Book Review: Phantom Pond
A Shady Hollow Halloween Short Story by Juneau Black
At just under 60 pages, it was easy to read the charming and delightful novella “Phantom Pond: A Shady Hollow Halloween Short Story” by Juneau Black in one sitting, or, in my case, in one laying down.
I am not (yet) a regular visit to Shady Hallow, but I enjoyed Black’s cozy Winter Solstice mystery last year, so when I saw that she was releasing a short story for Halloween (at just 99-cents), I treated myself to purchase.
Black’s stories require a suspension of disbelief as they feature animal characters living in houses, visiting bookstores and coffee shops, writing for the local newspaper, and generally being anthropomorphized for entertainment.
For me the issue is not that the animals act like humans but that there is no “natural order” in place, as all animals more or less get along regardless of natural instincts that would be present, particularly with predator and prey relationships. Perhaps it’s a commentary on stereotyping or judging individuals by their outsides rather than their insides…
A fox reporter, a rat librarian, a bird bookstore owner, and a moose running the diner (not quite a bull in a China shop but still quite the image)…
