| Title | : | Altar |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0692617043 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780692617045 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 53 |
| Publication | : | First published April 1, 2016 |
Like any dream, however, things can change. Heavens can fall into darkness, games turn deadly, love becomes hate. And the seemingly safest places of our world – filled with that sweet, sky–blue nostalgia – can curdle and implode, tearing the dream, and those caught inside it, to shreds.
Altar Reviews
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My friend Adrian Shotbolt messaged me the other night and asked me if I had read this incredible book he just finished. I had not done so and, knowing Adrian to have exceptional taste in dark fiction, I quickly secured a copy (thanks to the author for that). The book is ALTAR and I'm here to tell you that it's everything I'd been led to expect and so much more.
Until recently, I've never been a fan of the weird or cosmic when it comes to fiction. Lovecraft never turned me on. I know this will be blasphemy to purists but, although he was a brilliant creative and wrote some groundbreaking, genre-shaping fiction, he was way over verbose for my tastes. Follow that up with all the Lovecraftian pastiche that's saturated the market for so long and you've completely turned me away. But then I read the work of Laird Barron, an exceptional and brilliant author who showed me that there was a weird and a cosmic that went beyond pastiche and was, in fact, it's own thing. That fine gentleman then directed me to the works of authors like Gemma Files, Brian Evenson, Stephen Graham Jones, and a whole passel of others writing this new weird that is a fascinating combination of literary experimentation, noir, and horror. Consider me a convert.
The author I'm talking about today, Philip Fracassi, is one of that group of authors that has me suddenly so enamored of this new weird fiction that's being written today and ALTAR is a fine horror story in it's own right, even without such sub-genre tags attached to it. Fracassi writes with flare and style, demonstrating a level of comfort with his subject material that one would generally expect from a much more experienced writer. His characters, Gary in particular, are real and sympathetic right out the gate and his setting, minimal as it may be, is picture perfect for the tale he tells, a tale that may make you think twice before that next family jaunt to the local swimming pool.
"Gary stared anxiously through the humidity-smeared rear window of the station wagon. The grill of the white Cadillac trailing behind them twinkled in the heat, the chrome glinting like a metal mouth bearing down on the rear bumper every time the brakes squealed them to a stop. Gary stared absently at two shadowy figures, blackened and hazy, hovering behind the Caddy’s sloping windshield like strange voyeurs from another world, a world in which things like air-conditioning and tinted windows proliferated."
There begins a story rife with such lyrical prose and full of suspense and the promise of bad things to come right from the first paragraph. And bad things do come. Very bad things.
ALTAR crackles with tension from page one and keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout. The pacing is above par and the plot is engaging, as is Fracassi's voice.But in the long run, the true power of this story boils down to two of the most important elements of story: character and setting. He builds his setting in a somewhat minimalist fashion with nearly the entirety of the book taking place at a public swimming pool. I know that doesn't sound very exciting but it's so perfectly executed, the color and the chaos of a hot summer day at the pool is captured so vividly, with such intimate attention to detail, that you can see it perfectly in your minds eye.
And it's that intimate, minimalist setting that allows Fracassi the space he needs to develop his characters so spectacularly, especially Gary, who is lovable right from the start and stays that way through to the bitter and horrific end. Philip gets into the mind of a young boy better than I've seen anyone do since Stephen King's IT, and it makes the story that much more terrifying because you feel an almost instinctive need to shelter and protect him from the darkness of the world. But the darkness in ALTAR is pervasive and there's no escaping it. All you can do is hang on to the edge of your seat and hope things come out okay for the little boy and his typically dysfunctional little family unit.
ALTAR is the first work I've read by Philip Fracassi and I absolutely loved every single page of it. Fracassi's voice is engaging and his story is captivating. It gets it's teeth into you and refuses to let you go until the very last word. I read it in one short sitting and it had such a strong hold on my attention I probably would have read it in one sitting had it been three times as long. ALTAR is weird fiction with a gigantic bite and if you haven't read it, you should go fix that now. -
I liked the aesthetics of ALTAR a lot. The poolside afternoon chaos reminded me slightly of David Foster Wallace's short story "Forever Overhead". I like the vision of apocalypse too, which was terrifying and heartbreaking (which is a variable often overlooked when dealing with apocalypses). I'm just not sure I understood the causality of it. Antropomorphic and carnivorous nature is important in cosmic horror and I didn't get the relationship to nature here outside of "there was a pool there, so it happened there". Maybe I'm overthinking it. Maybe ALTAR is meant to be enjoyed like a Hieronymous Bosch painting and I did to a certain extent. It just felt like an incomplete brush stroke somehow.
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4 stars
Story in a nutshell: hot summer day, get your recreation center pass for some cosmic horror at the local swimming pool.
Seems weird, doesn’t? Surprisingly, the story works rather well … but allow me to have my concerns
Kudos to the cover art, beautiful and powerful and er, misleading? Wait, have I said misleading? Hell no! And dive into next spoiler 😉
.
You can see more art from Matthew Revert on his website
www.matthewrevertdesign.com
And a big thank you to Philip Fracassi himself for pointing me in the right direction 👍 -
I remember how much fun the community pool was when I was a kid. Philip Fracassi really captures the splendor and stress involved with a family trip to the pool. And he adds a little something extra as well. A very well done and original short. 4.5 Stars
Get your water wings on and come on in…the waters fine. -
Trigger warnings
Anything Lovecraftian and loss-of-innocence is going to get my attention and this was a great story with a gorgeous well-rounded young protagonist. I loved the setting and the nostalgic feel but the writing lost some ground with me in concern to the two female characters, one of whom was a weak victim of her own doing, the other a victim of another male character. I'd really like to see stronger female characters in more books, even short ones like this.
There was also too many names ending in or containing the letter 'y'!!!
Gary, Abby, Billy, Tyler, Betty or Betsy. -
With ALTAR Philip Fracassi has found a perfect metaphor for suburban despair and family fragmentation. Set at a public pool, the story evokes dread through a series of potentially violent, escalating conflicts between children and young adults. Taken to this place where they're meant to entertain themselves (and allow their unhappy and/or divorced parents respite for an afternoon), the children are caught up in the confusion of adult life and the joyless pursuit of happiness.
It's tricky portraying lonely or broken characters, and this is where the central metaphor comes in. With stunning clarity the author summons up a kind of cosmic horror existing both outside and inside characters whose fate is inevitable yet deeply disturbing. I expect the imagery of ALTAR will stay with me for a long time, and I look forward to reading more fiction by Philip Fracassi. -
The nostalgia of a child’s summer afternoon can be intoxicating. Tinkling ice cream trucks, games in the yard, young love, swimming pools. For one young boy and his family, days like these can be heaven. Dream-like. Like any dream, however, things can change. Heavens can fall into darkness, games turn deadly, love becomes hate. And the seemingly safest places of our world, filled with that sweet, sky–blue nostalgia can curdle and implode, tearing the dream and those caught inside it to shreds.
What seemed like it was going to be a nice, summer day at the public swimming pool quickly descends into chaos. The shattering of innocence through the eyes of a little boy named Gary, the emotional destruction of his older sister Abby and the drunken anger of their mother all spiral out of control as the apocalypse opens up beneath them. It shows that the infinitesimal struggles of everyday people mean absolutely nothing in the face of nature's wrath and the cosmos. The characters were very well-written in the short amount of time they were around.
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If you're looking for some dark ambient music for reading horror, dark fantasy and other books like this one, then be sure to check out my YouTube Channel called Nightmarish Compositions:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPs... -
Philip Fracassi has all the goods, and ALTAR puts them all on display: exciting, well paced plotting, brilliantly realized and complex characterizations, and then there's his prose. Oh, that prose:
"The underworld of the pool was beautiful. It was cloudy and blue, filled with hips and legs of kids jumping, spinning, walking and kicking, all of it in a dreamy slow-motion. When the water overlapped his ears the sounds of the surrounding children became muffled and far away and he felt alone, like an angel floating around heaven looking at the saved ones fighting their way up, up through the clouds. He smiled under the water and kicked his legs. As he swam out of the shallow end, he spread his buoyed arms wide to either side and watched gracefully as the coarse white concrete bottom of the pool dropped further and further away from the surface, giving him the delicious impression he was spreading his angel wings and flying higher and higher into the sky toward God."
Not many authors can produce prose that evokes such nostalgia, pathos and unforgettable imagery. ALTAR shows off Fracassi's considerable horror chops, but--even more importantly--the writing of the tale reveals him as a new literary force to be reckoned with. -
Join Gary, his older sister Abby, and their mother, Martha, as they look to enjoy a relaxing afternoon swimming in the pool at the recreation center. Seems everybody else has the same idea, so the pool is overflowing with bodies.
Just another normal day in the middle of a hot summer, right?
Far from it…
Fracassi expertly layers other characters and a gradually tightening thread of anxiety into the seemingly joyful setting, relayed to the reader mostly through the mind and eyes of Gary. Some of the anxiety is palpable, as his sister is dragged into a real-life situation fraught with menace. Even beyond that, though, the tension twists into a knot…and then normal is shown the door...and horror takes the reins. What happens as things escalate to a breaking point is wild, shocking, unexpected…and brilliantly imagined as Fracassi takes us to a place where…well, let’s just say, what he introduces to the situation has curious influence over many, and is hungry, so hungry.
Fracassi’s previous chapbook, Mother, crawled under my skin with a truly unnerving finale. With Altar, he does it again, with a master’s touch. Definitely a writer I will be following. -
What starts as a funny trip to the swimming pool turns into a vile nightmare. The characters in this story are quite round and you get good insight into Martha, Gary and Abby. It's the end of innocence happening to the children. Extremely eerie what the author did with the crack in the pool. I'm pretty sure I will think about this story the next time I'm swimming in a pool. After a slow start terror hits you like a hammer and sucks you down into a maelstrom. Good prose and an excellent final. Recommended!
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Originally published at
Risingshadow.
This is a joint review of Philip Fracassi's two horror stories, Altar and Mother.
I'm glad I had an opportunity to read and review these stories, because they're well written and intriguingly unsettling horror stories. They're among the best new horror stories I've ever read, because the author's dark imagination has produced something that is not easily forgotten.
After reading these stories, I can state that I consider Philip Fracassi to be one of the most promising and talented new horror authors to emerge during the recent years. He has his own writing style and he's capable of blending classic and modernt elements in a satisfyingly original way. His stories have a fascinating touch of creepiness found in old-fashioned horror stories and classic weird fiction. Along with Clint Smith, Livia Llewellyn, Michael Wehunt, Scott Nicolay, Laird Barron and Nathan Ballingrud, he's one of the best new authors of horror fiction, because his stories contain addictive weird fiction elements.
Because I've been a dedicated fan of weird fiction for a long time, I was impressed by these stories. I found them fully satisfying and wonderfully creepy, and I was positively surprised by their quality.
Here's a bit of information about the stories:
- Altar: A young boy called Gary visits a swimming pool with his mother, Martha, and his sister, Abby. Soon something goes horribly wrong and the visit to the pool turns into something terrifying and unexpected...
- Mother: Howard and Julie get married, but after a while their marriage begins to decline. Howard notices that something strange is going on with Julie, because she seems to change...
In Altar, the author writes perfectly about Gary's life and feelings. He also fluently refers to Martha's drinking problems and what happened to her marriage. What happens at the pool is memorable and terrifying, because when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, the story slowly turns into a cosmic horror story.
In Mother, the author's vision of marriage and parenthood is truly something to behold, because he writes insightfully about these issues and scares his readers with well-chosen supernatural elements. The author writes excellently about marriage and its decline, because it was fascinating to read about Howard's feelings towards Julie. I also enjoyed the ending, because it was brilliant.
When I read Mother, I got the feeling that the author wrote surprisingly honestly and viscerally about the marriage between Howard and Julie, because their slowly disintergrating marriage felt hopeless and doomed to fail, but a child changed it for a while. I liked this very much, because I've always been drawn to nuanced writing that reveals what goes on beneath the surface. Many authors merely scratch the surface, but Philip Fracassi goes beyond it.
Altar features one of the best descriptions of childhood happenings I've read in a long while. The author pays attention to what Gary feels and how he reacts to things. I also want to mention that what is revealed about the pool is impressive, and what happens to Gary's sister is quite nasty.
One of the most important reasons why I enjoy these stories is that they feel simultaneously familiar yet strange, and they gradually develop into unsettling stories filled captivating weirdness. I also enjoy the author's way of writing about the characters and their lives.
The atmosphere is perfect and intriguingly menacing in these stories. I love the way the author creates a feeling that something's not right. When you read these stories, you'll quickly notice that you get a feeling that something bad is about to happen, but you can't quite put your finger on what's going to happen.
What makes these stories especially effective is Philip Fracassi's uncanny ability to blur the line between the supernatural and the reality. His vision of supernatural and surreal happenings feels genuinely disturbing, because it's partially connected to reality. In these stories, everyday happenings suddenly take a turn for the macabre.
These stories are perfect examples of how to combine quiet horror, brutality, emotions, creepiness, intimacy and weirdness in a successful and unforgettable way. Not many authors have the ability to make this kind of stories interesting, but Philip Fracassi has this ability and he uses it wonderfully. He's a gifted storyteller who weaves a web of strangeness and dread over his readers and lures them on a terrifying journey towards a memorable and terrifying climax.
I like the author's raw and striking prose, because it fits the stories. His writing is in equal parts beautiful, lyrical, brutal and haunting. If he were to write different kind of prose, his stories wouldn't be as powerful as they are. His prose emphasises the strange atmosphere and his descriptions of the happenings make readers uncomfortable.
I sincerely hope that Philip Fracassi will continue to write this kind of horror fiction, because he clearly has a talent for writing memorable stories. I look forward to reading more stories written by him. I have a feeling that we can expect great things from him.
If you're looking for new horror fiction to read and are fascinated by weird fiction, I highly recommend taking a look at these two amazing stories. You won't regret reading them, because they're amazing and captivating in their strangeness. They're wonderful weird fiction.
Highly recommended! -
I really enjoyed Fracassi's writing, so rich and illuminating in the right places. His writing is like the difference between a picture from a camera and the artful composition of a masterpiece painting. This short story brought me back to my younger self, and the frequent visits to my local municipal pool; only in this story, there's a demon at the altar calling in all the children. What fun!?!
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After this, it will be a long time before I look at a swimming pool in the same way. The pacing of Altar is superb. The vividly clear representation of the experiences and struggles of each character were also a highlight. Personally, Fracassi has struck a nerve with the main character Gary, as I identified wholly with his relationship to his older sister Abby as their family was falling apart. The scene detailing Abby's actions after leaving the locker room are sure to haunt me for a while. This is classic horror that deserves your attention.
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Chaos of divorce gone but not buried, Martha, kids Abby and Gary, in a wagon, it is summer weekend time, on the way for a dip in the pool.
A pool in summer full of parents, kids, boys and girls, what possibly could go wrong?
This being a horror tale with trepidation the reader awaits the unexpected.
The author careful crafting the scene, unwrapping the characters and their complexities, and then exposing them to the shifting mechanics with the axis of the day shifting into chaos and mayhem with an irreversible interlude.
Similar to a previous tale I read of this authors
Sacculina, in that he has a family in peril.
My second read of his now both purchased a few years ago on my kindle, another author I never managed to read till now.
Looks like his collection Behold the Void, of which contains this story, also needs reading.
This does take me back to a great little noir tale One of These Nights by Livia Llewellyn, part of a collection named:
Cutting Edge edited by Joyce Carol Oates,of which there is a time for pool too, this time with father, daughter, and friend, that shifts into a deadly tale, one I strongly advise checking out too.
Review also @
https://more2read.com/review/altar-by-philip-fracassi/ -
There's something to be said for a slim book that can be read in a single sitting - a story that provides the perfect poolside companion to the coldest beverage of your choice. Fracassi wants you to feel the sun on your face ... but he's teasing you, and hardly gives you time to break a sweat.
Because soon the storm clouds roll in and you lift your eyes from the page, only to discover someone walked off with your drink.
And the kids aren't safely in the shallow end, where you last saw them.
The kids are gone.
Ferocious and unpredictable, ALTAR throws you into the deep end without water wings. Fracassi brings the goods. Totally recommended. -
This was quite a horror tale. It's of novelette length at 11,000 words and is a fun read in one sitting. As others have said, it too reminds me of something by Stephen King -- broken families, alcoholism, adults who are no help when ya need 'em.
It also has a sort of 80's feel, about a family going to a community pool -- you remember, back when people still went outside and did stuff? Quaint...
We get just enough character development early on for the horrible things that happen to them later. I would have liked a bit more explanation of what exactly happened, but the story is likely better as it is. The end was quite a jaw-dropping shocker. -
This copy is signed by the author Philip Fracassi.
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An enthralling and mesmerising read. I'm 100% on Team Fracassi now. Brilliant. Full review to come.
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This is a wonderfully realized story about secondary traumatic stress and survivor's guilt. Absolutely chilling and note perfect!
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** Edited as review is now live on Kendall Reviews! **
I recently read Fracassi’s ‘The Rejects,’ a fantastic short story about a secret hidden deep below the moon’s surface. It was when I was done reading it that my Kindle reminded me I had ‘Altar’ from him as well.
So, I jumped on it a soon as I could.
The story itself is pretty straight forward and simple. We get to see a group of random people who head to a community pool on a hot day. Kids and adults mingle and the normal interactions in that scenario occur. It isn’t until the end of the story that things take a drastic turn.
What I liked: I enjoyed seeing the mundane happenings of the characters. Fracassi lets them breathe a bit, lets them become real characters to the reader. I really enjoyed the ending, but in order to keep it spoiler-free, I can’t really comment too much on that. I also enjoyed the feeling of knowing ‘something’ was going to happen. You just knew it from the beginning and Fracassi created a really sneaky sense of tension as the story went on.
What I didn’t like: I found that while I did enjoy the creeping tension and the feeling that something was coming, I felt like it took far too long for the faeces to hit the fan, if you will. The ending came and went and it was over and done with. I would’ve loved the final moments of the story to have taken up more pages, but that’s my take.
Why you should buy this: As I said before – Fracassi is such a great storyteller. This one sits and steams on the kitchen stove as this goes along. You know that the story is going to eventually come to a boil and when it does, wow does it deliver some devastation!
This is a quick read, single sitting and I think it would make a great entry point for people who’ve never read any of his work. -
What begins as a family trip to the local pool on a warm day quickly turns dark on levels both personal and cosmic, and it’s the juxtaposition of these two elements that Fracassi is so damn good at. The social ecosystem of the public pool and the mundane idiosyncrasies of each characters’ headspace make a fantastic set-piece for the action and horror that unfolds with Fracassi’s elegant rhythm. He manages to fit so much into the space of such a short work, but it never feels overfed. Every scene is precisely measured and delivers the right amount of impact-versus-anticipation before switching to a different character or scenario. The tension builds to breathless, almost painful heights as the story reaches its bleak and fragile peak. This is an absolute sucker-punch of a novella that easily ranks among this year’s best pieces of fiction.
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This slim novel (more like novella, perhaps short story—it's about 11,000 words) was a used book store discovery, and it made for perfect poolside reading. I mean, literally. It takes place during a summer afternoon at a community pool, and has a totally unsettling ending. In tone and pacing, it reminds me a lot of a Stephen King short story (which is most often when he is at his best, IMO) so I am pretty much satisfied for what this story is.
It oozes of summer pool nostalgia and boasts a bubbling sense of doom, but then it goes full on Lovecraftian in its final third (with a twist of Pied Piper). I've never heard of Fracassi—that's one reason I love used book stores; you never know what you'll stumble into!—but I want to know more. -
Ostensibly a simple bizarre-occurrence piece with a maybe-spider-beastie or a demon creating a sinkhole at the bottom of a public pool, Altar has as much depth as the Mariana Trench. The character portraits are spot-on, the evocation of summer life with its possibly-slightly-sinister activities drawn with delicacy and accuracy, and the hole in the middle can mean damn near anything you want it to.
Is it adulthood? Is it death? Is it an entrance to Hades? Is there any difference? That isn't spelled out. Hugely evocative and very skillfully-done novelette. -
Weird as hell
Short but satisfying. Time and care taken to build characters and mood before devolving into utter madness. Weirdness at the climax described in beautiful detail, no shying away here. -
I heard this was good, but it was even better than I thought it would be. Great writer, great horror story!
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This standalone Horror short was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed this quick story and will definitely read more from Philip Fracassi. Good, horrible stuff.
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Our story begins in the sweltering height of summer, with a trip for Gary; his older sister, Abby; and their mother, Martha, to a swimming pool. It’s nostalgic, as most of us have made that same trip as children, even down to the memory of painfully hot sun-heated car seats. The author provides a detailed reminiscence of the pool experience. As tranquil as it is, we know something bad is going to happen. Unfortunately for Gary’s family, the shared and loved experience doesn’t last long.
The focus of the story is a little unusual as it’s mostly from the perspective of a couple of young boys, Gary and another boy at the pool, Tyler. Their perspective really adds to the tone. When the threat at the pool becomes apparent, it is incredibly tense and gripping as events play out. There is something so primal about fear for children, and especially your own children, that fills this book with dread. This story may do for swimming pools what Jaws did for the ocean.
This is a short novelette, but the author still effectively creates the leads and develops their relationships and backstory enough that we sympathize and care about them. Gary and Abby have a sibling bond that I imagine any brother and sister would desire. What we have here is a highly enjoyable dose of cosmic horror that sucks you in for a compelling ride without relying on gore or cheap scares to make it impactful. -
They say never judge a book by its cover. In this case, I ignored that advice and it paid off. It was the incredibly cool artwork that drew me to this piece, but I got more than I bargained for.
Altar starts off by introducing believable, sympathetic characters that the reader can quickly get to know, and puts them in the mundane situation of a day at the public pool. Things get progressively darker as sinister events, mundane and eldritch, swirl together to create a storm of madness and despair.
For such a short story, Altar is impressively fleshed out. The story is scary, the characters are well crafted, and the language speaks to our shared human experiences, as well as our deepest fears. -
Loved the unusual setting for a horror story--a municipal swimming pool--and the way a sense of dread slowly seeps into a young family’s day off. I thought the story was going to go one way, and was genuinely surprised when the author took it in an entirely different, even more frightening, direction. Philip Fracassi has a real gift for making his characters come across as living, breathing people on the page, and that combined with a great skill at cranking up tension makes ALTAR one of the best horror novelettes I’ve read in a long time. I’m really looking forward to seeing what this author does next. Highly recommended.
