First published back in 1987, Karen Liberatore’s short tale ‘Coming Home’ was released as a stand-alone story for the Fearon Education ‘Fastback’ series. The Fastback series were designed to encourage reluctant readers to take up reading, keeping the stories short, sharp and thrilling. This particular story is classed as a ‘Double Fastback’, meaning it’s roughly double the length of a standard Fastback and was published within the ‘Horror’ series.
The story was later reprinted within the ‘Chamber Of Horrors’ (1991) Fastback Anthology.
DLS Synopsis:
Andrew Collins and his wife Sara had left for the Ozark hills in southern Missouri within days of Sara hearing from her Uncle John. A letter had arrived a few days ago informing Sara that Uncle John had taken a turn for the worse. Asking if Sara could get back to Missouri, as soon as possible, as there were family matters her Uncle wanted to discuss.
It’s not the first time Sara’s received a letter from her uncle. Andrew had glanced through others over the years. Letters filled with backwoods superstitions – stories about wolves and how families stuck together in life and death. This was however, the first time one of Uncle John’s letters had asked Sara to return home.
Now, instead of the pair flying to Hawaii, they’d be spending their summer vacation with Uncle John. A quirky old man who’d been holed up for years in a run-down farmhouse deep in the woods. A prospect Andrew was far from thrilled about.
However, when they arrive at the old farmhouse, Sara sadly finds they’re too late. Her Uncle John has already passed away. All that’s left for Sara is an envelope with ‘The Last Child’ scribbled on the front. A final letter leaving all of her beloved uncle’s possessions to her. A life at the farmhouse, now that she’d finally returned home…
This is an oddly unnerving short read. However, it’s also a bit of a confused one. You see, author Karen Liberatore kind of makes a number of suggestions about an underlying horror. Where she sort of leads us down a few different avenues, but never really goes much further than that.
Essentially, we have suggestions of a haunted house, along with almost a ‘The Wicker Man’ (1973) meets ‘Midsommar’ (2019) vibe, with vague hints of a werewolf pack, or maybe even a satanic cult of some sort. It’s all in there, but yeah, none of these aspects really lead us anywhere of note.
For the storyline itself, we have a husband who’s being carted off to a farmhouse located in the back and beyond, where he finds his wife slowly getting odder and odder. The farmhouse itself is completely run-down, but to Sara, it’s like paradise. As I said, it’s all very peculiar and a tad unsettling.
The story does start to pick up some momentum towards the latter chapters, where Sara’s getting stranger by the hour. The inclusion of a child’s doll into the mix – one which supposedly was modelled on Sara herself – adds another creepy layer to the story. But again, doesn’t really go much further than that.
The ending is quick and leaves more loose ends than it does wrap things up. It’s again, all a bit strange and eerie, but works in a mildly creepy way. Reminds me of Chantal Noordeloos’ short story ‘Easter Eggs’ from ‘Easter Eggs & Bunny Boilers’ (2016) if you’ve read it?!
Anyway, although somewhat confused without much direction to it, the story’s nevertheless not a bad one at all. Creepy but a tad directionless and unresolved.
The Fastback runs for a total of 59 pages (which are just 4” x 5.5” with an average word count of around 100 words per page).
© DLS Reviews
