Under Stones is a dark, unsettling collection of short stories and one poem that creeps up on you like a shadow at midday. What looks like a gentle stroll through everyday life quickly reveals itself as a series of eerie detours into fear, guilt, revenge, and the quirks of the human psyche. Franklin’s voice combines everyday realism with a creeping sense of wrongness, making the familiar feel strangely threatening. Many pieces flirt with horror or the uncanny, but the real chill comes from what the stories expose about ordinary people pushed into uneasy situations. Several tales turn on moral decay, strange come-uppances and twisted paybacks that blur the line between the real and the surreal. Critics and readers describe the collection as atmospheric and haunting, leaving readers with a lingering sense that something in their own world might be just as strange as anything on the page.
