Il violino di ammonite. Storie di paure e meraviglie

I've said before that Caitlin R. Kiernan is a writer whose work I sometimes respect more than enjoy, and that's once again the case with her most recent collection here. The Ammonite Violin reprints stories from her sort of personal fiction newsletter(?) Sirenia Digest , and, as such, the stories are Leggi tutto

I don't read a lot of horror, but I really liked the Lovecraftian story, "The Red Tree," by Caitlin Kiernan. So I thought I'd read a collection of her short stories. I started this book last year (2019) and finished it today, in February of 2020. So I took my time, reading just one or two stories at Leggi tutto

As expected, a stellar collection. All of the "Murder Ballads" in particular are wonderful. Read it with care, however. Passages in "Voyeur in the House of Glass" made me set aside my sandwich. These stories are quietly strange. There is often beauty in things that should not be beautiful. They say t Leggi tutto

I may not have liked every story in this collection equally, but I did like the vast majority of them. Good stuff, for the most part. I guess I'll continue continuing to check out her works.

...The type of work Kiernan writes is not material I read a lot. Although I try to read a decent amount of short fiction, most of it is science fiction and however you choose to label Kiernan's work, science fiction most likely isn't it. I had absolutely no idea what to expect of this collection, I

If Lovecraft had been an angsty Lestat fan, he'd have written similar stuff to this collection. Good stories that prioritize prose over plot, which leads to a unique reading experience but also a sense of repetitiveness at times. I'll always read more Kiernan collections!

In twenty short stories, Kiernan takes her reader from stranded selkies to serial killers, through metamorphoses to an imprecise, overwhelming brush against the paranormal. The Ammonite Violin & Others is a collection damned by its narrow theme, but ultimately none the worse for it. A certain amount Leggi tutto