short story
-
Review of The Ideal Candidate by Damian Murphy
In the small coterie of occult authors working today, Murphy is the ‘ideal candidate’ for your reading list. Whereas other comparable authors remain relatively obscure, most of his books are readily obtainable. This slim volume collects two reprints from extremely rare editions and one new novella and is a worthy…
-
New Short Story Published in Bewildering Stories
Follow the Link to read our new short story, As Above, So Below
-
NEW SHORT STORY published in Bewildering Stories
Follow the Link to read our new short story, After Eggs
-
Review of All God’s Angels, Beware! by Quentin S. Crisp
QSC’s output is typically speculative. His stories do not fit into typical categories otherwise. This rare edition includes some gems. For the first 3 tales, I was not enthralled. I found them lumbering, dreamy, wistful. They take place in Britain. A lot of the extraneous description and interior monologue might’ve…
-
Review of The Sons of Ishmael by George Berguño
An eclectic collection by a master of the short story form, thankfully rescued by Snuggly Books from its former out-of-print state. The Introduction constitutes a tenth story in the volume, relying on the supremacy of the anecdote to elaborate the author’s mindset. The final section ‘About the Stories’ can be…
-
Review of The Sad Eyes of the Lewis Chessmen by George Berguño
Taking inspiration from Icelandic sagas, mixing in old-fashioned atmospheric horror tale aesthetics, as well as provincial, unsettling conversations at far-flung cafés, the reading experience may be enhanced if you enjoy the work of Bulgakov and Flaubert. The Sad Eyes of the Lewis ChessmenFlaubert’s AlexandrineThe Leviathan at RifskerThe Son’s CrimeBilly Goat…
-
Review of The Aristocracy of Weak Nerves by Justin Isis
In Justin Isis’s most daring publication so far, the reader is asked to tour a philosophical zoo and peer into an abyss—not a void, but a liminal space populated by undisclosed presences and imbued with esoteric forces. The two long tales exemplify a depth of subtext and an often baffling…
-
Review of Happy Bunny and Other Mischiefs by Rebecca Gransden
Beginning with a descent into uncanny horror, the collection invades other genres, reaching tentacles into Realism, science fiction, and magic realism with aplomb, grasping at philosophy, abstraction, and startling dream-logic, but maintaining a steady undercurrent of tension while germinating unsettling horror elements. Ever think, when you’re adjusting the stats on…
-
Review of The Onyx Book of Occult Fiction by Various
The first modern anthology brought to you by Snuggly Book in their definitive series, numbering 6 volumes thus far. The editor is none other than the pre-eminent author of the occult working today. In his introduction, Damian Murphy invokes a wide-range of authors tangential or central to his understanding of…
-
Review of The Blood-Guzzler and Other Stories by Rachilde
An interesting introduction to Decadent literature. Or a good choice for those already familiar with the genre.Rachilde is apparently a big deal in the genre, having sparked much controversy in her time. I wonder why I hadn’t heard of her until recently.Bravo to Snuggly books for making readily available, a…
-
Review of Evening in Paradise: More Stories by Lucia Berlin
Hard living. Child rearing. Drug use. Wild desert landscapes. New Mexico, Paris, Mexico. Small town dramas, rocky relationships. Kids playing in dangerous locales. “Hillbillies.” “Gaunt” people. A young girl’s coming of age. Violent men. The tyranny of life without money. With her signature gorgeous prose, Berlin’s stories remain gloriously readable.…
-
Review of The Beggar Student by Osamu Dazai
Dazai stays in character with this autobiographical short novel about a sad author attempting to reconnect with his lost youth by hanging out with (or harassing) schoolboys. By sharing in their game, he attempts to recapture the sense of adventure and perhaps the inspiration he has lost in his dissolute…
-
Review of American Gothic Tales (William Abrahams) by Various
A recommendable collection full of some stories I’ve read before and some unusual choices. Plenty of classics like “The Veldt,” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and “A Rose for Emily. But I preferred my encounters with the less-commonly anthologized ones like “Death in the Woods” by Sherwood Anderson, “The…
-
Review of The Universe as Performance Art by Colby Smith
A collection of eccentric tales. The author has also released a novella and a nonfiction book. With this publication, he gathers a few pieces previously published in Neo-Decadent Anthologies, along with 14 previously unpublished stories. I think the best of the lot is “Hellenic Dropout.” This is probably not the…
-
Review of Catastrophe: And Other Stories by Dino Buzzati
The author depicts the daily travails of individuals encountering bizarre and unexplainable phenomena. The details of the stories accumulate in subtle shifts of tone, always sliding toward uncanny doom. The consequences the hapless heroes face are sometimes uncertain – the tales are often abandoned at the perfect moment, when the…
-
Review of Whale by Cheon Myeong-Kwan
The supremacy of storytelling. A fantastic and magic realist tale about a giant, a movie theater and a lot of other things. The author managed to conjure a surreal setting, painting sympathetic characters I will never forget and tying seemingly disparate events together through unbelievable, but clever, coincidences. The writing…
-
Review of Mystery Train by Can Xue
Can Xue is one of the recurring nominees for the Nobel Prize. I can see why. Her body of work is varied and unique, relevant, and large. This short novel takes place mostly on a train. One of my favorite literary settings. The main character undergoes a kafkaesque series of…
-
Review of Creepy Sheen by Rebecca Gransden
An entertaining and thought-provoking collection of scary stories to peruse in the half-light of sun-baked twilights. A moody, unhurried taste of dreamy apocalyptic nostalgia. With an appreciation for film and music, the author frames the scenes in enigmatic layers of imagery, where molting skyscrapers and abandoned stores abound, where dead…
-
Review of Neo-Decadence Evangelion
I don’t summarize plots in my reviews. (Some of these tales do not contain plot). But I do offer impressions. This volume compliments the Neo-Decadent canon curated by Justin Isis, enlarging and enriching the aesthetic and providing a unique form of entertainment which will surprise and challenge any brave reader.…
-
Review of Self-Portraits by Osamu Dazai
Can you turn a terrible life into high art? Dazai’s life was astoundingly reprehensible. Attempting three love suicides, succeeding at one, and attempting at least 3 other suicides. Combined with addiction, mental illness, alcoholism, infidelity, multiple marriages and illegitimate children, supporting prostitutes, engaging in public violence and insults, following illegal…
-
Review of Early Light by Osamu Dazai
Three stories from the best era of Japanese fiction in my opinion. These three longer stories, “Early Light,” “One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji,” and “Villon’s Wife” are a good introduction to Dazai. Two of them are contained in the new volume entitled “Self-Portraits.” His stories are often called autobiographical.…
-
Review of The Sleep of the Assassins and Other Stories by Damian Murphy
The stories in this collection are some of his most varied work. Each offering is a succulent delight to read. He is one of the most consistent authors I follow. His work possesses an uncanny depth, always poised between aesthetic acuity and imagistic splendor. While they are subtly or overtly…
-
Review of The Complete Cosmicomics by by Italo Calvino
A collection of more than 30 stories by one of the masters of Italian literature. The germs for other works are present in this collection, including Invisible Cities and Castle of Crossed Destinies. The most interesting and delightful tales are toward the beginning in my opinion. As the collection wore…
-
Review of Fables by Alexander Theroux
A few good and shiny examples of rare Theroux wit. But mostly not. I say rare because his humor is an acquired taste, and it can also spoil after a time. The Therouxian works released by Tough Poets Press are glorious in theory but do not compare to the author’s…
-
Review of Suggestion Diabolique, by David Vardeman
Having read all of Vardeman, I can’t help wanting more Vardeman. Remember that character from As I Lay Dying who says “My mother is a fish.” Isn’t that kid named Vardaman? >Coincidence? I think not.Vardeman observes and portrays American life in an acerbic, quirky style. This volume of stories in…
-
Review of In Dreams: The Very Short Stories of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa by by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
I often re-read Akutagawa’s stories. Before this publication I had read all of his stories in English, even the ones translated online and obscure scholarly publications. I had read about 97 pieces total. This book brings the total number of pieces available in English closer to 150, which is around…
-
Review of Tales From the Hereafter by Ted Myers
I am a fan of short stories taking place in the afterlife. I recently read a book called Snuggly Tales of the Afterlife, which I would not necessarily recommend. They were less out-there than I imagined they would be. I want my alternate worlds to be unexpected. That is why…
-
Review of White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelly Link
Kelly Link’s fourth (or fifth?) collection was a surprise. I remember liking less than half of her stories from her previous collections and I liked only half of these. But taken as a whole, reading the entirety of her work is worth the effort. Though I find the quality inconsistent…
-
Review of Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada
There is no humor in this book, or if there was, I could not recognize it. It is very short, maybe 25K words. Another mish mash of random thoughts dashed off by the author, like her other two books currently available in English. The characters are generic and unmemorable. The…
-
Review of Eyes: Novellas and Stories by William H. Gass
Gass makes impressive use of language to describe the thoughts and feelings of inanimate objects. By exploring perspectives in this way, he is able to layer on a bunch of observations.It would appear that he holds plot and character development in contempt. Instead, he maneuvers the reader through a skewed…
-
Review of Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
2 stars for Neil Gaiman and 6 stars for old Norse authors. A glance at the cover would lead one to believe that Neil Gaiman wrote this book. He is the “author” after all. But what did he actually do? He retold the tales. His language is entertaining, but he…
-
Review of Edgar Allan Poe: Collected Works by Edgar Allan Poe
It was nice to pick up a leather bound edition of Poe for my Halloween rereading of his stories. I rediscovered amazing stories like “King Pest” and “The Devil in the Belfry.” this activity reminded me of the many qualities I admire about his writing. I was disappointed in the…
-
Review of The Exalted and the Abased by Damian Murphy
Several more novellas with occult-aesthetics from the master of neo-decadent novellas. It is a niche genre perhaps, but the sumptuous descriptions and elegant interior design, the descents into esoteric epiphanies, the occluded worlds steeped in reverent awe of dark forces – none of these things get old when the prose…
-
Review of The Neo-Decadent Cookbook by Various
A fun companion piece to the other Decadent anthologies from Snuggly Books (though this was published by Eibonvale) featuring returning favorites: Brendan Connell, Quentin S. Crisp, Justin Isis, Damian Murphy, and several others. The short tales center around food, ingredients and people. They are rich in detail and surprising in…
-
Review of Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
This surreal collection of short stories put me in mind of Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls, Smart Ovens for Lonely People, and Life Ceremony. It uses the same recipe of injecting everyday tone with bizarro aesthetics. This is upmarket bizarro. Genre fiction pretending to be literary fiction. A popular…
-
Review of People from My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami
Hiromi Kawakami collects here a dreamlike conglomeration of semi-related characters and events from her part of town, if the title and interior clues are to be believed. The random nature of the images and events lend the collection an experimental feel. The writing is smooth and simple and unadorned. Her…
-
Review of Later Stories by Alexander Theroux
Not short stories but novellas. While I disliked the tone of most of the stories, and much of the subject matter, I enjoyed the dollops of sophisticated prose. The companion volume, called Early Stories, is half as long and less bloated. it is a better distillation of Theroux’s capabilities and…
-
Review of Two Stories by Osvaldo Lamborghini
A certain type of reader may find the book interesting. Though, it is more of a pamphlet than a book, being 35 pages, with notes and an introduction. The reader would be completely at sea without a lifeboat if it weren’t for the notes, but they constitute a translation of…
-
Review of We Love Glenda So Much and A Change of Light by Julio Cortázar
Cortázar had the face of a lion and the ability to defamiliarize the everyday. His lengthy paragraphs are more entertaining than Henry James’ because more happens, but the subtle connections between his warring ideas are often obscured by leaps in logic, incongruous character behaviors, and piquant observations. Cortázar doesn’t hold…
-
Review of To Hold Up the Sky by Liu Cixin
The short stories in this volume cover many topics, including concerns and ideas that also appear in The Three-Body Trilogy, but they are used in different settings. Super-string computers, hollow earth, the value of poetry, total perfect vision of time and space achieved by simulating the original Big Bang and…
-
Review of The Sleep of the Righteous by Wolfgang Hilbig
My third Hilbig novel in quick succession. Whereas his others were solid blocks of interior narration, this one perfectly captures an elegiac wonderment characteristic of childhood’s hurtle through strata of growth, confusion, and sadness.The author summons reality with abundance through the distorted mirror of his character’s psyche. He is a…
-
Review of Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls by Alissa Nutting
The most creative short story collection I have ever read. While technically belonging to the bizarro genre, this collection passes itself off as literary fiction. The author has, by now, established herself as a literary figure. It always bothers me how a slight literary polish makes all the difference between…
-
Review of MONKEY: New Writing From Japan (Volume 1) by Motoyuki Shibata
I have been a hug fan of this publication, having completing the original run of Monkey Business, so I was delighted to find this resurrected imprint. Nearly every issue contains writing or interviews available nowhere else featuring Haruki Murakami, Hiromi Kawakami, Mieko Kawakami, and Hideo Furukawa. If that isn’t enough…
-
Review of Tales From the Liminal by S.K. Kruse
Tales from the Liminal showcases a hearty handful of hilarious and poignant tales for every occasion, tales full of personality and pizzazz, modernistic flair and quirky humor, clever situations described with aplomb and enough literary extravagance to enlighten the most jaded reader. Equipped with charming illustrations, each easily digested episode…
-
Review of Life Ceremony: Stories by Sayaka Murata
Murata portrays a skewed world, often in the form of a soft, mild-mannered dystopia, where one key component of life is unquestionably different from our own. This creates a massive paradigm shift, accompanied by harrowing cognitive dissonance. This brand of edgy speculative fiction is simply another form of wry satire,…
-
Review of Intimations: Stories by Alexandra Kleeman
In this modest first collection, the author is often incredibly specific in her descriptions, stretching them to absurd lengths, and melding the boundaries of literary and speculative fiction. Not all of the stories are brilliant in my opinion, but they are all different and eerie. 1. Fairy Tale 2/52. Lobster…
-
Review of Innocents Aboard: New Fantasy Stories by Gene Wolfe
Innocents Aboard is the first short story collection by Wolfe I’ve read. It is a diverse helping of mind-altering tales. Ranging from Melville satire to Egyptian myth and Chinese folktale, a plethora of ghost stories and atypical Arthurian fantasy, with a few Biblical allegories thrown in. Story after story, I…
-
Review of North Station by Bae Suah
Bae Suah in experimental mode. The 7 stories in North Station display many aspects of this author’s formidable powers. Unlike the novels of hers I’ve read, this collection depicts similar characters in a greater variety of situations, while not relying on dramatic plotting. They are very slow, and will not…
-
Review of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
“The Jungle book” is a fun collection of timeless stories worthy of their fame. The movie brethren of this tale resemble the source material in only superficial ways. Mowgli only features in less than half of the book’s stories for one thing. However every story is interesting and connected in…
-
Review of I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like by Justin Isis, Quentin S. Crisp
The struggle of young people to understand their place in the world, within society’s context, or outside of its proscribed categories, considered from a multitude of perspectives, at differing stages of fatalistic contempt, solipsism, wanderlust, and obsession. The Japanese setting, conjured with sublime authenticity, was absolutely convincing. Equal parts startling…
L. S. Popovich 