Shirley Stephenson

Story Echolocation
Review of the Nightjar Press chapbook (November 2021)

This is extremely effective writing that combines foreshadowing and a careful slow reveal of story elements with fact drop information about bats, and wraps it all into metaphors about the character's guilt and life stress.

Roger tells everyone they eat over three thousand insects in one flight alone. You imagine them making gentle squeaks like mice. He explains they make continual shouts during flight, like an echo, that gives them an indication of what's ahead, so they don't fly into the unknown. You've read about this, this boomerang shout, echolocation, amongst the cutesy pictures. It's a frequency that humans can't hear but the bat detectors capture it, amplify it.

You think it would be helpful for humans to have echolocation, as you've often wondered what lies behind a door before you open it. You've even dreamt of putting your hand right through a door, like a ghost. - excerpt from Bat Walk

The cover photograph begins by intriguing you with its rather threatening gape-jawed monsterish ghostly appearance derived from... I don't know what... a bone fragment?

We gradually learn that our lead character is on a expedition in Norway with her bat expert boyfriend Sam. The trip had been long planned, but her father with dementia has meanwhile had a heart attack and is in an ICU. She can't do anything about that, but is guilt-ridden regardless, and is not really that much into bats. Shirley Stephenson is definitely a writer to watch for in the future.

I read Bat Walk as part of my initial batch of selections from the limited edition short story chapbooks published by Nightjar Press. Nightjar is run by Nicolas Royle, author and editor, who is probably best known for his annual selection of Best British Short Stories (2011+ and ongoing) and for the recent book-obsessive memoir White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector (2021).… (altro)