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A review by aoki_reads
Stirring the Sheets by Chad Lutzke
4.0
”Sometimes the most comfortable thing we can wear is sadness.”
Stirring the Sheets is not a horror novella. It’s a poignantly penned message about grief, loss, and learning to let go.
Emmett is an elderly man working as a mortician. For decades, he’s seen and worked on dead bodies. What his job could never prepare him for— was the loss of his wife of fifty years, Kate.
He wallows through life after Kate tragically dies. Never changing the sheets she once slept on in their bedroom, with pictures of her hanging throughout the house like a shrine— Emmett has lost every passion in life, and he reeks heavily of sadness.
Fifty years is a long time to share a life with another soul. And because of this, though beautiful and touching— Emmett struggles to remember who he is without his late wife.
While Emmett does the unthinkable in Stirring the Sheets just to feel close to Kate one more time— the representation of his horrific deed shows the reader just how deep and desperate grief can be for some people.
This novella tugged at my heart strings. An old man struggles deeply with sorrow and loneliness. You feel Emmett’s pain throughout the novella. Grief can be a destructive emotion that all of us will go through at some point, and you can’t help but to empathize with someone else’s struggle. And even if the character was fictionalized, the anguish was not.
This is my third book by Lutzke, and I must say— his writing never turns out how I think it will. Often times, the tone is more moving and powerful than you’d assume. It’s always a pleasant surprise— I find myself wanting to dive deeper into his stories, but most of the time they are quite short.
Stirring the Sheets is a quick piece of dark fiction that shows the power of grief, the intricacies of love and loss, and the will to eventually let go. It was a beautiful, somber little tale. This was a ★ ★ ★ ★ star read for me because I wanted more of Emmett’s journey and it felt a bit short and incomplete. Otherwise, this is a novella that packs a punch with a melancholic undertone. I would recommend this work to any lovers of dark fiction and those who find ‘grief horror’ appealing to read.
Stirring the Sheets is not a horror novella. It’s a poignantly penned message about grief, loss, and learning to let go.
Emmett is an elderly man working as a mortician. For decades, he’s seen and worked on dead bodies. What his job could never prepare him for— was the loss of his wife of fifty years, Kate.
He wallows through life after Kate tragically dies. Never changing the sheets she once slept on in their bedroom, with pictures of her hanging throughout the house like a shrine— Emmett has lost every passion in life, and he reeks heavily of sadness.
Fifty years is a long time to share a life with another soul. And because of this, though beautiful and touching— Emmett struggles to remember who he is without his late wife.
While Emmett does the unthinkable in Stirring the Sheets just to feel close to Kate one more time— the representation of his horrific deed shows the reader just how deep and desperate grief can be for some people.
This novella tugged at my heart strings. An old man struggles deeply with sorrow and loneliness. You feel Emmett’s pain throughout the novella. Grief can be a destructive emotion that all of us will go through at some point, and you can’t help but to empathize with someone else’s struggle. And even if the character was fictionalized, the anguish was not.
This is my third book by Lutzke, and I must say— his writing never turns out how I think it will. Often times, the tone is more moving and powerful than you’d assume. It’s always a pleasant surprise— I find myself wanting to dive deeper into his stories, but most of the time they are quite short.
Stirring the Sheets is a quick piece of dark fiction that shows the power of grief, the intricacies of love and loss, and the will to eventually let go. It was a beautiful, somber little tale. This was a ★ ★ ★ ★ star read for me because I wanted more of Emmett’s journey and it felt a bit short and incomplete. Otherwise, this is a novella that packs a punch with a melancholic undertone. I would recommend this work to any lovers of dark fiction and those who find ‘grief horror’ appealing to read.