Praise for The Visitors

---

Subtle, well observed, beautifully nuanced – Nicholas Royle @nicholasroyle

---

Stephen Hargadon continues his impressive run in the pages of Black Static with The Visitors – a first-person narrative that flows along with stream-of-consciousness ease as our narrator relates to us the details of his personal history, and his days spent perched at the local bar drinking pints of IPA as the conversations of others chip in around him. The really impressive thing about Hargadon’s writing is his ability to put you, as the reader, right in the place where he wants you – as though sitting at the table with his narrator as the general bustle of life continues around your conversation, and he occasionally interjects about getting another drink just as soon as there’s a space at the bar or he’s finished talking about the current topic.

The more obviously fantastical elements of Hargadon’s previously published work in Black Static are toned down, here – though things do come to a close on a weirder note that happily flirts with the ghostly versus the unreliable narrator, making for a strangely satisfying finish that presents its final reveal like a punch line … A damned good read? You bet.

Gareth Jones at Dread Central

---

I could quote every sentence in this story as a particular gem … this is a Hargadon ‘perfect storm’ of a Friday evening in a British city pub … life itself seen through the half-cynical, half-spiritual prism of pubtalk … A genuine irresistible last one for the road.

D.F. Lewis at Rameau’s Nephew 

---

… an enticing journey into the world of British pubs …

Mario Guslandi at Hellnotes.com

 

---

… a nice sting at the end.

Sam Tomaino at sfrevu.com

---