In The Porches of My Ears by Norman Prentiss

Cemetery Dance, 2023

ISBN 978-1-58767-872-1

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com )

Norman Prentiss is a very talented storyteller (winner of the Bram Stoker Award), whose most accomplished tale, so far, is the outstanding “In the Porches of My Ears” which also provides the title for this collection.

It’s a totally unsettling piece of fiction, starting in the darkness of a movie theater where a woman whispers about what happens on the screen… ( winner of the Bram Stoker Award)

The present volume assembles sixteen Prentiss stories previously appeared in print elsewhere.

In addition to the title story, other remarkable tales are “Interval”, an insightful, disturbing description of human behavior after a plane crash, when relatives  are waiting in vain at the airport, and “The Everywhere Man”, revolving around a puzzling and disquieting video becoming “viral”.

Another special mention goes to “Invisible Fences”, a vivid novella addressing the way overprotective parents try to defend  their sons and daughters from life’s unavoidable dangers.

All very good stuff, probing the dark side of our apparently ordinary existence.

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi