From the all-too-real horror of a sexual predator on a college campus to a lost sister transformed by cave-dwelling creatures, Mystery Lights grapples with terrors both familiar and fantastic, introducing an electrifying new voice in contemporary fiction while bringing to light the many faces of the forces that haunt us."
Mystery Lights is a collection of short stories that centers around women and girls and the many dangers that follow them throughout life, from immediate dangers to existential threats and everything in between. As much as this premise gripped me, this collection unfortunately left a lot to be desired and I found them largely hit or miss. Many stories had strong starts or interesting premises, but by the end the stories seemed to peter out and were altogether lackluster. Some stories tried to be eerie, but just weren’t, and while the writing itself is generally good, the content of the stories themselves left me as a reader unsatisfied.
As I like to do with short story collections, here are a few of my thoughts on a few individual stories from this collection (these are the stories that stand out most vividly in my memory, in this case):
“Dogs”: There was a lot of build-up in this story for not much payoff. The message was good, but the delivery could have been better. It’s a solid idea for a somewhat unnerving story that does have some fun red herrings in it, but overall I found it hard to connect with the protagonist and I couldn’t quite get behind the ending.
“You Can Never Be Too Sure”: This one was short and to the point, and I generally enjoyed it. There were some elements of fear that the author played with, as well as how women pay attention to gut instincts, and while it wasn't a particularly standout story, it was still an enjoyable read with a satisfying ending that didn't feel like a letdown.
“Mystery Lights”: This story tries to do a lot but didn't seem to have enough time to fully explore the concepts it was playing with. I was drawn into this story initially and wish it had had more time to develop, but it was still an interesting story overall.
“Trogloxene”: "Trogloxene" was one of the most horror-esque of the bunch and I appreciated how Valencia built up the atmosphere. The story and 'mystery' felt a bit too obvious and on the nose and felt like something very familiar that I've read many times over. Despite this, it was one of the more gripping stories with creepy vibes.
“The Reclamation”: This was an engaging enough story, but, like “Trogloxene,” it featured a topic that’s a bit overdone and felt a little uninspired. Despite this, I generally enjoyed it and found it kept me wanting to find out what would happen. The ending was well done, which made it a bit of a rare gem.
Overall, I was fairly disappointed with this collection and as a result I’ve given it 2.75 stars. The cover, however, I would give 5 stars!
Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org
Oh too bad, I was waiting for your review to see if I might like this, but I think I'll pass.
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