Review by Nikky Lee
Michael Botur returns for a tour de force of NZ horror with his latest short story collection, Bloodalcohol. The ten short stories contained inside feature a host of natural and unnatural horrors, from vampirism and ghosts to indentured community service.
In a voice that is recognisably Botur, these stories all feature flawed characters thrown into extremes—sometimes by choice, sometimes not. Something I truly enjoyed in this collection was Botur’s decision to weave topical issues in Kiwi society into many of these stories. From a housing market so inflated you have to sell your youth and health to get on it, to substance addiction and abuse, youth suicide, antisocial behaviour, and the challenges of raising a family in these costly and uncertain times, all of these stories are wrapped in a delicious layer of social commentary that really brings these issues to life in poignant and memorable ways.
While this collection contained many favourites, a week after reading it, four stories in particular stood out above the rest.
‘We Created A Country’, a type of ecological horror, where a couple of business billionaires turn Northland into an uninhabited zone only to find that their new paradise—which only they can enter—is brutally unforgiving. A chilling reminder that nature is a force to be reckoned with.
Meanwhile, ‘Lossboys’ is as equally heart-wrenching as it is horrifying as we follow a single mother and teacher desperately trying to reconnect with her son to save him from the suicide “trend” moving through her school.
The quiet, almost claustrophobic horror of ‘Weeks in the Woolshed’ takes clock watching and ‘doing time’ to a whole new level as a young family man discovers that time moves differently at the men’s shed he’s doing community service at.
Lastly, ‘Starving’, which follows a singer-songwriter trying to break into the Auckland arts scene, spoke to me as both an Aucklander and a member of the arts community. Well does this community know that catching a break is so hard one might be tempted to trade their youth and health away just to get a foot in the door.
Overall, Bloodalcohol is a compelling set of stories that delivers powerful messages about the human – and particular Kiwi – condition. All the content warnings apply; this is a collection that doesn’t shy from New Zealand’s darker side.
More about this book:
In this collection, Botur explores the lengths people will go to in pursuit of fame, confronts the specter of bullies, survives the trials of school, and looks deeply into the sacrifices made for art. These tales also navigate the complexities of surviving in the big city and finding redemption with God, all while offering a dynamic representation of diverse cultures, including a pioneering use of te reo Māori, marking a first in Aotearoa’s horror literature.
Author’s website: https://nzshortstories.com/
Purchase the book: https://nzshortstories.com/bloodalcohol-ten-tales-the-new-horror-collection-by-michael-botur/