“White Mare” by Thana Niveau
The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories (2018) edited by Stephen Jones
Readers unfamiliar with The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories may prefer to read these notes only after reading the anthology.
Naturally from Niveau, a masterpiece. Heather and her father move to a remote English village to settle her aunt's estate, but their encounter with the terrifying local Halloween traditions and the Wight Mare leads to a devastating loss and a dark transformation.
Setting: Thorpe Morag, a small village in Somerset, England, and the surrounding countryside.
Characters: Heather, a fourteen-year-old American girl; Dave Barton, her father; Callisto, a horse; Chester, a local man; Ian, Chloe, and Harry, teenagers from the village.
Halloween seen as: A time of ancient customs and potential danger, contrasting American and British perspectives on the holiday and exploring themes of tradition, sacrifice, and the clash between the modern and the ancient, then contemporary and the local.
Style: Folk horror, blending folklore and the supernatural with a focus on the power of belief and the consequences of cultural misunderstanding.
Point of view: Third person, primarily from Heather's perspective.
Jay
