Book Review: ‘Shades of Mortality’ by Jamal Barbari

Title: Shades of Mortality

Author: Jamal Barbari

Publisher: J & B Publishing

Publication Date: 2024

Shades of Mortality features a collection of twenty short stories written by Jamal Barbari. As the collection’s title suggests the majority of the stories have a strong theme of death/mortality however some also explore elements of life and existence.

Split into four groups of five stories, each grouping is linked together by a continuous story written by Ben Garrido. They focus on the ancient being Yabe Inu and her grandson Ecna, who discuss the purpose for gathering and sharing stories.

Barbari’s writing style is easy to read and I had no trouble following the plot of each story. Every story kept me fully engaged and looking forward to the next one. All of the stories are unique in their own way. My personal favourites were: Pick Your Poison and The Traveler and The Thief.

With many of the stories focusing on the sadness and fear of mortality, Pick You Poison does the opposite. It features a mother and son who run an apothecary together. While predominantly a place a healing, the apothecary also provides the secret service of death for people in need salvation and revenge from abusers. The sympathetic villain plotline was very enjoyable and this is one of those short stories that I could see spawning its own collection – focusing on daily life at the apothecary.

One of the more emotional stories in the collection is The Traveler and The Thief which sees a desperate bride steal a spool of silver thread from the sleeping traveller in order to complete her wedding day preparations. The story is very emotion-driven; switching between love and loss, pain and fear, anger and revenge. It’s one of the longer stories in the collection and the Traveller’s motivations kept me guessing until the very end.

To create their collection, Barbari and Garrido teamed up with a number of artists to provide each story with its own piece of artwork. Some of the art works as a dramatic book cover that sums up the themes of the story, whilst others show snapshots from a key part of the plot. My two favourite pieces were both created by Victoria Lipetri whose atmospheric style brings life to the sci-fi-themed Sapphire Stars and the beautifully heartbreaking Dance of the Dragonflies.

There are so many fantastic moments in this collection – from the deliberately overdramatic Breaking and Baking and Seven Minutes of Solace to the flash fiction masterclass of Candy Bar. It features a variety of different genres so there will definitely be something every reader will enjoy. Genuinely Shades of Mortality is one of the best short story collections I’ve ever come across.

This review was originally published on Reedsy Discovery in May 2024.

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