Rating:4🌈
Sometimes a story by Ofelia Grand is less a long winding, complicated adventure for her characters and more a fleeting vivid window into a certain important moment of her characters lives. It doesn’t matter if it’s a science fiction story or a tale of a ghost and a family of witches set in a lighthouse in an anonymous coastal town.
Each novella has all this author’s narrative hallmarks. They contain weirdly mysterious elements, wonderfully detailed characters, and a story that, much like a work day, just ends once that storyline “job” is fulfilled, leaving the reader feeling both filled with awe at the story itself and dismayed by its abrupt ending.
The tattooed corpse stories were born out of a group discussion about having a tattooed corpse just appearing in a story, no matter the trope. This is Grand’s ghost story.
Eldred Henstare, guardian of a city, has been feeling a ghost calling to him from across the town. Now, he’s out in the middle of a storm, blindly following the voiceless call. Which leads him to a lighthouse.
That’s the start of another strange, remarkable tale from this author I can’t get enough of. As with Worth His Salt (a Tattooed Corpse tale), Grand gives the reader fascinating characters, fleeting glimpses into mysterious family backgrounds , a foundation story to sink your teeth into, and a finish that ends the story just as the characters begin what appears to be a very magical romantic relationship.
It’s fabulous, well written, and also frustrating, because it feels like we’ve been given a glance into a new world and the beginning of a life we want to see more of.
Which is typical of Grand and her flights of narrative fancy.
Will we see these characters again? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s sounds as though this highly unusual author has a mind full of ideas and drawer(s) stuffed with stories, so who knows which will see the light of a publisher?
I will be waiting for every one. And recommending them.
Cover art: Amy Spector
Tattooed Corpse Stories:
✓ Worth His Salt (ghost story and lighthouse)
✓ It Doesn’t Translate (syfi universe)
Buy Link:
Amazon.comhttps://www.amazon.com › Worth-…Worth His Salt eBook : Gränd, Ofelia: Kindle Store
Blurb:
Eldred Henstare is a not so powerful witch who’s been left in charge of helping the city’s lingering spirits to move on. He usually handles it pretty well, but something’s wrong with the spirit leading him to the abandoned lighthouse.
Mo Vin likes his quiet life in the cottage next to the lighthouse, at least it’s quiet until one night when Eldred Henstare — young, beautiful, and crazy — arrives. After that night things aren’t the same. A man is found dead on the beach outside Mo’s cottage, and he’s almost sure he’s the one who killed him, except it doesn’t make sense. Why would he kill anyone?
Eldred needs to get rid of the ghost haunting Mo. If he doesn’t Mo’s life is in danger, but to do it he needs both Mo and his brother Lachtin to help out.
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC (March 13, 2021)
• Publication date: March 13, 2021
• Print length: 54 pages
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 