Beneath a Pale Sky

Beneath a Pale Sky by Philip Fracassi is a creepy and weird collection of short stories. The tales range from the bizarre to the more bizarre, encompassing sci-if, demons, special powers, and a whole lot more. This collection of dark fiction has a lot going on. My favorites in the collection were Soda Jerk (small town horror with some Stepford Wives vibes) , Ateuchus (sci-fi first contact horror), and Death My Old Friend (a humorous and darkly optimistic story about growing up as Death's best friend). I also enjoyed The Wheel (from which the volume's title is taken), but this story exemplified one of my chief complaints about the book. Fracassi's prose is well constructed and loaded with expression, but it's also just loaded with details and words. Almost all of the stories felt too long, and at times seemed to include details that didn't really drive the plot forward or connect with the climax or conclusion of the story. Sometimes I struggled to maintain interest as I listened to the audio version, which was a pity because there is so much to be interested in contained within these tales. At times Fracassi is reminiscent of Lovecraft in this volume, and as with Lovecraft sometimes I wished he'd just get to the madness-inducing action instead of getting bogged down in backstory and human elements. Also in The Wheel (and many others) the stories contained a certain element of ambiguity. I can appreciate some mystery, but I also enjoy clarity. More than once I finished a story and wasn't really sure what the ending meant or felt the most important component of the story was left unexplained. Perhaps this is Fracassi's literary point? I don't know, I just know that sometimes I was confused. Despite this, this is a good collection and I plan to read more Fracassi (and maybe reread this one) in the future. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Oh, and P.S. the audiobook version is missing the introduction by Josh Malerman. In the unlikely event Fracassi or Malerman reads this review, it would be awesome if you released an updated version that featured Malerman (or I suppose Ariel Brandt, the book's narrator) reading the introduction at the beginning.