'Our Own Unique Affliction': a masterful depiction of loneliness, with a vampiric twist

TITLE: Our Own Unique Affliction
AUTHOR: Scott J. Moses
GENRE: Horror
AGE RANGE: Adult
PAGES: 104pg
PUBLISHER: DarkLit Press

Our Own Unique Affliction is the story of Alice Ann, a dejected immortal who longs for her life in the sun.

Navigating guilt, loss, family, meaning, murder, and all that comes with the curse of living forever.

An existential bleak, quiet until it’s not, hallucination on duality, rife with fangs, empathy, blood, and grief.

“We’re each dealt our own unique affliction, Alice. Ours is death. Yours? Yours is life.”

I’ve been seeing a lot of hype for this novella around the indie horror community, and between that and my general love for a unique vampire tale, I knew I had to pick it up right away — and I’m so glad that I did, because Our Own Unique Affliction was truly something special.

Despite its short length (clocking in at just over 100 pages for the kindle copy), there’s a lot of depth packed into this little story. Alice, our main character, is a vampire who yearns for her human life. She explores and spends her time meeting humans, not solely out of bloodlust, but because she desperately craves a meaning in her lonely existence. All she has in the world is her sister, but she wants so much more.

There’s so little that I can say about the plot of Our Own Unique Affliction because it isn’t a plot-driven tale, it’s a full character study and a deep dive into the ways grief and trauma shape us. My heart ached constantly for Alice and her sister, and the twisting reveal devastated me.

Moses’ writing is stunning and masterfully captured the yearning that loneliness brings with it. I can’t wait to read more from this author and I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys quiet, bleak horror stories.