Jabberwocky 3, edited by Sean Wallace

The third volume in Prime Books’ Jabberwocky series is definitely fantasy and tends toward the dark and literary. Bookended by epigraphs from Oscar Wilde’s Salome, Jabberwocky 3 has the air of inevitable tragedy, of a slow encroachment of vines that swallow up the white palace, piercing it with blood-red thorns.

This mood is established and upheld throughout by 18 brooding poems, one by Wilde himself. Although beyond the scope of this review, the poems are evocative and intriguing, each in its own way. Woven between the poetry are six short stories:

“Little Red” by Alison Campbell-Wise is, as the title suggests, a take on the classic “Little Red Riding Hood” fairy tale. It is a dark vision of never-ending death, beginning with the girl’s rise from her shallow grave with nothing but her red cloak. A shadowy figure representing love—and love corrupted—hovers just out of sight. A sense of inevitability pervades the piece, as the character knows her terrible fate will be repeated again and again, seemingly without end. The language is beautiful, but hope is scant.

“The Forgotten Tastes of Chocolate and Joy” by Jennifer Rachel Baumer is the poetic tale of Jack, who was once a “real boy” but has been lured by unseen puppet masters into an underworld of addictions and drawing others into addictions. He visits the hip clubs where the beautiful people flock to him. He gives candy and toys to the “beautiful girls and boys and can’t-quite-tells,” drawing them down with him. But he is haunted by one of these, whom he accidentally killed, and by her sister, who may yet decide his fate.

This tale reads almost like a prose poem, with rhyme, rhythm, and onomatopoeia throughout. It is a bleak vision but a tasty read.

In Lynne Jamneck’s “The Morphology of Snow,” a disaffected scientist leaves clattering, roaring, bustling London on a quest to study snow—clean snow. She visits St. Petersburg, where schoolchildren warn her of a mythic water spirit. She goes to a snowy paradise in Newfoundland; there is a murder and the clean snow is spoiled by blood. It seems she will be thwarted in her search. But this is the most hopeful of the tales presented in Jabberwocky 3. Jamneck’s rendering is subtle, and close reading reveals the depth of the narrator’s need, and its fulfillment, in a satisfying fashion.

Karina Sumner-Smith’s “On a Day That Has No Name” is a postapocalyptic story in which the long-exiled narrator spends his (her?) days catching and eating poisoned fish from a poisoned sea. Wracked by guilt and loneliness, this person barely dares to hope that another human being has survived the tragedy that he (she?) created.

Sumner-Smith deftly reveals the situation slowly, pulling in the reader as the narrator pulls in the nets, until we are as desperately and helplessly entwined in the story as are the dying fish and the dying protagonist.

“This Reflection of Me” by Catherine L. Hellisen is the most disturbing tale in this already grim anthology. The narrator is a nasty thing, creeping about the attic in her “house of bones” amidst the seven dead brides of her master. Now he has brought another one, prettier than all the others, but just as curious, just as foolish. Creepier even than the original, this new version of “Blue Beard” is sure to give you shivers.

The final short story in Jabberwocky 3 is, fittingly, a visit to Alice. But in “Going Among Mad People,” E. Catherine Tobler brings us Alice as an old woman, long returned from Wonderland, much to her disappointment. Her stories have worn thin for her adult son, who insists that she must clean up herself and her messy parlor, when all she wants is to find just the right teacup for her next meeting up the chimney with the Caterpillar. In this poignant tale, it is difficult to tell where enchanting fantasy ends and surreal dementia begins, but with Alice, we cling to the fantasy to the bitter end.

Jabberwocky 3 offers beautifully told dark fantasy, sure to be enjoyed by those with a penchant for a bit of the deliciously morose.

Publisher: Prime Books (November 2007)
Price: $10.00
Paperback: 108 pages
ISBN: 0809572958