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"Nocturne"
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“Before long, sensations morph into monsters.”
“Nocturne: A Collection of Dark Tales” is my first attempt at dissecting a complete anthology of flash fiction stories. I feel as though I must preface this breakdown, as it will differ slightly from the others I’ve written. Flash fiction is a difficult format to grasp, because context can be slim to none in a piece that only contains around fifteen hundred words or less. What these stories lack in context, I try to read between the lines and pick apart subtle clues in order to pick up on any subtext that may have been implied by the author, which can end up being nothing more than subjective interpretation on my part (again dealing minimal material here).
“Nocturne: A Collection of Dark Tales” is my first attempt at dissecting a complete anthology of flash fiction stories. I feel as though I must preface this breakdown, as it will differ slightly from the others I’ve written. Flash fiction is a difficult format to grasp, because context can be slim to none in a piece that only contains around fifteen hundred words or less. What these stories lack in context, I try to read between the lines and pick apart subtle clues in order to pick up on any subtext that may have been implied by the author, which can end up being nothing more than subjective interpretation on my part (again dealing minimal material here).
Readability
With the exception of the one drabble (The Parasite), all the rest of these entries are around five to six pages a pop. You can read these stories in any order, but I discovered that they all share similar elements and even seem to have some minor connections to one another (similar reoccurring features about characters/places/things). The writing is well edited in every entry and I was able to read them quickly. It was easy to go back, rediscover, and reread the finer details while I was reflecting on each story.
Creativity
At times the prose came off as a bit too flowery and tasted like word-salad coming off my tongue, but then there were times when I thought Diaz was spot on. For instance, if she wants to illustrate a corpse being re-energized via injected substance, then she writes:
“Black veins crept into his neck and fanned like lightning across his face.”
I also liked how she could tell me a lot about a character in just a single line:
“He held a tin cup that clanged against a wedding ring whose match was buried in Lakeview cemetery.”
Each entry has lines like the aforementioned that are dense in meaning that the reader can pick apart in terms of imagery or characterization, but then there are lines that are metaphorical in the sense of having multiple meanings; Like in the story “The Cave”:
“Faded yellow caution tape fluttered like the wings of a coal miner’s canary across the entrance, but Katrina’s twin paid it no mind.”
Delivery
I decided not to give an in depth breakdown of each individual story, because I think analyzing source material that’s so short would take away from the point of reading it for yourself. So what I did instead is I handpicked a line that I believe made for a relevant quote about each story, and then provided a summary in my own words based on my interpretation.
The Patient in Room 96:
“Imogene Beasley was not insane.”
She just imagined how wonderful her life would be in the house she could see from the window of her room at the psychiatric ward. She’s not crazy. She makes her escape to go visit the Harwood House, where she saw some crazy shit, and it just so happened to remind her of home.
Insomnia:
“…the disease was sleep itself.”
Says a neurochemical biologist who has the hots for a coworker named Rose, but unfortunately for him - she’s married to her work. Rose tries to come up with a vaccine to help insomniacs. He comes up with a formula to turn her into one. *Results may vary
Wendigo:
“What do we do with the bodies?”
Constance asks the professor, whom she looks up to, for answers. The corpses of their colleagues stacked inside the tent at their campsite, where a savage attack took place. Beneath the gaslight (or was it the flashlight?) she swore she saw the look of hunger on his face, but his eyes told a different story.
The Malady of Mrs. Monroe:
“Don’t let it in.”
In the medical journal of a Dr. William Cain, the physician recalls the peculiar passing of Mrs. Monroe. He is just as perplexed by her affliction as her daughter, Elizabeth, is. Elizabeth shows him the sketch her mother made of the nightmare that’s plaguing her, and the doctor fears the worse.
The Cave:
“The darkness cannot hurt you.”
At least that’s what Katrina wanted to believe, while her twin sister Maddie coaxed her into spelunking the foreboding maw. Katrina wasn’t so sure that this was what Dr. Murdoch had ordered, but Maddie would become her reminder to overcome her fear.
The Parasite:
“Your mother will sit beside it at the dinner table.”
Who am I? What am I?
The Pocket Watch:
“It did not sound in his ears, but in his heart…”
What starts out as just another dull evening discussing business with his father, suddenly strikes Samuel as odd when his father recounts an old watch. Time has run out, but Samuel can still hear the tick ticking, endlessly.
The Monkey’s Paw Spore:
“She recognized the faces of her neighbors and friends, twisted now in pain or hatred, or hunger.”
Grief stricken Dr. Eliza is looking forward to an unprecedented family reunion, on the anniversary of her brother’s death. Her experiments had taken months, but what happens as a result was never her intention.
The Ruins:
“No one was coming for me.”
Sir Edwin Lang loses his way in the forest while chasing a rare butterfly specimen. He discovers some ancient ruins and inside he finds out that it’s housing a primordial threat to humanity.
Oranges:
“My memory isn’t what it was before.”
Tuesday is the only day of the week that Christine can seem to ever recall. That’s the day that she gets a visit from her son, at the Wayview Psychiatric Institute. She asks for two oranges at lunchtime. He likes oranges, she says.
Caroline:
“Postmark Unknown/Undelivered”
A family solicitor requests a series of letters from Paul Morrison III, which account for the final correspondence between his late uncle and his father, in regard to the untimely death of his aunt. What we have here is a failure to communicate.
The Echo of Eleanor Mae:
“I thought of Theodora, trapped and alone all those years.”
A private investigator is hired by a desperate woman to seek out the truth behind an unsettling journal entry left by her late aunt. The investigation leads Adam to the brink of madness, as he uncovers a controversy left behind in the abandoned asylum.
Some common elements/themes I noticed within many of the stories were:
- the presence of mold/lichen/spores/fungi
- science clashing with the supernatural
- deteriorating psychological health
With the exception of the one drabble (The Parasite), all the rest of these entries are around five to six pages a pop. You can read these stories in any order, but I discovered that they all share similar elements and even seem to have some minor connections to one another (similar reoccurring features about characters/places/things). The writing is well edited in every entry and I was able to read them quickly. It was easy to go back, rediscover, and reread the finer details while I was reflecting on each story.
Creativity
At times the prose came off as a bit too flowery and tasted like word-salad coming off my tongue, but then there were times when I thought Diaz was spot on. For instance, if she wants to illustrate a corpse being re-energized via injected substance, then she writes:
“Black veins crept into his neck and fanned like lightning across his face.”
I also liked how she could tell me a lot about a character in just a single line:
“He held a tin cup that clanged against a wedding ring whose match was buried in Lakeview cemetery.”
Each entry has lines like the aforementioned that are dense in meaning that the reader can pick apart in terms of imagery or characterization, but then there are lines that are metaphorical in the sense of having multiple meanings; Like in the story “The Cave”:
“Faded yellow caution tape fluttered like the wings of a coal miner’s canary across the entrance, but Katrina’s twin paid it no mind.”
Delivery
I decided not to give an in depth breakdown of each individual story, because I think analyzing source material that’s so short would take away from the point of reading it for yourself. So what I did instead is I handpicked a line that I believe made for a relevant quote about each story, and then provided a summary in my own words based on my interpretation.
The Patient in Room 96:
“Imogene Beasley was not insane.”
She just imagined how wonderful her life would be in the house she could see from the window of her room at the psychiatric ward. She’s not crazy. She makes her escape to go visit the Harwood House, where she saw some crazy shit, and it just so happened to remind her of home.
Insomnia:
“…the disease was sleep itself.”
Says a neurochemical biologist who has the hots for a coworker named Rose, but unfortunately for him - she’s married to her work. Rose tries to come up with a vaccine to help insomniacs. He comes up with a formula to turn her into one. *Results may vary
Wendigo:
“What do we do with the bodies?”
Constance asks the professor, whom she looks up to, for answers. The corpses of their colleagues stacked inside the tent at their campsite, where a savage attack took place. Beneath the gaslight (or was it the flashlight?) she swore she saw the look of hunger on his face, but his eyes told a different story.
The Malady of Mrs. Monroe:
“Don’t let it in.”
In the medical journal of a Dr. William Cain, the physician recalls the peculiar passing of Mrs. Monroe. He is just as perplexed by her affliction as her daughter, Elizabeth, is. Elizabeth shows him the sketch her mother made of the nightmare that’s plaguing her, and the doctor fears the worse.
The Cave:
“The darkness cannot hurt you.”
At least that’s what Katrina wanted to believe, while her twin sister Maddie coaxed her into spelunking the foreboding maw. Katrina wasn’t so sure that this was what Dr. Murdoch had ordered, but Maddie would become her reminder to overcome her fear.
The Parasite:
“Your mother will sit beside it at the dinner table.”
Who am I? What am I?
The Pocket Watch:
“It did not sound in his ears, but in his heart…”
What starts out as just another dull evening discussing business with his father, suddenly strikes Samuel as odd when his father recounts an old watch. Time has run out, but Samuel can still hear the tick ticking, endlessly.
The Monkey’s Paw Spore:
“She recognized the faces of her neighbors and friends, twisted now in pain or hatred, or hunger.”
Grief stricken Dr. Eliza is looking forward to an unprecedented family reunion, on the anniversary of her brother’s death. Her experiments had taken months, but what happens as a result was never her intention.
The Ruins:
“No one was coming for me.”
Sir Edwin Lang loses his way in the forest while chasing a rare butterfly specimen. He discovers some ancient ruins and inside he finds out that it’s housing a primordial threat to humanity.
Oranges:
“My memory isn’t what it was before.”
Tuesday is the only day of the week that Christine can seem to ever recall. That’s the day that she gets a visit from her son, at the Wayview Psychiatric Institute. She asks for two oranges at lunchtime. He likes oranges, she says.
Caroline:
“Postmark Unknown/Undelivered”
A family solicitor requests a series of letters from Paul Morrison III, which account for the final correspondence between his late uncle and his father, in regard to the untimely death of his aunt. What we have here is a failure to communicate.
The Echo of Eleanor Mae:
“I thought of Theodora, trapped and alone all those years.”
A private investigator is hired by a desperate woman to seek out the truth behind an unsettling journal entry left by her late aunt. The investigation leads Adam to the brink of madness, as he uncovers a controversy left behind in the abandoned asylum.
Some common elements/themes I noticed within many of the stories were:
- the presence of mold/lichen/spores/fungi
- science clashing with the supernatural
- deteriorating psychological health
#LFLR Indie Rating: 6/10
“Nocturne: A Collection of Dark Tales” contains a dozen stories, each of which can be consumed within a matter of a few minutes, but may take several to digest. I personally found six of the flash fiction entries to be genuinely entertaining based on my taste, but the writing itself was solid in all of them. Holly Diaz is a prolific writer of the short style storytelling format and has written contributions for several compilations in horror/mystery genre.
“Nocturne: A Collection of Dark Tales” contains a dozen stories, each of which can be consumed within a matter of a few minutes, but may take several to digest. I personally found six of the flash fiction entries to be genuinely entertaining based on my taste, but the writing itself was solid in all of them. Holly Diaz is a prolific writer of the short style storytelling format and has written contributions for several compilations in horror/mystery genre.
THIS BREAKDOWN IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE #LFLR NETWORK.
