Gateways to Abomination - Epic Short Story Collection
Something is wrong in Leeds, Massachusetts. Very wrong. Dark forces are on the move - looming, devouring, poisoning, dominating, and destroying. And it all seems to be centered on WXXT, an obscure pirate radio station with programming unlike any other.
In Gateways to Abomination, author Matthew M Bartlett gifts us with thirty-four short stories loosely connected to one another through a backwood radio station with a penchant for dark, occult programming. I am always a little wary when it comes to starting a book of short stories. Most collections are very uneven. Not this one. Bartlett’s collection ranges across the whole landscape of weird fiction and Lovecraft-esque themes, but never seems to miss its mark.
Most of the stories are transcripts of broadcasts, personal memories where the radio station plays some part, newspaper articles, or small vignettes. The stories are all much shorter than you typically find in a collection of this sort. Quite a few are only a page or two. Personally, I found this to be a real strength. It is not uncommon for short stories to pad themselves to find the right length to appeal to publications. Bartlett bravely avoids doing this, ensuring that no story is any longer than it needs to be. They’re all tight, directed, accomplish what they need to and then move on.
Bartlett’s stories fit squarely within the weird fiction genre. Algernon Blackwood and H P Lovecraft repeatedly came to mind while reading them. Each story relates some event or series of events which are just profoundly “off”. In the The Last Hike a man recounts time spent with his wife, hiking in western Massachusetts. Neither the woods nor his relationship are what they seem. His discovery of the radio station on one of these hikes rips open the veil to reveal the truth behind his town… or maybe his nightmare about what is behind it… or both… or maybe neither. (Isn’t weird fiction fun?) Bartlett’s tales are haunted by uncles with occult skills manipulating their families, young men suffering gorey and surreal dentist visits, goat people in the woods, and FCC investigators asking questions best left unanswered. Each tale is unsettling and fills you with a sort of dread about what might be lurking in the most banal parts of our own life.
Matthew M Bartlett was unknown to me before reading this book. While it was my first book by him, it will definitely not be my last. According to Amazon and Goodreads, he has a small growing collection of books I am definitely going to be working my way through. Gateways to Abomination was as good a place to start as any and I highly recommend it.
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