Review: Midnight Echo Issue 1

Review: Midnight Echo Issue One

Midnight Echo is the magazine of the Australian Horror Writer’s Association (AHWA). The inaugural issue is edited by Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond and features sixteen offerings of short fiction, several artworks and one interview.

This issue features an assortment of fiction, from longer length short stories to flash fiction and a poem. Also included is one of the most innovative interviews I’ve read (New Blood: Shell Game: An Encounter with Dave Hoskin by Steven Studach). The reader should also note amongst the fiction Drowning by Alice Godwin, which won the AHWA short story competition.

Overall, the quality of fiction in this issue is impressive, but there are several stories that clearly stand out from the others.

Stephen Dedman’s Broken Images is one of the pieces more grounded in the real world, its story set in New Orleans and revolving around voodoo. The grounding in reality gives this story real impact.

They Live Under the House by Felicity Dowker is a dark little story where the monsters are never revealed. While there is some predictability to the plot that detracts slightly, the hints at hidden darkness are more than enough to make this story stand out.

Honeytime by Brendan Duffy and Andrew Macrae is, perhaps, the most surreal piece in this issue. It reads like a fragment of a nightmare, with some truly disturbing and stomach-turning images that will linger in the reader’s mind long after the magazine has been closed.

Cactus by David Conyers is a story at once grounded in reality and yet completely surreal. One of the most original pieces in the magazine, it displays a mastery of imagery.

Paul Haines' Taniwha, Swim With Me is another story that hints at hidden darkness. Haines has a particular talent for cracking open the walls of reality just enough to show the darkness beyond.

Pale Dark Solider by Deborah Biancotti is another standout. Biancotti writes prose as though it was poetry, manipulating language and reality to create something truly creepy.

The final standout story is one of the shortest in the issue: Martin Livings' Piggies. Livings is a author who has the ability to use very few words and a few striking images to create something that will linger. Don’t eat while reading this one.

Overall, Midnight Echo issue one is a credit to the editors and the AHWA, collecting a group of very talented authors of dark fiction. It’s amazingly good value.

Midnight Echo can be purchased from the AWHA as a pdf or hard copy.