Webs of Discord by Jason Sizemore

Being a fan of a writer doesn’t guarantee that you can collect every story they put out. Collections are a fine opportunity to get stories you may have missed.

Webs of Discord is Jason Sizemore’s first collection. Chapbook sized, it features four previously published stories and one original to this collection. It focuses on a theme of love and features several different angles on the theme.

The first story, “Bright Lights” focuses on family love and the corruption there of. It also focuses on the difficulties of dealing with loved ones coming home from war.

“The Haunting of Hollis Higgins” is about romantic love, and the forces working to bring it into being, or shatter it. This story takes a more darkly humorous tone than the others in the collection.

“Milton, the Christmas Fairy” proves that love isn’t all bad and that Sizemore isn’t all science fiction and horror. A fantasy fairy tale with a traditional pagan twist it follows a lowly seasonal fairy as he tries to earn the right to be with his human love.

“Breaking Up is Hard to Do”, the most chilling story in the collection, is about a man whose loss of sex life from his wife’s rejection is a worse problem than he could ever imagine. Sizemore uses miscarriage, the love of a mother for her child, and the desire of a man for his wife in sinister, creepy ways making this story one for the horror fans.

“The XX Agent”, the chapbook’s original piece, is also a horror tale, reminiscent of Starfish by Steve Parker from Issue 5 of Apex Digest. The dark, hedonistic world of the yakuza is the focus, though this story is about the illegal sex trade, a malefic home for unwanted Chinese girls, not a black market for fish. Another one for the horror fans, this tale tells of the strange impulses and actions that love spurs.

Webs of Discord is available through Apex Publications and www.apexbookcompany.com