I've had a copy of
The Last Stair into Darkness by
Cliff Barlow for a while now, so when I felt the need to read a bit of horror in between the many volumes of the
Chronicles of Elantra, I decided to finally cross it off my
reading list. Though, for the life of me, I can't remember which volumes of the
book series preceded and succeeded my reading of the short story
anthology, and, at some point, had decided to put off writing my post about it. As I struggle with
Too Like the Lightning (I can't quite get my reading groove on with this one, but somehow still enjoying it), I figured it was time to revisit the titles I have yet to share my thoughts on.
The Last Stair into Darkness is a collection of twenty short stories by frequent
Thought Catalog contributor Cliff Barlow. The horror featured varies in nature, sometimes showcasing the darkest parts of human nature or literal monsters that left indelible impressions even if you are unfortunate enough to survive them. I'm not going to go into details in what the twenty short stories are about, because I would be pretty much spoiling them.
Not all of the twenty stories are new to me, with some already featured as individual entries in
TC. It was fun revisiting them, however, and I found myself looking forward to reading the other creations of Cliff Barlow. I do have to admit, however, that after I was done with the collection, I reflected on what I have read and decided to give it a two star rating on
Goodreads.
As individual stories, Cliff Barlow's works are good and offer the right amount of scares when you read them. As part of a short story collection, however, they tend to bleed into each other. A few stories in, it feels like there's nothing fresh about the newer entries, even if it's my first time reading them. I like the idea of a recurring setting for a writer's different works, but it further emphasized too much cohesiveness in this particular anthology, even if the horrors can be as different in nature as they come. It also didn't help to make me feel as if there's no disparity in the main characters featured in the short stories.
I revisited Cliff Barlow's works a few weeks later, which further solidified my theory that they are better as individual works instead of as part of a collective whole. I would have loved to give
The Last Stair into Darkness a higher rating, but it's selection process for its individual stories and how they all work together as an anthology is something that could be improved.
I would like to reiterate, however, that this shouldn't deter you from checking out
Cliff Barlow's work. You just need to read them one story at a time.
Just okay reading with this one.
P.S. I would also like to recommend the writings of M.J. Pack and Rona Vaselaar, who also contribute at TC.