Both unfold in the early part of the last century. 'The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All' is bookended by two hunting stories "Blackwood's Baby" and "The Men From Porlock." The latter story fleshes out events mentioned in Barron's novel 'The Croning,' while the former introduces readers to the locale and the unsavory habits of the local aristocracy. By virtue of the rich background that Barron provides, these stories will reward reading and re-reading with an ever-deepening apprehension of terror.īarron is particularly effective when he his working with a historical setting, and you'll find a variety of these in this collection. Most of the stories here unfold in the remote forests of the Olympic peninsula, and alert readers will note returning characters and families. The power of 'The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All' is that Barron sets all the stories in a consistent universe, with connections between the tales both obvious and obscure. Read these stories only if you want the unique experience of feeling a frisson of fear. Their lives are not improved by this knowledge, even as Barron's readers' lives are. Barron lets them see just a little bit more than a shadow, and hear the words in the wind. Barron's rough-and-tumble assembly of hunters, mob-enforcers, lumberjacks, schoolteachers and writers are every bit as limited in their understanding of what is around them as are his readers. Laird Barron's collection 'The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All' makes those connections for us, in stories that are truly haunting. There is nothing to connect the solid shadow to the voice in the soughing of the wind. In those moments, if we're lucky, we see more than our workaday world, and are able to return. But on occasion, we might glance at a shadow and mistake it for something more substantial, or hear a voice that proves to be no more than the soughing of the wind.
Most of the time, we operate as if this does not matter, because most of the time that's true. There's only so much we can learn, and the certainty of our ignorance should give us pause. We know that while the universe is infinite, our knowledge is limited. Horror Science Fiction Fantasy Mystery General Fiction
Laird Barron The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All Reviewed by Rick Kleffel
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