Well, the plot – such as it is (actually, I hate the obsession with plot. Plot is overrated. Plot is unreal. Since when did life follow a plot? But that’s another story.) – concerns a female who lives with a male. The female goes mad. Oh dear, I’ve said this already, on line two of this report, er, I mean review. That’s another symptom, a tendency to repeat oneself. Also, an obsession with parenthetical prose (oh yes). Anyway, the female becomes increasingly insane, and the manner in which her insanity is expounded is very believable. There’s drinking. There’s forgetfulness. There’s leaving dirty clothes around the house. There’s swearing. There’s shoplifting. All out of character stuff. If anybody has ever gone mad, or knows somebody who has, then ‘Come Closer’ provides a knowing jolt.

Look, I’m not going to fling overblown superlatives at you, like Kathryn Davies does on the rear cover of my review copy (“Come Closer left me so profoundly disturbed, so terrified and sleepless and unable to shake free of its horrible spell…” yeah, yeah.). This kind of puerile stuff insults the intelligence of an intelligent reader.

‘Come Closer’ is not exactly original, but it’s short, well written and enjoyable. If it were filmed, then the result would be something like ‘Repulsion.’ Have I said this already?

The elusive Dan McNeil is a contributing reviewer for Ink magazine. His short sharp fiction has appeared in Redsine, Fantastic Metropolis, Antipodean SF and Whispers Of Wickedness, and has been translated to German. He's currently writing his first novel and compiling a collection of short fiction. You'll occasionally find him here or you can read two of his stories on the Showcase section of this site here

© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.