Behold the Void

Behold The Void is easily one of the best collections I have read so far this year. Every story is this collection is super strong.I was immediately hooked into the book with Construction Of A Sunset, a weird telekinesis tale which honestly reads like an episode of Twilight Zone that would make Rod Serling or Richard Matheson proud. I had previously read two of the stories in this book, Altar, and Mother, in chapbook form enjoying them both. I reread them this time around and yep they’re still good. They were definitely the two stories that drew me to Fracassi’s work, but in all honesty, I think they were probably the two weakest of all the stories in this collection. The rest of this book is a wide range of styles and stories that cover various aspects of horror fiction. One of my favorites is The Horse Theif which is an eerie occult story. The Baby Farmer is an uber creepy story of a cult infant serial killers who believe they are saving the world from evil by killing babies. Then another great one is Surfer Girl which is a dry humor noir with some serious psychological tension. Last but definitely not least there is Mandala, the final 75-page novella at the end of the book. It is a true edge of your seat ghost story that also covers family, depression, and death. The whole story floods with emotion and climaxes perfectly.I did listen to Manadala on Audible, and I saw on the back of the book that Mr. Fracassi works in television, so the quality of these short stories in audio book form makes sense. Some of the stories are written with such precision it seems they could be made for television. Again, this is a great collection and I have a couple of more Fracassi novellas to read. which now I am excited about. I can’t recommend this enough to other fans of dark weird short horror fiction. If you are a fan of Barron, Jeffrey Thomas, SP Miskowski, or John Langan then go ahead and add Fracassi to your reading repertoire. I have. I think this author has a nice long career ahead of him in weird horror fiction.

This year has been a tough year for me in horror. I’ve read a lot of disappointing books, to the point where I was thinking i was done with horror for the most part (Malfi is still a release day purchase for me). But this collection....I’ve tried reading Lovecraft for years and have enjoyed a lot of his stories, more for the ideas and the prose than the execution. And I’ve read some Lovecraftian collections in the past few years, which have largely been mixed bags. But this collection....I love Stephen King’s “Revival”; it might be my favorite book. King is a master of writing kids well, hitting the dialogue spot on and handling family issues. But this author may surpass even Long with this collection. Every story is incredibly creepy, and mostly because he well he takes his time wither he prose, how he gets you perfectly inside the head of the young characters and how he deals with family issues, mostly involving mother-son relationships. It’s hauntingly real. Something happens when you get lost in these stories, and I hope you will. This is a collection I will return to at least every other year. “Mother” especially.

Greetings from the Ether,Closing our review series with Philip Fracassi's work, we present to you Behold the Void. Fracassi's debut collection and a piece that will not soon be forgotten by dark fiction enthusiasts. We previously reviewed Fragile Dreams and Sacculina, two chapbooks by the author that prepared us for the journey that is Behold the Void. We are also interviewing Fracassi and will have that post up shortly. There is a reason that Fracassi is quickly becoming a star in the fields of dark fiction and we hope to shed some light on why.Alas, without further ado, let's descend into the void!Fracassi has an unparalleled ability to invoke his use of language in a way that is both visually appeasing and filled with unbridled intensity. The storytelling he uses is fast-paced, straightforward, poetic in many cases, and consistently crafts a quality of page-turning ferocity. With Behold the Void, there isn't a single page that contains a sentence or scene that should be omitted. It is perhaps this characteristic that makes this collection one of the best releases of the year.No punches are pulled in Fracassi's debut, each story varying drastically from the previous, while maintaining the author's signature style: concise choices in language and a pace concocted with hypnotic imagery and intense situations. Fracassi continuously pits ordinary people into extraordinary situations. No character feels anything less than organic and the author's ability to craft an engaging narrative around simple situations, taking these everyday occurrences and seamless spilling the dark and weird into them, ensures that readers will find something fresh and original in each story.We open with a short titled "Soft Construction of a Sunset." Immediately, the readers are thrown into a strange and interesting event, which soon culminates into something haunting and fantastical, dream-like and horrific. The perfect opener for an enthralling collection, and one that will stick with readers for many years to come. Altar continues the journey, instantly diving from the weird to the dark, employing facets of cosmic horror while retaining Fracassi's ability to illustrate real people onto each and every page. Altar is simply haunting, the way the author handles sickening acts of violence and sexual abuse only bringing more realism and propelling a spine-tingling experience onto the readers as the climactic ending, revolving around a pool that has opened a portal to another dimension, concludes this macabre tale. "The Horse Thief" transitions from the supernatural to a tale that is all-too-real and plausible, while maintaining an overhanging atmosphere of dread and regret. "Coffin" nosedives back into the macabre, telling a disturbing story and portraying with frightening clarity the effects of guilt and resentment. "The Baby Farmer" transports us into a historical period piece where Fracassi masterfully adapts his language to the geography of the story, never allowing the readers to escape from his grasp on realism and intrigue. "Surfer Girl" launches us back into the realms of fractured psyches and the disgusting potential that some human beings possess, followed by Mother, which parallels and expands upon the themes of "Coffin" in its handling of resentment and guilt. "Fail-Safe" once again teleports the readers into a different thematic atmosphere, encompassing the weird in an isolated and claustrophobic narrative surrounding a boy and a difficult decision regarding his parents who have possibly transformed into monsters.We close the collection with the novella of which the title Behold the Void originated from and which is easily the most impacting story in the piece. Not to say that the other stories aren't fantastic, there are no dull points to this blade. Mandala is simply put, a masterpiece of short form fiction. Think Stephen King's Gerald's Game meets The Twilight Zone's "Long Distance Call." This story was the perfect choice for the climax of what is easily a masterclass collection. A page-turner if there ever was one, Mandala hits every nerve it intends to while invoking that signature sense of dread and realism that Fracassi is known for. Guaranteed to give you chills and have you clutching the book white-knuckled, Mandala is as effective as it is endearing.One of the things that makes Fracassi such an engaging author is that he consistently writes his stories with a confidence of his own voice and an understanding of who he is as a writer. His pacing is quick and never fleeting, characters organic and never flat, storytelling always original and never recycled.With Behold the Void, Fracassi launches his name into dark fiction with a debut that intertwines intrigue, the weird, and an ability to portray character-driven fiction with a sense of ease that is daunting and prolific. Philip Fracassi doesn't need an abundance of stories to show his talent, or a plethora of themes and environments. The author thrives on limited settings and contained plots. The more difficulty a story should have being told, the better Fracassi executes the vision.Behold the Void is a dazzling debut collection from an author that continues to surprise readers which each new vision he releases. The quality never falters, his themes never repetitive, and his characters never less intriguing than the previous. This collection is for readers who appreciate the character studies, fans of Stephen King's most memorable work, and people who like to take journeys into the darker side of humanity. We recommend this collection to anyone and everyone and we are ecstatic to see what the future holds for the talented, storytelling ace that is Philip Fracassi.

I am sorry not to fall in with the rest of the reviewers. The writer is undisputedly talented, and I immediately bought this book after reading the first story. However, as I read on, I became disappointed. It is difficult to explain, and I may be expecting too much after having read and enjoyed most of King's books, but I will try. In Stephen King's short stories the details, sometimes gory, serve the main deep and engaging line, working as canvass for the characters, to make them stand out. Here the story is created to make the gory details stand out. Coffin, for instance, makes the accent on the scene where the woods consume a girl, a couple of others are unpleasantly focused on torture. I shouldn't really expect fluffy candy from the books of this genre. But Fracassi's obvious talent made me hope for more.Having said that, a couple of his stories really catch on you, Altar is one of them.

My first encounter with Philip Fracassi's work was the novelette, 'Altar' which came out as a chapbook last year (and is in this collection). When I think back to the story, the images are still so vivid it's like I watched a movie, and a terrifying one at that. His stories weep menace like caustic pus and make you afraid to turn the page, and leave an indelible graze on your imagination (surely a mark of the greatest Horror stories). Very bad things happen in his tales, so gird your loins and be prepared because they hit like a rabbit-punch. And they're also weird and beautiful and awful and immense, and brought me to tears on on occasion.Unremittingly superb.

A stunning collection of stories, some of which I’ve read before but most are new to this collection and are utterly fantastic. There are no filler stories here; all are well written, imaginative tales that use both personal and other worldly horror to enrapture the reader and send an icy finger creeping down your spine. Each story feels unique and each of the characters compelling, deep and complicated. Philip has fast become one of my favourite writers and this collection has instantly become one of my favourite books, I would highly recommend it!

Very strong collection that gets better story-by-story. Barron was on point to write the intro for this, it's a fantastic first collection.