Review: The heart’s the trouble indeed.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 21, 2014
Gemma Farrow’s ‘Beneath the Willow’ is a short, but eerily effective piece that draws to mind classic works from the likes of Poe and Blackwood, with its dark sombre settings and emotional themes.It is the tale of lovers Thomas and Keziah, their lives profoundly changed forever on a fateful night when a trip out to go clubbing for Keziah turns into something much more.It’s a vampire story, but it spurns the standard approach for such fare, instead cultivating and escalating tension, and making a great reliance on the characters themselves, playing out the tragedy engulfing them, with poignancy.Being a novella, ‘Beneath the Willow’ is something that can easily be read in one sitting, in fact once you are drawn into the nightmare Thomas is facing, you will no doubt want to remain with him as he descends into it, battling grief and hopelessness, ensnared in something he can hardly believe himself.Books and stories revolving around vampires tend to be one of two things, either overly romanticized or intentionally horrific, but Gemma Farrow has managed to find a very nice balance of the two, and while it is a quiet horror with which this tale is told, it is a creeping and befittingly unnerving one.Extremely well written, crafted with a subtle beauty and hosting a sting in the tail, ‘Beneath the Willow’ is certainly a remarkable tale.The heart’s the trouble indeed.