Uncanny, dark, and spellbinding…
Paisley’s latest short story collection is a darkly beautiful exploration of the human psyche, where desire, memory, and transformation unravel in vivid, surreal narratives. In the opening story, “The Great Event,” a young girl anticipates a transformative moment in her strange, claustrophobic life, only to find herself at the center of a grotesque, metaphysical phenomenon involving her father and the house’s haunting. Told through the eyes of a young boy, “I in the Eye” captures his silent struggle for self-expression under the suffocating weight of vigilance and restraint, as his father’s fiancée looms ever larger in his life. “Your Mother Loves You” follows a boy forced to live as a girl by his manipulative mother, leading to fractured relationships and emptiness in adulthood. After a family death triggers memories of his true identity, he must confront his past and face a surreal reckoning with his mother that leaves his transformation hauntingly unresolved.
In “The Metaphor of the Lakes,” a woman struggles to make sense of her existence while trapped in a strange house with a violent man, a mysterious and kind presence, and an elusive brother. Through fragments of diary entries and metaphorical imagery, she pieces together her identity in a dreamlike atmosphere where time and logic distort. “Fever Visions” is a hallucinatory journey of fragmented realities and fever dreams, exploring the protagonist’s struggle with loss and the fluidity of existence. “Nancy & Her Man” tells the story of an unlikely bond between a man caught between life and death and a whimsical woman who brings him joy through their peculiar interactions in a cemetery. “Icarus in Bardot” is the tale of an eternal wanderer afraid to land and confront reality. Torn between his longing to connect and his fear of vulnerability, he reflects on centuries spent observing humanity from a distance.
“Rocking Horse Traffic” takes readers through a surreal dreamscape as the protagonist escapes a terrifying surgery by retreating to the safety of a rocking horse. “The Life of Cherry” is a poignant and poetic allegory about a character whose existence encapsulates creation, destruction, and the eternal cycle of life. This collection is a psychedelic reimagining of reality, where the ordinary brims with magic and unease, and traditional storytelling conventions dissolve. Paisley’s prose is hypnotic, weaving lyrical beauty with sinister undertones. The characters, grotesque yet achingly human, grapple with metaphysical forces in landscapes where transformation is inevitable and often horrifying. Gothic in its sensibility but modern in its execution, the stories oscillate between visceral horror and reflective musing, creating an unnerving rhythm that enthrals and unsettles in equal measure. Not for the faint-hearted, the book is graphic, provocative, and deeply layered.
For fans of Djuna Barnes or Angela Carter, this book offers a journey into a world where the fantastic and the bizarre merge to reflect our deepest fears and desires. Bold, unsettling, and uncompromising.
Pub date October 16, 2024
Whiskey Tit
ISBN 978-1952600555
Price $18.56 (USD) Paperback
