Today, we’re reading “Are You Watching?”, a horror anthology put out by Inky Bones “Are You Watching?” is a horror anthology put out by so small a press, Inky Bones, that its founder doesn’t have a separate website – just her own author site (robinknabel.com). The stand out story is “Irregularly Scheduled Programming,” by Harrison Foreman. In a fistful of flat, aspiring flash fiction pieces, “Irregularly” is sharp, yet so sweet enough that its horror doubles.

Robin Knable appears to be a horror-writing side-hustler with a 9-5 in bio/chem. Game sees game.

“Are You Watching?” is a horror anthology about TV in the 1960s. It’s one of 6 in a series where each anthology focuses on a decade and its dominant social technology – “There’s no Escape” is cinema/1920s (think Pearl), “Lurking” is social media/2020s (think We’re all Going to the World’s Fair). It’s a fabulous concept that tickles my ADHD.

Usually, superniche anthologies wander off topic or get shoe-horned under a super vague title. Not so here. Every story in “Watching” is sharply focused on its theme, but doesn’t bleed into much repetition or duplication of aesthetic or concept.

The first story, “It’s Always Saturday” , by Megan Diedericks, is a venn diagram of Wandavision and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, but for mothers and daughters. It will float your boat if you scroll wattpad horror.

Knabel’s own story, “Idiot Box”, aspires to the Grotesk Modernism that Hobart Pulp churns out, but the people and places don’t feel lived in. Like there are loads of efforts to show-not-tell, but the instances don’t line up with character interiority/motivation.

Foreman’s story is head and shoulders above and beyond this sentence level stuff.

He could have plucked flat characters from the genre ether, but he doesn’t. His characters are easily identified as 1960s DINKs, but Dick and Charley are well fleshed out and riddled with subtlety. Their insecurities waft out of them through light-touch interiority, cunning blocking, mise en scene, physical presentation, and all those other tiny tools of the trade.

In only 8 pages, Foreman sets up a fun concept (Annihilation meets Benjamin Button) that traps me in the hearts of tired Dick and bubbly Charley. It made me want to either read it as a 180 page novella, or watch a 2 hour Netflix adaptation (it gives Guillermo Del Torro “Cabinet of Curiosities”).

I want to know more about what Dick’s secrets are, and how they are complicated by Charley’s anxieties. How do they handle their own marital issues while interacting with the pod people? Are there people in charge? Do Dick and Charley get institutionalized? Die? Become spies? I want to know! Literally any ending would be suspenseful and satisfying with this set up.

Verdict: I won’t be buying the other 5 books in the series, but I will be watching Foreman’s career.