Wendy Erskine’s first book of short stories, Sweet Home, was of such a standard that this book, Dance Move, carries great expectations. And it fulfils them with room to spare.

She has a marvellous gift for keeping the reader unsure of just when they are at the kernel of each story. It’s difficult to illustrate this without giving too much away but, in Mrs Dallesandro, the story might be about a wedding anniversary triggering tension, but no. Or a tolerated affair on the part of husband Bobby going too far, but no. Or a covert beauty treatment bringing her into danger, but no. In fact the “money shot” (approximately) is a memory that is utterly surprising and reveals an extra dimension of her true self.

Likewise, in Mathematices,, but with the subtly sinister creeping in, as it frequently does, Roberta, an easily-led, brain-damaged girl who is virtually a slave of a criminal gang, discovers another world along the lines of Silas Marner.

There is also plenty of the comedy-drama that marked out Sweet Home. Max and Gloria, my favourite story, is an hilariously understated put-down of a woke academic in the area of film studies via his encounter with a worker from an old folks’ home. Again, though, there is another story.

Erskine has a great knowledge of music, too, and it’s put to good use.

First-time readers of Erskine are in for an exceptional treat. Returning readers will find what they expect, but with an added confidence in not alway playing for laughs.

A wonderful collection of stories that transports, resonates, and shocks. Seem to be in general about the day to day lives of people, but these are still striking and thought provoking.

This collection was so good I had to get out of bed in the middle of the night to stick my head out the window.

I find Wendy Erskine's stories unnerving and strangely comforting, and there's something so remarkable about her writing that it slows you down, makes you take in every word and revel in it. That level of skill and control is wild. She is, without a doubt, one of the short story GOATs.

What a stunning book! I loved the writing and there were so many moments where it broke my heart. I can't wait to read more by this author.

I’m a huge fan of short stories and this is one of the best collections I’ve read recently. One the whole, the stories here are fairly bleak but all conjure such a vivid picture of life in Northern Ireland and all are beautifully rendered, I could have read ten more. Highly recommended and thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

"When Linda went into the amusement place she saw that the ghost train was still there. A straggly little queue waited to be not very scared. She put her money in the machine to get a metal cascade of tokens and then she tried a couple of the Penny Falls machines, losing and winning and losing again. There were bells ringing, electronic squelches from the machines, disco music echoing in the big hall. She thought of Mike and Rae in the Wellness Centre at the Secrets Bonita Beach Krystal Cancun."

Wendy Erskine’s debut short story collection Sweet Home was shortlisted for the 2019 Republic of Consciouness Prize, perhaps the UK and Ireland’s finest literary award, a prize for which this year (2022) Erskine is a judge.

My review of Sweet Home commented that the collection was perhaps a little more conventional than I might associate with the RofC Prize but that “Erskine's stories are typically around 20 pages long, and what is most impressive is how, in that limited amount of words, she manages to create genuinely engaging characters, in whose story the reader becomes emotionally invested. Her modus operandi is typically to provide her characters with a backstory, usually a past trauma, which only gradually emerges in the story and explains their current behaviour.”

Dance Move, her 2nd collection, builds on the strengths of the first with 11 stories in 224 pages. Short story collections can be of mixed quality but here every story works, my personal favourite Memento Mori, wonderfully sketched and the ending a literal punch in the face, as well as including a side-character called Wendy, a short-story writer (at her book launch her friends admit to relative indifference: “Although they had all bought the book, dutifully, they agreed that they didn’t read short stories, or even like them all that much.”)

Recommended

Thanks to the publisher via Netgalley for the ARC.

A masterfully written novel which makes the ordinary, every-day antics something to revel in. The discomfort of this had me hooked and I've not read something quite like it.

This is my first experience of Wendy Erksine's short stories set in Northern Ireland, and I can only marvel at her abilities to capture people, painting authentic pictures of their characters with so few words and the wide range of circumstances they find themselves in, including within families, their pasts, traumas, feelings, relationships, the unexpected, the tragedies, the idiosyncratic, and the joys. She has a real ear for dialogue, there is dark humour and humanity in her astutely observed, unvarnished and insightful writing. Despite the short length of the stories, Erskine had me totally immersed in the worlds she creates, and the characters and scenarios she imagines.

To give you a taste of her fiction, we have Roberta who cleans short lets for a living, working for Mr Dalzell, who finds a young girl that she takes home, kitting her and buying her supplies, and taking her to school, finding herself reflecting on her own difficulties at school. We follow Mrs Dallesandro, her preparations for celebrating her 23rd wedding anniversary and her significant memories of her past, Marty and Rhonda attend a birthday party at her sister's home, and a mother is intent on removing the missing posters of her son, Curtis, noticing, almost indignantly, that there are now new posters of the latest missing person. Kate struggles with her rebellious 13 year old daughter, Clara (who has no intention of doing ballet), and her unsuitable friend, Stacey, knowing she will have to take over the care of her brother, Mark, on the death of her parents.

An academic film professor gives a lift to a care home employee to a film festival, only for them to come across an accident, and a young man on a work placement in Belfast finds himself in a surprising relationship, even acquiring an inheritance, from the woman he stays with. There was not a story I did not like, and amongst my favourites are Bildungsroman and Momento Mori. A fantastic short collection that I recommend highly. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Dance Move is an absorbing collection of Northern Irish short stories,focussing on characters who feel very real and well realised. I enjoyed encountering the protagonists, especially the middle aged women - normally an underexplored demographic of fiction.

I'll be looking out for more work by Wendy Erskine.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

I wanted more of Dance Move, of course, because the stories are spectacular, but I could also see that each of them told a complete and expansive tale in a short space, and I think that’s the mark of an excellent collection.