Stone Martyrs by Erik Hoffstatter
Aquaducts Press (February 2025)
Reviewed by Joshua Gage
Erik Hofstatter is a dark fiction writer, born in the wild lands of the Czech Republic. He roamed Europe before subsequently settling on English shores, studying creative writing at the London School of Journalism. He now dwells in Kent, where he can be encountered consuming copious amounts of mead and tyrannizing local peasantry. His work appeared in various magazines and podcasts around the world such as Morpheus Tales, The Literary Hatchet, Wicked Library, Manor House Show, and The Black Room Manuscripts Volume IV. His newest novella is Stone Martyrs.
Stone Martyrs invokes the legend of Mother Shipton and the Rollright Stones. Mother Shipton, born Ursula Southeil to fifteen-year-old Agatha in a cave in 15th century England , was a fortune teller, prophet, and reported witch. She is historically famous, and there is even a statue of her in Knaresborough. Hoffstatter has focused on a legend that she turned a king and his men into stone for not answering her challenges properly, resulting in the monolith at the village of Long Compton, known as the Rollright Stones. Hoffstatter’s Stone Martyrs is an epistolary novella detailing the voices of the characters in this tale — Mother Shipton, her mother Agatha, the knights, and the king.
These letters are short, cutting. Two of the whispering knights (named “Siddel” and “Tyne”) are gay lovers, and one is sleeping with a chamber maid. There are letters between the Shipton character (here named “Ena”), her mother (here named “Ulla”), the king (named “Burne”), and others. What plays out is a very dark tale of sex, violence, revenge, and of course, heresy. The hybrid form of these letters, written in a lyricism that teeters on poetry, is equally appealing and adds a bit of mystery to the tale. For example, this letter from the king to the witch:
~ Ena,
fire is my kin
and i loved your mother with it
~ Burne
or this short letter from mother to daughter:
~ Ena,
My courage is blind. It can’t see light anymore. It sits in the lowest corner of my heart, making friends with suicide. But if she decides to live—maybe these letters will find you.
Someday.
~ Ulla
This striking lyricism — balancing poetic metaphor, intimate journaling, and clever wordplay — saturates this collection, making it a delight to read and piece together.
Overall, Stone Martyrs bis a very interesting and unusual book. It’s certainly experimental writing — not in a way that alienates the reader, but in a way that intrigues and invites them into the tale. Grounding this novella in a known historical folktale is clever, but Hoffstatter’s recasting and renaming of the cast of characters creates a wholly new story, one that echoes with the voices of ghosts long dead whose voices are only found in the shadows of ancient stones. Hoffstatter has been able to channel these voices into a brilliant novella, and any fans of horror, especially folk horror, will thoroughly enjoy this book.
