This Is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau
Dark Lit Press (September 2022)
114 pages; paperback $13.00; $2.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
Imagine that every event in your life is unwound, beaten down to bones, and restructured from top to bottom. The funereal routine repeats again and again until you can’t tell your truth from the rescript. That’s how life was for Miller — growing up with a narcissistic mother who was MIA most of the time and emotionally manipulative whenever present.
This is Where We Talk Things Out opens with the classic call of the monster when Miller’s mother, Sylvie, wants to go to a cabin for the weekend following Miller’s father’s death. The usage of this horror trope was downright unnerving, with Miller’s partner, Florence, urging Miller to stay home and Sylvie’s refusal to disclose the cabin’s exact location. And it gets so much worse.
In the same vein as Stephen King’s Misery, Sylvie’s “help” and “love” becomes intrusive and cunning. She styled the cabin as a perfect replica of her and her family’s once-shared home, including Miller’s old bedroom, right down to the carnation-colored wallpaper. She destroys Miller’s clothes and replaces them with pieces styled for a child. She Traps Miller in her room and becomes more violent with each question and act of defiance.
As the desperate gaslighting mother, Sylvie felt reminiscent of iconic mother figures in horror like Pamela Vorhees in Friday the 13th, Norma Bates in Hitchcock’s Psycho, and Margaret White in Carrie. There’s something cinematically chilling about Sylvie’s character that new-age and classic horror fans will love.
Miller’s character is independent and not afraid to take a stand, making her a grave match for Sylvie. But her mother is determined to rekindle their relationship by whatever means necessary, even if it means prodding at Miller’s guilt, trauma, and partner.
Marceau laces the pages of This is Where We Talk Things Out with a chilling tonic that summons readers through this emotionally claustrophobic tale of estrangement. This new voice in horror knows how to make even the sleepy reader keep the light on. I’ll recommend this endlessly.
