"I stared at the whole mass of the bricks. I took another glance, relaxed my sight. At first I couldn't stop seeing the bricks as bricks, the divisions as layers of cement, but after a time they became pure vision. And as the whole broke down into lines and shapes and shades, I held my breath as I began to see.
"Alternatives appeared to me. Messages written in the pockmarks. Insinuation in the forms. Secrets unraveling. It was bliss.
"And then without warning my heart went tight, as I saw something. I made sense of the pattern.
"It was a mess of cracks and lines and crumbling cement, and as I looked at it, I saw a pattern in the wall.
"I saw a clutch of lines that looked just like something. . . terrible — something old and predatory and utterly terrible — staring right back at me.
"And then I saw it move."
— from "Details," in Looking for Jake, by China Miéville.
A horror novel? Sounds ominous but very good writing.
ReplyDeleteMiéville certainly knows how to create the right atmosphere!
ReplyDeleteThese are short stories, Harvee. Not horror exactly, but there's a weird/horrific element to them.
ReplyDeleteAs you say, Nymeth, it's all about atmosphere. I finished reading this collection and I'll post about it as a whole in the coming days.