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Our Blood In Its Blind Circuit
Crooked cops cover their bodies in chicken blood and living tattoos to protect themselves from the cartels. A Civil War vet tracks his wife's heart across the desert. A detective, poised to take down a local drug ring, is suddenly possessed by the spirit of Sasha Fierce. Shadows drip feathers and wounds bleed ants. Puppets run on human hearts and barfighting hillbillies ride dragons into the sun. OUR BLOOD IN ITS BLIND CIRCUIT is a dark, genre-bending collection of weird crime fiction by the award-winning author of LOW DOWN DEATH RIGHT EASY and BY THE TIME WE LEAVE HERE, WE'LL BE FRIENDS.
140 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 20, 2013
12 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
About the author
J. David Osborne
24 books212 followersJ David Osborne lives in Oklahoma with his wife and son.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 20, 2014
Given that short story collections are often an eclectic, sometimes confusing and almost always unsatisfying experience, I gotta say OUR BLOOD IN ITS BLIND CIRCUIT is rather ahead of the curve. Most of the story seemed to have been narrated by the same man, a distant observer of his neighbors and relatives, like a grim version of Sam Elliot's character in THE BIG LEBOWSKI.
The story I enjoyed best was THREE THEORIES ON THE MURDER OF JOHN WILY, which had this strongest 'folktale' atmosphere and had a varnish of gallows humor that raised a couple belly laughs from me. Other stories like THE THICK FOG OF ALABASTER MOUNTAINS and IMPRINT have a similar approach despite happening in radically different settings. A common criticism I hear about J. David Osborne is that he writes complicated stories with a lot of characters, but if he keeps narrating them the warmth and the clever use of vernacular, I'd read his retelling of FINNEGAN'S WAKE.
OUR BLOOD IN ITS BLIND CIRCUIT is bite-sized, but it's got enough juice and cohesiveness to keep you reading and make an intriguing statement for a much needed new original voice in the crime fiction realm.
The story I enjoyed best was THREE THEORIES ON THE MURDER OF JOHN WILY, which had this strongest 'folktale' atmosphere and had a varnish of gallows humor that raised a couple belly laughs from me. Other stories like THE THICK FOG OF ALABASTER MOUNTAINS and IMPRINT have a similar approach despite happening in radically different settings. A common criticism I hear about J. David Osborne is that he writes complicated stories with a lot of characters, but if he keeps narrating them the warmth and the clever use of vernacular, I'd read his retelling of FINNEGAN'S WAKE.
OUR BLOOD IN ITS BLIND CIRCUIT is bite-sized, but it's got enough juice and cohesiveness to keep you reading and make an intriguing statement for a much needed new original voice in the crime fiction realm.
March 25, 2019
I have always read a lot of books in different genres. Much like my tastes in music, my tastes in reading run the gamut from mystery to science-fiction, horror to science fact, biography to narrative history; you get the idea. As such, I am always on the lookout for something a little bit different. One day as I was cruising the Amazon trade winds, I came across a genre called “dark noir.” Dark noir promised to be a mix of crime fiction with supernatural and/or bizarro elements, short stories and novels with a twisted sensibility and plenty of graphic sex and violence. Sounded good. I have always enjoyed the hard-boiled crime sort of thing, Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler are two of my faves. Mixing that ethos with a healthy dose of Clive Barker seemed like a natural fit for me. Thus it was that the search piranhas of the Amazon spit out the bones of a short book titled “Our Blood in it’s Blind Circuit,” by a young author named J. David Osborne. After a bit of research I discovered that this Osborne fellow is one of the nascent genre’s big stars, an award-winning writer with a grimy and respectable pedigree. Score! I paid homage to my Amazonian guides and hit the order button and waited for delivery.
Got the book a couple of days later. I liked the cover, a rendering of Waite’s Baphomet settled atop Mayan dragons. And so I dug in, read the stories (detailed below), and felt somewhat disappointed. Maybe its that the stories were so uneven in quality. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that a few of these tales weren’t even stories in the traditional sense, barely even qualifying as story fragments. Maybe its just not my thing after all, though I also did order a few other books under the guise of the dark noir genre, so I’ll have to make that determination based on a wider scope of reference. Could just be that I’m a bit old-school, although I do enjoy this fevered, gonzo style of writing. I loves me some Burroughs….some Thompson….some Kerouac. If I’m totally honest, though, I’ll just tell you that I think maybe Mr. Osborne tried a bit too hard to make a statement of being “edgy” and “dark” with no real place to go in a few of these adventures. I will say this: he often creates GREAT characters, fully rounded and believable as people. It’s unfortunate that a few of them have no endgames and no real resolution to their stories. Maybe that’s the point? Real life often offers no tied-up ending, no point A to point B. If so, then I guess it’s okay, again maybe just not my thing. Here is the story-by-story rundown….
“Our Blood in it’s Blind Circuit” - Two very corrupt Mexican cops face the dangers of the street and the darkness of demons in this tribute to Santa Muerte. Fantastic characters left to an open ending that left room for….something....more?
“Zipper’s Knee” - A psychedelic story fragment ruined by a blunder of continuity. Not that it was a very good story idea in the first place. About this time I wondered what the hell I had bought.
“Amends Due, West of Glorieta” - OK! Now we’re talking! A creepy western. A well set-up revenge tale with an evil twist. Fun characters and a solid descent into the nether regions of dark fiction. I liked this one a lot.
“Three Theories on the Murder of John Wily” - Inventive story structure with strong characters that ends up kind of drifting off into the night, sort of like coming down off of that cocaine high and drifting off to sleep on your couch, eventually waking up to Sunday morning and wondering where you were and what you did last night.
“Vesica” - Written for the “Tales of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” collection. Doesn’t even make the grade as a story fragment. Just…..I…..really have no idea what this was about.
“Tesseract” - A volley into science-fiction perhaps? A puppeteer takes hearts and gives life to his creations with the help of an alien device? LOTS of room for the reader to make up their own details to flesh this thing out, so to speak. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
“And A Wake Up” - More hallucinogenic fluff that I really couldn’t make heads nor tails out of. Way too much caffeine, man. Switch over to tea for a while.
“Like Most Things Easy” - Perhaps one of the best stories in the book. Strange. Bittersweet. Reminded me of an Alfred Bester story, that one about crossed phone lines and a couple left stranded out of time. Good stuff.
“Imprinting” - Another of those “What did I just read?” stories that left me hanging, wanting more somehow from these well-developed characters.
“Cash On The Side” - A two-page stand-up comedy riff on writing and writers. It’s a pretty good joke.
“The Thick Fog of the Alabaster Mountains” - The longest story in the book, and the most muddled and stuck between genres. Crime fiction merged with horror merged with violent comedy all dumped into a barrel of bathtub speed. Maybe I was starting to “get it” by the time I read this one. It made no sense to me whatsoever, but I liked it in spite of all the faults.
“Gritty” - Another take on the writer’s life. What happens when one’s characters begin to break the wall between fantasy and reality? It’s an idea that has been done before, and I don’t really think this adds much to the well-worn narrative.
So there we are, twelve stories later and I still don’t really know how many stars to give this. I’ve got two tales that I liked, a few more that were interesting but ultimately disappointing, and several others that just made me put the book down and look for other stuff to read. Not really enough here to make me recommend this book, though I dearly wish there was. Hopefully this isn’t an omen for the entire genre.
Got the book a couple of days later. I liked the cover, a rendering of Waite’s Baphomet settled atop Mayan dragons. And so I dug in, read the stories (detailed below), and felt somewhat disappointed. Maybe its that the stories were so uneven in quality. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that a few of these tales weren’t even stories in the traditional sense, barely even qualifying as story fragments. Maybe its just not my thing after all, though I also did order a few other books under the guise of the dark noir genre, so I’ll have to make that determination based on a wider scope of reference. Could just be that I’m a bit old-school, although I do enjoy this fevered, gonzo style of writing. I loves me some Burroughs….some Thompson….some Kerouac. If I’m totally honest, though, I’ll just tell you that I think maybe Mr. Osborne tried a bit too hard to make a statement of being “edgy” and “dark” with no real place to go in a few of these adventures. I will say this: he often creates GREAT characters, fully rounded and believable as people. It’s unfortunate that a few of them have no endgames and no real resolution to their stories. Maybe that’s the point? Real life often offers no tied-up ending, no point A to point B. If so, then I guess it’s okay, again maybe just not my thing. Here is the story-by-story rundown….
“Our Blood in it’s Blind Circuit” - Two very corrupt Mexican cops face the dangers of the street and the darkness of demons in this tribute to Santa Muerte. Fantastic characters left to an open ending that left room for….something....more?
“Zipper’s Knee” - A psychedelic story fragment ruined by a blunder of continuity. Not that it was a very good story idea in the first place. About this time I wondered what the hell I had bought.
“Amends Due, West of Glorieta” - OK! Now we’re talking! A creepy western. A well set-up revenge tale with an evil twist. Fun characters and a solid descent into the nether regions of dark fiction. I liked this one a lot.
“Three Theories on the Murder of John Wily” - Inventive story structure with strong characters that ends up kind of drifting off into the night, sort of like coming down off of that cocaine high and drifting off to sleep on your couch, eventually waking up to Sunday morning and wondering where you were and what you did last night.
“Vesica” - Written for the “Tales of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” collection. Doesn’t even make the grade as a story fragment. Just…..I…..really have no idea what this was about.
“Tesseract” - A volley into science-fiction perhaps? A puppeteer takes hearts and gives life to his creations with the help of an alien device? LOTS of room for the reader to make up their own details to flesh this thing out, so to speak. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
“And A Wake Up” - More hallucinogenic fluff that I really couldn’t make heads nor tails out of. Way too much caffeine, man. Switch over to tea for a while.
“Like Most Things Easy” - Perhaps one of the best stories in the book. Strange. Bittersweet. Reminded me of an Alfred Bester story, that one about crossed phone lines and a couple left stranded out of time. Good stuff.
“Imprinting” - Another of those “What did I just read?” stories that left me hanging, wanting more somehow from these well-developed characters.
“Cash On The Side” - A two-page stand-up comedy riff on writing and writers. It’s a pretty good joke.
“The Thick Fog of the Alabaster Mountains” - The longest story in the book, and the most muddled and stuck between genres. Crime fiction merged with horror merged with violent comedy all dumped into a barrel of bathtub speed. Maybe I was starting to “get it” by the time I read this one. It made no sense to me whatsoever, but I liked it in spite of all the faults.
“Gritty” - Another take on the writer’s life. What happens when one’s characters begin to break the wall between fantasy and reality? It’s an idea that has been done before, and I don’t really think this adds much to the well-worn narrative.
So there we are, twelve stories later and I still don’t really know how many stars to give this. I’ve got two tales that I liked, a few more that were interesting but ultimately disappointing, and several others that just made me put the book down and look for other stuff to read. Not really enough here to make me recommend this book, though I dearly wish there was. Hopefully this isn’t an omen for the entire genre.
Read
March 9, 2014Reading Our Blood In Its Blind Circuit, you’re encountering many literary voices at once. From nightmarish occult noir to puzzle-like murder mysteries to viscerally surreal westerns to wickedly funny genre skewerings, this collection covers a vast territory with ease and economy. It’s a fine sampler of the talents of J. David Osborne, a casually elegant stylist and subversive storyteller. Whatever your tastes, there are stories in here that are calling your name
August 17, 2017
This was a slight change from what I'm used to reading from J David Osborne, in that the stories were shorter but often still hit with that vivid, drug fueled punch. The second to last story, The Thick Fog of the Alabaster Mountains, includes many characters that eventually connect to each other in some way, and that's my jam.
August 3, 2022
These short stories disguised as our blood flow in patterns infected by drugs. From heads rolling across the dance floor, law enforcement cracking down on monsters worse than themselves, a scattered brain recluse and eating souls at gun point. Osborne trips the circuits of horror and steals our blood to feed his writing utensils.
March 14, 2019
3.5 rating
Like every collection of short stories, some grab you more than others, some are just a few pages long and a loose idea and others have you wishing for more. They all share a desolate surreal meth-infused bleary world view.
Like every collection of short stories, some grab you more than others, some are just a few pages long and a loose idea and others have you wishing for more. They all share a desolate surreal meth-infused bleary world view.
March 15, 2015
I feel like Osborne was just flexing his skills here. There are a wide range of flavors going on in this book. Noir, horror, weird, bizzaro or whatever you want to label it. I liked every story in the book but I loved a few. The first story which shares a title with the book is about some violent and superstitious cops and it kicks the books of proper. My favorite is a civil war tale of revenge that is brutal and disturbing called Amends Due, West Of Glorieta. It starts out as a hardcore civil war era noir but blends into some creepy cosmic horror, I could've read 300 plus pages of this story. Not only does Osborne switch up genres he also switches up styles. Another story I really liked in this book is called Three Theories On The Murder Of John Wily because it's formatted in a creative way that makes the story much more enjoyable and interesting. Imprinting was super dope too, it's a bit of a mind trip. I was trying to decide if this is my favorite Osborne book but I am having a hard time choosing between Our Blood and Low Down Death Right Easy... Who's cares because they are both awesome books in their own way. J David Osborne is the creator of one of the best most innovative publishers out right now but this book should also substantiate his position as one of the best most innovative writers out there too.
January 13, 2015
1.5 Stars
I usually enjoy bizarre off the wall books and stories but this one really missed the mark for me. Most of the stories felt more like a scattered thought or maybe a brain storm for an idea instead of a complete story. On some of the other stories it would start off good and then it was almost like someone else took over telling the story. The tone would change and something strange would happen that didn't always make sense and then the story would just end. When this happened I was left wondering if this was done on purpose because on more than one story I'd flipped to the next page going "where's the rest of it?" As I kept reading the stories started feeling more and more like there was a set length to each story and that's why they ended. I only felt this way because more often than not the stories seemed to stop in mid-thought.
The writing style in this book/these stories was choppy and the tone within some of the stories would change. Again like I said above it felt as thought two people were writing the story. I can't help wonder if this anthology was written for the same purpose the author writes his stories in Cash on the Side. Ultimately this book felt like a bunch of voices talking/fighting to say something all at once. Very little of what's said comes across let alone does it make any sense.
I usually enjoy bizarre off the wall books and stories but this one really missed the mark for me. Most of the stories felt more like a scattered thought or maybe a brain storm for an idea instead of a complete story. On some of the other stories it would start off good and then it was almost like someone else took over telling the story. The tone would change and something strange would happen that didn't always make sense and then the story would just end. When this happened I was left wondering if this was done on purpose because on more than one story I'd flipped to the next page going "where's the rest of it?" As I kept reading the stories started feeling more and more like there was a set length to each story and that's why they ended. I only felt this way because more often than not the stories seemed to stop in mid-thought.
The writing style in this book/these stories was choppy and the tone within some of the stories would change. Again like I said above it felt as thought two people were writing the story. I can't help wonder if this anthology was written for the same purpose the author writes his stories in Cash on the Side. Ultimately this book felt like a bunch of voices talking/fighting to say something all at once. Very little of what's said comes across let alone does it make any sense.
February 10, 2014
Reading Our Blood In Its Blind Circuit was, in some way, the literary equivalent of listening to a Mr. Bungle album. Just like "California" or "Disco Volante" this opus spans genres galore: from Noir to Bizarro to crime to western-horror to science-fiction... I lost count !
The sheer brilliance and imagination of the short stories collected in the book blew me away. As each story unfolds, we are introduced to fascinating characters and truly amazing ideas that are, for the most part, very-well executed. My favorite of the bunch is "Amends Due, West of Glorieta", which is a heart-wrenching western story about revenge, and love.
"Tesseract", "Imprinting", "Three Theories on the Murder of John Wily" and "The Thick Fog of the Alabaster Mountains" also struck a big chord.
The realm of J David Osborne's imagination is unlike anything I have ever experienced. Next stop : "Low Down Death Right Easy".
The sheer brilliance and imagination of the short stories collected in the book blew me away. As each story unfolds, we are introduced to fascinating characters and truly amazing ideas that are, for the most part, very-well executed. My favorite of the bunch is "Amends Due, West of Glorieta", which is a heart-wrenching western story about revenge, and love.
"Tesseract", "Imprinting", "Three Theories on the Murder of John Wily" and "The Thick Fog of the Alabaster Mountains" also struck a big chord.
The realm of J David Osborne's imagination is unlike anything I have ever experienced. Next stop : "Low Down Death Right Easy".
July 27, 2018
Osborne is a talented writer but he seemingly lacks direction. Hence this collection of short-stories (some only a few pages in length) is all over the place, ranging from bizarro to crime fiction with the ocassional horror element strewn in. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing and some writer really succeed in fusing genres but Osborne rarely manages to melt things together into something that feels consistent and homogenous. Therefore most of the included stories do not really pass the point of mediocrity and some even feel utterly pointless.
However there are two decent and noteworthy stories included in this collection: First up is the title-giving story that strongly reminded me of Gabino Iglesias' infamous "Zero Saints" in its sinister mood and tone without ever reaching the latters intensity. Still it is a good fusion of a drug-infused and gritty crime story fused with horror and bizarro elements. The other one is the closer "Gritty" where Osborne finally manages to let go of everything and throws the reader head first into a gritty bizarro world.
I will continue to keep an eye on Osborne and will propably go for one of his novels next. As of know I am not 100% convinced.
However there are two decent and noteworthy stories included in this collection: First up is the title-giving story that strongly reminded me of Gabino Iglesias' infamous "Zero Saints" in its sinister mood and tone without ever reaching the latters intensity. Still it is a good fusion of a drug-infused and gritty crime story fused with horror and bizarro elements. The other one is the closer "Gritty" where Osborne finally manages to let go of everything and throws the reader head first into a gritty bizarro world.
I will continue to keep an eye on Osborne and will propably go for one of his novels next. As of know I am not 100% convinced.
April 29, 2018
A cool wee collection of weird crime/horror stories. I think it reflects on me rather than the book that I preferred the more conventional tales like "Amends Due, West of Glorieta" and "Three Theories on the Murder of John Wily".
May 2, 2019
Only picked this up to read while I was waiting for something, like at the doctor's office. Don't really care for his short stories as much as his novels.
August 22, 2019
Kind of a mixed bag. I enjoyed some of the stories, others were "meh". At least one was: really, I'm not sure of the point.
November 19, 2022
I’m convinced “Gritty” is one of the greatest short stories ever written.
October 19, 2023
Great weird stories about fucked up people doing fucked up things!
April 19, 2014
This is a nice little collection from writer J. David Osborne. Eclectic, well written and fun to read. It's mostly weird crime tales with some bizarro thrown in for good measure, which makes for an odd ensemble that works surprisingly well. I really enjoyed this and look forward to more of his work.
June 20, 2014
Cover to cover, reading this book of stories was like a long, weird acid trip. But one I liked in the way we like things that we probably shouldn't. You know, that moment of clarity before you find the devil on your shoulder is winning the argument and you take the plunge into the long dark of a real bad habit. Osborne's collection is not for everyone, though. These stories leave scars.
April 24, 2014
A collection of terrific, occasionally surreal fiction. (Full disclosure: one of these stories first appeared on Vol.1 Brooklyn.) Some of it focuses on crime, but not all of it -- the bittersweet "Like Most Things Easy," for instance.
May 15, 2016
Wide variety in this collection of flash-fiction, short stories, and novellas. Noir, bizarro, western and crime. Dense, maximalist prose with an immense amount of concrete details. A few of these have way too many characters to keep track of, but overall pretty good stuff.
April 21, 2015
Twisted and imaginative. A great collection of dark and bizarre crime fiction and noir from a master of bizarro stories. Cops and creeps and terrible people who get what they deserve. Good stuff.
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