While the taboo pervades, charm unexpectedly percolates in surprising places. Lovers of weird fiction will relish these characters’ “torpor”s, “spasms of terror and sorrow,” and “whimsical” “hacking at my organs.” Highlights include the bittersweet final gathering of lovers who unite annually despite death, accidentally shedding and losing body parts needed for the next year’s get-together. Similarly memorable are the chatty diary entries of a young ghost as she begins to understand her afterlife in the house she haunts, or the surprising thoughts and hopes of a woman trapped inside a mirror.
That charm lives in the antiquated verbiage, the raw emotion and host of striking details, and the matter-of-fact way the narrators address the supernatural. While it doesn’t guarantee happy endings, there's joy in these grim stories that echo, in tone, the early greats of cosmic horror. Paisley seems to dance with them, the playfulness keeping readers on edge—it’s never safe to get comfortable. This hard-to-forget collection offers many dark rewards.
Takeaway: Darkly playful, unsettling horror stories in a classical vein.
Comparable Titles: Thomas Ligotti, Robert Aickman.
Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
