Books like The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil A Rún, Volume 4

Volume 4 of this fantasy/horror series, A Fate Worse than Death, featuring Shiva, Teacher, and Auntie and more backstory about the world and its history are revealed even as we move forward with the story in the present. Back and forth, back and forth. It’s as much a story of gradual uncovering as it is anything else. So: There’s an Inside, where humans fear/suffer some kind of curse or infection from beasts of the Outside. Auntie, who had rescued Shiva from Teacher’s house in the Outside, tells Teacher about how she found baby Shiva in the forest and raised her; Auntie learns, too, that Teacher has also for some time raised and protected Shiva in the Outside. So for a time, the (newly cursed) Auntie invites Teacher to be with them, creating a kind of family for the little girl.But it’s a kind of unfolding process; the more we know, the more that happens, the more questions we have: What is happening with the progression of Auntie’s curse? Why is it different for Teacher? How is it Teacher is changing as he connects more and more with Shiva? And that name, Shiva (who has the name of a deity who is a destroyer of evil and transformer of life), what can that mean for sad Teacher, and the world? In this fourth volume of a dark, brooding tale, still very much cloaked in mystery, there are at least three twists we might not have expected. That’s good storytelling, I say.