I Dream Of Mirrors by Chris Kelso

Sinister Horror Company, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1912578078

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

File this short novel under the “mind-blowing, mind-boggling, weird horror” category. There. It’s done. Attempting to classify I Dream of Mirrors is nearly impossible to explain or put into a genre box.

It’s one of the cool stories of weird fiction, which can include horror, dark fantasy, sci-fi, or bizarro fiction. Readers who crave the out-there settings and characters of Jeff Vandermeer, Neil Gaiman, and John Langan will find plenty to lose themselves in here, with a tale that, while heady and intelligent, keeps itself grounded.

Kurt wakes up to an apocalypse caused by Dunwoody, a manic billionaire who has changed the world through technological brainwashing.”People” who have been affected at first appear to be zombies, but are actually willing participants in Dunwoody’s new world order, that harkens back to an 1984 motif. The ones who resist are the outsiders: those who have crushing pasts that leave them strugging to survive. Kurt teams up with Kat to battle the People and Dunwoody, along with a bevy of other odd characters, each with his or her own mind-bending backstory.

At the heart of this story is a search for identity, as Kurt has no recollection of his life before the change– who he was, or what he did. The transmissions from Dunwoody’s tower and hallucinations attempt to convince him that he’s merely a part of the system, a figment of humanity’s imagination that never existed in the physical world. What could be considered an exercise in finding one’s identity morphs into something that reaches much deeper, yet still can be completed in one surreal sitting.

What raises I Dream of Mirrors above the mass of weird fiction floating through the stratosphere is Chris Kelso’s writing. He crafts every sentence into something that both engages the reader and detaches them from reality. Add him to a very short list of newer authors to place on the “must read” list. Recommended.

Reviewed by David Simms