REVIEW - Red Line: Chicago Horror Stories

From infanthood until the age of eight, I lived in varying degrees of closeness to the city of Chicago. My mom and aunt had lived in the city and suburbs their whole lives, as had their mother before them. Out of all of them, I spent the least amount of time traversing Lower Whacker and staring out at Lake Michigan.

That brief period of time was enough to cement a deep love for the city. It was a place we went to celebrate milestones, to see family, to experience the wonders of Navy Pier and the local museums. After moving away, it became a place for school trips, for vacations, and even a place to show my art. No matter how long it's been since my last visit, Chicago always feels close. The stories in Red Line: Chicago Horror Stories brought it even closer.

In his foreword, Michael W. Phillips Jr. emphasizes how important it was to him that the collection was filled with stories from differing perspectives, stories that reflected the diverse people that make up the Windy City. While each story comes from a different experience, they all paint a cohesive picture of the same city.

The most successful at capturing the energy of the city is Cynthia Pelayo’s “Saint Maker”. Violence and reverence collide in this short story that follows an unnamed narrator as they flee through the city streets, recounting the stories of saints both canonized by the church and regarded as saintly by those that knew them. “Saint Maker” finds beauty in Chicago’s darkest corners and asserts that that beauty doesn't exist despite the ugliness, but in cooperation with it.

While I enjoyed most of the stories that explored supernatural encounters both modern-day and historical, Safar Mustafah’s “The House with Blue Shutters” stayed with me the longest. Mustafah’s story overflows with heartbreaking nostalgia as a young woman discovers the truth behind her family’s immigration from Palestine to Chicago. Mustafah uses magical realism very much in the spirit of Octavia Butler's Kindred in order to explore the ideas of loss, grief, and generational trauma. I was left with an ache in my heart and an excitement for Mustafah’s future work.

Red Line: Chicago Horror Stories takes the reader firmly by the wrist and leads them through the tunnels of Lower Whacker, across the icy waters of the Chicago River, and along the gridded streets that connect Chicago’s neighborhoods on a horrifying, fantastical tour that bends space and time. This collection of stories is as unique as the city that inspired it.

Red Line: Chicago Horror Stories can be purchased through the From Beyond Press website (now Agita Publishing) and Amazon.