Santa Fe Writers Project

Dylan Kinnett reviews BYSTANDERS by Tara Laskowski (@beanenglish).

“Many of the stories feel something akin to an Alfred Hitchcock film, positioned as they are somewhere between a thriller, a mystery, and a romance. “There’s Someone Behind You” begins with romance and develops into intrigue and stalking, not unlike the situation in Hitchcock’s movie “Vertigo.” After all, a voyeur is a kind of bystander. Others stories feel more like something from the Twilight Zone. In the ghost story for example, the ghost could be real, or a figment of an exhausted mother’s imagination; it’s unclear. The not knowing is a big part of what creates the tension in that story and makes it such a riveting read.”