Epeolatry Book Review: Madness and Greatness Can Share the Same Face by Amanda Headlee
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Title: Madness and Greatness Can Share the Same Face
Author: Amanda Headlee
Genre: Horror, Collection
Publisher: Woodhall Press
Publication Date: 2nd September, 2024
Synopsis: The line between madness and greatness is as delicate as a golden silk thread.
It’s a tricky balancing act to dance upon this fragile line for those seeking greatness. An outsider may perceive the endeavor as wandering a road toward insanity and crumbling dreams. However, in the eyes of the beholder, they don’t see themselves as walking a tightrope between genius and insanity but rather paving a road to success— where no expense is spared.
Madness and Greatness Can Share the Same Face is a collection of thirteen dark fiction tales that spiderweb across space and time to explore the line where, with a step, one can be pitched into the realm of greatness or depths of madness.
I’m not quite sure what to say about this collection of stories penned by a comparatively new author completely unknown to me (until now).
Some stories are just great, others I found unbearable (especially those with a SF undercurrent). I even wonder if under this writer’s name hide perhaps two or three different persons who have decided to use the same pen name to hide their real identities.
But I’m digressing.
Let’s move then to the good stuff.
“The Journal of Milton Parker” is a strong fascinating piece, not for the weak of heart, where survival after an unsuccessful exploration brings about unspeakable horrors.
“Identity” is a complex story set during a hiking trip, featuring a woman who feels trapped between personal troubles and the danger of being lost in a hostile environment.
In the tense, vivid “In the Hollow Smugglers’ Notch” two mountain climbers fall in a cave where an unseen, unexpected horror is lurking.
“Achromatopsia” is an original tale where a girl who becomes colorblind after a traumatic head injury has a very difficult relationship with her own sister.
To me the above stories (which alone are worth the price of the book) are living proof that Headlee has an enormous potential as a writer of dark fiction.
I look forward to her next book.
/5
Available from Amazon.
- About the Author
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Mario Guslandi was born in Milan, Italy, where he currently lives. A long time fan of dark fiction (especially short stories)he’s probably the only Italian who reviews horror and supernatural tales in English. Over the years his reviews have appeared in many genre sites such as Horrorworld, The British Fantasy Society, Hellnotes, Emerald City, SF Revu, Thirteen O’ Clock, etc.
