April 17 - "Soap"

“Soap”
by Deb Olin Unferth
Minor Robberies (2007)

* * * * (Great) Suspense

A woman and her husband living on the left side of a house find their soap disappearing day after day. The culprit – the creature – is adept at avoiding detection, while the couple tries everything, including poisons, to stop this thief of soap.

Points for eeriness. You wouldn’t imagine a story about a soap-stealing creature to elicit such – fear. The story has a wonderful dichotomy of humor and horror. It’s a combination that works so well in horror stories, be they movies or prose. What’s different here is that the humor comes out of the playfulness of the prose, not the jokes and antics that usually compose this side of the dynamic. I’m sure this isn’t anything new, but it is the first time I’ve noticed the combination, and I was impressed. This was a frightening surprise wrapped in a pretty package.