Beneath a Pale Sky
by Philip Fracassi
Reviewed by Anthony Servante
The Review
There are three authors in the Nouveau Horror movement that have been recommended to me by the Horror Community: Brian Evenson, John Langan, and Philip Fracassi. Mr. Fracassi will be the first I will write about. Let's set a few ground rules first. What is Horror Fiction? In my interview with Sara Karloff, she explained, "My father [Boris Karloff] didn't like the word 'horror' [to describe his films]; he preferred the word 'terror'. To involve the audience's participation and intelligence was far more important to revolting them. And that's why he preferred the word 'terror' (https://servanteofdarkness.blogspot.com/2014/02/sara-karoff-interview-with-anthony.htmlI). I think that definition of "terror" describes the book of short stories "Beneath a Pale Sky" by Philip Fracassi best.
Let me explain.
Point of View plays an important role when reading horror fiction. It provides the reader with a mental and emotional vehicle to experience the story unfolding in the narrative, as opposed to directly experiencing the story. If my protagonist is fighting off a monster from hell, my reader is safely tucked away behind the book. He is never in danger. He may sympathize with our protagonist but that further buffers the safety for the reader. This is just a book in his hands. However, a well-written account slowly and deliberately shreds the reader's safety when the reader becomes invested in the dilemma of the character. The reader moves from sympathy (distant emotion) to empathy (direct experience through emotion). Remember that scene from the movie "Alien" when the creature puts its face right next to Ripley's? We felt its breath on our face as much as Ripley did. We moved from fearing for Ripley to fearing for ourselves. Good POV can do that for the movie viewer, or, in our case, the reader of horror fiction. POV also provides the reader with direct experience if the horrific narrative is relatable. He sympathizes with a character who drowns if he is afraid of drowning; he empathizes with the fear of drowning if he feels the fear as his own. He doesn't need to have a fear of drowning. The narrator needs simply to give him the experience of drowning via the narrative. This requires what I call the "subjective correlative" of Horror, when we experience fear rather than sympathize with a character in a story who is experiencing fear. That's our "participation and intelligence" in experiencing the "terror", to paraphrase Mr. Karloff.
And this brings us to Philip Fracassi. He writes stories that put the reader into a fearful experience. In "Harvest", the opening story in Beneath a Pale Sky, the reader experiences the natural terror of being caught in the onslaught of a tornado while dealing with the emotional ambivalence of a first love with a friend who has a supernatural power. "Wheel" pits our protagonist against a series of tragic events that land her dead center in a horrific accident. "Soda Jerk" is the most straightforward traditional telling of a horror tale, which one might find in a Fifties horror anthology. "Symphony" enters the terrors of a young girl caught between coming of age and child abuse, as fantastical elements both protect and threaten her. "Ateuchus" is Science Fiction terror with body horror transformations that will have you squirming. ID can best be described as psychological horror mixed with the fear of losing one's mind, uncontrolled mental illness and warped reality. "Fragile Dreams" gives the reader the POV of an earthquake victim; not a comfortable read for those with claustrophobia. "Death, My Old Friend" is fable-like, poignant in its approach to our last days of life.
But enough of my high-falootin'. What did I think of Beneath a Pale Sky? Fracassi's "horror" is relatable to horror and non-horror readers thanks to its "terror" elements. I loved the stories. They were scary on many levels. They used some of the best prose that I've read in years. And I was taken deeper into these characters' POV than I have gone in most Horror narratives that I've read over the past few years. As such, these were well-crafted tales of terror, and if you'd like to travel into the minds of characters caught in horrific circumstances and experience their fears, Beneath a Pale Sky is a good place to enter. Just remember that you're leaving your safety at the door.
