Behold the Void

Behold the Void by Philip Fracassi is a short story collection of horror tales, largely featuring the cosmic sub-genre. Themes of parents, children, loneliness, toxic masculinity and misogyny, and fear of loss recurred throughout many of the stories in the collection. and For me, this collection was a mixed bag. A few stories really stood out to me as four and five star stories including Fail-Safe, Mandela, Baby Farmer, and Horse Thief (especially part 2). I also mostly enjoyed Coffin and Mother, but sadly the other three stories were disappointments to me. I noticed that Fracassi writes beautiful prose, but I found many of the stories to be long, slow, and loaded with detail that did not directly advance the plot. Perhaps it's simply my preference as a read, but I think I enjoy stories that are plot driven more than character or world-building driven, and that made reading some of this stories a tad tedious. This collection was published prior to Fracassi's Beneath a Pale Sky, which I have previously reviewed. I think I preferred Beneath a Pale Sky a bit more, although my comments about meandering detail holds true in both collections. Still, fans of literary horror may find this an enjoyable read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️