Split Scream Volume Seven: Off the Map, by Ide Henessy, John K. Peck and L. Mahler
19 Feb 2025The Book
Synopsis:
Volume Seven of the twin-novelette series takes readers on a pair of nightmare excursions to lonely locales!
Íde Hennessy - Sequoia Point
California's rugged “Lost Coast" has long been a treacherous place where dreams—and people—go to die. Meg's adrenaline junkie husband had been so drawn to Sequoia Point’s beaches that he'd requested his ashes be scattered on their black sands. Reeling after his death and a miscarriage, Meg decides to put down new roots in this strange place.
What she finds is a van-life conspiracy theorist seeking refuge from 5G radiation; mysterious packs of roving dogs; cryptic talismans on doors; and a mute woman who looks exactly like her. When a mudslide cuts the town off from civilization, Meg must overcome her debilitating fears to unravel the mysteries of Sequoia Point.
John K. Peck & L. Mahler - Evergreen
Wrapping up the loose ends of her mother's death, Deirdre makes a startling discovery: a tree growing in the closet of her childhood home, and a bizarre collection of knick-knacks buried in its soil. She soon learns that her mother had a hand in her hometown’s long history of odd disappearances and misfortune, and that this ominous tree is her legacy.
Nurturing the tree's soil with filched mementos, Deirdre learns that she can control the vast system of roots thriving beneath the town to a terrifying degree, and she soon finds herself fighting her darkest desires to wreak terrible vengeance on the town that wronged her.
My Review
Split Scream Volume Seven: Off The Map is the new instalment on this double novelette feature, written in this case by Ide Henessy, John K. Peck and L. Mahler, published by Tenebrous Press. As you can imagine by the title, on this occasion, both novelettes will be focused around nature's unstoppable force and isolated places, with young girls as the main characters, but each one with its own twist.
With Evergreen, we have a short novelette, about a woman returning to her small hometown after her mother's death. The whole time the author is playing with the sense of nothing to fear, nothing threatening our main character, Deirdre; we can only see how she feels about this city that previously hurt her. You only see there's something weird about the trees, and while there's a local that acts as the driving force for the novelette to advance, you will totally not see how creepy it actually becomes. The pacing is a bit too slow for my taste, but it works with this particular wordcount.
Sequoia Point was my favourite from this instalment. From the start, we can feel the strangeness and how something is off; even taking in account Meg's philosophy, things only become worse and worse. A darker proposal, but which I totally enjoyed as it follows a formula that works so well in horror.
A great instalment on the Split Scream series, Volume Seven is totally a recommend if you prefer a more "natural" horror, stories where the setting plays a more important role. Another excellent addition to the weird bookcase of Tenebrous Press.
The Author/s
Íde Henessy
Íde Hennessy (she/they) is a writer, musician, graphic artist, and part-time Opossummoner based in the beautiful but deadly post-apocalyptic wastelands of Northern California. She lives with her very patient partner and three special needs cats who can see ghosts. She is almost never not wearing a beret. It's very windy here.
John K. Peck
John K. Peck is a Berlin-based writer and musician. His writing has appeared in Interzone, Pyre, voidspace, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Cold Signal, McSweeney's, Glasgow Review of Books, Jubilat, VOLT, SAND, and various anthologies, and he is the coauthor (along with L. Mahler) of the novelette “Evergreen”, part of the Split Scream series from Tenebrous Press. He also runs Degraded Orbit, a site covering abandoned places, architectural curiosities, and underground culture.