#Review - A Pair of Nightjars - The Junction by Alison Moore and Removals by Ian Critchley

The Junction

Alison Moore
Nightjar Press, January 2024
Available as: PB, 20pp
Source: Purchased
ISBN(PB): 9781907341908

With its narrative balanced delicately where the sinister and the tender come together, there are more junctions in this story than simply the location of the accident that sets events in motion. 

Paul's life is at a junction as his relationship with his girlfriend has ended - a story hinted at, but which I would happily sit down and read in full. Returning home, his mother awaits. Neville is also at a junction of his own. When the two men meet, pushed together by chance circumstances (or are they?) it's genuinely unclear how things will go. 

I'm not sure whether we know a lot more by the end - we stand at the crossroads, wondering which is the way forward - but the dance between Paul and Neville has been  intricate, charged with unspoken meaning, a very English encounter in a seemingly otherwise empty bit of the English countryside, and it has illuminated a lot about their lives. 

Strongly recommended!

Removals

Ian Critchley

Nightjar Press, January 2024

Available as: PB, 12pp

Source: Purchased

ISBN(PB): 9781907341892

When Charlie helps out his mate Aiden on a job in return for a bit of cash in hand, he's introduced to the mysterious Mrs B who wants a stack of boxes cleared from her flat. She is, she says, "death cleaning", that is, getting rid of her clutter so her relatives won't have to deal with everything once she's gone. 

As someone who lost a family member recently I can really see the point of this, but Critchley adroitly sidesteps what one might then expect to be a story about the weight of memories or something like that. No the focus stays on the two lads and suggests that something else - something more eerie - may be at play. "Death cleaning" doesn't really explain Mrs B. The process of removals raises more questions than it answers, and possibly also posts warnings about who we end up obliged to. Those obligations may come back to us either before death, not just after.

A magnificently eerie story.

I received copies of The Junction and Removals through my subscription to Nightjar Press - a wonderful opportunity to read varied stories that draw out the subtler patterns and tensions of modern life.

For more information about The Junction, or to buy a copy, see here. For Removals, see here.