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Thin Places: Stories
A finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award, Thin Places is a gothic and atmospheric collection from the national bestselling author of The Bog Wife. This beautiful reissue includes four additional stories.
A not-quite-human proprietor menaces guests at a hotel on the edge of a swamp. A composer visits a remote Slavic village where villagers perform soundless songs that accompany violent sacrifices. Four reclusive women conjour children out of unconventional materials in an unnerving mansion. The arrival of a lighthouse-keeper’s daughter portends disaster for an insular island community with bizarre traditions.
With transcendent prose that celebrates her hypnotic and humane vision of the strange and supernatural, Kay Chronister weaves a dark tapestry of love, grief, death, and the exquisite pain and joy of life on the periphery of the familiar. The fifteen stories collected here, chronicle the lives of powerful women and children, wicked witches and demons, cursed artists and overlooked communities. Thin Places is a perfect companion to Chronister’s national bestselling novel The Bog Wife and ideally suited for readers of Shirley Jackson and Carmen Maria Machado.
A not-quite-human proprietor menaces guests at a hotel on the edge of a swamp. A composer visits a remote Slavic village where villagers perform soundless songs that accompany violent sacrifices. Four reclusive women conjour children out of unconventional materials in an unnerving mansion. The arrival of a lighthouse-keeper’s daughter portends disaster for an insular island community with bizarre traditions.
With transcendent prose that celebrates her hypnotic and humane vision of the strange and supernatural, Kay Chronister weaves a dark tapestry of love, grief, death, and the exquisite pain and joy of life on the periphery of the familiar. The fifteen stories collected here, chronicle the lives of powerful women and children, wicked witches and demons, cursed artists and overlooked communities. Thin Places is a perfect companion to Chronister’s national bestselling novel The Bog Wife and ideally suited for readers of Shirley Jackson and Carmen Maria Machado.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 14, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
July 9, 2025
ARC for review. To be published October 7, 2025.
3 stars
This is a reissued book, first out in 2020. Fifteen gothic folk tales, I believe four of them are new, but if you’ve already read the book the first time around, unless you loved it so much your eyeballs fell out I wouldn’t buy the book just for the new stories…they definitely aren’t carbon copies of each other, but there’s a bit of a sameness running through them. That said, all were imaginative and lots of people will enjoy them.
3 stars
This is a reissued book, first out in 2020. Fifteen gothic folk tales, I believe four of them are new, but if you’ve already read the book the first time around, unless you loved it so much your eyeballs fell out I wouldn’t buy the book just for the new stories…they definitely aren’t carbon copies of each other, but there’s a bit of a sameness running through them. That said, all were imaginative and lots of people will enjoy them.
May 13, 2020
Short stories are usually a mixed bag for me but this book’s blurb sold me on my need to dive right in. I had planned on reading a story a day and that worked for a couple of days, then I couldn’t help myself. With a diverse cast including mothers, witches, demons and a preacher’s daughter, and themes of loss, suffering and resilience, this was unlike any other short story collection I’ve come across.
One of the things I love about short stories is that there’s usually something there for everyone. I’ve enjoyed finding out what stories resonated with other reviewers. My favourites are marked with 🖤.
Your Clothes a Sepulcher, Your Body a Grave
First love can be complicated …
The Women Who Sing For Sklep
A composer seeks a new sound.
The Warriors, the Mothers, the Drowned 🖤
A mother’s fierce love for her child and the lengths she will go to to protect her.
Too Lonely, Too Wild
She may not have inherited Grammy’s witching power, but she did inherit the family Bible.
Roiling and Without Form
Molly has only ever known life at the Flamingo but can’t help wondering what’s beyond the marsh.
Life Cycles
A son sets out to pay his father’s debt.
The Fifth Gable
Marigold yearns for a child and hopes the women of the four-gabled house can help her.
White Throat Holler 🖤
The Blanchard sisters and Esther Grace, a preacher’s daughter, hunt demons.
Russula’s Wake 🖤
Jane’s children are Paley’s, and they need nourishment.
The Lights We Carried Home 🖤
A film crew, a haunted child and a sister who needs to know the truth.
Thin Places
Miss Augusta has a new student: Lilianne, the new lighthouse-keeper’s daughter.
At times I felt like I was plonked right in the middle of a story and had to scurry to catch up. Other times, the story finished and I wished for an entire novel so I could continue to explore. Sometimes I’d sit there at the end of a story, trying to figure out how I could explain what I’d just experienced to someone else. A couple of times I was certain I’d missed something crucial because I was hazy on the why or the how.
Whether they told of obsessive love, strange appetites or the bonds of family, each story felt delightfully off-centre. With such a limited word count I was often surprised by how easily I could visualise the world I was visiting and a lot of the descriptions, even of things that were uncomfortable, felt beautiful.
Thank you so much to Undertow Publications for the opportunity to read this book. I’m rounding up from 4.5 stars.
Blog - https://schizanthusnerd.com
One of the things I love about short stories is that there’s usually something there for everyone. I’ve enjoyed finding out what stories resonated with other reviewers. My favourites are marked with 🖤.
Your Clothes a Sepulcher, Your Body a Grave
First love can be complicated …
I thought if I only loved you enough, I could make the story come untrue.
The Women Who Sing For Sklep
A composer seeks a new sound.
“You do not want to become one of us.”
The Warriors, the Mothers, the Drowned 🖤
A mother’s fierce love for her child and the lengths she will go to to protect her.
“Many others did this before you, better than you,” says the coyote. “And they never made it out alive.”
Too Lonely, Too Wild
She may not have inherited Grammy’s witching power, but she did inherit the family Bible.
No one goes halfway bewitched.
Roiling and Without Form
Molly has only ever known life at the Flamingo but can’t help wondering what’s beyond the marsh.
She sees everyone like this: dangerous or edible. Maybe even Molly. Maybe especially Molly.
Life Cycles
A son sets out to pay his father’s debt.
“Go anywhere you like. But not my nursery.”
The Fifth Gable
Marigold yearns for a child and hopes the women of the four-gabled house can help her.
“Whatever else you do, dear, remember to blame yourself.”
White Throat Holler 🖤
The Blanchard sisters and Esther Grace, a preacher’s daughter, hunt demons.
“You know your town isn’t like other towns,” he said.
“Why not?”
“It just isn’t.”
Russula’s Wake 🖤
Jane’s children are Paley’s, and they need nourishment.
With no other Paleys around, sometimes Jane could make herself forget that the Paley rules were rules for a reason, that they were supposed to protect the people who followed them.
The Lights We Carried Home 🖤
A film crew, a haunted child and a sister who needs to know the truth.
Before I went to school, I thought everyone lived in a kerosene haze and listened at night to the screams of the dead.
Thin Places
Miss Augusta has a new student: Lilianne, the new lighthouse-keeper’s daughter.
Thickening, thickening, filling the crack,
The sun comes out, the water goes back.
White stars in the night, red rain in the day
There’s grass on the shore, there’s fish in the bay.
At times I felt like I was plonked right in the middle of a story and had to scurry to catch up. Other times, the story finished and I wished for an entire novel so I could continue to explore. Sometimes I’d sit there at the end of a story, trying to figure out how I could explain what I’d just experienced to someone else. A couple of times I was certain I’d missed something crucial because I was hazy on the why or the how.
Whether they told of obsessive love, strange appetites or the bonds of family, each story felt delightfully off-centre. With such a limited word count I was often surprised by how easily I could visualise the world I was visiting and a lot of the descriptions, even of things that were uncomfortable, felt beautiful.
Thank you so much to Undertow Publications for the opportunity to read this book. I’m rounding up from 4.5 stars.
Blog - https://schizanthusnerd.com
December 21, 2020
Been meaning to turn my reading notes into a real review of this for eight months now but in the meantime: this was my favorite read of 2020, wonderfully lush and densely weird stories about isolation and social mores and gender and the condescension of modernity running headlong into obstinate traditions. Kind of a timeless back-country Americana melancholy vibe to much of it. Beautiful work.
March 3, 2020
Truly haunting, these 11 stories herald from the gothic tradition, but Chronister brings them into a modern landscape that will appeal to lovers of horror fiction and general fiction alike.
Chronister’s focus throughout these stories is women who struggle to be heard, who strive to gain power and agency, who are haunted by ghosts real and imagined. They swim in legend and the supernatural but feel tangible, which makes them all the more chilling.
It is difficult to pick favorites because all of the stories in this collection are strong—a noteworthy aspect in its own right! Two stories resonated the most with me. “The Women Who Sing For Sklep” is a strange fable following a male composer who tries to capture the music of a small village of people. I loved the weird fairytale quality of this story and how it encapsulates the appropriation of native and women’s stories. “The Fifth Gable” also has a fairytale-like structure, exploring the depth around the loss of a child for the mothers.
The writing can be a bit opaque and poetic, but for me, it only deepened the otherworldly, ghostly quality of the stories. The content and form are perfectly matched. Chronister has short stories in countless anthologies and magazines, so clearly she is a master of the art that is the short story form. I can’t wait to read more from her!
My thanks to Undertow Publications for sending me a copy of this one to read and review for Ladies of Horror Fiction.
Chronister’s focus throughout these stories is women who struggle to be heard, who strive to gain power and agency, who are haunted by ghosts real and imagined. They swim in legend and the supernatural but feel tangible, which makes them all the more chilling.
It is difficult to pick favorites because all of the stories in this collection are strong—a noteworthy aspect in its own right! Two stories resonated the most with me. “The Women Who Sing For Sklep” is a strange fable following a male composer who tries to capture the music of a small village of people. I loved the weird fairytale quality of this story and how it encapsulates the appropriation of native and women’s stories. “The Fifth Gable” also has a fairytale-like structure, exploring the depth around the loss of a child for the mothers.
The writing can be a bit opaque and poetic, but for me, it only deepened the otherworldly, ghostly quality of the stories. The content and form are perfectly matched. Chronister has short stories in countless anthologies and magazines, so clearly she is a master of the art that is the short story form. I can’t wait to read more from her!
My thanks to Undertow Publications for sending me a copy of this one to read and review for Ladies of Horror Fiction.
May 16, 2023
"Things happen in thin places that can't happen anywhere else, but they are never safe from getting lost between clay and mist. They are always in-between."
This is a really impressive debut collection. In my opinion, most of the stories read more dark fantasy or fairytale than horror, although the titular story, probably my favorite, is a great example of folk horror. The writing is beautiful and dream-like. I would definitely read more by Kay Chronister.
This is a really impressive debut collection. In my opinion, most of the stories read more dark fantasy or fairytale than horror, although the titular story, probably my favorite, is a great example of folk horror. The writing is beautiful and dream-like. I would definitely read more by Kay Chronister.
January 1, 2021
I had to check this out after Zach's endorsement:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I enjoyed the open-ended narratives and language of the first few stories. The strategies remind me somewhat of my favorite pieces by Livia Llewellyn, Emily Cataneo, or Gwendolyn Kiste (the short stories, not the novels), and seem solid but not outstanding. Then comes "Roiling and Without Form", wow. From the arrival of the charismatic couple at the dead-end hotel:
... to the mother in the locked room, to the grand escape and transformation at the end, the story seems to effortlessly breathe magic, but with minimal supernatural artifacts. Easily one of my most favorite stories of 2020.
Chronister's prose also works beautifully in the enigmatic family intrigues of "Life Cycles". It wastes no time setting up the dream, opening:
I'm not so convinced by the more fairy-tale stylings of "The Fifth Gable" or "White Throat Holler". Both are fun, but don't hit the highs of "Roiling" or "Life Cycles" for me. I was also disappointed in the remaining two stories. I loved the premise and ideas in the title story, but the prose just seems unbearably longwinded and flat, very different from the earlier pieces.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I enjoyed the open-ended narratives and language of the first few stories. The strategies remind me somewhat of my favorite pieces by Livia Llewellyn, Emily Cataneo, or Gwendolyn Kiste (the short stories, not the novels), and seem solid but not outstanding. Then comes "Roiling and Without Form", wow. From the arrival of the charismatic couple at the dead-end hotel:
The couple washes up in the Flamingo's dimly-lit lobby way past sundown, heedless of the No Vacancy sign illuminated by a row of sputtering candles.
... to the mother in the locked room, to the grand escape and transformation at the end, the story seems to effortlessly breathe magic, but with minimal supernatural artifacts. Easily one of my most favorite stories of 2020.
Chronister's prose also works beautifully in the enigmatic family intrigues of "Life Cycles". It wastes no time setting up the dream, opening:
The day my father gave me to the Glaire woman, I dressed in his clothes, a threadbare jacket and spit-shined Oxfords, my hair slick with his pomade, his cologne burning the back of my throat. My father was not a handsome man anymore, but he used to be.Needless to say, it only gets darker and more convoluted.
I'm not so convinced by the more fairy-tale stylings of "The Fifth Gable" or "White Throat Holler". Both are fun, but don't hit the highs of "Roiling" or "Life Cycles" for me. I was also disappointed in the remaining two stories. I loved the premise and ideas in the title story, but the prose just seems unbearably longwinded and flat, very different from the earlier pieces.
May 19, 2020
It's a wonderful thing to encounter a writer's first book that holds up against all the best writing being done out there by more seasoned writers. In her debut collection, Thin Places, Kay Chronister is in full control of her strange characters, their weird worlds, and the full spectrum of fears and desires that swirl around them. This is some of the most beautiful and sensitive writing I've enjoyed in some time. I enjoyed every story in Thin Places and recommend it without reservation.
August 22, 2020
This read was a pleasant surprise and quite different from my usual fare. Was given this book by my fiancé and had high hopes that the book managed to exceed. It definitely has a gothic feel to it but with a quirky and out of the box-line that runs through the different stories of this collection. Will keep my eye out for future Chronister writing as this was such a treat and breath of fresh air.
August 21, 2020
These stories will haunt me for years!
March 12, 2024
I always end up having mixed feelings when I read short stories. Some are more interesting than others and some are more confusing than others as well.
The writing is beautiful, it is clearly not at fault here. I think I just need longer stories with even more details for me to fully grasp what is going on.
I definitetly enjoyed the first and last story the most.
The writing is beautiful, it is clearly not at fault here. I think I just need longer stories with even more details for me to fully grasp what is going on.
I definitetly enjoyed the first and last story the most.
Read
September 14, 2023Incredible debut that feels like it’s subtly forging its own haunted space. “Roiling and Without Form” in particular strikes me as the first time I’ve encountered fiction that feels inspired by Joy Williams’ proximity to weird/horror/whatever. Very potent and impressionistic collection.
September 10, 2022
v consistent and well-rounded collection; only three of these stories at most weren’t to my taste (white throat holler in particular feels out of step and not quite there). chronister shows off impressive fluency in multiple styles of horror and never betrays or underexplores her premises ... occasionally a little pat or neat but oh well.
also my fav story in the bunch is currently “the women who sing for sklep” :)
also my fav story in the bunch is currently “the women who sing for sklep” :)
October 17, 2025
Loved this collection. I read The Bog Wife earlier this year and loved the author’s writing. Gothic in tone, poetic prose, deftly written characters, all came together to give a pitch perfect read for me so when I saw this at the book store, it was a no-brainer that it was coming home with me. I was surprised to discover this was her debut novel as it’s very well crafted with all the elements I appreciated in The Bog Wife. I had some favourites of the stories but none I didn’t enjoy. They were all a little weird, a little out there but all with that gorgeous prose that was beguiling and satisfying to me as a reader.
Standout stories:
Your Clothes a Sepulcher, Your Body a Grave
The Women Who Sing For Sklep
Too Lonely, Too Wild
Roiling and Without Form
The Fifth Gable
White Throat Holler
The Yoke of the Aspens
Thin Places
Standout stories:
Your Clothes a Sepulcher, Your Body a Grave
The Women Who Sing For Sklep
Too Lonely, Too Wild
Roiling and Without Form
The Fifth Gable
White Throat Holler
The Yoke of the Aspens
Thin Places
October 5, 2025
*ARC through NetGalley*
This collection was a fun pick for some lighter spooky-season reading. I liked that each story had a bit of mystery or something a little unsettling without going full-on horror. A few of them really stood out, maybe four that were amazing and grabbed me right away. About six others were fine, enjoyable enough, and the rest just didn’t hold my attention.
I also felt like some of the better ones could have been longer. A lot of times, the endings left me with questions or like the idea hadn’t fully played out, which was frustrating because the setups were so interesting. It sometimes felt like getting a taste of something great without the full story.
I’m not sure this is a book worth purchasing, but if you can get it from a library, then I think it would be worth getting.
Even with that, I liked the variety and the overall vibe. It gave me exactly what I wanted for a seasonal read, something cozy but with a little bit of eeriness. If you want something quick and atmospheric to dip into during October, it’s worth checking out, just know it’s a little uneven. I’d give it 3 stars overall.
This collection was a fun pick for some lighter spooky-season reading. I liked that each story had a bit of mystery or something a little unsettling without going full-on horror. A few of them really stood out, maybe four that were amazing and grabbed me right away. About six others were fine, enjoyable enough, and the rest just didn’t hold my attention.
I also felt like some of the better ones could have been longer. A lot of times, the endings left me with questions or like the idea hadn’t fully played out, which was frustrating because the setups were so interesting. It sometimes felt like getting a taste of something great without the full story.
I’m not sure this is a book worth purchasing, but if you can get it from a library, then I think it would be worth getting.
Even with that, I liked the variety and the overall vibe. It gave me exactly what I wanted for a seasonal read, something cozy but with a little bit of eeriness. If you want something quick and atmospheric to dip into during October, it’s worth checking out, just know it’s a little uneven. I’d give it 3 stars overall.
October 8, 2022
undeniably beautifully written! it’s not really an issue of style over substance because every one of these stories is very well thought-out and fairly dense with meaning but i do suspect the style made more of an impact on me than the substance & as such this probably won’t prove much of a memorable or long-lasting read, for me personally - the title story is a real standout though
October 7, 2025
I was lucky enough to receive an early copy of the audiobook edition of Thin Places ahead of its rerelease—just in time for Spooky Season 🍁 And let me say: it did not disappoint.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable (and chilling) short story anthology. Kay Chronister has a gift for spinning eerie, unsettling tales, but what sets her apart is how unique and imaginative her storytelling is. Each story feels like stepping into a different world—quietly haunted, richly atmospheric, and often disturbingly beautiful.
Her writing style is lyrical without being overdone, and every story left me wanting more—in the best way. There’s something quietly powerful about the way she explores dread, the unknown, and the thin veil between reality and the surreal.
Perfect for fans of literary horror, folk-inflected unease, and anyone who loves a smart, spooky story as the nights get longer.
Highly recommend, especially in audiobook form—it really enhances the immersive, haunting vibe.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable (and chilling) short story anthology. Kay Chronister has a gift for spinning eerie, unsettling tales, but what sets her apart is how unique and imaginative her storytelling is. Each story feels like stepping into a different world—quietly haunted, richly atmospheric, and often disturbingly beautiful.
Her writing style is lyrical without being overdone, and every story left me wanting more—in the best way. There’s something quietly powerful about the way she explores dread, the unknown, and the thin veil between reality and the surreal.
Perfect for fans of literary horror, folk-inflected unease, and anyone who loves a smart, spooky story as the nights get longer.
Highly recommend, especially in audiobook form—it really enhances the immersive, haunting vibe.
November 14, 2025
"You are not getting loose from me, you are only transforming; in the rooftop garden of a cramped city apartment, my daughter will skin her knee and hyacinths will bloom."
this line haunts me and will not leave my mind. i love all the short stories but the first one is sooo visceral in a way that i feel like it has immersed itself beneath my skin
this line haunts me and will not leave my mind. i love all the short stories but the first one is sooo visceral in a way that i feel like it has immersed itself beneath my skin
October 1, 2025
Great collection of horror shorts especially if you enjoy stories with Gothic vibes and settings. Each story is read by different narrators so I enjoyed the variety. This was a great way to start off my spooky season!
December 21, 2025
It wasn’t giving “staring longingly at the moors” as I was expecting.
March 6, 2021
What a strange, creepy little book. Every story in here is fabulous. And they are all that subtle, dreamlike horror that is super unsettling. Very excited to see more from Chronister.
December 4, 2025
I couldn't get into the audio book at all! I did 18% and then grabbed a copy of the book from the library..
I finally felt I connected and restarted the audio and I just didn't love the story in this format.
It happens sometimes...
It sucks!
It was a much better read in my opinion. Solid writing, great characters.
4 stars for the books
2.5 for the book in audio
I finally felt I connected and restarted the audio and I just didn't love the story in this format.
It happens sometimes...
It sucks!
It was a much better read in my opinion. Solid writing, great characters.
4 stars for the books
2.5 for the book in audio
April 23, 2020
“You were not a woman, you were a blade held to the hollow of my throat. My pulse thundered for you.”—From “Your Clothes a Sepulcher, Your Body a Grave“*
“Your Clothes a Sepulcher, Your Body a Grave“ is the love story of a young man and his unusual childhood friend and her hypnotic hold on his heart.
“Too Lonely, Too Wild” tells of a woman who wanted to be a witch like her grandmother, but instead was cursed to be a wife.
“The Women Who Sing For Sklep:” A composer seeks inspiration and community in a village where a fertility ritual is conducted during green week.
“The Mothers, The Warriors, The Drowned”is a fable about a mother who makes a wager with a coyote trickster in the hopes of cheating death.
“Roiling and Without Form:” A motel worker contemplates escaping not into her beloved romance novels, but into a new life, free of the monstrous inhabitants.
In “Life Cycles” a boy who is sent to pay his father’s debt discovers a dark legacy.
“The Fifth Gable” is a lovely dark fairytale about loss and the pain of bearing children.
“White Throat Holler” includes a nasty bargain, demon hunting teens, and so much sacrifice.
“Russula’s Wake:” Keeping the Paley children nourished is bloody hard.
“The Lights We Carried Home” features a haunted child, a cursed village, and a sister seeking the truth.
“Thin Places” A school teacher takes a keen interest in the lighthouse-keeper’s daughter.
This collection includes eleven stories. Eight were published in prestigious literary journals such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Black Static, The Dark, Shadows and Tall Trees, Shimmer, and Strange Horizons and three are new stories. Each tale is uniquely dark and lovely and literary. I expect the stories to linger, continuing to haunt me long after I read the last word.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thanks to Undertow Publications for providing an Advance Reader Copy.
*Please note that my review is based on uncorrected text.
“Your Clothes a Sepulcher, Your Body a Grave“ is the love story of a young man and his unusual childhood friend and her hypnotic hold on his heart.
“Too Lonely, Too Wild” tells of a woman who wanted to be a witch like her grandmother, but instead was cursed to be a wife.
“The Women Who Sing For Sklep:” A composer seeks inspiration and community in a village where a fertility ritual is conducted during green week.
“The Mothers, The Warriors, The Drowned”is a fable about a mother who makes a wager with a coyote trickster in the hopes of cheating death.
“Roiling and Without Form:” A motel worker contemplates escaping not into her beloved romance novels, but into a new life, free of the monstrous inhabitants.
In “Life Cycles” a boy who is sent to pay his father’s debt discovers a dark legacy.
“The Fifth Gable” is a lovely dark fairytale about loss and the pain of bearing children.
“White Throat Holler” includes a nasty bargain, demon hunting teens, and so much sacrifice.
“Russula’s Wake:” Keeping the Paley children nourished is bloody hard.
“The Lights We Carried Home” features a haunted child, a cursed village, and a sister seeking the truth.
“Thin Places” A school teacher takes a keen interest in the lighthouse-keeper’s daughter.
This collection includes eleven stories. Eight were published in prestigious literary journals such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Black Static, The Dark, Shadows and Tall Trees, Shimmer, and Strange Horizons and three are new stories. Each tale is uniquely dark and lovely and literary. I expect the stories to linger, continuing to haunt me long after I read the last word.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Thanks to Undertow Publications for providing an Advance Reader Copy.
*Please note that my review is based on uncorrected text.
August 12, 2020
I hadn’t heard of the author before I picked this up doing so as I’m a devotee of the publisher and recommend all of their books. I read these stories mostly one per day to allow them to gestate and these pieces really feel like they need that. This debut collection is really masterfully crafted and the stories work together and apart. This is very possibly my favourite collection this year and that is high praise coming from someone like me who is a serial short fiction reader. Hoping to see more from Chronister in the future. My two faves in a collection with no weak links are Roiling and Without Form and Thin Places. Kay Chronister really stood out with her own unique voice in this book and without wanting to be reductive with comparisons she could be an heir to Robert Aickman.
My ratings (mainly for personal reference only) are below. As usual these do not reflect the quality of the stories but my response to them:
Your Clothes a Sepulchre, Your Body Without Form (7)
The Women Who Sing for Sklep (8)
The Mothers, The Warriors, The Drowned (8)
Too Lonely, Too Wild (7)
Roiling and Without Form (9)
Life Cycles (7)
The Fifth Gable (9)
White Throat Holler (7)
Russula Wake (7)
The Lights We Carried Home (8)
Thin Places (9)
My ratings (mainly for personal reference only) are below. As usual these do not reflect the quality of the stories but my response to them:
Your Clothes a Sepulchre, Your Body Without Form (7)
The Women Who Sing for Sklep (8)
The Mothers, The Warriors, The Drowned (8)
Too Lonely, Too Wild (7)
Roiling and Without Form (9)
Life Cycles (7)
The Fifth Gable (9)
White Throat Holler (7)
Russula Wake (7)
The Lights We Carried Home (8)
Thin Places (9)
February 1, 2025
Delightfully, utterly brilliant and creepy and unique. I am obsessed. I need my own copy immediately.
April 13, 2020
“Things happen in thin places that can’t happen anywhere else, but they are never safe from getting lost between clay and mist. They are always in-between,” the Widow Clary says in the title story of Kay Chronister's collection of short stories, Thin Places.
The collection does some really intriguing things with the Gothic horror genre. The stories examine what life is like on the edge of the mortal world and the spirit realm. All of the stories are set in places situated on the border between two worlds. There is a village, where the song that the women sing cannot be heard by any outsiders. There is a house where five women live, and they create children who cannot live. Three girls live in a small swamp town on the edge of the Hellmouth, riddled with demons; every night, the girls hunt the demons in the dark.
In the titular story, Thin Places, the Miss Augusta, the schoolteacher in the small town of Branaugh gets a new student. Lilianne Eisner is the young daughter of the new lighthouse keeper. The rumor in town is that there has never been a family to live in the lighthouse. As with any good teacher, Miss Augusta notes that something is wrong with her student. When she tries to discern what's going on, Lilianne says “The thin places...I think I found one. I think I live inside one.”
Upon further investigation, Miss Augusta only finds more questions. The town itself is on the edge of the veil--there seems to be no contact with the world outside. There is a hazy, unmoored feeling to the town, in regard to what lies outside of it. Something bad happens to all of the lighthouse keepers, and Miss Augusta tries to save Lilianne and her family before it occurs again.
The Widow Clary explains to Miss Augusta: "We are always in a thin place. We have always lived in-between.” The darkness that the lighthouse keeps at bay is unclear, but it is also something that all of the townspeople are terrified of.
With subtle nods towards Shirley Jackson and Mary Shelley, Thin Places is full of original, expertly-crafted stories that had me hooked the whole way through. There's nothing that I love more than Gothic horror, and this is one of the finest collections that I've ever read.
The collection does some really intriguing things with the Gothic horror genre. The stories examine what life is like on the edge of the mortal world and the spirit realm. All of the stories are set in places situated on the border between two worlds. There is a village, where the song that the women sing cannot be heard by any outsiders. There is a house where five women live, and they create children who cannot live. Three girls live in a small swamp town on the edge of the Hellmouth, riddled with demons; every night, the girls hunt the demons in the dark.
In the titular story, Thin Places, the Miss Augusta, the schoolteacher in the small town of Branaugh gets a new student. Lilianne Eisner is the young daughter of the new lighthouse keeper. The rumor in town is that there has never been a family to live in the lighthouse. As with any good teacher, Miss Augusta notes that something is wrong with her student. When she tries to discern what's going on, Lilianne says “The thin places...I think I found one. I think I live inside one.”
Upon further investigation, Miss Augusta only finds more questions. The town itself is on the edge of the veil--there seems to be no contact with the world outside. There is a hazy, unmoored feeling to the town, in regard to what lies outside of it. Something bad happens to all of the lighthouse keepers, and Miss Augusta tries to save Lilianne and her family before it occurs again.
The Widow Clary explains to Miss Augusta: "We are always in a thin place. We have always lived in-between.” The darkness that the lighthouse keeps at bay is unclear, but it is also something that all of the townspeople are terrified of.
With subtle nods towards Shirley Jackson and Mary Shelley, Thin Places is full of original, expertly-crafted stories that had me hooked the whole way through. There's nothing that I love more than Gothic horror, and this is one of the finest collections that I've ever read.
October 21, 2023
4.5 ★ Each story left me dying to know more, but each was so well-crafted and satisfying just as it was. Swamp gothic “Roiling and Without Form”, traditional gothic “Your Clothes a Sepulcher, Your Body a Grave”, and the savage and heartbreaking “Russula's Wake” were standouts for me.
October 11, 2022
So mysterious I literally had no idea what was going on. I stopped reading due to sheer confusion. The second short story is brilliant though, it’s practically worth buying this book just to read it.
March 29, 2020
There is a chameleonic quality to Kay Chronister’s short story collection, THIN PLACES: from the highly literate child’s voice of “Your Clothes a Sepulcher, Your Body a Grave,” to the somewhat less sophisticated rebellious teenage girl in “White Throat Holler,” to the doom-besotted young man in “Life cycles.”
Not only does she convincingly mimic different types of characters, Kay Chronister also takes her readers to far-flung places, particularly in the collection’s last three stories, “Russula’s Wake,” “The Lights We Carried Home,” and especially in the eponymous “Thin Places,” in which she takes us to the exceedingly strange world of Branaugh.
The theme of pregnancy is unleashed in wondrously weird variety in “Too Lonely, Too Wild” and “The Fifth Gable.” The latter story, in particular, reveals four alternative, fascinating methodologies of childbirth.
In “Roiling and Without Form,” Chronister proves herself no stranger to the post-apocalyptic tale, while “The Warriors, the Mothers, the Drowned” presents to us a unique view of the afterlife.
And yet, for all its wonderful variety, THIN PLACES displays an author with a voice uniquely her own. There is a consistency of style that allows the reader to flow, without impediment, from tale to tale. There is simply no mistaking that one is reading the work of Kay Chronister, so that readers will likely be waiting impatiently for her next collection.
Not only does she convincingly mimic different types of characters, Kay Chronister also takes her readers to far-flung places, particularly in the collection’s last three stories, “Russula’s Wake,” “The Lights We Carried Home,” and especially in the eponymous “Thin Places,” in which she takes us to the exceedingly strange world of Branaugh.
The theme of pregnancy is unleashed in wondrously weird variety in “Too Lonely, Too Wild” and “The Fifth Gable.” The latter story, in particular, reveals four alternative, fascinating methodologies of childbirth.
In “Roiling and Without Form,” Chronister proves herself no stranger to the post-apocalyptic tale, while “The Warriors, the Mothers, the Drowned” presents to us a unique view of the afterlife.
And yet, for all its wonderful variety, THIN PLACES displays an author with a voice uniquely her own. There is a consistency of style that allows the reader to flow, without impediment, from tale to tale. There is simply no mistaking that one is reading the work of Kay Chronister, so that readers will likely be waiting impatiently for her next collection.
February 27, 2020
Longer review incoming!
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