Book Review // Dancing Chickens by Edward Bryant

I've taken a little break from my Halloween reading adventures, while I work my way through the third instalment, so we're heading into some “Modern Horror” for a change of pace.

The story I landed at was Dancing Chickens by Edward Bryant. I know very little about the author, and after a quick Google search, I somehow know even less now. So, let's blindly wander into the dark corners of this one…

The Review

Okay…This one was a bit of a let-down. I didn't really get much of a horror vibe from it at all. Instead, it felt much more like science fiction mixed with a lot of very real-world misery, and unfortunately, it just didn't really work for me.

The story follows Ricky, a runaway who dreams of escaping his life. He's stuck in an abusive relationship built around manipulation and control, while at the same time giant alien spacecrafts are hovering over every major city. Now, giant alien ships appearing over the world's cities sounds like something I'd normally be all over. The problem is that the alien element never really gets explored, explained or adds to the horror. It's there. It's important. But we don't really get much depth to it.

As the story progresses, we learn more about Ricky and the abuse he's suffering. He's desperate to escape and starts wishing that the aliens would simply come along, scoop him up and take him away from everything, and eventually, that's exactly what happens. Well… sort of.

The story reaches its turning point during a house party, where Ricky witnesses one of the guests using a chicken as a puppet, making it dance for everyone's amusement. Most of the guests are disgusted by what they're seeing, and the whole thing finally pushes Ricky to flee, and that's when the aliens decide to make contact.

The aliens use Ricky as their way into humanity. They effectively turn him into a puppet, showing that they view humanity in much the same way that the humans viewed the chicken. We're the entertainment. We're the experiment. We're the thing being controlled, and I can absolutely see what Bryant was going for here.

There's an interesting idea buried in that metaphor. We treat another living creature as something we can manipulate for our own amusement, only to discover that something far more powerful sees us in exactly the same way. That's a pretty decent concept. Unfortunately, the execution just didn't grab me.

Final Thoughts

Sadly, I found Dancing Chickens rather dull. The horror never really landed for me, the alien storyline felt underdeveloped, and the ending was pretty lacklustre. It's not necessarily a bad idea. I just don't think it was a particularly engaging story. After coming off the back of my Halloween reading, I think I was probably looking for something with a little more horror in it, and I fear this book of short stories, explores human darkness more than horror like I imagined.

Instead of the horror I was looking for, I got aliens, abuse and a dancing chicken. Which, to be fair, is quite a combination, and each horrible in their own ways. Just not the combo I was looking for and sadly it ended up not working for me. A little disappointed, to be honest.

Never mind.

Back to the dark corners of the collection, for this story, and hopefully the next one hits the mark!