Parallel Hells

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The short twisted tales . . . have a laconic elegance that’s both chilling and pleasurable’ Financial Times A golem discovers its powers far exceed its Creator's expectations. An ancient creature, who feasts on the shame of modern-day Londoners, struggles to fit in with friends they will long outlive. And an Oxford historian discovers an antique tome that may help her overcome her academic rivals. Lipless Grin: 3 stars, kinda funny? Like what an asshole that father is. Do I know the meaning behind it? No. Do I know what the queer rep is? Also no

No Dominion: 4 stars, I actually really liked this, it feels personal somehow and is realistically upsettingraw pork and opium: 2 stars, I liked the 2 parallel perspectives up until the girl had sex with her friend because he suddenly had boobs and then told him that she did not want him and was the other part a metaphor for how gay the two men are for each other? I will never know. 3 stars taken off because this read like a bad fanfic of The Secret History which is already a bad fan fiction of If we were villains (yes I know TSH preceded IWWV and no, I do not accept criticism on this statement) But as well as this, these stories also make you ask really interesting questions. One of my favourites was called "Hags", about a demon that after hundreds of years of being alive has refined their diet down to one thing. They feed on shame. You have this story telling you about the demon's past, their relationship with their friends, their guilt over lying and presenting themselves as a human to people they've genuinely come to like, and then talks about shame as a negative emotion. If it's removed is that always a good thing? Is it right to decide that it's ok to remove something negative from somebody else's life without consent? Is this a story in part about acting in other peoples' interests as YOU see them, and then making a choice not to do that? These stories I think are really multilayered.

In the thirteen darkly audacious stories of Parallel Hells we meet a golem, made of clay, learning that its powers far exceed its Creator's expectations; a ruined mansion which grants the secret wishes of a group of revelers and a notorious murderer who discovers her Viking husband is not what he seems.

Hags: 3 stars, I want to know what happened afterward, very uncomfortable with the unnecessary sex scenes but aside from that enjoyable Unfinished and Unformed: 1 star, confused about the queer component of this, also uncomfortable and inelegant Irresistibly strange and inventive, Parallel Hells is a collection of dark and delightful stories that blends folklore and gothic horror with a contemporary twist. In this deliciously macabre debut collection, Leon Craig explores queer identity, power, love and the painful complexities of being human in startling new ways. REVIEW - Okay here we go. This is a queer themed collection of fantasy horror stories that vary in length and creepy factor - and which I absolutely loved. The differences between the stories kept things fresh and there were several times when I was left wishing for an entire novel to delve deeper into the characters and story 😍 it’s so cool to see so many examples of spooky, and while I had several favourites within the volume there wasn’t a single story I didn’t find interesting and unique. It also helped that the writing was really lovely and flowed so well 😍

The short, twisted tales collected in Leon Craig's Parallel Hells have a laconic elegance that's both chilling and pleasurable' Financial Times Read this book if you: Enjoy playing imaginary games in the woods, you want revenge on your ex, you think doing ritual sacrifice in a graveyard is cool actually, you enjoy Nordic mythology Real rating- 4.5. Probably shouldn’t have been reading this at 1:30am now I don’t wanna sleep hahaha full review to come!In the thirteen darkly audacious stories of Parallel Hells we meet a golem, made of clay, learning that its powers far exceed its Creator's expectations; a ruined mansion which grants the secret wishes of a group of revellers and a notorious murderer who discovers her Viking husband is not what he seems. A golem discovers its powers far exceed its Creator’s expectations. An ancient creature, who feasts on the shame of modern-day Londoners, struggles to fit in with friends they will long outlive. And an Oxford historian discovers an antique tome that may help her overcome her academic rivals. For fans of Daisy Johnson and Kirsty Logan, a gothic short story collection for winter nights from an emerging voice in British literary fiction The first was that this book is an exploration of identity, especially maybe queer identity (queer horror is a whole vibe), told about people who are discovering things about themselves that they might not necessarily like, or ways in which they don't conform to molds that they think they should conform to. A lot of stories here as well as being surreal fantasy horror pieces involve resolutions of this kind of inner conflict by the protagonist. Or maybe not always resolution, but exploration of. I loved some of the stories in this collection, I liked others, and I’m pretty sure I’m not smart enough to understand a few.