A Familiar Face

It’s not quite fantasy, is it? Or suspense or “literature” (whatever that is), but Scotty Weeks’ debut short story collection, A Familiar Face is a hell of a read.

The title story unsettles as we witness the breakdown of two urbanites who find they cannot leave their apartment. Strains of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House but set against the insufferable modernity of gentrified Brooklyn.

Acrobatically, he pulls us back to earth with the story of a fishing death in a small Alaskan town. A homecoming tale, “Hinchinbrook” was performed at Liars’ League NYC by Alex Ferrill for the Born and Bred reading series.

Confident in his own strangeness, Weeks gets experimental with the flash fiction piece “Jazz Eels”. The story is told in the second person which creates ambiguity as to the identity (and gender) of the narrator. And, of course, there are eels.

The other stories include a wild ride through a pulpy 1990s Seattle, complete with a severed hand; a time traveling lounge singer; an adventure in the South Pacific; and a man with an alcoholic gnome for a roommate.

Strange and wonderful, A Familiar Face is a book that you’ll want to stay up all night reading.