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alleyrobot's review
3.0
Short story collections are almost always hit or miss for me, and this one is no exception, but these are solid horror stories for the most part even if some are better than others and they start feeling a little formulaic when read back to back. "Trigger Warning" was so badly written and stupid though that I docked a star for it.
calliopewoods's review against another edition
4.0
This book would have gotten five stars from me if not for “Trigger Warnings,” a surprisingly whiny boomer piece that purposefully misunderstands content warnings and is not much more than boring shock humor.
amberfinnegan's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
not_bender's review
4.0
If I could give 4.5 stars I would. Brian Evenson is a name which needs to be more widely shouted out as a master of weird, horror, sci-fi, and beyond. Prior to this I'd only fully completed Last Days, which is an incredible Weird novel about a detective investigating a murder involving a dismemberment cult. Loved that novel. Love this collection as well. The settings and feel of the stories here vary, but the overall quality does not. Evenson is a true master Story Teller, capital S, capital T. Most of the stories here were unsettling, Trigger Warnings was hilarious, Glasses is the first story to make me mildly apprehensive about... glasses. The collection is sometimes Lovecraftian, too, but only in the good ways! Man, I love Brian Evenson's fiction.
jadambee's review
3.0
I think I did a disservice to myself by not spacing out the stories or maybe I’ve just hit my 4th Evenson book and I’ve identified his formula. I enjoyed these but the only one that actually filled me with dread was “Shirts and Skins,” which is the least conventional horror story out of all of them
lizaddie13's review
5.0
All of these stories are TERRIFYING and I was living my best life the entire time I was reading. Evanson has a real touch for the eerie. There was only one story I didn't like and it was barely a story. This may be my favorite of the short story collections I've read so far this year.
For posterity, here are my favorites: Born Stillborn, Sisters, Room Tone, Shirts and Skins, A Disappearance, The Glistening World, Glasses, Line of Sight, Lather of Flies
For posterity, here are my favorites: Born Stillborn, Sisters, Room Tone, Shirts and Skins, A Disappearance, The Glistening World, Glasses, Line of Sight, Lather of Flies
radicalli's review
I did not enjoy this at all - too many twists that felt cheap, frustrating incomplete narratives that are supposed to seem mysterious, reliance on things like 'it was all a dream.' Decently written in terms of prose but kind of amateurish otherwise.
shrewdbard's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.25
A mix of sci-fi, slipstream, and literary fiction, all tinged with horror. A lot of these had amazing build-ups with pretty disappointing endings, but Evenson’s prose is beautiful and his stories are strange and tense enough that I enjoyed this collection overall. There were some common motifs here, which I always love to see with short story authors; in this case, Evenson seems fixated on that which is always just outside the field of vision, beings that can slip inside human skin, and the onset of psychosis made concrete. (For example on the last one: a man believes he is always being watched, despite there being no physical evidence of this. In real life, this is the beginning of a psychotic delusion. In Evenson’s world, these events are either the fault of something supernatural, or they live in a liminal space between real and imagined.)
Here’s a list of my favorite stories. I would summarize them, but I think the best way to experience Evenson’s writing is to go into it 100% blind:
Leaking Out
Sisters
The Tower
Smear
Line of Sight
Also: “Trigger Warning” makes more sense once you know Evenson’s history at BYU and cut ties with the LDS church. I’m not crazy for this one, since it’s more of a rant than a story, but the context adds a depth that many trigger warning satires lack.
oddsign's review
dark
mysterious
tense
4.0
Caution: fiction
Fun paranoia filled short stories. A mix of apocalyptic spaces, indescribable creatures, twilight zone-y scenarios, and horrific sci-fi encounters. (But he’s not a sci-fi writer! **please don’t kill me Mr. Evenson**)
I enjoy Evenson’s writing tones. Sometimes pulpy, funny, and genuinely creepy.
My Favorites: Song for the Unraveling of the World, Sisters, Room Tone, The Tower, The Hole, Trigger Warnings, Lord of the Vats
Fun paranoia filled short stories. A mix of apocalyptic spaces, indescribable creatures, twilight zone-y scenarios, and horrific sci-fi encounters. (But he’s not a sci-fi writer! **please don’t kill me Mr. Evenson**)
I enjoy Evenson’s writing tones. Sometimes pulpy, funny, and genuinely creepy.
My Favorites: Song for the Unraveling of the World, Sisters, Room Tone, The Tower, The Hole, Trigger Warnings, Lord of the Vats