Mood Swings by Dave Jeffery
Mood Swings is a terrific entry point
into the literary labyrinth of Dave Jeffery

Over the last decade I have read and reviewed a fair bit of Dave Jeffery’s impressive and varied output, with Mood Swings being my first serious encounter with his short story output. Some of the eight stories in this micro-collection have been previously released in publications such as Chromatics, Spectrum, Watch, The Demonologica Biblica and Twelve Days, all between 2010 and 2017. Black Shuck Books have a stellar reputation within the horror community, with their Black Shuck Shadows range specialising in collections. They have an impressive range of authors on their books, including Paul Kane, Phil Sloman, Simon Bestwick, Gary McMahon, Kit Power, Dan Coxon and Brian Evenson. Jeffery also has a second micro-collection (three stories) The Camp Creeper and Other Stories, which is book 36 in Demain’s long running Short Sharp Shocks! series, another notable name in the indie-horror scene.
Dave Jeffery sits comfortably amongst these (generally speaking) indie horror writers, and he undoubtedly deserves to sell many more books that he probably does. In horror writing the ‘Triple Crown’ belongs to authors who consistently produce excellent work in three key areas: novels, novellas and short stories. The authors who achieve this are in short supply and are usually big names, think Stephen King, Ronald Malfi, Robert McCammon and a few others, all of which are experts in the triple format. If you take a close look at Jeffery’s back-catalogue he is surely a Triple Crown master of the indie horror world.
Jeffery is probably best known for his novella work
with his post-apocalyptic dystopian A Quiet Apocalypse being his most critically acclaimed series. But neither is he is not afraid to get his hands dirty with the trashier or fun side of the genre, with his Frostbite series (featuring yetis) and Tooth and Claw (werewolves) both terrific bubble-gum reads. Jeffery’s output is particularly fascinating because, with a couple of exceptions, he writes a fair chunk of his novel-length fiction as YA. I am a particular fan of his long-running Beatrice Beecham series, which would surely have been better known if many books didn’t have different publishers. I also featured Beatrice Beecham in my recently published almanac The YA Horror 400 and I hope school librarians who track my reviews take a chance on the supernatural exploits of Beatrice.
Mood Swings features a sweet array of stories in which none tread the same ground and lead the reader into some fascinatingly dark places and bizarre circumstances. Disturbia was a personal favourite, in which an unexplained, possible supernatural, ‘event’ has left Mark Winters alone and scared at home, whilst he waits for the next ‘bulletin’ to arrive. What is this bulletin and why do people keep disappearing? This odd story will quickly have you biting your nails along with the very twitchy Mark. The Last Rose of Summer is a fun twist on the serial killer story, a smug murderer is fantasising about what he intends to do to his next victim, a shoe salesgirl, but things do not play out as he intended.
Different is a strange play on guilt and the extremes to where it might take us.
Henry Potts and his wife Marjorie split up after many years of marriage due to his infidelity. The story focusses on Henry making a posh dinner to welcome his wife back, looking to give their relationship another go, but Marjorie is no longer the woman she once was (she really isn’t)
I remember reading the thoughtful story “Once” twice, but I’m still not sure if I understood its message. I found it rather impenetrable, especially with the recurring line ‘Do you remember?’.
Mood Swings by Dave Jeffery
Death is another recurring theme which is hard to ignore within the pages of Mood Swings, in Restoring Scarlet, a man with a strange connection with death, who is not a doctor or mortician, but tries to help in other ways with his own brand of compassion. In Masquerade a being tries to escape the clutches of the cruel Paymaster demon and some personal kind of hell by jumping into the body of somebody still living, but escape proves to be tricky.
Death once again comes knocking in Where There’s a Will, Arthur Conlon suffers from Alzheimer’s and is at death’s door until a stranger comes in ready to make a strange bargain, reminding Arthur of how he has continually failed his family down the years. Finally, And Your Fear Shall Define You is a story of curses and revenge, with a troubled patient telling a tall tale of personal monsters to his doctor.
Mood Swings was a diverting and enjoyable quick read which nicely compliments Dave Jeffery’s longer fiction, particularly his impressive array of novellas. This author has some terrific books and this collection is the perfect entry point. Watch out for Jeffery on short story editing duties, as further down the line he and Lee Murray curate Flame Tree Press’s anthology This Way Lies Madness.
Tony Jones
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