Weekly Reader: Everyone is a Moon: Strange Stories by Sawney Hatton; Comic and Disturbing Horror/Fantasy Anthology Looks At The Dark Side of Human Nature

 

Weekly Reader: Everyone is a Moon: Strange Stories by Sawney Hatton; Comic and Disturbing Horror/Fantasy Anthology Looks At The Dark Side of Human Nature

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: In his book, Puddn'head Wilson, Mark Twain wrote, "Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows anybody." The more they hide that dark side, the more it eventually comes forward leading often to violence including suicide and homicide. 

Sawney Hatton explores that side in his anthology, Everyone is a Moon: Strange Stories. He gathers twelve short stories that explore the darkness within human nature in ways that range from the black comedy and grotesque to the graphic and horrifying. They may puzzle but then frighten the Reader. Most of them have at least one ghastly moment that the Reader will find hard to get out of their mind.

The best stories in this anthology are:

"The Boy Who Cried Alien"-This story is a twist on the whole "kid sees weird things and no one believes" them plot. Jeremy, a young boy in the 1950's, seems to live in a postcard perfect town that is until he passes by his parent's bedroom and discover them in reptilian form. He becomes obssessed with the thought that they might be aliens.

What starts out as a nod to 1950's films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, becomes much darker than the story leads on. 

The story never reveals whether Jeremy is hallucinating or really sees aliens. It presents two chilling scenarios neither of which are very good: that either aliens are real and they will continue overtaking the people in his neighborhood or they aren't real and the kid is languishing in a mental hospital, never able to come to terms with the reality that he committed murder. 

"In Memoriam The Ostrich"-We go from a scenario that springs from a 1950's science fiction alien film to a scenario that would be right at home in H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham County stories. Pastor Higgsby, an elderly pastor oversees the final request of the late Professor Thacker. Thacker leaves everything to the residents of Edessa Island with one slight caveat: that the Edessa citizens cook and eat Thacker's deceased body.

Higgsby is in fear of the community and disgusted by their actions. He rages at Thacker for making the request and is even angrier that the citizens are happily willing to go along with it, without any doubts. Higgsby is horrified at the monsters around them and thinks that he found a little bit of humanity. That hope is dashed quickly and Higgsby loses any faith in human nature and in his God.

"The Lord is My Rocket"-Hatton loves to poke fun at religion. Many of his stories in this collection like "The Good Touch" and "In Memoriam The Ostrich," involve the sinister urges inside so-called God-fearing people who commit destructive acts because of devotion to a Higher Power. This shows what happens when people take their religion to the extreme affecting the most innocent around them.

Ruth Foster, a caregiver at a home for developmentally disabled adults is ready to attend a religious service at the Monastery of the Celestial Christ and brings one of her charges, Floyd, with her.

Ruth clearly has a narrow minded view of Christianity which she derides her co-workers considering them not as pure as she is. She is the type that would die for her beliefs and force others to as well, including Floyd whom she seeks to convert.

When she attends the meeting, it becomes clear that something is off to say the least. Their constant talk about how they will shortly ascend into the Heavens on a spaceship is a pretty strong warning sign that Ruth and Floyd are in a cult. Ruth is willing to go along with it, even murdering people so she and Floyd can join the Spaceship Set. The climax is pretty clever, leading to what one could consider just retribution. This story shows that when religious fanatics and cult members become motivated by violence, the results are never good.

"Mr. Gregori"-This story brings a more Erotic twist to the "monster-in-the-closet" plot. Mr. Gregori, a sinister demonic character lusts after Emma, a woman who moves into the apartment in which he is haunting.

Mr. Gregori resembles a human stalker as he tracks Emma's every move. His creepy vigil terrifies her as she becomes aware that what she originally thinks is a draft is actually his breathing. This story could be a metaphor for an abusive relationship or sexual assault as Gregori vows that she will never leave.

"The Dark at the Deep End"-This story is a bit more subtle in the fear factor than the other stories, but is just as frightening or even more so because of how plausible the situation could be.

In the story, The Narrator and his friends play a series of pranks on unwitting victims. The pranks escalate as The Narrator's adrenal excitement is heightened. He begins to commit more violent acts to satisfy that excitement. By the time that the story ends, the Reader is aware that we just witnessed the birth of a serial killer.

What is particularly terrifying about this story is that it is the most plausible of them. The other situations are mostly so farcical and over the top to believed. We don't need to fear humans turning into aliens, cannibalistic villagers, spaceship based religions, or sex crazed demons, but sometimes we fear the thoughts of the person next to us. What would push someone to fall over the edge of laws, ethics, society, and morality and embrace a murderous nature? When someone exists only to satisfy some urge to destroy the source of their jealousy, hatred, greed, revenge or just to soothe their addictions for blood lust, that is probably the most terrifying scenario of all.