Reviewed by Mark Massaro
The Nothing
by Lauren Davis
YesYes Books
May 2025, Paperback, 160 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1946303059
Lauren Davis’s The Nothing is a striking collection of stories that slip between the real and the surreal, pulling readers into eerie, dreamlike worlds. Set against the misty isolation of the Pacific Northwest, these stories hum with a quiet unease, exploring themes of solitude, loss, and the strange ways reality can shift when you least expect it. The characters find themselves in unsettling situations where the ordinary turns uncanny, and the familiar feels just out of reach. Davis resists easy categorization, blending elements of the fantastic with grounded, emotional storytelling. Instead of fitting neatly into any one genre, the nineteen stories within The Nothing thrive in its in-between spaces, allowing each tale to unfold in unexpected and deeply affecting ways.
One of the most haunting stories in The Nothing is “Into the Sun,” a quiet but unsettling exploration of loss, memory, and the thin line between dreams and reality. A couple wakes up in a vast, empty landscape—a dry field with an unreachable fence and a cliff that leads to nothing. No matter how much they move, they can’t seem to get anywhere. “The land seems to stretch and contract, like water finding a shape.” As they struggle to make sense of their surroundings, their past begins to surface: a failed solo journey, unspoken fears, and a relationship filled with love but darkened by doubt. Jonathan, desperate to prove himself, had set off alone on the Pacific Coast Trail, only to disappear. Now, trapped in this strange limbo, he wonders, “Maybe it’s my fault… I did something, maybe.” Davis lets the story unfold like a slow-building realization, layering surreal imagery with raw emotion. Like much of the collection, “Into the Sun” doesn’t hand over easy answers – it lingers, unsettling and thought-provoking, long after the last line.
Another standout story in the collection is “The Bright,” where the Davis explores themes of grief, isolation, and the quiet ways in which connection can take root. Rebecca’s complex emotional journey – marked by her loss of family and the presence of her invisible ghost, Ash -beautifully reflects the intricacies of living with unresolved trauma. The tension between Rebecca’s growing attraction to Andy and her deep-seated fear of emotional intimacy is poignant and well-crafted, highlighting the difficulties of moving beyond one’s past. Readers are immediately welcomed into the story as if they too are stepping into a world unfamiliar yet oddly comforting:
He is a stranger here, opening his strange bakery in a town where fresh bread is an extravagance. But it smells like mothers, like winter after a rain, like waking up midday. And the smell fastens to him, so that when he turns the corner, and I see him in the frail morning light, I am brought to memories once gone and memories to come.
Rebecca’s relationship with Andy, whose presence stirs forgotten emotions, and her conversations with Ash embody her internal struggle. The quiet, almost magical realism of the bakery setting, where the scent of fresh bread evokes both nostalgia and longing, is an evocative symbol of the healing and nourishment Rebecca craves but struggles to accept. Rebecca tells Ash, “I can’t afford much of the bread. My disability check is meager. But I will eat bread, no matter the cost, because there is a memory in the smell.” This juxtaposition of warmth and emotional distance underscores the story’s meditation on the slow, often painful process of healing, and the hesitant steps toward embracing life and love once more. Davis’ delicate handling of Rebecca’s internal conflict and her reluctance to allow herself happiness makes the story both heartbreaking and profoundly relatable.
In “Tastes Like Rat,” the first-place winner of the 2021 Landing Zone Magazine Flash Fiction Contest, the protagonist’s struggle with sickness and isolation unfolds in a surreal, nightmarish world where personal and communal decay seem to mirror each other. The narrative follows her physical and emotional deterioration, marked by unsettling imagery and an eerie relationship with her sickly beloved. The mysterious falling blobs “like jellyfish” that plague her town symbolize the deeper infection of both body and spirit, while the cat, Tiger, becomes a dark figure demanding sacrifice and reflecting the protagonist’s disintegration. Davis masterfully blends surrealism with emotional depth, exploring themes of illness, isolation, and the futile desire for connection. One haunting moment encapsulates this, when the protagonist simply states that she “…was not feeling well,” as she attempts to care for her “sallow sweetheart” while her own body is in the grips of a silent, consuming sickness. This chilling image underscores the fragility of human life and the unbearable weight of suffering.
“The Things She Did” is a deeply unsettling and raw exploration of trauma, family, and the twisted nature of memory. The four-page story follows a daughter coming to terms with her mother’s crime of killing her brother, an act that shatters the boundaries of love. The protagonist, caught in a web of emotional confusion, reflects on the dark complexity of her mother’s life, marked by violence and tenderness in equal measure. As the narrator recalls both the mundane and the terrifying moments of her mother’s past, she uncovers the deep-seated trauma that lies beneath the surface. One striking moment in the story comes when the narrator says, “A mother’s crime becomes her daughter’s crime. The daughter takes the film of blood and the list of charges and drapes them like a shawl around her bare shoulders.” This powerful image captures the inescapable weight of inherited guilt and the suffocating legacy of a family’s dark history. Davis excels at creating this sense of disorientation, as the protagonist’s dissociative state mirrors the fractured nature of her identity and the blurred lines between victim and perpetrator.
The Nothing by Lauren Davis is a haunting and thought-provoking collection that sticks with readers long after they have finished reading. Through her storytelling, Davis dives deep into the fragility of the human experience, tackling themes of isolation, loss, and the strange ways reality can shift. The stories don’t offer simple answers or resolutions, but they pull readers into a world where the emotional and physical go hand in hand. One of the collection’s strongest points is how Davis handles her characters’ inner struggles and complex, but relatable, emotional journeys. As someone who loves stories that explore the darker side of life, I found The Nothing to be both eerie and incredibly compelling. Davis expertly pulls readers into the uncomfortable and the surreal, all while giving these moments a tenderness that makes them hit harder. It’s a collection that invites you to reflect on the unseen struggles we all go through, and it will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading.
About the reviewer: Mark Massaro earned a master’s degree in English Language & Literature from Florida Gulf Coast University and he is currently a Professor of English at a state college in Florida. His writing has been published in The Georgia Review, The Hill, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Master’s Review, Newsweek, DASH, Litro, and others.