| Title | : | Shiloh |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0996694145 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780996694148 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 70 |
| Publication | : | First published November 5, 2017 |
For two days in the year 1862, the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War held theatre in southern Tennessee – a patch of land called Shiloh. Thousands of soldiers on both sides of the conflict lost their lives, and tens of thousands more were badly injured. For twin brothers Henry and William, infantry soldiers in the Confederate Army, the battle held more than the horrors of war, it was a portal to something beyond mankind, where the spilling of blood brings not only death, but eternal damnation.
A stunning horror novella from a new Master of the Weird and the Fantastic.
Shiloh Reviews
-
A short story by an author who doesn't believe that facts have to be factual in fiction.
Review of Kindle edition
Publication date: April 25, 2018
Publisher: Lovecraft eZine Press
Language: English
ASIN: B07CNLWX4P
Original review:
Neither of the two Amazon listings which I examined mention that this is a longish short story or a short novella. Generally the descriptions on Amazon have a short section which includes the number of pages. That part of the description is simply not there.
The prose and word choices describing the battle are, in some places, both verbose and confused. Here is an example:
"Sheets of blue smoke and the blistering repeating taps of shots fired hang over the boxes of soldiers before us as they move steadily forward, toward the frantically assembling Union camp.". Boxes of soldiers?
In other places the prose is pretty bad as well as unrealistic. Another example:
"The stragglers of the Union brigade – the over-sleepers and the ill-prepared – are shot or run-through or taken prisoner if an officer is present. I’d wager we kill a thousand or more. Bodies are dense. I step through more than one pool of blood traversing the site, looking for survivors, souvenirs. I stride past a Volunteer pissing on a dying man, whooping and thrilled to still be alive." Really? Confederate troops didn't take prisoners and they pissed on the dying? Not hardly.
And yet another example:
"Lieutenants, and even a colonel or two, attempt to rally our regiment, but all I see are soldiers wolfing down scraps of meat, hardtack, discarded apples. A few of the men are singing Peas! Peas! Peas! Peas! Eating goober peas! as they kick corpses and rummage through bloody blue pockets. One of the Volunteers shoots another over a treasure – a clamped pot of stew. The Vol is subsequently manacled and taken to the rear, where they’ll most likely kill him or set him on his way, marked as a deserter. William finds a sack filled with carrots and bread. We sneak into a hot dark tent and devour it all, ready to kill anyone who enters without our leave, or god forbid makes for our prize."
When the supernatural finally appears in the story it is as full of hyperbole and confusion as the rest:
"Seemed ridiculous to pray to an uncaring God. No point begging to an almighty being if we all ended equal. In the dirt. Mother liked to tell us about the afterlife, about heaven. About streets of gold and angels playing harps and cities in the clouds, but I know bullshit when I hear it, and it doesn’t have to be stuck to my shoe for it to stink. Point being I don’t hold stock in these ideas. Fairy tales and Bible verses are one and the same to me. So you can imagine my bewilderment and horror at seeing a demon incarnate on the battlefield, riding horseback through the tumult and carnage behind the great General Albert S. Johnston, ripping at his back with whip-fast claws, pulling long strings of frayed black substance from the great man who, for all the veracity of the creature’s devilish work, seems none the wiser to its relentless attack upon his non-corporeal self. I don’t know what it means. Why the vision comes to me now. Perhaps I have truly gone insane, or perhaps it is a vision from an unlikely God. The only thing I know for certain – and it is a truth so hard and unarguable as the sky being up and the earth being below – is that the great General Johnston is a dead man. He just doesn’t know it yet."
Then more demons or something appear to the narrator:
"I run my bayonet through the chest of a grizzled Yankee. Something punches the side of my head, my ear pops and rings, my mind flickers and I drop to a knee. I find the strength to gain my feet, am deep within the skirmish when my eyes deceive me again. It’s a whirlwind of grey and blue, the spurting, showering red of blood everywhere. A bluecoat is strangling one of our battery men who stabs his side mercilessly with a blade. Some Federals are stabbing a horse to death with bayonets. The great beast screams and topples drunkenly onto its side. A Dixie Grey staves off two Union soldiers with the barrel of an empty musket, swinging it like a club, but he is quickly overtaken and slaughtered as he shrieks for mercy. I see all this, as if time is slowed, but I also see, as opaque as flesh, the demons running rampant throughout. They leap from man to man, pulling at their substance, their bodies covered in gore and shadow, despite the unfiltered sun overhead. Thunder rumbles again and I look to the heavens. I squint at a bright light, a white hole in the sky. The light ignites the skirmish with white brilliance, and the demons evaporate, leaving only the human killers behind to fight. "
Then the Angel Glow appears:
“Is it bad, Henry?” he says, and then he swallows and his face tightens with determination. I love him more in this moment than I ever have. “I’m not afraid to die!” he yells into the night, defiant. “I don’t know,” I stammer. “It’s not bad... I don’t know what the hell it is.” He says nothing, and makes no move to touch the jacket. He looks away from me, as if wanting to be alone with his thoughts, and that’s when I notice his head. The flap of skin has been put back into place, and the wound glows green, a luminescence so bright it smears light onto the surrounding earth, the jagged, broken trunks of nearby trees. I feel its shine on me. My skin prickles with it, my eyes absorb it like dew. A tightness in me softens, the sting in my eyes lessen, then disappear. I’m refreshed, as if I’d had a home-cooked meal followed by a short nap in the long grass behind our childhood home. I take a few steps toward him, kneel in the dirt at his side. I stare at the green substance clotting the wound. It’s shining beneath the skin, giving the flesh a dull, eerie glow, like moonlight on a pillow. I reach out to touch it. I can’t help myself. "
This angel glow is a legend, a myth of the batlle of Shiloh but the author believes it's true. Here is an excerpt from an interview with him: "A few years ago I was researching an idea for a screenplay and came across this nutty article about Civil War soldiers whose injuries turned a glowing green during battle. Not only that but the injuries were healing faster than a normal injury. It became known as “Angel Glow” because they thought it a miracle. It was later discovered – about a hundred years after the fact – that what they were experiencing was the result of a bacteria carried by insects that gave the wounds a phosphorescent green glow, and did in fact help heal cells. Crazy but true. Anyway, I went from there."
Actually this "true story" is based on a theory by a couple of high school students for a science fair project. I can find no record of any critical review of the theory and certainly no research examining it. There are several other small and large errors of fact such as Union gunships at Shiloh. The Union forces did have material advantages over the Confederacy but armed aircraft? Undoubtedly Mr. Fracassi meant gunboats.
The ending is...confused, a little unclear as to what actually happened. This volume also contains a short story, Soda Jerk. I found it a better written and more effective story than Shiloh.
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Amazon will not post this review which consists largely of quotes from the story.
October 28, 2019, addendum
Readers maybe interested in the following exchange of comments with the author:
Behind us, the mortars. (My highlighted line from the story)
Did the Confederates use mortars at Shiloh? (My comment on the highlight)
Philip Fracassi: They did have mortar cannons throughout the war, but I doubt they had them at Shiloh. Artistic license?
Charles van Buren: Why throw in a "fact" that isn't?
Philip Fracassi: Because it's fiction?
Charles van Buren: Facts are facts whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction.
Philip Fracassi: Well, I disagree. But I appreciate you reading the story nonetheless!
So, one can not rely upon any apparent facts in Mr. Fracassi's writing to actually be factual. I wonder if he includes such minor things as dates, geography, physics among the things about which he feels no need to be accurate? -
Catch Hell boys...
SHILOH by Philip Fracassi
No spoilers: 5 stars. Twins Henry and William are soldiers for the Confederates in the American Civil War. They enlisted together, and they will fight together...
While engaged in a bloody musket battle with the Union Army, looking as if their side will likely lose, William is mortally shot in the gut...
Henry scrambles to save his brother and turns to see a demon riding the back of General Johnston using its claws to tear meat and muscle from Johnston's bones...
Johnston is a dead man. He just doesn't know it yet...
Needing to help his brother but refusing to be a deserter, Henry hides William in some leaves beneath a tree for the time being so he can rejoin his battalion and the fight...
...intending to return later to attend to his twin... if William survives while he's away...
Later that night...
When Henry returns to uncover William, he sees that his brother is not dead but healing due to a luminous green fluid visible in his wounds...
Fluid from the veins of the dead soldiers...
William teaches Henry to suck this green liquid from the men fallen in battle for healing, sustenance, and strength...
And...
How to dispatch some of the soldiers with a knife if they are still living...
Straggling soldiers from both sides of the war pass the twins throughout the night on their way to their various camps...
They call out to each other: Catch Hell boys!...
This was a beautifully written novella with an unexpected twist. I won't say more because of spoilers, but I'm glad I finally read it. The story was quite detailed and complex for only 70 pages. -
This chapbook contains two stories:
07 - "Shiloh"
51 - "Soda Jerk"
Both are powerful in their own ways. The first "Shiloh" concerns the American Civil War, one of the definitions of civil is - courteous and polite - certainly not where this story is concerned. It brings new meaning to the adage "War is Hell", there was nothing civil to speak of, unless blood, guts, and cannibalism are part of your personal definition.
In the second though much shorter story we meet Carrie-Ann, a young lady recently moved from Chicago to the small town of Sabbath. Carrie-Ann's mother introduces her to a young man to show her around town. As the tension mounts he takes Carrie-Ann to his favorite soda fountain where she encounters the "Soda Jerk". -
SHILOH is the second novella I have read by author Philip Fracassi. The paperback version of this includes a bonus story, "Soda Jerk". SHILOH follows the adventures of twin brothers--Henry and William--during two days of fighting for the Confederacy in the American Civil War.
". . . War has a way of pulling wallflowers off the paper, forcing them into a garden, stuck there to live or die."
In this brutal and gory battle, I was surprised at how often Fracassi's prose came off as almost poetic in nature. Despite the carnage and maiming all around them, the closeness of the brothers shines out strong--strong enough that you know with certainty that either man would lay his life on the line for the other. Yet these soldiers are under no false illusions of the grandeur of war; they accept whatever fate awaits them with a heart-breaking simplicity.
". . . No point begging to an almighty being if we all ended equal. In the dirt . . ."
The atmosphere is painted true, yet even with the horrors upon them, the words glow with deep meaning.
". . . All of it is filtered in shadow, the feel of the dying dawn . . . "
I can't give away any further details of the story, only urge others to pick it up and see what it's all about. Some of the comments made really had me mentally take a step back to ruminate on what was being expressed.
". . . You don't wash with another man's blood and expect to get clean."
Overall, a solid story with strong characters, emotions, and that special "something else" that makes this novella so unique.
". . . in a room full of gold even the most trustworthy have sly pockets and silver tongues."
The bonus story, "Soda Jerk", is a tale from the town of Sabbath--a place I'd like to read more about in the future.
Recommended! -
4.5! Rounded up for Goodreads
The Battle of Shiloh during the American Civil War was the most brutal; the most lives lost.
Philip Fracassi whisks his readers away into 1862 and right to the front lines.
It should be known that I am no Civil War buff. I don't have an affinity for tales of war or battle sequences. The cool thing is:
You don't have to care one iota for stories about war to enjoy this book. This is just compelling storytelling and it doesn't matter what it's about, you're going to read it once you start it.
--
Henry and William are brothers and soldiers in the Confederate army. Fracassi paints vivid word pictures as he describes everything Henry experiences in a first-person narrative. The result is both intimate and epic at the same time. One minute, Henry is describing the stars and the landscape like a man who has time to soak in his surroundings and the next minute he's dodging bullets.
The pace moves lightning fast; barely enough time to emotionally invest in the lives of these men but since this is historical fiction, the emotions are already there--we know how this ends. It's the Civil War.
Suddenly and without warning, almost casually...you almost miss it:
Something unfamiliar is introduced to the battlefront.
Fracassi turns this thing on a dime.
Everything goes from bleak to pitch black. Heart pounding, gut wrenching, soul-crushing horror at its best. A lot happens in these 60 pages.
And then there's a bonus story!
"Soda Jerk"
This one was almost just as good. So much horror and "bad things" happening in such a short amount of time. Fracassi knows how to get the reader all wound up and then dip out.
I felt like in both stories, I watched something horrific on TV and then stared at the static on the screen for a full minute before I could get up and turn it off.
Whoa.
I'll be getting some more Philip Fracassi! (I have his short story collection, Behold the Void right here. -
Philip Fracassi once again gives us another unsettling, haunting novella, this time set during the infamous Battle of Shiloh, one of the bloodiest of the American Civil War. As we follow two twin brothers struggling to survive the conflict, the story is told in vivid, indelible imagery that paints the graphic horror of war, but also the OTHER disturbing horrors they discover amidst the carnage.
The war might spare my life, but I’m confident my soul is long-since forfeit. You don’t wash with another man’s blood and expect to get clean.
There is also a bonus story here called "Soda Jerk," abut a teenage girl who has recently moved to the small town of Sabbath, and what happens when the creepy dude next door gives her a tour of the town. It's a nifty little Matheson-ish story that's worth a read! -
Diabolical, short novella takes the reader from the horrors of civil war to the gates of hell itself. Like a mini-Dante's Inferno. Short, brutal, poetic and full of golden gore. Fracassi is a vivid stylist and his imagery sticks with the reader.
-
The Philip Fracassi-penned supernatural tales I’ve read are set in locations most readers and filmgoers would find familiar. Within the perceived comfort of this ‘home base’ there are signs, disruptions of normalcy that gradually infect the reader’s awareness until they can no longer be ignored or attributed to a character’s paranoia. This is certainly true of “Soda Jerk,” a classically creepy suburban horror story included in the Lovecraft eZine edition of Fracassi’s novella, Shiloh.
For the main event, Shiloh, the author has researched a famous battle of the American Civil War, a battle that took place in April of 1862, near the southern border of Tennessee. With thousands of casualties on both sides, the Battle of Shiloh is a historical event that doesn’t lend itself to stories of heroism. This is war at its basest level, down in the mud and the blood-soaked grass, where grown men give in to insanity, rage, and stark terror.
All of this is masterfully portrayed, every new degradation of human life etched in unforgettable detail. These are hyper-kinetic, visceral scenes set against a gorgeously ruined pastoral landscape. As each phase of battle progresses inexorably toward the next, the damaged bodies engaging in hand-to-hand combat become more frenzied and swarm-like. At last the action spirals to a point of pure violence, with no clear lines of battle, only continuous, unmerciful brutality and death. And this is where Fracassi locates the supernatural element of his story.
Set against the moral schism of a definitive and specific American conflict, this is nevertheless a tale of cosmic evil. The clashes on the battlefield have political and social causes. In this tale of twin brothers fighting on the side of the Confederate Army, those causes are effectively subsumed under the theme of a more universal human depravity. The abominations which led to the war can be seen here as a manifestation of all that is wicked and malevolent.
Readers might wish for the ideology of brothers Henry and Will to be dissected but the story implies that they don’t recognize their own political point of view, and maybe this willful ignorance is itself an assertion of evil. The narrator’s only shared pre-war memories are of his twin brother and their comfortable home. His inability or refusal to examine the cost of such comfort rings true in context, and it’s telling that his nostalgia comes later in the story as he approaches a supernatural reckoning.
Paced at a fever pitch yet told in boldly poetic language, in first person and present tense, Shiloh captures the grotesque intimacy of battle. It’s an impressive vision of hell on earth by an accomplished literary craftsman. The descriptions alone warrant 4.5 stars, and I look forward to seeing what new territory Fracassi conquers in the future. -
Fracassi is soild. I like this guy. Consistently good and Shiloh is no exception. A very well done short and a format that the author really shines.
-
SPOILER ALERT! I talk about the ending, stop here if you haven't read the book yet.
Three and a half stars. The plot: two twins (you really can't have more than two, can you?) are fighting for the South in the American Civil War, one of them, the narrator, sees some demon like things ripping out life from people on the battlefield, then at one point in the story sees an angel of some sort standing over the body of his brother who was dying, then the story veers off into this glowing green goo that is filling up the wounds of all the soldiers, but making them also want to eat the green stuff from other soldiers, living or dead? And it begins to feel really good to heal, so the brothers start cutting themselves up? Then, there's an angel of some kind down a tunnel, with his gold blood turning green as it flows out into a creek. The older brother kills the younger with a stone (I've heard of that happening somewhere before, hmmmm), then gets to have all the angel juice for himself, but is now a kind of slave to to the angel, and damned?
Here's the weird thing, I'm not a fan of military history or war stories, but I was totally into the descriptions of the battles, they were really exciting and gut-wrenching. Especially the detail about the surgeons' tents taking in people and spitting out pieces of people. But the story involving the demons and the green goo, I just never saw where it was going, what was happening, and the ending just left me confused.
HOWEVER, this edition has a bonus story thrown on at the end called The Soda Jerk, subtitled A Sabbath Story, and it was completely awesome. It was about a teenage girl who's had to move from Chicago to some pretty-as-a-picture rural town near a giant supernaturally still lake and a junkyard that may or may not have the remains of an old car painted black as outer space and made in hell that makes anyone who sits inside it disappear, and these were just the little side tracks. The girl is taken around town by a blue-eyed Crybaby-era Johnny Depp look-alike character and finally into this soda shop, where she becomes one of them in a really weird way. This story was completely awesome, like the stories in Fracassi's excellent collection Behold the Void.
When I finished the book, I was surprised to see such a jolly, friendly-looking dude at the end in the author pic.
-
Thoroughly enjoyed the new Philip Fracassi novella Shiloh from Lovecraft eZine Press (makers of excellent podcasts and books). I finished the book a week ago and can't stop thinking about it. Entertaining, bloody, weird, well written and a great introduction to his work. I recommend going out and getting your hands on a copy ASAP.
I was lucky enough to hear the author read from Shiloh at The Outer Dark Symposium back in March and couldn't wait to get my hands on this. Philip is one hell of a writer and a very nice guy. -
Rating: 8.5/10
SHILOH is tenebrous, horrifying and downright captivating. Take the horror of the bloodiest battle in the American Civil War and double down with Fracassi’s imagination.
For those of you who do not know, here is a little history lesson. The Battle of Shiloh, aka the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, took place between April 6 & April 7, 1862. It was one of the major early battles of the American Civil War. The battle began when the Confederate Army launched a surprise attack on Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant.
So, Fracassi took this premise and spun it with his own flavoring. While war itself is hell, literal hell is waiting just on the other side of the battlefield. While a storm musketry and artillery rains down, something else waits among the dead and wounded. Though the reader isn’t quite sure if these are just visions due to the stress of war or simply paranoia, it feeds into the shear horror that war plays on the mind and soul.
The opening chapter may be one of the most thrilling, gritty, and fast-paced scenes I’ve ever read, likened to that of the opening scene of ‘Snakewood’ by Adrian Selby. There is no chance to catch a breath while munitions are shredding through the landscape, soldiers are being punched through with bayonets, and bodies begin to pile up on either side. This may be a short novella, but it is NOT short on action.
Adding Padgett’s narration gave the novella more of an immersive experience and really helped bring the whole thing to life. I’d kill for a live-action version of the story but I’ll settle for imagining it through Fracassi’s vivid descriptions.
Definite recommend (as of writing this, it is only $2.99 on Kindle and like $5 more if you want to add the audio). You do NOT have to be a history buff to enjoy this one. -
Full length review coming to
https://inkheist.com next week.
Shiloh gazes into the darkness and horrors of war and discovers an even deeper threat that dwells just beyond the veil of reality. Fracassi once again does what he does so masterfully, taking on a familiar subject or event and subverting it to his own uses, transforming it into a thing that is at once unique and mind-blowing. His brand of weird, cosmic terror is like nothing you've experienced before. 1000 stars for sheer originality and vivid, technicolor imagery. -
I’m speechless. This novella was amazing.
-
I had seen this book a while back and it piqued my interest, but didn't initially make it to the top of my reading list. . Then, when I ran into Philip Fracassi at NecronomiCon Providence in 2019 standing next to Cody Goodfellow who I had just bought a copy of All Monster Action from, I figured I'd give Shiloh a try even though I was still reserved about it living up to all the positive reviews I had heard about it.
I wish I had read it sooner. "Shiloh" delivers! This type of book is everything I enjoy about reading.
I love dark fiction that takes a turn into the genuinely weird. Not the play-school, safe, sparkly-vampire weird, nor, on the other end of he spectrum, the bizarro, off-the-wall, let's-see-how-shocking-we-can-make-this weird (although that can be extremely entertaining in its own right), but a genuinely absorbing story that merges into an unexpected reality so smoothly that I'm never jarred out of the story even as it takes me far from the preconceived notions of where I thought it would go or what should be possible.
It is a page turner and a visual, dark, evocative story. The writing is outstanding and engaging. The story is enthralling. I loved everything about it.
The short story "Soda Jerk" added to the end of this book was drastically different from "Shiloh", but was also an excellent story. -
What begins as a harrowing. firsthand account of the grisly Battle of Pittsburgh landing takes a swift and unexpected turn towards the darkly surreal in this elegant and stylish little novella. The introduction of the supernatural element into the story is appropriately jarring, yet somehow plausible within the context here and likely surprises the reader as much as it does the protagonists.
Of course, as with any dark fiction set in one of the bloodiest and grimmest conflicts of the American Civil War, the miraculous and otherworldly events carry all the trappings of double-edged swords and gifts for which the untold cost is steep indeed.
Visceral, yet written with an almost poetic elegance, this foray into allegory, dark miracles, and battlefield horror punches hard and fast once it gets moving...finally delivering a brutal gut-blow as the true implications of the proceedings become clear.
High marks indeed and a significant entry point to this author's work that will assuredly have me seeking more. -
Read it in one sitting for maximum impact
A chilling novella takes a confederate soldier from the horrors of war - depicted in shocking, brutal detail - to something out of Blake or Milton, but a great deal darker. There's also a very creepy short story about a teenaged girl's welcome to a quaint town. Excellent modern horror. -
Brutal and harrowing, exquisitely written, this is a powerful novella.
-
Don't worry, Philip, I liked this one.
Sincerely,
Magnus (also known as Some Dutch Guy on The Outer Dark Podcast) -
3.5 stars
I had mixed feeling on this one. The writing was really good and the story was unusual. It did take a bit for me to get into it. The war parts were not my cup of tea and I was a bit bored but when the supernatural came into play with demons and green stuff, it really took off for me. It actually made me physically cringe in some parts which is hard to make me do. This novella also has a separate short story at the end called Soda Jerk. I actually liked the short story better. Looking out for more by this author. -
A cracking read. Will be writing a full review for this one in the coming days.
-
Unnerving Magazine Review
To start, SHILOH paints a setting not often (not to my experience anyhow) featured in horror literature. The Civil War is not a big topic on my radar as a Canadian, but I understand the just of it and have seen enough movies and TV to imagine the scenes, though none of what I’ve seen on the tube reveals the layers offered by Fracassi in this novella. Accompanying horror with a historical event works to add depth and offers new space for originality. The vibe is heavy and thick. The notion of so many bodies, so much blood, and so little sustenance accompany the subtly off feeling on the battlefield, aiding the already uncomfortable realities and oddities.
Once the supernatural reveals itself, it grabs hold of the story and all action becomes an off-shoot of where the uncanny elements decide, no matter what the narrator or his brother might think. In that sense, the story is in a constant state of uncertainty. At no point did I assume the next step, also fairly rare.
SHILOH is chilling, atmospheric, and wonderfully written (smooth and leaning into literary).
Also included in this book is SODA JERK, I’m assuming as a bonus, since it doesn’t get the title treatment. That said, I think I liked this story even more than SHILOH.
This one uses a similar theme to SHILOH in that a perversion of nature has occurred and it’s hungry for pals, however, taking place in a small town in the fifties (sixties?), it’s of a wholly different world.
New in town, a girl is escorted by the school’s class president because her mother thinks it’s a good idea, right there I was hooked. The notion of meddlesome parents hits all kinds of buttons with me as I never understood why a kid would put up with it. This one pulls on more of a general thriller flavor of scare as all the way through, something is off, but it’s hard to finger (for the character, as a reader you get a good sense).
The unveiling hopelessness and clashing visuals (wholesome smiling faces are never truly what they seem) really kick this thing into something special. Definitely one of the best short stories I’d read all year.
To sum the pairing as a single book, this is the third (I think) must read I’ve tackled in 2018. Fantastic from beginning to end. -
Click here to read my full review at Signal Horizon Weird horror meets the human brutality of one of the American Civil War's worst battles- not a mix you would expect to work, but Fracassi pulls it off in spades! Balancing action and atmosphere, the horror of war and supernatural horror, is where Fracassi really shines in this work. Highly recommended for horror fans that are looking for something more than your run of the mill ghost, vampire, or other such cliche. As a novella Shiloh reads quickly and feels more like a long short story rather than a short novel. It has all the punch of a really great short story, but just needs a little bit more space to fully flesh out the brothers and make the turn from a very physical horror to a more supernatural one. Plus included in the eBook and trade paperback versions is the additional story "Soda Jerk" which is a great little gem in its own right. -
Last time I reviewed a Philip Fracassi novella I was on a flight to Sweden, this time I’m heading in the opposite direction bound for Ireland. These shorter works of fiction sure are neat travelling companions and pulling in at a brief 47 pages “Shiloh” certainly caused plenty of distractions on the way to the Emerald Isle. Since I discovered this author eighteen months ago I’m become a huge fan of his clever novellas and strikingly original short stories. “Shiloh” is a fascinating addition to his impressive back-catalogue of weird tales, is it a short novella or long short story? Who cares, either way it is an excellent read.
“Shiloh” was originally released as a very limited edition by Mount Abraxas Press which is long since sold out, with the trade edition to follow in mid-April, via Lovecraft E-Zine Press, which will include the Kindle and other ebook releases. There are elements of cosmic horror in the tale, but other than that “Shiloh” does not have any other direct Lovecraft influences.
“Shiloh” will undoubtedly be more recognisable to American readers than us over here in the UK, as the “Battle of Shiloh” was both a strategic and vicious battle in the American Civil War which saw over 25,000 deaths, fought over two days in April of 1862. Fracassi’s story is his peculiar spin on this famous battle, seen from the point of view of twin brothers Henry and William, infantry soldiers in the Confederate Army (the South). Both are young men proud to be fighting for the South and desperate to draw blood, see the enemy die and protect each other’s backs. When the battle starts nobody is prepared for the sheer scale of it, which is conveyed nicely by the author.
First off, the battle scenes were terrific. They were visceral, realistic, atmospheric, noisy and brutal, easily pulling the reader into the boiling cauldron of thousands of evenly matched soldiers fighting over small scraps of land. Blood flows, limbs are shorn, and it’s hard to tell who is winning or losing in the mass confusion as orders fail in the mass slaughter.
Of course, this is a horror spin on a famous true event, so at a certain point in the story one of the brothers who is dead on his feet and fighting to return to his wounded twin starts to see weird visions tracking dying or soon to be dead soldiers. Is he hallucinating or are the hounds of hell arriving to revel in the sheer volume of death?
I don’t want to say too much about the direction the second half of the story heads into, generally the second day of the battle. However, as things get weird the story is still loosely based upon fact, if you have any knowledge of the real Battle of Shiloh you might know what I am eluding to, but I will provide no further spoilers myself. It’s strange stuff but is nicely balanced with the first act of the novella and a clever use of a truly ‘weird fact’ which I looked up after a tip from the author.
Bringing supernatural beings into the centre of the American Civil War is not something you read every day, Fracassi recently said this about the fun he has with literary mash-ups:
“I have a tendency to mix genres. The Civil War setting intrigued me because what I like to
do in my stories is take Ingredient A and mix it with Ingredient B to come up with something
that hopefully reads as fresh. I’m a big fan of mash-up genre pieces, both in literature
and in other mediums, so it was fun for me to take a historical
war story and combine it with supernatural horror.”
As with all of Fracassi’s works he has the knack of drawing the reader into his world incredibly quickly and with few words draws believable and likeable characters. As the battle rages you’ll be thrusting your metaphorical bayonet along with Henry whose point of view of story it is seen from, whether you’ll still be cheering him on in the second day I’m not so sure. “Shiloh” is a brief but very enjoyable read from one of the best writers of short horror fiction in the business. -
The horror of war is very real. Hollywood went through a period in the aftermath of the Vietnam War where this was used to great effect, in movies such as Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon. The list is endless. The list of horror movies, or fiction, featuring the American Civil War as the setting is much shorter. But considering it is the bloodiest conflict in the history of the United States, it does seem to be fertile ground for a good horror story. Which is exactly what Philip Fracassi has delivered with Shiloh.
Throughout the story, we follow identical twins Henry and William, though we see the story through Henry’s eyes. Called upon to fight for the Confederate South, they take great honour in their duty and face their enemies on the battlefields of Tennessee. The battle scenes are horrific, Fracassi never once shying away from the details, forcing the reader to confront the horror of war head-on. We are given a glimpse into the warrior-psyche of Henry, that he is caught in a kill-or-be-killed scenario, but he seems to be the perfect soldier, the perfect weapon. He is duty-bound, along with his brother and the other men, to fight tooth-and-nail for every inch, even if it means his death. This is all beautifully described by the author in the opening pages.
However, events take a tragic turn and William is mortally wounded. This causes Henry to reconsider where his priorities lie and what he must do next. In the immediate aftermath, he continues to fight, vowing to return for his brother. But, when he does, he discovers a miracle. For the land the two armies are fighting and dying on has been altered. The word “corrupted” comes to mind, but when the outcome is positive, can it really be described as such? William’s wounds seem to be healing at an accelerated rate. But what is the green stuff that covers the wounds? And what part do the demons play, the demons that only Henry seems to be able to see on the battlefield?
Fracassi takes a natural scene and injects the horror, revealing the nightmare lurking underneath, like a waiter presenting you with a silver-domed platter, only to reveal a plate of maggots beneath. But this book is far from maggots; it is yet further evidence that Philip Fracassi is a gifted storyteller. He begins by setting the scene using description with a perfect pitch, capturing the voice of the era with pinpoint precision. With Shiloh, we are at once immersed in the blood-soaked trauma of the Civil War while, in bonus story Soda Jerk, we are Carrie-Ann, fish out of water. But he wields his words like a master craftsman, hinting at the sinister undertone, filling us with unease and dread. We know that this way danger lies, but we never truly know what form it will take, until it is too late, and we are dragged beneath the waves like a swimmer caught in the undertow. The wonderful description and the brilliant interaction between his characters completes a perfect reading experience that we have now come to expect from one of the best writers writing dark fiction today.
To read the full review, please visit This Is Horror. -
Unfortunately life got in the way and finishing this beauty took far longer than it should have. It is obvious that Philip Fracassi put a lot of thought and background work into Shiloh, a Civil War story that somehow blends the stark horrors of the battlefield, angels, demons and cannibalism together without making the story sound outlandish, foolish or absurd. I had no idea, even halfway at through the read, which way the plot was headed (which never fails to please me).
I was pleasantly surprised on completing Shiloh to find the additional story titled Soda Jerk. A short and concise story, deceptively calm until the twist within the last couple of pages.
Brilliant! -
A gripping and lyrical novella of historical horror, with a unique take on lore. The American Civil War is painting grimly amidst the increasingly strange and terrifying events twin brothers find themselves partaking in. The bonus story is equally well-told and unsettling, a fine dive into cosmic horror.
-
4.5 stars actually! This was a wonderful weird one! Two brothers become part of America's Civil War and some odd sh*t occurs! I don't do spoilers!
-
An absolute knockout of a novella from the always astounding Fracassi, Shiloh mates an authentic, palpable civil war setting with the supernaturally transcendent. A story as violent as it is heartbreaking. The accompanying short story in this chapbook, Soda Jerk, is also one of my favourite from this author, one of the most thrilling and skin-crawling shorts I've read in a while. I hope he sets a whole lot more of his fiction in the brilliantly realised town of Sabbath.
