha
PositiveSignal HorizonA subtle and strange collection that puts people under the microscope. These stories are as literary and oblique as they come, and yet: there is still obsession, violence, and a pervasive feeling of powerlessness. The people of Ha’s fiction are nameless entities bouncing off their surroundings in near total obscurity. Depicted in short, declarative sentences she builds scenes and fills them with detail with a war reporter’s nonchalance ... While this may not please genre readers looking for the purest devotion to gore and the supernatural—those with a taste for the literary will find a strange and intriguing voice at work in Flowers of Mold. And as horror and art continue to steal and mix with each other, I’m sure we’ll find more—on both sides of the aisle—that continue to push the envelope. Flowers of Mold pushes that envelope with its impressive style and stifling isolation, creating something that’s as strange as it is incisive.
