J.R. Hamantaschen's dark fiction collection You Shall Never Know Security was published by West Pigeon Press in 2011.
Information about J.R. Hamantaschen:
J.R. is a part time fiction writer. His work has appeared in several dozen magazines and anthologies. Generally disdainful of publicizing himself or his work, he has published intermittently, never maintained a personal website, and changed his surname frequently over the years.
Information about You Shall Never Know Security:
For years, J.R.'s stories have been acclaimed throughout the underground horror world. For the first time, these surviving stories have been collected in one anthology. These are stories that challenge expectations and reject the staid conventions of the genre. These are stories that don't compromise.
Above all, what readers understood and appreciated was that these stories were about something. These are stories that, in the finest tradition of H.P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, Dennis Etchinson, and T.E.D. Klein, articulate what you've always suspected: that life is a losing proposition.
A REVIEW OF J.R. HAMANTASCHEN'S YOU SHALL NEVER KNOW SECURITY
J.R. Hamantaschen's You Shall Never Know Security is one of the best dark fiction collections ever published. It contains fascinating, disturbing and beautifully written stories that range all the way from dark fantasy to horror.
The last decade has been an exceptionally good decade for dark fiction, because several good authors have emerged and delighted dark fantasy and horror readers with their disturbing and unsettling stories. J.R. Hamantaschen is one of these good authors and I'm sure that several readers will agree with me when I say that he's very talented.
I have to say that I was very impressed by this collection, because it contains fine and elegantly written stories. The stories in this collection were my kind of fiction, because they were original and disturbing masterpieces of dark fiction. I've always been fascinated by the darker side of fantasy, horror and weird fiction, so these stories made a huge impression on me.
The stories in this collection may not be everybody's cup of tea, but I'm sure that everybody who likes good dark fiction will enjoy reading them.
Before I write more about the contents of You Shall Never Know Security, I think it's good to mention that I've noticed that there are several readers out there who have a bit erranous views about what is dark fiction and what is not. It's interesting that several readers think that when a story or a book contains certain elements (for example vampires, zombies or werewolves), it's automatically dark fiction. The truth is that these elements don't necessarily make a story or a book dark fiction, because real dark fiction is something totally else. Dark fiction is basically another name for horror fiction and encompasses dark fantasy and horror and all the possible sub-genres associated with them. In my opinion real dark fiction is the kind of fiction which disturbs you, makes you think about what you've read, challenges your views about the world and people, and frightens you. Dark fiction may contain violently and sexually graphical material, but it may also contain descriptions of mental illness and psychological horror. The truly sophisticated dark fiction is the kind of fiction that has an unsettling effect on you and you can't stop thinking about what you've read (this collection is this kind of dark fiction, because you simply can't forget what you've read).
You Shall Never Know Security contains the following stories:
- A Lower Power
- Wonder
- Endemic
- A Parasite Inside Your Brain
- Come In, Distraction
- Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction
- Sorrow Has Its Natural End
- "Jordan, When Are You Going to Settle Down, Get Married and Have Us Some Children?"
- There Is a Family of Gnomes Behind My Walls, and I Swear I Won't Disappoint Them Any Longer
- College
- There's Always Something in the Misfortune of Our Friends That Doesn't Displease Us
- Nothing
- There Must Be Lights Burning Brighter, Somewhere
Here's more information about some of the stories:
"A Lower Power" and "Wonder" are powerful short stories and they pave the way for other great stories. "Wonder" is one of the best and most memorable stories in this collection, because it's difficult to forget how the author writes about lost love. It's a wonderfully macabre and disturbing story.
"A Parasite Inside Your Brain" is a fascinating story about Caitlin who has an arachnid inside her brain. In this story the author writes interestingly about depression.
"Come In, Distraction" is another excellent story. I liked the way the author wrote about what had happened in England and how the people had changed horribly.
I'm sure that "Jordan, When Are You Going to Settle Down, Get Married and Have Us Some Children?" will linger on every reader's mind. It may not be to everybody's liking, but it's an unforgettably weird and twisted story that has pitch black humour in it.
"Truth Is Stanger than Fiction" is a fantastic story about Melias and the brutal murder she committed. In my opinion this story has interesting Lovecraftian elements in it.
"Sorrow Has Its Natural End" is a strong story about Max who's almost blind. The author writes intriguingly about how Max finds information about a man who's been cured of the same condition by using nanotechology particles. What follows is an unsettling story.
"There Is a Family of Gnomes Behind My Walls, and I Swear I Won't Disappoint Them Any Longer" is one of the best stories I've read this year. It's a fascinatingly quirky story. I'm not going to write about what happens in it, but I'll mention that it's an excellent story.
"There Must Be Lights Burning Brighter, Somewhere" is one of the best stories in this collection. It's a story about Alex who hides in a closet with two other persons. Something horrible has happened outside the closet and they try to survive by staying in the closet. It's amazing how well and captivatingly the author writes about Alex and his situation, because at first the happenings take place inside a closet. It takes quite a lot of skill to build tension when the characters are hiding in the closet, but the author succeeds in it and creates an atmospherical story that you won't easily forget.
At the beginning of this collection, the editors tell that the author has written the stories with time and hasn't hurried in the writing process. This can be seen in the quality of the stories, because each of them is beautifully written and there's real emotion (sadness, pain, loneliness etc) in them.
J.R. Hamantaschen has managed to bring lots of depth to his stories by writing about what the characters feel and what happens to them. I liked it very much that the author was able to write effortlessly about the characters and their feelings and managed to give them different personalities. The characters in these stories can almost be seen as Lovecraftian characters who are unable to resist temptation and feel drawn towards darkness and doom.
There's a wonderfully weird and unsettling atmosphere in all of these stories. The author is capable of creating an atmosphere that causes feelings of unease in the reader. His weird and macabre stories will linger on the reader's mind, because he manages to put ideas into the reader's head and makes the reader think about what's happening.
The author approaches weirdness in a modern way, which is very nice. He doesn't imitate anybody, but has his own distinct voice. What separates him from several other authors is that he writes about what kind of normal and disturbing thoughts go through the characters' minds. This kind of writing adds freshness and power to his stories.
J.R. Hamantaschen writes interestingly about things related to sex, sexuality and relationships. His approach to these things is refreshingly weird and also more than a bit twisted. For example, in "There's Always Something in the Misfortune of Our Friends That Doesn't Displease Us" he writes surprisingly well about elements related to sexuality (homosexuality etc) and relationships, and in "Endemic" he writes about difficult things in an unflinching way.
One of the reasons why You Shall Never Know Security is a great collection is the quality of the prose. I like the author's prose very much, because he writes excellent prose. His prose reminds me a bit of the prose by H.P. Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, Nathan Ballingrud, T.E.D. Klein and other masters of weird fiction and horror. He strips away the flesh of normal everyday life and reveals what kind of horrors lurk beneath the surface. He offers his readers disturbing visions and brilliantly imagined scenarios of twisted and extraordinary happenings.
I hope that J.R. Hamantaschen continues to write more stories, because he's a talented author. Because J.R. Hamantaschen is mostly known to readers who read underground horror, it would be nice if his stories were discovered by as many readers as possible. His stories deserve to be read, because they're good stories.
If you've read stories by H.P. Lovecraft, Nathan Ballingrud, Thomas Ligotti, Laird Barron, Richard Gavin, T.E.D. Klein and other similar authors, you should put this collection to your reading list, because the stories in this collection are fascinating and a bit different kind of stories for fans of dark fiction. This collection may also be of interest to readers of D.P. Watt, Quentin S. Crisp and Brendan Connell.
Highly recommended!