What the Dead Know - Nghi Vo - ★★.¾

AUTHOR: Nghi Vo

SERIES: Into Shadow, #4

GENRE: Paranormal Short Story

RATING: 2.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A decent short story that would have been great with more detailing at the end. Paranormal, but not scary.

Story Synopsis:

1899. Fogg River, Illinois. Vasyl and Maryse are travelling con artists. Capitalising on Maryse’s “exotic” look, Vasyl markets her as a talented medium who can channelize into the spirit world and communicate with them. Their latest stop is Fogg River seminary, a girls’ school in a small town. Their performance is going as smoothly as always, when a sudden blizzard cuts them off. And something that has never happened before in their so-called séances actually happens.

This story is a part of ‘Into Shadow’, described by Amazon as ‘an enthralling collection of dark fantasy stories about the lure of forbidden knowledge.’

The premise of this 31-page story is quite interesting. I loved how the story highlighted Vasyl’s tactic of marketing Maryse’s foreign appearance in order to get more saleability and thereby bookings. Their rapport was excellent. The historical details also come out surprisingly well for a short work.

I was completely hooked by the proceedings for most of the story, even as it took the path often taken. Though the plot was predictable, the writing was crisp and the atmosphere was taut with tension. However, once the séance was over and the blizzard struck, the story lost its flow. Too many things happened with not enough of detailing and too much of a rush. The reveal about the spirit was barely convincing, forget about being scary. If this final section were handled better, the story would have been a memorable one. But as is, it turns out to be just about average.

I read it for free; that’s a plus, I suppose.

2.75 stars. (4 stars for the first half, 1.5 star for the rest. Averaging the two.)

This standalone work is the fourth story in the ‘Into Shadow’ collection, and is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.