Crossfaded in Narnia, by Ian Kappos, is another in the series of Chapbooks (#5) published by Eibonvale.

Rather than presenting a single story, this Chapbook contains five vignettes, tales of disaffection and drug misuse. With each individual story – they do not appear to be interconnect, other than thematically – being so short, each forms a small snap shot of an event or feeling.

'My Childhood as a Student of Chemical Warfare' is a story of a child's sense of alienation within his own family. It contains many of the same elements found in each of the stories. In varying degrees each story has hallucinogenic/fantastic elements, whether it is strange blue growths between the toes, miniature men in jars or things no one should do with a Barbie doll.

The stories also contain, not just drug taking iconography but actual instances of drug taking. The dream-like quality is used to draw the reader into this other world where altered perception is the norm, rather than the exception.

At forty pages this is a quick read and one that leaves you with an unsettling set of images.

6

Charles Packer