La envergadura de unas manos cercenadas

by Joe Koch, José Ángel de Dios (Translator), David Marin (Introduction )

Tres mujeres, una sola batalla

Un mundo enloquecido.

Ciudades abandonadas.

Los sueños invaden las mentes conscientes.

Una amenaza invisible atrae a quienes se oponen a su furia mística para convertirlos en acólitos de una secta sin nombre. Mientras una adolescente lucha por su independencia, la directora del proyecto armamentístico secreto de un centro de investigación desarrolla un dispositivo neurocognitivo viviente que ejerza su poder en la autoconciencia.

Al quedar expuestos sus vínculos emocionales hasta entonces ocultos, las tres mujeres descubren un enemigo común mientras sus realidades disonantes se entrelazan en una batalla cósmica a través de alucinantes paisajes oníricos.

Genres: Horror, Novella, Fiction, Science Fiction, Queer, Lovecraftian, LGBT

136 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2020

About the author

Joe Koch writes literary horror and surrealist trash. Their books include THE WINGSPAN OF SEVERED HANDS, CONVULSIVE, INVAGINIES, and THE COUVADE, which received a Shirley Jackson Award nomination in 2019. His short fiction appears in numerous publications such as Vastarien, Southwest Review, PseudoPod, Children of the New Flesh, and The Book of Queer Saints. Joe also co-edited the art horror anthology STORIES OF THE EYE. He/They. Find Joe online at horrorsong.blog and on Twitter @horrorsong.

Reviews

[Eric LaRocca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Koch’s prose is lyrical, masterful, and haunting. One of the strangest novellas I’ve had the honor of reading. Dare I say? A masterpiece of weird fiction...

[TAP · Rating 3 out of 5]

The future is old and patient. Time is the winning predator, and every moment spirals deeper into the heart of the beast.

Dream. Chaos.

The prose: like lace caught in a scab, pulls and pulls until the wound reignites. And it is exhausting.

I enjoyed The Wingspan of Severed Hands up until I figured it out. Then I grew weary.

[Steve Stred · Rating 5 out of 5]

** Edited as review is now live on Kendall Reviews! **

Joanna has written a book, so far up on a different plain, they have completely baffled me and destroyed me.

Last year I read Joanna’s fantastic ‘The Couvade.’ When I saw this announced, I was beyond intrigued. The amazing Don Noble artwork, the stunning title and the brief synopsis saying this was inspired by a Brother’s Grimm tale.

Sold.

Little did I know, I was about to wade into a pool that had a riptide waiting to pull me under.

What I liked: The story is about metamorphosis and transformation. We follow two (maybe three?) narratives that intertwine themselves between stories. We open up with a female being forced to marry a boy she’s had pre-marital sex with. She begins to sense something is off and when they have an argument, a figure emerges to devour the boy. But it’s too late, the damage has been done, amputation has occurred and from there Joanna decides to let the story go all Pete Tong and the floodgates open.

Between the sci-fi narrative, the biblical allegory (again, I may be off base here due to IQ limitations!) and the various relationship plots, Koch has really delivered a gem and one that will have readers baffled and blindsided over and over again.

The writing here is stellar. Reading Koch reminds me of reading SJ Budd. Authors working on an entirely different playing field than anyone else. Sublime, pristine and delicate. Koch uses descriptions as both emotional points but also ruthless carnage and as this wrapped up, I was out of breath and felt as though I’d soiled myself.

Just phenomenal work here.

What I didn’t like: Even though I’m being a bit hard on myself with saying I’m not intelligent enough, I think this book may very well intimidate some readers. For those worried about it, I’d suggest to plan on reading this with purpose and intent, to take their time and savor every drop of larva fluid that Koch leaks onto the pages.

Why you should buy this: I think this book should cement Koch as one of the very best in literary-speculative fiction. This book touches on a number of sub-genres, but at its core, they’ve crafted a book that will absolutely unnerve the reader and create a number of questions that you’ll want to take the time and try to answer.

I loved this book and found it really worked itself into my mind when I wasn’t reading it.

Top-notch stuff, from one of the best out there.

[Hailey Piper · Rating 5 out of 5]

At once heart-rending and mind-blowing, Joe Koch has crafted a novella of grief-stricken pasts and destructive futures. Hopping between time periods lush with imagery both incredible and nightmarish, the themes of family, technology, and ideas beyond imagination are each handled with deft care in a blend that rocks emotion and mind alike. This is cosmic horror and science fiction with the ambition to frame one with the other, and it satisfies at every level. Do not miss this.

[Mangrii · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,25 / 5

La historia sigue a Adira, una joven que lucha contra una estructura familiar y social misógina que pretenden reclamar de forma violenta su cuerpo. Es decir, casarla con quién su madre quiera y no permitirle ninguna libertad. Al mismo tiempo, quizás en otro espacio y período temporal, Bennet, el director de armas de un centro de investigación privado y secreto, construye un dispositivo neurocognitivo e inteligente que parece desarrollar su propia conciencia. A medida que el centenar de paginas va pasando, tres personajes (Adira, Bennet y la conciencia) descubren un enemigo común casi cósmico que pretende terminar con todo: una amenaza invisible que atrae a aquellos que se oponen a su violencia sobrenatural para convertirse en acólitos de un culto sin nombre. El comienzo de una batalla cósmica a través de paisajes oníricos alucinantes y realidades disonantes.

No miento cuando digo que La envergadura de unas manos cercenadas es probablemente una de las novelas más extrañas y agotadoras que he leído en los últimos años. Con un lenguaje poético y densamente evocador, la prosa de Koch se despliega de forma tan lírica como inquietante. Koch parece ir un paso más allá en todo momento, invitando a mirar y presenciar el horror que es la locura y la violencia de una forma que parece estar en constante evolución. Con estrategia narrativas que obstruyen deliberadamente el flujo de la lectura, la novela corta nos obliga a pararnos en los giros que da su espiral cósmica de horror para contemplar sus llamativas imágenes y dejarnos embargar por la angustia y las sombras que parecen sangrar color amarillo. Sublime, delicada y magistral, leer este libro es una experiencia indescriptible tan solo por su cuidado del lenguaje, cuya traducción a cargo de José Ángel de Dios no ha debido de ser nada sencillo y debemos aplaudir.

Quizás uno de los adjetivos que puedan definir La envergadura de unas manos cercenadas es el de resbaladizo. Joe Koch se dedica a ensamblar secuencias de pura alucinación filtradas a través de diferentes puntos de vista con una maestría asombrosa. Es como una especie de relato lynchiano que aplica el horror corporal al estilo de Cronenberg con transferencias de conciencia para hablar sobre la propia individualidad. Aunque la novela nos lleva hacia paisajes oníricos y bordes infranqueables, Koch esta más interesado en la corrupción institucional y en la transformación corporal que en las convenciones del horror cósmico. Es decir, menos dioses primigenios pululando y más profundidad en el trauma. Metamorfosis y transformación se anclan como los dos pilares centrales dentro de las tres historias para dejar a los lectores desconcertados y sorprendidos una y otra vez.

Más allá del disfrute mayor o menor si uno tiene referencias sobre el mito de El Rey de Amarillo de Robert W. Chambers, La envergadura de unas manos cercenadas no es una novela para todo el mundo. Lo primero de todo, porque aunque su extensión es breve, algunos lectores pueden verse intimidados por la densidad de su prosa. Es un libro desconcertante, que genera más preguntas que respuestas y puede ser frustrante para algunos tipos de lectores. Sin embargo, también es un rico tapiz en el que asoma el amarillo andrajoso y que los amantes de la pura especulación pueden abrazar con gusto. Es uno de esas historias donde nunca esta del todo claro lo que sucede en realidad durante una primera lectura y siempre te encuentras pensando en como Joe Koch ha sido capaz de escribir algo así.

Reseña más extensa en el blog: https://boywithletters.blogspot.com/2...

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I pre-ordered my copy of The Wingspan of Severed Hands, authored by Joe Koch, after seeing them tweet about its upcoming release; Carcosa is ever calling. My honest review follows below, freely given.

I rated this novella 5 stars, 5 orbiting moons, 5 comets traversing through endless space; I don’t know if there are enough ways to say I adore this novella that is also celestial body related, but I tried my best.

Inside these pages I felt a vastness (Carcosa) expanding before me, tugging at my sense of security (sanity), calling, the void ( my Yellow Queen) ever calling; I needed only take a single step for my devotion to be secured.

The language used in this novella is transcendent, they invite one’s eyes to witness horror that is a madness and violence ever changing, evolving; frantic movement and iridescence such as a decaying fox among the flower beds, moist heat and shifting landscape.

This is everything I ever wanted, but in no way could have imagined possible for a story that touched on Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow mythos. They made it a truly unique and changing read, I know that it’s one that will reveal new things for many reads; it’s a rich tapestry bordered in tattered yellow. Simply put, I loved The Wingspan of Severed Hands and hope that its reach will be far and wide.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three star and above ratings are reserved for "I liked it" and better feelings. Those ratings would not characterize my response to this novella. Despite the fact I didn't care for the novella, I respect aspects of it and can appreciate the writing craft that went into it.

Koch's prose sparkles. It's erudite and amazing really. They (Koch's self describing pronoun of choice apparently) always seem to find just the right word for each and every occasion. That's what poetry does too. In fact, this novella strikes me as poetical.

This is less a compliment than it might seem. Koch's problem is they're supposed to be writing a story. Stories have plots and characters. There are two or three named characters here: Peter and the protagonist Adira Bennet , who start out separate, but cleverly become one character by novella's end. There are some unnamed characters, but they have little to no dialogue: Adira's "rapist" husband, Adira's mother, both of whom are in the past, the queen, some sort of angel thing with wings, etc. There is even a plot. Some sort of undefined dream menace is crossing dimensional barriers, invading through the sleep realm like a Dr. Strange villain, and wiping out civilization as we know it. At least, that's my read on what's going on. It's hard to pin down plot elements in this work. References to yellow signs, sigils, and the realm of Carcosa crowd them out. The mechanics of the plot would be far too banal a thing for Koch to bother writing about.

I'll provide one example of Koch's text, so that you can see for yourself exactly what I mean. This is the final paragraph of the first of the four sections this novella is divided into: "Deceived by the mirror's silvering, by the space where time turns inside out; Adira deceived in the realm where dead vipers copulate, and love looks like hate. The queen is alive. The future is old and patient. Time is the winning predator, and every moment spirals deeper into the beast." If 112 pages of text like that appeals to you, then stop! You have found your next read.

And that pretty much sums it up. Do the characters stop the menace? I don't know. Probably that's what Adira being able to do math correctly in her journal at the end means. So, to summarize my review: Great word choices. Short on plot or character though. Just like poems usually are.

[Mike Thorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tend to value style most highly in works of fiction. Of course, I enjoy the pleasure of sinking into a well-constructed plot as much as anyone, but for me, voice and perspective are most important of all. It is no surprise, then, that I am quite taken with Joanna Koch’s novella The Wingspan of Severed Hands, whose deliberately obstructive narrative strategies are delivered through such stunning, distinctive prose.

The story tracks Adira, a young woman who fights against misogynistic familial and social structures that aim to lay violent claim to her body. Simultaneously, it depicts Bennet, the weapons director of a secret research facility who constructs a sentient, neuro-cognitive device that develops her own disorienting self-awareness. As the novel progresses, these three characters (Adira, Bennet, and the weapon) discover a common, quasi-cosmic enemy.

This is a slippery book, whose hallucinatory sequences leak between different character POVs with stunning abandon. Koch, who has an MA in Contemplative Psychotherapy, applies Cronenberg-esque body horror to transferences of consciousness and selfhood. Much like Cronenberg, Koch intertwines institutional corruption and scientific inquiry with vivid, hyper-visceral depictions of bodily destruction and transformation. Although the novel’s climax swerves into trippy, consciousness-hopping dreamscapes, Koch seems more interested in the intimate interiority of trauma than they are in “cosmic horror” conventions.

The result is an impressive achievement, massive in scope and narrative ambition, but insular in thematic focus. Koch applies elements of experimental speculative fiction to both body and cosmic horror, placing their primary emphasis on the formidable (but ultimately beatable) power of trauma. Although the book goes to nasty places, it does not submit completely to its darkness, and I respect it for that.

Koch is a stunningly original talent, and I enthusiastically recommend this novella.

[Sara Tantlinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique and poetic; takes no prisoners as the author's words spiral the reader down into a cosmic spiral of striking imagery, heartbreak, and shadows that bleed yellow. Looking forward to whatever Koch does next!

[Zac Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tadpoles swimming through an swamp of scum. Budding organs rotting on the vine. The innumerable wails of a world poisoned beyond comprehension, as it crawls to it's inevitable, pathetic end.

Koch has written a truly incredible piece of modern bleak literature, miserable and emaciated, every other page elicited a wince at the grotesqueness of it all, and the ones that didn't had me raising my jaw off the floor.

[Aimee · Rating 2 out of 5]

If "prose on crack" is your thing, you'll love it!

Personally, I found the intensity of the writing to be a biiiiiit much, like the volume was cranked up to the max, and the speakers blew out.
It was hard to distinguish the narrative or direction with each word; a metaphor overlapped with otherworldly descriptions.
And don't get me wrong, at first glance, as I flipped through the pages, it was a masterpiece; it felt more like I was in possession of a piece of art, not merely a story… but then i was like… where’s the story!
The phrase "too much of a good thing" comes to mind.I started to feel like I was reading the same page over and over again; at every turn, I found the words cavernous, dragon, and dead angel twins. And really, what it comes down to is that I can appreciate beautiful writing but still not like it.
The entire time, I kept thinking, it's pretty word after pretty word, but I'm not connecting with this. But maybe this writing style is not my cup of tea! :)

[Kev Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't read the synopsis before going into this. Several other readers advised me to experience it as cleanly as possible, without external influences. That's what I did and I loved it.
Hallucinatory dreams, invading the waking world - you might wonder how on earth anyone could ever even attempt to capture what that might feel like in words. Joanna Koch has distilled it and filled these hundred and something pages with it. It is a challenging read. One that might not have been sustainable in a longer work. But, in the context of this story it is bold and breath taking and glorious.
I can perfectly well see how the things I loved about this might put some off it. And that is absolutely ok. But this is a work that demands to be read. It will make you feel something. Stunning.

[David Swisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is a fever dream of grotesque beauty that reads a lot like a Clive Barker story. The prose is decadently rich, oozing strangeness and pain. This story is not for the faint of heart or the literal-minded. It’s poetic and often confounding, but that makes it more rewarding for readers willing to dive in.

There were more than a few moments when the density of the prose slowed me down and a few surrealist turns that felt a little unnecessary, but altogether a satisfying read.

If you like Weird surrealist fiction, definitely check it out

[Keith Baird · Rating 5 out of 5]

My reading experience can be summed up as follows: Imagine an automated Rubik's Cube constantly shifting towards final assembly. It sits inside a plasma ball field which is also in constant motion, and those patterns are the words themselves. There's a sequence to everything, but you struggle to grasp it. This is an immersive experience and a brilliantly engineered literary construct. Koch is something beyond an author, though what that is evades me. Outstanding.

[Aaron McQuiston · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the end of the novella The Wingspan of the Severed Hands, I closed the book and sat back in my chair. The first thing I thought was, “What the hell did I just read?” The story is two, maybe two and a half narratives weaved seamlessly in a fever dreamlike state. In the beginning, Adria’s mother catches her having sex and shames her. The second narrative is about Adria Bennet, a weapons director that is developing a neuro-cognitive weapon that turns into a female form named Adria.  Then whatever clarity we have been given slowly turns into a surreal confusion and some extreme horror. 

*This might feel like a spoiler but there is absolutely no way to spoil this book, but here’s a warning anyway*

Many different theories about what was actually going on formed while reading this, most of them more confusing than the next. One of the easy ones is that all three are the same person in different times or different dimensions. Another is that Adria, the girl in the beginning, is living in a world where everyone is going insane and this does not happen at all, that this is all induced by the stress of her mother catching her having sex. Another is that this is all just a metaphorical retelling of the fall of man in the book of Genesis. There can be more than these three ideas of the plot, and this is what makes this novella so special. Not everyone can pull off a book like this. Part of my time while reading without knowing much of what is happening actually was me thinking about how this was written. I could never write something like this. Joanna Koch’s writing is stunning and consistently striking. I reread several sentences, several paragraphs just from the sheer beauty of the words. Even the title, The Wingspan of Severed Hands has such a poetic quality to it, that I catch myself repeating it in my head over and over again while I am doing other things. 

I am glad that this is a small book because this is also one of the first books I have finished and wanted to reread immediately. I have no clue what has happened but I have several ideas that fit. Instead of putting this in my shelves of books already read, The Wingspan of Severed Hands will find itself right back in my TBR pile.

[David Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novella is not a quick read. The opening sequence was so intense and visceral, covering deep emotion to intricate descriptions of things that will haunt me, that when I hit the second segment I had to stop, sit back, study the book and read the synopsis again to be certain it wasn't a short story collection and I'd somehow missed the conclusion of the first story. Robert Chambers fans are going to love this new addition to the lore of Carcosa. There is a teenaged girl experiencing dual worlds, one of mistreatment, torture, and disfigurement and the other in a place where she bonds with an angel. At least, she calls it an angel. There is a research scientist fighting to create a living weapon to prevent the world from sliding into darkness and the absolute control of the Yellow Queen and there is the weapon. Three points bonded.

Joanna Koch has a mastery of words that can be, at times, overwhelming. In this novella you can sometimes catch a breath during the periods when you are visiting the research facility, but then, those begin to slide as well.

This is a darkly poetic work that will challenge reader's imagations. It's a wonderful homage to classic horror while, at the same time, deepening the wounds and clawing it's own way forward. Not for light reading... but highly recommended.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-4 not sure yet

[John Esse · Rating 1 out of 5]

nearly unreadable. the prose is densely up it's own ass. every sentence is a metaphor on the sentences before it.

[Gafas y Ojeras · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es complicado, muy complicado hablar de esta novela. Una narración contundente, anclada sobre dos pilares tan inestables como pueden ser la locura y los sueños que, sin embargo, se sostiene a través de su propio argumento. Una delicia de propuesta empapada de un lirismo tal que te rasga el subconsciente, desafiando tu paciencia, tus conocimientos, tu cordura y, sobre todo, tus valentía a la hora de seguir adelante con la propuesta.
De tal forma que puede ser normal que abandones esta lectura tras adentrarte en el primer capítulo. Una historia como esta, que divaga entre dos mundos unidos por espejos, llena de metáforas retorcidas y desagradables, plagadas de vísceras, muñones y flores, termina con la paciencia de cualquier lector. Leía una y otra vez en voz alta esa emesis de ideas y era incapaz de encontrar sentido alguno a dragones, bocas, signos, vómitos florales, crisálidas, perros mitológicos, lagunas, reinas y demás rastros que Joe Koch va dejando a cada párrafo.
Pero, ¿y si te dijera que la novela perfectamente podría ser un remake de Carrie?¿Y si pensaras que hay libros malditos de regiones inhóspitas que llevan a la perdición a aquellos quienes lo leen? ¿Y si lo que lees no es más que una alegoría de como la sociedad está podrida en todas sus estamentos? ¿Y si todo lo adornamos con brochazos kafkianos en los que la nueva carne mancha cada página con dolor y redención?
De verdad, es que no sabría ni por donde empezar porque, con la misma, todo es una simple tomadura de pelo por parte del autor, que con cada frase se empeña en complicar aun más un argumento que solo puede quedar definido en tu cabeza. De ahí que, con el paso de los días, mis entrañas aun se estremezcan al ver como es necesario que te despedacen para poder resurgir desde la más profunda desesperanza. O que requieras de un pequeño empujón para darte cuenta que no estás en el lugar donde creías estar. La lectura que yo he hecho de esta historia estará a tal distancia de la que haga cualquier lector que parecerán libros distintos. Y eso convierte a este libro en toda una experiencia, aunque vestida con harapos, amarillos, de pesadilla.
Del argumento podremos subrayar que una joven es descubierta manteniendo relaciones sexuales por una madre conservadora e intransigente. Mientras, en otro lugar, dos científicos experimentan con el crecimiento de lo que puede ser el arma definitiva que equilibre las fuerzas en un mundo inhóspito que avanza devorando todo a su paso.
Aún así, eso es lo de menos. Porque lo que importa en este libro no se cierne a la historia, que también, sino a esa manera insana y poética de contarla. Muchos la dejarán olvidada a las primeras de cambio, como tumbas en Carcossa. El resto vagará por sus parajes preguntándose desesperados dónde es ese lugar en el que se encuentran.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It was as if she woke from a dream overwhelmed with a sense of its significance, yet had no memory of the content." This quote sums up how I felt when I was done reading this book, which Joe Koch so congenially personalized, signed, and sent to me. My dreams were disturbed, strange, and took me to cold and distant lands when I devoured pieces of this novella each night until completion.

The story relies heavily on the background of "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" and "The King in Yellow" for its settings and imagery, so I'd recommend you familiarize yourself with those works for a more deeply-felt experience with this book.

It begins with a concrete start and introduction to a girl whose mother is controlling, monstrous, and terrifying. She discovers that her teenage daughter, Adira, has had sexual relations with a boy and forces her to marry him. Adira is our strange victim and hero of the story, coupled with a constructed, sentient, and organic weapon in a lab, and the scientist behind it named Bennet. These three are separate yet together, flowing in and out of each others' existence in a mercurial way. As such, the story and characters become transcendental and float away from the concrete. This weapon is sleeping, dreaming, dead, yet alive. It is its own inhabitant of Carcosa, trying to find itself and its purpose while feeling everything and eclipsing time and space.

The connected feeling I got with each character and their inability to feel 'right' in their own skin was powerful. The humanity and lack of humanity in each character felt indivisible from one another, liquid and bound together. I loved this quote that speaks to the darker side of the human species, "No species on earth behaved in such a disordered way, practicing gleeful self-annihilation coupled with obscene environmental savagery."

This was a really cool book. You need to read carefully because each description is like picking a tender raspberry from its bush, and you want the morsel to make it to you intact, not crushed from distraction or impatience. I commend Joe Koch for writing this story in a way that plays out in the mind like a dream or nightmare. Its sequence hopping and terrifying and subtle imagery is captured exquisitely. These are the fine details that usually dissipate from one's mind as they wipe the sleep from their eyes.

[Evan Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shock and awe. Beautiful and grotesque. These are just a few of the words I could use to describe Joanna Koch’s The Wingspan of Severed Hands.

The story takes the insidious concept of the yellow sign from Robert W. Chamber’s mythos he created for his short story collection The King in Yellow. The author uses such vivid imagery and lyrical prose to describe the most depraved and macabre scenes. I’m really into Koch’s writing style, and I learned several beautiful new words (fascia, instar, puerile) to add to my vocabulary.

It seems almost unnecessary to summarize the plot here, as the synopsis from the back of the book does that fine justice. What cannot be synopsized is the feeling and atmosphere created by the wordcraft employed here. There’s really not enough I can say about the fucking poetry in Wingspan. Please do yourself a goddamn favor and pick up this book. If you’re a fan of Robert W. Chambers, cosmic horror, body horror not unlike what you might find in the Saw franchise (but even saying that feels like a real disservice to the author—their prose is so much more amazing than any of the writing in any of those movies, but I couldn’t think of anything better to describe some of the more visceral scenes in the book, and goddamn it’s good), and just quality weird fiction, readdddd it. Now. It’s unlike anything else you’ll ever read. Also look at that cover art!

[Matthew Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I wasn’t sure if this was a book for me. But I soon realised there was more to what I had at first assumed was going on, and by the end I was scooping my brain off the floor and funnelling it back in through my ears.

All hail the Yellow Sign.

[Finnn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hauntingly poetic prose. Whirlwinds of trauma and destruction. Undoubtedly a great book but having read convulsive first It was brilliant to see Koch's prose has become tighter and more refined, but without it losing that hallucinogenic and poetic aura. Definitely worth a read but perhaps before convulsive, as the latter takes everything great about this one and just elevates it.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

So last night I read this book and because it's told in symbolism at first I was like ??? and then I was !!! but then again at the end it was ??? so I just reread the ending and am back to !!!

If you're unfamiliar with the fairy tale "the maiden with no hands" it would probably help your understanding of what's going on in this book to read a synopsis of that first. There are a lot of literary references in here (Carcosa) but that one in particular stood out to me.


CW: body horror, abusive parent, rape

[Ryan Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes, a girl just needs to be hacked to pieces and travel to Carcosa in the bowels of a black Epicyon that swallowed her to find herself.

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starting off, reading this book was a different kind of experience for me, on a few levels.
The pacing, the style and the choice of words all make this book unique.

A little background of the book the way I see it. The world is collapsing with civilization crumbling. And we have several different story-lines, all nicely packed in this short novella. A young girl forced to marry the first guy she has sex with. An overbearing, very critical verbally abusive mother. A couple of scientist creating a secret weapon to protect us all.

Joanna Koch has taken a couple of handfuls of Sci-Fi and a huge bag of extreme cosmic horror and blended them together into one world.

Don't let the size of the book fool you into thinking this will be a quick easy read. If you've ever read Clive Barker, then you know how in-depth it is. Clive is the first writer I think of when reading this book. The style has the poem like feel, with several pauses to show more emphasis. Koch is able to make this work properly. Mix in a few Robert. W. Chambers references and you have The Wingspan of Severed Hands.

The book can be challenging at times with the vocabulary, but don't allow that to scare you away. Stick with it until the end and you will be fulfilled.

[Horror DNA · Rating 5 out of 5]

A growing trend in horror fiction of late, one I have greatly enjoyed, is to approach and adjust, possibly correct, the horror of the past by actively playing in the mythos created by the writers of the past. A sort of high-brow fan fiction, you could say, but it’s nothing new in the world of horror. Going back to H.P. Lovecraft’s own self. By taking up the fictional creations that influenced us, we’re able to make our own mark on the worlds that inspired us, and as recent books such as The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle, Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark, or The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher have all shown, they can be an effective approach. The Wingspan of Severed Hands by Joanna Koch takes from the past to bring us the future of cosmic horror.

You can read Chris' full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.

[Matt Neil Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something beautiful and chilling about the title of this superb weird fiction/horror novella, which perfectly represents its contents.

Set against a world ravaged by a visceral psychic infection from the screaming shores of Carcossa, the story weaves strands from different places and timelines to create a world of almost relentless despair, body horror, and the pain and cost of physical and spiritual transformation. It has a lot to say about punishment and abuse and trauma, the blurred line between devotion and obsession, and, ultimately, hope.

Joe Koch's work is equally brutal and poetic, unflinching in both its horror and its love of language, and I don't really have the words to recommend it highly enough.

[Zina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a highly poetic short book written in an absolutely wonderful sparkly prose.
I would give it 3.5 stars if I could, as I rather liked it.

It is about a girl overcoming the trauma of her abusive mother and her abusive marriage. It is about the world gone mad, infiltrated by the Evil Queen stretching her bony hands in yellow tatters all the way from the realm of Carcosa, from under two black suns. It is about a conscious super weapon developed in a lab on a diet of Adira's nightmares.

If you like lots of action and straightforward (or most any) plot - skip. If you like mystic horrors , ghastly dream sequences, poetic and literary - give it a whirl.

[Jeff Raymond · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that is just exploding with brutal dread and cosmic creepiness. It's short, but that's not a deterrent, there's just a ton to love here if you're into the sort of Lovecraftian/Chalmers-style weirdness.

It's rare that I keep putting a book aside because reading it means it will be done quicker and I don't get to spend time in its clutches anymore. This was one of those books.