Parallel Hells

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stars so I'm being generous and rounding up to two. I think I'm the wrong kind of queer for this book. This is really only for those who think horror is based on apathy, alcohol and drug abuse, sex (including kinky stuff) and a general dislike for any and all people, because aside from the disdain most characters feel for their fellow characters and the horrifying sex scenes, this isn't scary.

Unfinished and Unformed: 1 star, confused about the queer component of this, also uncomfortable and inelegant Arresting and provocative, this strange and dark collection grabbed me by the throat. * Megan Bradbury * Craig’s day job is as an editor for the publisher, Serpent’s Tail, where she works in literary fiction and memoir as well as looking after their classics list. Working in publishing is an obvious asset but, as a writer with intimate knowledge of the business, she is acutely aware of the importance of maintaining some distance. “You need to allow someone else to be the expert because there are things about it that you are just too close to see.” In this glorious and twisted collection of short stories, Leon Craig uses folklore and gothic horror to “explore queer identity, love, power and the complicated nature of being human.” The thirteen stories follow a golem whose powers far surpass its Creator’s expectations, a lonely demon who feeds on shame, a woman who plans a Satanic ritual to disconnect from her trauma, and more beings, to analyze the human condition via a queer lens.raw 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) 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. Anyway, she discovers that her task is far more difficult than she anticipated; people are hostile towards her, she begins to hear disembodied footsteps, frantic ax chopping sounds, and occasionally feels a phantom touch on her shoulder (I would actually run out screaming at this point but I digress…). The haunted house rumors appear to be true, and Ursula realizes that she is in mortal danger. When writer-editor Leon Craig realised that she was not quite ready to write the novel she had been ruminating for some time, she turned to short stories. “I had this big project that I couldn’t quite get into and so, while honing my own style, I started writing short stories as an experiment,” she explains. “It gave me a lot of freedom. Then the stories took on more and more form and started coalescing into a collection.”

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!For fans of Daisy Johnson and Kirsty Logan, a gothic short story collection for winter nights from an emerging voice in British literary fiction

Craig grew up in north London and although she describes her family as not “particularly devout,” being Jewish is something she has always been proud of. Berlin is, she says, a really great place to be queer but she has found living amongst the Stolpersteine, unsettling. “I’m hardly the first Jewish person to say this about them, but I also think there are quite a few other countries who could perhaps do better at remembering these things.” What could be more satisfying than a single gothic horror story? A collection of them! This anthology features original stories from contemporary BIPOC writers. Blending gothic horror, folklore, and fairytale with “notions of home, memory, grief, and belonging, as well as gentrification, white supremacy, and colonization”, these stories explore what it is to be truly haunted.

Sara A. Mueller delivers an unflinching narrative about trauma, power dynamics, and the treatment of sex workers. Content warnings include sexual assault, domestic violence, suicide, suicide ideation, and emotional abuse. P arallel Hells is a debut short story collection from Leon Craig which uses sensuous gothic horror and folklore to explore queerness, identity, love, and power in strange and intriguing ways. The collection is aptly named, as these threads run through all of the thirteen stories which take the reader from a coastal holiday resort in Mexico, to the mythical and medieval Scandinavia, abandoned mansions, and contemporary London. The stories and characters run parallel to each other, but these themes are repeatedly reworked in surprising ways throughout the collection to give each narrative its little slice of hell.

I’m so glad that spooky queer books seem to be more abundant these past few years as I’ve definitely found a new favourite genre. I recommend this to anyone who likes dark and macabre books or to anyone who fancies trying something new since there are so many different tales to sink your teeth into. By turns unsettling, funny and fiercely intelligent, Parallel Hells is a queer carnival of monsters and masks. These stories penetrate the surface of their characters' assumed identities to reveal the glittering realities beneath. -- Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea But when she learns that the Verdeau patriarch is to blame for her father’s predicament, she decides to exact her vengeance.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 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. I’m a huge fan of the “morally grey character seeks revenge but struggles with growing positive sentiments toward their enemy” trope, and the addition of furious ghosts driving on this mission is just… chef’s kiss! From Rebecca and Dracula to the more recent hit Mexican Gothic, gothic horror has cemented its position in popular culture thanks to its ability to frighten and horrify us in a foreboding setting. After all, nothing says excellent literature than a book that keeps you awake at night with all the lights on! This year, there are plenty of new books set in spooky castles, remote countrysides, or deserted estates that fit this description perfectly.