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December 29, 2025
Average: 4.21/5, bumping up to 4.25/5.
Summed up in one word – delightful.
While I do like to leave detailed reviews for books without many, they are usually not THIS detailed. I was just very excited about this author’s writing; the review got away from me a bit. I initially read her story “Abaddon, 1861” in the anthology Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic and was intrigued, so I looked up her name and found this and another collection of her short stories. Some pieces are very cerebral and should be combed through deeply for appreciation (the opening stories are dense – don’t let that stop you), others are quick and fun reads with hidden bonus layers, and only a couple of stories (“Corpse Road” and “Faege”) really didn’t work for me. My favorite (5/5) was “Gnothi Seauton Audio Tour”.
I hope she makes all the $$ and gets all the fans – there is real talent here. It’s a crime that she’s not well known already.
Note: I’m not certain of the author’s pronouns, I apologize if it’s they/them and not she/her.
I reviewed the following stories right after I read them.
Deep – 4/5
“The silver lining of her thoughts materializes as she pads onto the patio, embodied in the argent halo that has formed around the moon. Smelted rays of light dribble onto the surface of Superior, congealing into glimmering scales.”
Erin wakes up from a nightmare and goes out to have a cigarette near Lake Superior, reflecting on her parents’ drowning one year ago. Definitely a slow and languid read with some beautiful imagery. Take your time to drink it in. If your eyes glaze over detailed descriptions and careful similes, this one isn’t for you. The prose reminded me of waves lapping over one another, like the writing itself was water.
I read this one twice (recommended, it’s rewarding). My only big issue is that the story ends up overexplaining what’s going on, when the contextual clues are enough.
Holy Water – 4.75/5
In contrast to the first story, we’re presented with the same rich lyrical prose, but this one had the opposing issue of underexplaining versus over – it required some Google-foo. I read this one 3 times – once to take it in, a second time to look up unfamiliar terms and mythologies, and a third time to bring it all together. If you’re unfamiliar with the various myths being mentioned, taking the time to briefly research them helps a ton. The story implies that these various water dwelling beings:
Jiaoren - Chinese merfolk, known for their beautiful silk and tears that turn into pearls
Amabie – a Japanese mermaid-like creature with long hair, a beak-like mouth, fish scales from the neck down, and three legs or fin-like tails. In their origin story they made a prophecy: a bountiful harvest for six years, followed by the spread of a disease.
Kelpie - a dangerous, shape-shifting water spirit from Scottish folklore that haunts lochs and rivers, appearing as a beautiful horse to lure victims to a watery grave, where they are drowned and devoured.
Nixie - shape-shifting freshwater spirits from Germanic and Nordic folklore, like mermaids or water nymphs, who haunt lakes and rivers, often appearing as beautiful humans or sometimes as horses, luring people with enchanting music to drown them. They can also be benevolent, offering prophecies or being appeased with gifts like silver.
Undine – an elemental spirit associated with water in European folklore.
while not one and the same, can be reborn to live as any because they share the memory of water. I believe the main character’s present form is a nixie. I enjoyed learning something new, I only knew of undines and kelpies prior.
It’s really a beautiful and adroit idea, and a well woven story, it just takes a bit of diving (haha) to really appreciate. If I had read this only once, it probably would have been a 3.5/5 for me.
Sparrow – 4.75/5
“He cannot see me. He cannot feel me. But a shiver races up his spine, and he knows that I am there.”
This one is a nice break from the density of the lovely prose. There are more short sentences, a faster flow, and it’s a much quicker read. The inspiration for this one is the nursery rhyme “Who Killed Cock Robin”, but the story stands on its own with or without the reference.
The “I” in this story is the disembodied spirit of a child. The story veers into a subject I avoid in horror because it bothers me deeply (there is no sexual assault in this story, it’s something else that doesn’t bother most people), so that part was really hard for me to read – but it was still masterfully written. Knowing where it goes, I’ll unlikely read it again, but it’s definitely the best story from the perspective of a ghost that I’ve read in a long time.
A Bunch of Flowers for your Life – 3.75/5
“Would you like to boil me for tea?”
A second person story from the perspective of a dandelion, spared from death and chosen by a demigod to watch over his children (humans), not knowing why s/he was chosen (I don’t think we’re given a gender for this character, but I was thinking of them as male while reading for some reason). According to the note at the end, the story was partly influenced by Not Deer - a modern cryptid/creepy pasta about a deer that is not a deer - but that was honestly the least interesting aspect of the story.
Again, we have just the most amazing descriptions: flower fields as galaxies, the language of flowers wonderfully dispersed throughout. We have a grand scope and the philosophical musing of beings old enough to be exhausted. But I feel like this is the weakest one so far – really because of the witch and the Not Deer aspect which seemed to come out of nowhere. I could have accepted the Not Deer as an almost seamless part of the story and rolled with it (despite it not seeming to fit), but the witch part made me double back. Like when did this particular character become one? What’s the point of mentioning this? I tried to comb through to figure out how it connected but couldn’t. Given how intentionally the author writes, maybe I missed something.
Gnothi Seauton Audio Tour – 5/5
Just wow. There’s too much going on here to get into, but we’re basically taken on a tour of an art exhibit in the future. I’m typically at a loss for words about stories or books I rate 5/5, and this is no exception. The amount of research it must have taken to write this story, plus the introspection required to put the parts together cohesively, is INSANE. And lovely. Brava.
I reread this one while listening to the inspiration, Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss. Wonderful.
FPS – 4.25/5
“Humanity has really made a mockery of its roots, you know? But I won’t go on about that. I’m a programmer, not a poet.”
The story follows twins Act and Lys, moderators on a gaming forum, whose members have started to go missing. This one is clever. It’s a fun and quick read that definitely stands alone, but if you look up the author’s inspiration (the myth of Actaeon and the myth of Lyssa in Greek mythology) it’s a very “Ah, I see what you did there… neat.” moment.
The Magpie – 4.25/5
“Ostensibly, the woman ought to stiffen in horror at a question so blasphemous. But really, what would be the point? She is too weary for alarm, and stiffening will happen later. It will happen naturally, whether she likes it or not.”
A pause to say – I love the new things I’m learning from the inspirations in this collection. This story was fascinating as it unfolded. I didn’t have a clear idea of where it was going, but I was 100% there for the (rather bleak) journey – most of the time. It was inspired by “One for Sorrow”, an English nursery rhyme that links the number of magpies you see with different kinds of luck or life events. A pleasure to read, though I felt it was a tad over-long near the end, and did not come together as seamlessly as other pieces for me.
Siren Song – 3.5/5
This was an interesting romantic and mythic amalgamation between Persephone (Kore) and Ligeia (from a story of the same title by Edgar Allen Poe) – but with Ligeia as a siren, retaining no direct elements of Poe’s story. I am familiar with all aspects of the characters listed as inspiration (heck, I was Ligeia for Halloween when I was 15 – really, I have pictures), and I’m not certain if this blending quite worked. It was a bit kitschy, and definitely a step down as far as philosophical richness or astute whimsy compared to other stories in the collection. Not a bad entry by any measure, it just pales in comparison to the others. I think it would have been more compelling as a romance between the two figures without the siren aspect, ambitious as that idea is.
Corpse Road – 2.75/5
“Ze grins: a wide, lopsided thing, full of froth-white teeth. Kaleidoscopic patterns ebb, sway, and swirl around zer face, inviting Cyparissus to reflect on morality.”
Declared perfectly healthy and experiencing no distress, Cyparissus nonetheless decides to leave Hyperborea to traverse a liminal road, seeking meaning outside a utopian society that has eliminated risk, illness, and the unknown. They can leave freely but will not be allowed to return.
1st reading: Ah, this is the first one that really didn’t work for me, and I’m having trouble pinpointing why.
2nd reading: It was philosophically sound but inert, it lacked propulsion. Also - I get the Hyperborea inspiration here, but not Cyparissus unless I squint really hard and force it to fit. The story is coherent without the reference, but if the reference is there it should be for a clear(er) reason.
Gender either does not exist in this world or exists in a different way than it does in ours, but this is something that just is and is not explained. I found all the different pronouns a bit disconcerting (extra work to read) and do not feel this detail added anything noteworthy to the story. I like this kind of thing if there is a reason for it, but it could have been the more typical she/he/they and it would have been the same story. It needed more.
Unfair Grounds – 4.5/5
“They stuff-stuff-stuff him full of sage, the plucked leaves rubbery and swollen like tongues.”
Best description of sage I’ve ever encountered, lol.
The inspiration for this story is the song “Scarborough Fair”. The author takes the absurdity of the song and kicks it up several notches, making Scarborough into an authoritarian dystopia with cosmic horror, doomed romance, and herbs with supernatural properties. It’s pretty great. Some of the descriptions here are very visceral and really relay the horror well. The last line is a little on-the-nose, and the story could use some fleshing out at parts, but I really enjoyed this one.
Umibozu – 4/5
The inspiration for this story is the umibozu. The umibozu is an aquatic spirit in Japanese folklore. It appears as a giant, shadowy, monk-like figure with a large, bald head. It emerges from the sea on calm nights to sink ships by causing storms or demanding a bottomless bucket to drown sailors, with the only escape being to offer a specific type of ladle or answer its questions correctly. This story gives the creature more dimension and questions its origin and purpose. I liked this one, it was good. A complete thought, but missing something that would take it over the line to great.
Faege – N/A
The inspiration for this is “The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry” – a folk song. In the song (not the story) a woman has her child taken away by its father, the great selkie of Sule Skerry, who can transform from a seal into a human. The woman is fated to marry a gunner who will harpoon the selkie and their son.
The story does not follow this structure and is, instead, a queer romance/romantasy. I recognize this as being well written, but I am not a fan of stories that are primarily focused on romance – I was bored. I’m going to recuse myself and not rate this one to be fair.
Catacombs – 5/5
“After the knife, her body was tied to my back with red cord. The rope’s girth tangling over my belly in a mess of respooled intestines.”
The inspiration for this beautiful story is The Epic of Gilgamesh, which I did guess while reading. I have many thoughts that need to simmer, but instead of getting into them – buy this book and read it! This was a fantastic and thoughtful end to the collection.
Summed up in one word – delightful.
While I do like to leave detailed reviews for books without many, they are usually not THIS detailed. I was just very excited about this author’s writing; the review got away from me a bit. I initially read her story “Abaddon, 1861” in the anthology Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic and was intrigued, so I looked up her name and found this and another collection of her short stories. Some pieces are very cerebral and should be combed through deeply for appreciation (the opening stories are dense – don’t let that stop you), others are quick and fun reads with hidden bonus layers, and only a couple of stories (“Corpse Road” and “Faege”) really didn’t work for me. My favorite (5/5) was “Gnothi Seauton Audio Tour”.
I hope she makes all the $$ and gets all the fans – there is real talent here. It’s a crime that she’s not well known already.
Note: I’m not certain of the author’s pronouns, I apologize if it’s they/them and not she/her.
I reviewed the following stories right after I read them.
Deep – 4/5
“The silver lining of her thoughts materializes as she pads onto the patio, embodied in the argent halo that has formed around the moon. Smelted rays of light dribble onto the surface of Superior, congealing into glimmering scales.”
Erin wakes up from a nightmare and goes out to have a cigarette near Lake Superior, reflecting on her parents’ drowning one year ago. Definitely a slow and languid read with some beautiful imagery. Take your time to drink it in. If your eyes glaze over detailed descriptions and careful similes, this one isn’t for you. The prose reminded me of waves lapping over one another, like the writing itself was water.
I read this one twice (recommended, it’s rewarding). My only big issue is that the story ends up overexplaining what’s going on, when the contextual clues are enough.
Holy Water – 4.75/5
In contrast to the first story, we’re presented with the same rich lyrical prose, but this one had the opposing issue of underexplaining versus over – it required some Google-foo. I read this one 3 times – once to take it in, a second time to look up unfamiliar terms and mythologies, and a third time to bring it all together. If you’re unfamiliar with the various myths being mentioned, taking the time to briefly research them helps a ton. The story implies that these various water dwelling beings:
Jiaoren - Chinese merfolk, known for their beautiful silk and tears that turn into pearls
Amabie – a Japanese mermaid-like creature with long hair, a beak-like mouth, fish scales from the neck down, and three legs or fin-like tails. In their origin story they made a prophecy: a bountiful harvest for six years, followed by the spread of a disease.
Kelpie - a dangerous, shape-shifting water spirit from Scottish folklore that haunts lochs and rivers, appearing as a beautiful horse to lure victims to a watery grave, where they are drowned and devoured.
Nixie - shape-shifting freshwater spirits from Germanic and Nordic folklore, like mermaids or water nymphs, who haunt lakes and rivers, often appearing as beautiful humans or sometimes as horses, luring people with enchanting music to drown them. They can also be benevolent, offering prophecies or being appeased with gifts like silver.
Undine – an elemental spirit associated with water in European folklore.
while not one and the same, can be reborn to live as any because they share the memory of water. I believe the main character’s present form is a nixie. I enjoyed learning something new, I only knew of undines and kelpies prior.
It’s really a beautiful and adroit idea, and a well woven story, it just takes a bit of diving (haha) to really appreciate. If I had read this only once, it probably would have been a 3.5/5 for me.
Sparrow – 4.75/5
“He cannot see me. He cannot feel me. But a shiver races up his spine, and he knows that I am there.”
This one is a nice break from the density of the lovely prose. There are more short sentences, a faster flow, and it’s a much quicker read. The inspiration for this one is the nursery rhyme “Who Killed Cock Robin”, but the story stands on its own with or without the reference.
The “I” in this story is the disembodied spirit of a child. The story veers into a subject I avoid in horror because it bothers me deeply (there is no sexual assault in this story, it’s something else that doesn’t bother most people), so that part was really hard for me to read – but it was still masterfully written. Knowing where it goes, I’ll unlikely read it again, but it’s definitely the best story from the perspective of a ghost that I’ve read in a long time.
A Bunch of Flowers for your Life – 3.75/5
“Would you like to boil me for tea?”
A second person story from the perspective of a dandelion, spared from death and chosen by a demigod to watch over his children (humans), not knowing why s/he was chosen (I don’t think we’re given a gender for this character, but I was thinking of them as male while reading for some reason). According to the note at the end, the story was partly influenced by Not Deer - a modern cryptid/creepy pasta about a deer that is not a deer - but that was honestly the least interesting aspect of the story.
Again, we have just the most amazing descriptions: flower fields as galaxies, the language of flowers wonderfully dispersed throughout. We have a grand scope and the philosophical musing of beings old enough to be exhausted. But I feel like this is the weakest one so far – really because of the witch and the Not Deer aspect which seemed to come out of nowhere. I could have accepted the Not Deer as an almost seamless part of the story and rolled with it (despite it not seeming to fit), but the witch part made me double back. Like when did this particular character become one? What’s the point of mentioning this? I tried to comb through to figure out how it connected but couldn’t. Given how intentionally the author writes, maybe I missed something.
Gnothi Seauton Audio Tour – 5/5
Just wow. There’s too much going on here to get into, but we’re basically taken on a tour of an art exhibit in the future. I’m typically at a loss for words about stories or books I rate 5/5, and this is no exception. The amount of research it must have taken to write this story, plus the introspection required to put the parts together cohesively, is INSANE. And lovely. Brava.
I reread this one while listening to the inspiration, Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss. Wonderful.
FPS – 4.25/5
“Humanity has really made a mockery of its roots, you know? But I won’t go on about that. I’m a programmer, not a poet.”
The story follows twins Act and Lys, moderators on a gaming forum, whose members have started to go missing. This one is clever. It’s a fun and quick read that definitely stands alone, but if you look up the author’s inspiration (the myth of Actaeon and the myth of Lyssa in Greek mythology) it’s a very “Ah, I see what you did there… neat.” moment.
The Magpie – 4.25/5
“Ostensibly, the woman ought to stiffen in horror at a question so blasphemous. But really, what would be the point? She is too weary for alarm, and stiffening will happen later. It will happen naturally, whether she likes it or not.”
A pause to say – I love the new things I’m learning from the inspirations in this collection. This story was fascinating as it unfolded. I didn’t have a clear idea of where it was going, but I was 100% there for the (rather bleak) journey – most of the time. It was inspired by “One for Sorrow”, an English nursery rhyme that links the number of magpies you see with different kinds of luck or life events. A pleasure to read, though I felt it was a tad over-long near the end, and did not come together as seamlessly as other pieces for me.
Siren Song – 3.5/5
This was an interesting romantic and mythic amalgamation between Persephone (Kore) and Ligeia (from a story of the same title by Edgar Allen Poe) – but with Ligeia as a siren, retaining no direct elements of Poe’s story. I am familiar with all aspects of the characters listed as inspiration (heck, I was Ligeia for Halloween when I was 15 – really, I have pictures), and I’m not certain if this blending quite worked. It was a bit kitschy, and definitely a step down as far as philosophical richness or astute whimsy compared to other stories in the collection. Not a bad entry by any measure, it just pales in comparison to the others. I think it would have been more compelling as a romance between the two figures without the siren aspect, ambitious as that idea is.
Corpse Road – 2.75/5
“Ze grins: a wide, lopsided thing, full of froth-white teeth. Kaleidoscopic patterns ebb, sway, and swirl around zer face, inviting Cyparissus to reflect on morality.”
Declared perfectly healthy and experiencing no distress, Cyparissus nonetheless decides to leave Hyperborea to traverse a liminal road, seeking meaning outside a utopian society that has eliminated risk, illness, and the unknown. They can leave freely but will not be allowed to return.
1st reading: Ah, this is the first one that really didn’t work for me, and I’m having trouble pinpointing why.
2nd reading: It was philosophically sound but inert, it lacked propulsion. Also - I get the Hyperborea inspiration here, but not Cyparissus unless I squint really hard and force it to fit. The story is coherent without the reference, but if the reference is there it should be for a clear(er) reason.
Gender either does not exist in this world or exists in a different way than it does in ours, but this is something that just is and is not explained. I found all the different pronouns a bit disconcerting (extra work to read) and do not feel this detail added anything noteworthy to the story. I like this kind of thing if there is a reason for it, but it could have been the more typical she/he/they and it would have been the same story. It needed more.
Unfair Grounds – 4.5/5
“They stuff-stuff-stuff him full of sage, the plucked leaves rubbery and swollen like tongues.”
Best description of sage I’ve ever encountered, lol.
The inspiration for this story is the song “Scarborough Fair”. The author takes the absurdity of the song and kicks it up several notches, making Scarborough into an authoritarian dystopia with cosmic horror, doomed romance, and herbs with supernatural properties. It’s pretty great. Some of the descriptions here are very visceral and really relay the horror well. The last line is a little on-the-nose, and the story could use some fleshing out at parts, but I really enjoyed this one.
Umibozu – 4/5
The inspiration for this story is the umibozu. The umibozu is an aquatic spirit in Japanese folklore. It appears as a giant, shadowy, monk-like figure with a large, bald head. It emerges from the sea on calm nights to sink ships by causing storms or demanding a bottomless bucket to drown sailors, with the only escape being to offer a specific type of ladle or answer its questions correctly. This story gives the creature more dimension and questions its origin and purpose. I liked this one, it was good. A complete thought, but missing something that would take it over the line to great.
Faege – N/A
The inspiration for this is “The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry” – a folk song. In the song (not the story) a woman has her child taken away by its father, the great selkie of Sule Skerry, who can transform from a seal into a human. The woman is fated to marry a gunner who will harpoon the selkie and their son.
The story does not follow this structure and is, instead, a queer romance/romantasy. I recognize this as being well written, but I am not a fan of stories that are primarily focused on romance – I was bored. I’m going to recuse myself and not rate this one to be fair.
Catacombs – 5/5
“After the knife, her body was tied to my back with red cord. The rope’s girth tangling over my belly in a mess of respooled intestines.”
The inspiration for this beautiful story is The Epic of Gilgamesh, which I did guess while reading. I have many thoughts that need to simmer, but instead of getting into them – buy this book and read it! This was a fantastic and thoughtful end to the collection.
October 13, 2025
These stories were gorgeous and somewhat ethereal. Like a dream on a page. At times, reminiscent of Kelly Link's storytelling.
A refreshing and beautiful book.
A refreshing and beautiful book.
October 25, 2025
My first read didn't do this collection justice. I need to come back some day with a highlighter and dedicate myself to each story. The writing is breathtaking and that's where most of my attention went.
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