Awaken To The Night by Nicki J. MarkusMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
"Jimmy looked up. The discordant jangling of the rusty bell over the door indicated a customer had arrived. He lifted his elbows off the counter and stood up straight, pushing his magazine out of sight behind the chocolate stand."
Awaken to the Night is a 4000 word short horror story set in the Australian outback, and is new author Nicki J. Markus' first published piece.
It tells the strange events that unfold for a young woman who awakens to find herself locked in a room in the middle of nowhere. Unable to recall how she got there, or even her own name, she escapes into the night.
This is a fun, well-written short story. It contains all the necessary detail to maintain interest, and being only 4000 words in length it is really easy to read. The only thing that prevents me from giving this story a 5 star rating is that I am unable to understand why or how the story ended up to be in the Australian bush? Perhaps this is something that the author will develop further at another time, but I couldn't help but feel the story would have been better suited to an urban scene.
It did, however, leave me wanting to know more about all the obvious pieces that short stories deliberately leave out; such as, who is the mysterious figure in the window? Where did he come from and how did he get there? I cannot help but feel this hidden villain has a story of his own to tell!
View all my reviews
A lot of fun, and a highly recommended quick read.
View all my reviews
Thanks Sarah - this is my first review!
ReplyDeleteAs to the Australian Bush- there was a reason for that.
When I started to put this piece together it was in response to a call for short stories submissions for an anthology of vampire stories set in Australia. I figured you couldn't get more Australian than the outback.
When I finished the story, I showed it to a friend who is a published writer. It was she who suggested I submit to a e-book publisher instead of the competition - but the setting stayed! (;o)
I have had one reader ask me to let on about the names of the characters - who knows, perhaps there'll be a sequel in the future if a suitable idea comes to me...