I first read this one when I was but an eighth-grader. My Bestie at the time read it and recommended it to me. We both loved the weird and creepy, which this story is.
Crawford builds nicely to the tale within a story. Like SK, he places the bizarre into a mundane place. I can picture the small cabin, the porthole, the berths... The curtain across the upper berth, like the story, is drawn back slowly, it being the liminal space between normal and paranormal. Crawford gives just enough of a description of the upper berth's tenant to get the reader going. And, buddy, I went and created a pretty horrible monster! The hasty sealing of the cabin is echoed in the story's abrupt conclusion.
What did you think?
Crawford builds nicely to the tale within a story. Like SK, he places the bizarre into a mundane place. I can picture the small cabin, the porthole, the berths... The curtain across the upper berth, like the story, is drawn back slowly, it being the liminal space between normal and paranormal. Crawford gives just enough of a description of the upper berth's tenant to get the reader going. And, buddy, I went and created a pretty horrible monster! The hasty sealing of the cabin is echoed in the story's abrupt conclusion.
What did you think?