‘Three a.m.’ – Short Story Collection of the Spooky & Surreal

Ray Bradbury, in Something Wicked This Way Comes, wrote about “…the soul’s midnight.” Specifically, it’s not the conventional midnight, or 12:00… No, it’s further into the apex of a day’s darkness, the true dead of night… The time that carries with it ineffable dread. No one wants to find themselves suddenly popping awake at 3:00am… Why is that? Our anxiety is supernaturally heightened because the world outside our window, specifically at that time, is so startlingly quiet. To be awake that “late…,” yet still drowsy enough to have our imaginations open to sinister suggestion–as if we see something move in the dark corner, or hear the faintest rustling outside… …that’s the kind of tension that Ophelia Crane is tapping in to…

3:00 am is a collection of strange tales, the kinds of stories “…told over the campfire, during the sleepover, and after the club… …We laugh, relieved because they can’t be real…” Or at least you hope they’re not real!

Imagine a mix of Outer Limits, Creepshow and Are You Afraid of the Dark?…but also if those were directed by Lynch or Cronenberg… Crane creates stories that start off innocent, unassuming, normal, mundane, only to pull the rug out from under you, suddenly turn the lights off, or maybe slam a door shut fast and loudly. You can always feel it, sometimes two pages in, sometimes three or four…, the moment when you’re throttled into the surreal.

While fans of horror would find plenty to love, the overarching vibe isn’t strictly relegated to that genre. She effectively lures you in with a calm narration, until you go down the wrong basement, or answer the wrong doorbell, or visit the wrong beach…you just can’t be too sure that you’re safe… …until you take that deep breath after finishing each story.

Follow her blog about horror films, here: https://iwtfhm.blogspot.com/

And find more info about her other books, here: https://www.opheliacrane.com/

Ophelia Crane is the pen name of one of our Circulation Specialists. The Ferndale Library has all three of her books available for check-out.