• Author: Joe Hill
• Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
• Publication year: 2023
• Number of pages: 57
• Cover design: Faceout Studio, Spencer Fuller
• ISBN: 978-1662516894

Review:

Grief and obsession, two themes that are often the reason for great horror stories.

When Willy and Marianne level behind Brooklyn to move to rural Maine in an old farmhouse, they leave behind pain and grief for a never born baby. Their inability to have children is harsh and they want to start a new life hoping their baby wish will vanish in time. But being a mother and father is embedded deep into the hearts of the couple.

When Willy walks to the only shop in town, through the beautiful bridle path of yews, the shop owner offers him to use an old pram to carry his groceries back home. However the pram rekindles the obsession for the baby they cannot have. Instead of leaving it behind he uses it. And then a coo is heard and a baby’s arm is seen. Is it his imagination or is his obsession for the child manifesting one?

Grief can be a devastating emotion and if one combines this with an uncontrolled obsession, it may change things up for someone and have them descend into a painful nightmare. And it’s hard to crawl back up from it, it may devour them, eat them up from the inside.

I think Joe Hill perfectly illustrated this. How people get estranged from each other because they miss that one thing they really wanted but couldn’t have. They wallow in that wanting so much they push away the thing(s) they still have. And then love is not the strongest emotion.

This was a very intense story! The first of six ‘creature feature’ short stories written by some of the best horror and thriller authors of our time! Perfect for this Halloween month!