Fear Files: Hide and Seek

This looks like the first in a new horror series: The Fear Files. It’s an interesting mix of a scary story and snippets of information about aspects of the story which are scattered throughout, as if clippings from a paranormal investigator’s case file. The tale itself features a mysterious and disturbing game of hide and seek in a deserted ghost village. Here a group of anonymous children from both the present and the past are remorselessly pursued by a malignant shadow. The additional information gathered by the reader along the way includes ‘encyclopedia’ entries about various forms of hide and seek games and the seeker’s counting rhymes and traditional warning calls that often accompany them. These are slotted in relatively unobtrusively, and, rather than spoiling the atmosphere of the tale, add a semi-rational commentary that emphasises the menace of a situation which is both familiar but increasingly frightening and unpredictable. It’s all told in spare prose and short chapters that make it readily accessible. Christopher Edge builds the suspense, introducing twists and surprises, and manipulating his readers’ fears expertly. What might happen to the children that are captured by the shadow is left to our imagination. It is the relentlessness of the game that is most disturbing, like a bad dream that is endlessly reworking itself.