Vistas of Carrion

by Matthew M. Bartlett

Vistas of Carrion contains forty-seven short stories and uncanny transmissions written by Matthew M. Bartlett, each part and parcel of the unique world of his fiction. The entries explore the profane streets and environs of Leeds, Massachusetts, or journey into arcane and unknown blasphemies beyond it. The omnibus contains both beloved entries from Bartlett’s oeuvre and previously uncollected treasures.

The contents span a gamut of lengths and styles, from the sinister brevity of flash fiction pieces like “The Land of Leeds” to the lingering dread of longer narratives like “Gaspar.” This omnibus, published by Chiroptera Press, showcases Bartlett's formidable imagination and distinctive voice. It is little wonder that horror writer Laird Barron names Bartlett “the legitimate heir to Ligotti, Aickman, and the other giants of weird fiction.”

Each of the pieces in this generously sized collection immerses the reader a world where the line between the macabre and the mundane is deliciously blurred. Bartlett’s fiction doesn’t just unsettle—it sticks the knife in and twists with a grin, with a chuckle in the dark. Vistas of Carrion cements Bartlett’s reputation as one of the most singular and important authors of contemporary horror fiction.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories

342 pages, Paperback

First published July 20, 2024

About the author

Matthew M. Bartlett was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1970. He writes dark and strange fiction at his home in Western Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife Katie and an unknown number of cats.

Reviews

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This cover freaked me out at first, but now it's grown on me. How do I get this chick's number? She looks fun to party with. I'm gonna light a candle and say "Vistas Of Carrion" five times into my bathroom mirror and see if I conjure her.

[Alex Budris · Rating 3 out of 5]

MMB has so many little books that it's great to finally be able to sit and sample his oeuvre in one handsome volume, between two hardcovers. This man is a very good writer. Some of his trippy SFX would be right at home in a Philip Dick novel - If Philip Dick lived in a slaughterhouse, or the back room at K Mart. The friction here, the horripilation, comes from the juxtaposition of the macabre and the mundane - In one of my favorite stories, Carnomancer, or the Meat Manager's Prerogative, a grocery store middle manager glimpses his fate through raw flesh. Another of my favorites, Night Dog, is a tale of corporate conspiracy and demonic infiltration that would be at home in a Mark Samuels collection. Plenty of evil cults preforming unspeakable rituals - though Bartlett seems to speak them quite fluently. There are even a couple 'hardboiled' pieces in here that are really good, including a private detective story about a low life who is not a private detective, but may be a child molester... or a maniac. And hardly a postscript, Mr. White Noise is an evil god that gives malignity a bad name. This book is a grab bag full of diabolical fun. (or is it scum?)

A good book. Though I wish there were a few more longer pieces. Don't get me wrong, I love the flash fiction - it's kind of MMB's thing - but longer narratives, like those mentioned above, the apocalyptic No Abiding Place on Earth, and the interconnected Rangel and Gaspar, left me satisfied in a way that the pieces culled from the 'mosaic novels' did not. The Long Lost Parent is a creep out of an 'evil book' story, and is highly recommended.. Have You Seen This Man? is just not the same without the disturbing daguerreotypes - they really shoulda been included in this book, as they are, in my opinion, critical to the atmosphere of the flash fiction.

So, if you like your horror fiction with a microdose of satanic psychedelia - full of terrible transformations, meat magic, and 'tinged with a blasphemy of citrus' - your search ends here. If you are only going to own one of Bartlett's books, this volume is a great retrospective. As of this writing Chiroptera Press has a few signed hardcovers and bunch of trade paperbacks left.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

As you can probably guess from the cover, Matthew M. Bartlett is best in smaller doses. There's only so much literal head exploding I want to read about in one 300+ page volume.