Review - If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
I’ve been searching for a hair-raising, locally written horror book for a while - and I found one.
Allow me to present to you If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, a collection of short horror stories by Adelaide author Matthew R. Davis.
It’s truly an anthology of the horrors of being human - his characters brush with (or are consumed by) death, loss, evil forces, identity crises, and sexual desire in a way that’s at once brutal, horrifying, poetic, and anger-inducing.
And, with many of the stories set in Adelaide, the book exposes a dark, haunting side of the city of the likes I’d never read before.
Let’s unwind its mysteries a little further, shall we?
Judging a book by its cover
But first, to judge the cover, which was designed by Davis himself (with images by Red Wallflower Photography).
The front cover’s text screams 80s horror - a clever hint at the odes to the past contained within the book. Who can resist a little foreshadowing?
The photograph dominating the cover - a half-obscured woman clinging in fright to an unknown darkness - is highly unsettling, as I’m sure Davis intended. It is, however, a tad melodramatic and takes away from the book’s sense of seriousness, which left me a little uncertain of its quality upon initial inspection.
Luckily, the unsaturated colour tones, paired with the woman’s dark eye makeup, add a sense of Gothicism which re-captured my curiosity and allude to the literary themes within.
Author context
Matthew R. Davis is an Adelaide-based author and musician, who specialises in dark/horror short fiction and examinations of the human condition.
He has published over 70 short stories for which he has won various awards, including Best Short Story in the 2019 Australian Shadow Awards for his piece Steadfast Shadowsong.
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep (2020) is his first book, however since then he has published two more works: Midnight in the Chapel of Love (2021) and The Dark Matter of Natasha (2022).
According to his website bibliography, Davis has another 2-3 books scheduled for release next year.
He is also the bassist and vocalist for “genre-defying” band Icecocoon.
A short, spoiler-free synopsis
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep features 13 short stories which are all over the place theme-wise - in the best way possible.
Davis explores the human condition in 13 unique ways, making for a varied, fascinating read with not a dull page in sight.
For lovers of absolute mystery, feel free to skip to the next section and go into Davis’s book blind, as I did.
For those wanting to know what sorts of horrors await them, here is a quick (spoiler-free) overview of some of this book’s most notable short stories:
Tea Beneath the Twilight Tree
This story is for all those adults who resent growing up - or just hate the capitalistic 9-5 work life - and wish they could be a child once more.
Protagonist Thomas - a lonely businessman - is woken up in the night by one of his childhood friend’s toys … except the toy has come to life.
Escorted back to his friend’s house, Thomas reminisces over his youth as he is reunited with the other toys. Yet his friend is nowhere in sight, and the toys’ intentions may be more sinister than he’d initially suspected …
Tea Beneath the Twilight Tree is an eerie, Wonderland-esque story which may have you eyeing your own childhood toys with suspicion - or perhaps longing. It’s certainly a beautiful, enchanting read.
The Deep Beneath
This story follows protagonist Renae and her friend Alicia as they discover the hidden, horrifying secrets that lie beneath Adelaide.
It’s both an ode to Adelaide’s cityscape and a criticism of social attitudes towards the homeless - with a paranormal twist.
It’s gorgeously written, although I have one criticism - Renae’s character quirk is her divergence from stereotypical feminine traits; in other words her wittiness, non-slender features and dark desires, which pit her against her "beautiful" friend.
This is true for female characters in a few other stories, too, who are often hyper-sexualised and characterised as attractive because they are different to other women.
It paints a shallow, almost unfavourable picture of women, and the story would have benefited from a more complex female character who moves beyond the outdated “not like other girls” trope.
The Impossible Gift
Is it better to remember in pain, or forget in oblivion?
This decision haunts Drew Staedtler, who mourns a missing girlfriend his family insists never existed.
One fateful Christmas, he finds a mixtape under the tree from his missing girlfriend, which he clings to in hopes of proving his sanity. However, the gift turns out to be more than he bargained for…
The Impossible Gift is a haunting, bittersweet story of love and loss, of remembering and forgetting.
Reasons to love this book
1. It features the city of Adelaide.
It is so rare, as an Adelaide-dweller, to find a story set close to home.
Spending my life reading novels set in Oxford or New York made it seem like Adelaide must be too dull and uneventful for print.
Yet If Only Tonight We Could Sleep features the city in many of its stories, reminding me of what a beautiful, haunting place it can be if one looks hard enough.
Suddenly, the characters on the pages were walking down roads I’d traversed, pointing out buildings I’d seen - it felt so intimate and personal, like a shared secret.
There’s no feeling quite like having your home represented in fiction. Thank you, Davis.
2. Davis has an intense, no-nonsense way of writing.
Dark themes are all too often portrayed in a melodramatic, skirt-around manner which does not do them justice.
Davis rejects this entirely and tells it like it is. There are no innuendos; when death, heartbreak, violence, or sex are featured in his stories, he describes them as they are (aside from his at-times stereotypical portrayal of female characters, as I mentioned prior).
His writing is brutal, shocking, and raw. It feels human, as explorations of the human condition should.
3. The photography is gorgeously eerie.
Each story features a full-page black and white photograph taken by Red Wallflower Photography.
The photographs subtly tie into each story, with visuals of abandoned houses, macabre art, and shadowy figures leaving the reader with a sense of foreboding as they begin reading.
It’s also wonderful to see some local art featured in a local book, as Red Wallflower Photography is Adelaide-based.
There you are - the mysteries of If Only Tonight We Could Sleep have been (partially) unravelled.
If you’re looking for a horror read that hits close to home (both literally and figuratively) I’d recommend getting your hands on a copy of this book.
Happy reading!
Yorumlar