After the End of the World by Jonathan L. Howard

What, I thought, must it be like being in a relationship with such a person? I’ve certainly met women who showed sociopathic behaviours, including one who bragged that she could beat seven shades out of a man and then claim self-defense, because who would believe them over her? Such women may be far less common than men who swing their fists too easily, but they demonstrably exist. Given the societal pressure on men not to report it if women physically abuse them-ironically enough, a product of toxic masculinity in itself-this is a crime that does an excellent job in hiding itself. Nowhere near parity, I hasten to add, but still, not as rare as hen’s teeth. Turns out it’s not as tiny a fraction as I believed. It’s no secret that men’s abuse of women is by far the more common, but the reciprocal is so rarely discussed that perhaps we believe it to be vanishingly rare.

I happened across some statistics on domestic abuse in the UK and the story they told was so unexpected, I was shocked. Tell us something of what inspired “In the Walls.” And there’s that other fear, that perhaps he already has, and the ramifications will be awful. The protagonist of the story is a good man (probably, as it was deliberately written to be as ambiguous as hell), and he feels he is constantly on the cusp of failing his daughter.

Speaking as a father, my greatest fear has long been failing my child in any one of many, many ways. What would you consider the greatest horror of the story? Why? “In the Walls and Beneath the Fridge” is layered with horror: House Daddy, the ex-wife, murder, societal expectations.

After the End of the World by Jonathan L. Howard