The Rupture Files by Nathan Alexander Moore
In this collection of four short stories by Nathan Alexander Moore, strange, subversive takes on supernatural myths explore ideas of identity and belonging
Nathan Alexander Moore’s short story collection The Rupture Files is four contemporary takes on supernatural myths, including mermaids, werewolves, vampires, and witches (with a twist of zombie).
In the opening story Sequela, Shalomar works at the mysterious Station: a hierarchical underwater institution which is scavenging the ocean, including the bodies of creatures who are familiar yet other. Shalomar soon realises that not only is her life a lie, but that who she is has long been suppressed and that only the truth can set her free. Written using a rare second-person narrative voice, meanwhile, in A Crescent Cracking the moon cycle reveals an individual’s true nature, and as the chapters progress so does their transformation and the revelations it brings. In Ashes For Your Beauty, the legend of the vampire is used to examine questions of class, social order, and even slavery, as the regal yet rotten ‘Highborns’ use those they ‘turn’ to survive, if no longer thrive. And the Cartwright sisters in the titular The Rupture Files have to deal with suspicion from others, and of each other, as they try to make their way in a post-apocalyptic world.
Taken together these stories are about identity and belonging, the ties that bind and how to break them. The writing is alive – shifting and changing the perspectives of both characters and readers. With this insightful and, ironically, most human collection, Nathan Alexander Moore has breathed new life into these enduring myths and legends.