Reviewed by Mark Massaro
The Nothing
by Lauren Davis
YesYes Books
Could 2025, Paperback, 160 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1946303059
Lauren Davis’s The Nothing is a putting assortment of tales that slip between the actual and the surreal, pulling readers into eerie, dreamlike worlds. Set in opposition to the misty isolation of the Pacific Northwest, these tales hum with a quiet unease, exploring themes of solitude, loss, and the unusual methods actuality can shift once you least anticipate it. The characters discover themselves in unsettling conditions the place the extraordinary turns uncanny, and the acquainted feels simply out of attain. Davis resists straightforward categorization, mixing parts of the incredible with grounded, emotional storytelling. As an alternative of becoming neatly into anybody style, the 19 tales inside The Nothing thrive in its in-between areas, permitting every story to unfold in surprising and deeply affecting methods.
One of the vital haunting tales in The Nothing is “Into the Solar,” a quiet however unsettling exploration of loss, reminiscence, and the skinny line between desires and actuality. A pair wakes up in an enormous, empty panorama—a dry area with an unreachable fence and a cliff that results in nothing. Irrespective of how a lot they transfer, they will’t appear to get wherever. “The land appears to stretch and contract, like water discovering a form.” As they wrestle to make sense of their environment, their previous begins to floor: a failed solo journey, unstated fears, and a relationship full of love however darkened by doubt. Jonathan, determined to show himself, had set off alone on the Pacific Coast Path, solely to vanish. Now, trapped on this unusual limbo, he wonders, “Perhaps it’s my fault… I did one thing, possibly.” Davis lets the story unfold like a slow-building realization, layering surreal imagery with uncooked emotion. Like a lot of the gathering, “Into the Solar” doesn’t hand over straightforward solutions – it lingers, unsettling and thought-provoking, lengthy after the final line.
One other standout story within the assortment is “The Brilliant,” the place the Davis explores themes of grief, isolation, and the quiet methods wherein connection can take root. Rebecca’s advanced emotional journey – marked by her lack of household and the presence of her invisible ghost, Ash -beautifully displays the intricacies of residing with unresolved trauma. The stress between Rebecca’s rising attraction to Andy and her deep-seated worry of emotional intimacy is poignant and well-crafted, highlighting the difficulties of transferring past one’s previous. Readers are instantly welcomed into the story as in the event that they too are stepping right into a world unfamiliar but oddly comforting:
He’s a stranger right here, opening his unusual bakery in a city the place contemporary bread is an extravagance. Nevertheless it smells like moms, like winter after a rain, like waking up noon. And the scent fastens to him, in order that when he turns the nook, and I see him within the frail morning gentle, I’m dropped at reminiscences as soon as gone and reminiscences to return.
Rebecca’s relationship with Andy, whose presence stirs forgotten feelings, and her conversations with Ash embody her inside wrestle. The quiet, nearly magical realism of the bakery setting, the place the scent of contemporary bread evokes each nostalgia and longing, is an evocative image of the therapeutic and nourishment Rebecca craves however struggles to just accept. Rebecca tells Ash, “I can’t afford a lot of the bread. My incapacity test is meager. However I’ll eat bread, irrespective of the fee, as a result of there’s a reminiscence within the scent.” This juxtaposition of heat and emotional distance underscores the story’s meditation on the sluggish, usually painful means of therapeutic, and the hesitant steps towards embracing life and love as soon as extra. Davis’ delicate dealing with of Rebecca’s inside battle and her reluctance to permit herself happiness makes the story each heartbreaking and profoundly relatable.
In “Tastes Like Rat,” the first-place winner of the 2021 Touchdown Zone Journal Flash Fiction Contest, the protagonist’s wrestle with illness and isolation unfolds in a surreal, nightmarish world the place private and communal decay appear to reflect one another. The narrative follows her bodily and emotional deterioration, marked by unsettling imagery and an eerie relationship together with her sickly beloved. The mysterious falling blobs “like jellyfish” that plague her city symbolize the deeper an infection of each physique and spirit, whereas the cat, Tiger, turns into a darkish determine demanding sacrifice and reflecting the protagonist’s disintegration. Davis masterfully blends surrealism with emotional depth, exploring themes of sickness, isolation, and the futile need for connection. One haunting second encapsulates this, when the protagonist merely states that she “…was not feeling nicely,” as she makes an attempt to look after her “sallow sweetheart” whereas her personal physique is within the grips of a silent, consuming illness. This chilling picture underscores the fragility of human life and the insufferable weight of struggling.
“The Issues She Did” is a deeply unsettling and uncooked exploration of trauma, household, and the twisted nature of reminiscence. The four-page story follows a daughter coming to phrases together with her mom’s crime of killing her brother, an act that shatters the boundaries of affection. The protagonist, caught in an online of emotional confusion, displays on the darkish complexity of her mom’s life, marked by violence and tenderness in equal measure. Because the narrator recollects each the mundane and the terrifying moments of her mom’s previous, she uncovers the deep-seated trauma that lies beneath the floor. One putting second within the story comes when the narrator says, “A mom’s crime turns into her daughter’s crime. The daughter takes the movie of blood and the checklist of prices and drapes them like a scarf round her naked shoulders.” This highly effective picture captures the inescapable weight of inherited guilt and the suffocating legacy of a household’s darkish historical past. Davis excels at creating this sense of disorientation, because the protagonist’s dissociative state mirrors the fractured nature of her id and the blurred traces between sufferer and perpetrator.
The Nothing by Lauren Davis is a haunting and thought-provoking assortment that sticks with readers lengthy after they’ve completed studying. By way of her storytelling, Davis dives deep into the fragility of the human expertise, tackling themes of isolation, loss, and the unusual methods actuality can shift. The tales don’t supply easy solutions or resolutions, however they pull readers right into a world the place the emotional and bodily go hand in hand. One of many assortment’s strongest factors is how Davis handles her characters’ inside struggles and complicated, however relatable, emotional journeys. As somebody who loves tales that discover the darker facet of life, I discovered The Nothing to be each eerie and extremely compelling. Davis expertly pulls readers into the uncomfortable and the surreal, all whereas giving these moments a tenderness that makes them hit tougher. It’s a set that invitations you to replicate on the unseen struggles all of us undergo, and it’ll stick with you lengthy after you’ve completed studying.
In regards to the reviewer: Mark Massaro earned a grasp’s diploma in English Language & Literature from Florida Gulf Coast College and he’s at the moment a Professor of English at a state faculty in Florida. His writing has been revealed in The Georgia Overview, The Hill, Los Angeles Overview of Books, The Grasp’s Overview, Newsweek, DASH, Litro, and others.
