Blog Tour (Review): The Measure of Sorrow by J. Ashley-Smith

Shirley Jackson Award-winning author J. Ashley-Smith’s first collection, The Measure of Sorrow, draws together ten new and previously acclaimed stories of dark speculative fiction. In these pages a black reef holds the secret to an interminable coastal limbo; a father struggles to relate to his estranged children in a post-bushfire wilderness; an artist records her last days in conversation with her unborn child; a brother and sister are abandoned to the manifestations of their uncle’s insanity; a suburban neighbourhood succumbs to an indescribable malaise; teenage ravers fall in with an eldritch crowd; a sensitive New Age guy commits a terminal act of passive-aggression; a plane crash opens the door to the Garden of Eden; the new boy in the village falls victim to a fatal ruse; and a husband’s unexpressed grief is embodied in the shadows of a crumbling country barn. Intelligent and emotionally complex, the stories in The Measure of Sorrow elude easy classification, lifting the veil on the wonder and horror of a world just out of true.

I received a copy of A Measure of Sorrow from Meerkat Press for an honest review. What follows is my opinion and mine alone. There was no compensation for this review.

As a child, I grew up watching old Twilight Zone reruns and Outer Limits. The mix of speculative fiction, horror, and humanity drew me ever closer to other passions. However, I never strayed away from the short fiction that led me to think of my existence and how obsessive humans could be. It’s because of this love for this genre that had me clicking onto this book. And I’m glad I did.

A Measure of Sorrow is a collection of short speculative fiction that has you scratching your head and diving deeper into the black reef to know more. You will meet different characters and experience their emotions and obsessions, all the while somehow learning something about yourself. The set of stories are dark and at times a bit difficult to get into (depending on which you start with and how much brain power you have before reading), but the book itself was a good read.

I can see how J. Ashley-Smith is an award-winning author and I wonder what other things he’s written. If these bite sized perfectly crafted stories are an indicator, there is more he has to say. If you are a fan of short speculative fiction, dark fiction, or want to see just something more about humans in the general safety of fictional worlds, read this book. There is something for everyone (well, unless you are a romance buff).

BUY LINKS: Meerkat Press | Amazon | Bookshop.org

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

J. Ashley Smith is a British–Australian author of dark fiction and co-host of the Let The Cat In podcast. His first book, The Attic Tragedy, won the Shirley Jackson Award. Other stories have won the Ditmar Award, Australian Shadows Award and Aurealis Award. He lives with his wife and two sons beneath an ominous mountain in the suburbs of North Canberra, gathering moth dust, tormented by the desolation of telegraph wires. You can find him at spooktapes.net, performing amazing experiments in electronic communication with the dead.

GIVEAWAY: $50 Meerkat Press Giftcard

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BLOG TOUR PAGE: https://meerkatpress.com/the-measure-of-sorrow-stories-by-j-ashley-smith-blog-tour/