What do you think?
Rate this book
Split Tongues
Two emotionally-charged pieces of dark fiction. The titular "Split Tongues" spins a hallucinatory tale of a young woman's fractured family and an eruption of bizarre religion into their lives. The shorter piece "The Dream Eater" explores another mother-daughter relationship in a far-off rural environment. Includes cover photo and three interior pieces by Natalia Drepina.
- GenresHorrorWeird Fiction
40 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2016
165 people want to read
About the author
Kristi DeMeester
80 books503 followersKristi DeMeester is the author of Beneath, published by Word Horde, and Everything That's Underneath by Apex Books. Her short fiction has been included in Ellen Datlow's Year's Best Horror Volumes 9 and 11, Year's Best Weird Fiction Volumes 1, 3, and 5, and Stephen Jone's Best New Horror. Her short fiction has also appeared in publications such as Black Static, The Dark, Pseudopod, as well as several others. In her spare time, she alternates between telling people how to pronounce her last name and how to spell her first.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 17, 2016
“Split Tongues” is my first exposure to Kristi DeMeester’s work, also my first exposure to the publisher Dim Shores. The publisher has created a beautiful chapbook, well laid out , nice paper, fantastic art by photographer Natalia Drepina which creates an excellent and beautiful package. The chapbook contains two stories by Ms. DeMeester:
07 - “Split Tongues”
27 – “The Dream Eater”
Both stories are have a common theme on concerned with dreams and our interactions with them. In fact “Split Tongues” first line is “The dreams start up the week my father spoke in tongues for the first time” – which kind of sets the scene for what’s to come. These two very well written stories are both powerful and inventive showing us an author with great potential.
Ms. DeMeester has been titled an author of “The New Weird” and has produced a couple of excellent examples of what she is capable of.
According to her author information - Ms. DeMeester obtained a Master's degree in Professional Writing, she came back to her love of dark fiction and began writing it in earnest. A devoted student of the Weird and all things spooky and lovely, she has published short stories in a variety of publications. An example of her work can also be foud in “Year's Best Weird Fiction Volume 1”.
This is copy 138 of 150 numbered copies.
07 - “Split Tongues”
27 – “The Dream Eater”
Both stories are have a common theme on concerned with dreams and our interactions with them. In fact “Split Tongues” first line is “The dreams start up the week my father spoke in tongues for the first time” – which kind of sets the scene for what’s to come. These two very well written stories are both powerful and inventive showing us an author with great potential.
Ms. DeMeester has been titled an author of “The New Weird” and has produced a couple of excellent examples of what she is capable of.
According to her author information - Ms. DeMeester obtained a Master's degree in Professional Writing, she came back to her love of dark fiction and began writing it in earnest. A devoted student of the Weird and all things spooky and lovely, she has published short stories in a variety of publications. An example of her work can also be foud in “Year's Best Weird Fiction Volume 1”.
This is copy 138 of 150 numbered copies.
February 8, 2016
(Be aware, this is not a novel but a very limited run chapbook of two stories). Both stories are wonderfully atmospheric, oblique, and creepy.
March 31, 2016
Two stories from the ether regions of consciousness, both diaphonous and prickly.
February 22, 2016
Kristi DeMeester—Split Tongues (Dim Shores)
The title tale in this exquisitely presented chapbook of two tales from Dim Shores is a deep foray into the fractured psyche of a teenage girl, Brianne, trying to hold onto something forever broken: her parents’ marriage and the façade of family, even as she seems flippant about the situation. While living with her mother, Brianne sees her father every other weekend; her mother questions her about why she would ever want to see him again, with what he did, the catalyst for the divorce. What did he do? He was caught having sex with a (legal-aged) classmate of the daughter. As a response to trying to hold on to his marriage, the father immerses himself in religion and the church, an undefined denomination that might be something far more nefarious than it seems. A lot of what’s going on here is undefined, vague, and circling around subjects one might rather avoid... DeMeester writes the tale in a direct prose, sharp as a scalpel, yet the perceptions of the teenage girl are ambiguous at best.
An undercurrent of sexual confusion perhaps triggered by her father’s misconduct is also woven into the dark fabric of Brianne’s mind. Another church- and class- mate, Alec, is a surrogate sexual interest (filling in for the physically absent father? Well, that’s one take; see my comment about sexual confusion…), yet his participation in the story is mostly as fodder for fantasy, perhaps a means of escape for Brianne from the splintered family life, yet he only becomes a dark smudge on her thoughts, another extension of her life as it spirals out of control. His participation in the fantasy world also inspires the most elusive elements, along with her father, who mutates into…something else within the context of the spiral she’s swiftly sinking into. Utterly fascinating, beautifully written, and open to many perceptions. Layers unfold, yet in the unraveling, there is no clear picture.
As for the title of this piece, Brianne ends up biting off pieces of her tongue as a response to what she cannot say in the “real” world, if, indeed, that’s even really happening. She’s suffocating in a mire of burgeoning sexuality that manifests in the disturbing finale. Perhaps, finally, she can “speak.”
The second tale, “The Dream Eater,” DeMeester sets stage in a cabin during a slow, creeping apocalypse, and also deals with a mother and daughter. Potent in a hallucinatory vein, it swallows all hope with the bleak finale.
DeMeester is a distinct new voice in the realm of all that is Weird. I eagerly await her forthcoming collection.
Highly recommended!
--John Claude Smith
The title tale in this exquisitely presented chapbook of two tales from Dim Shores is a deep foray into the fractured psyche of a teenage girl, Brianne, trying to hold onto something forever broken: her parents’ marriage and the façade of family, even as she seems flippant about the situation. While living with her mother, Brianne sees her father every other weekend; her mother questions her about why she would ever want to see him again, with what he did, the catalyst for the divorce. What did he do? He was caught having sex with a (legal-aged) classmate of the daughter. As a response to trying to hold on to his marriage, the father immerses himself in religion and the church, an undefined denomination that might be something far more nefarious than it seems. A lot of what’s going on here is undefined, vague, and circling around subjects one might rather avoid... DeMeester writes the tale in a direct prose, sharp as a scalpel, yet the perceptions of the teenage girl are ambiguous at best.
An undercurrent of sexual confusion perhaps triggered by her father’s misconduct is also woven into the dark fabric of Brianne’s mind. Another church- and class- mate, Alec, is a surrogate sexual interest (filling in for the physically absent father? Well, that’s one take; see my comment about sexual confusion…), yet his participation in the story is mostly as fodder for fantasy, perhaps a means of escape for Brianne from the splintered family life, yet he only becomes a dark smudge on her thoughts, another extension of her life as it spirals out of control. His participation in the fantasy world also inspires the most elusive elements, along with her father, who mutates into…something else within the context of the spiral she’s swiftly sinking into. Utterly fascinating, beautifully written, and open to many perceptions. Layers unfold, yet in the unraveling, there is no clear picture.
As for the title of this piece, Brianne ends up biting off pieces of her tongue as a response to what she cannot say in the “real” world, if, indeed, that’s even really happening. She’s suffocating in a mire of burgeoning sexuality that manifests in the disturbing finale. Perhaps, finally, she can “speak.”
The second tale, “The Dream Eater,” DeMeester sets stage in a cabin during a slow, creeping apocalypse, and also deals with a mother and daughter. Potent in a hallucinatory vein, it swallows all hope with the bleak finale.
DeMeester is a distinct new voice in the realm of all that is Weird. I eagerly await her forthcoming collection.
Highly recommended!
--John Claude Smith
February 6, 2016
With beautiful, disquieting finesse, Kristi DeMeester delivers a powerful one-two punch with this (über-limited) micro-collection.
The title story, centering around a teenager struggling with the strange (yet heartbreaking) events unfolding in her broken family, is thick with a distinctly not-quite-palpable dread. And in "The Dream Eater," a girl and her mother are spending their days struggling to survive - all while the narrative terror builds with the same creeping intent as the grass surrounding their house.
Kristi DeMeester's dark prose is at once lucid and vivid, culminating in a disturbing mood so thick that the reader can virtually push it off of themselves like an obsidian blanket.
If you're lucky enough to snag a copy of this too-too-limited book, do so immediately – but I recommend enjoying a good night's sleep before delving into these two beautiful nightmares, for sleep may not come easily thereafter...
The title story, centering around a teenager struggling with the strange (yet heartbreaking) events unfolding in her broken family, is thick with a distinctly not-quite-palpable dread. And in "The Dream Eater," a girl and her mother are spending their days struggling to survive - all while the narrative terror builds with the same creeping intent as the grass surrounding their house.
Kristi DeMeester's dark prose is at once lucid and vivid, culminating in a disturbing mood so thick that the reader can virtually push it off of themselves like an obsidian blanket.
If you're lucky enough to snag a copy of this too-too-limited book, do so immediately – but I recommend enjoying a good night's sleep before delving into these two beautiful nightmares, for sleep may not come easily thereafter...
February 16, 2016
This chapbook is beautifully haunting. DeMeester's stories are exactly what I love best about weird/body horror stories: they are intimate, despairing, and beautiful. I can't wait to get my hands on her forthcoming collection, "Everything That's Underneath"!
February 17, 2016
Two tautly-told tales make up this collection from Dim Shores. Each is strong in its own right, and the author takes great care to include small details that unite the two pieces. I was particularly interested in the juxtaposition of expulsion and consumption that form the backbones of each story. DeMeester is adept at imagining strange and unsettling happenings in her stories, but what makes them work so well is the emotional development of the characters and their relationships. If I had to pick a favorite of the two, it would have to be the opening story, which I think benefits from spending a little more time developing the trajectory of the main character, but they are both strong enough to be included for consideration in any of the myriad year-end horror/weird/fantasy anthologies that will come around for 2016 publications. The artwork, as always from this publisher, is an excellent complement to the stories.
February 16, 2016
Split Tongues is a pair of short stories, not connected but for a thematic similarity, focusing on dysfunctional and bizarre families, or more specifically a young woman protagonist and her mother. Both pieces are creepy, mysterious and painful, with top-notch prose. Kristi DeMeester is one of the most talented and promising writers of the latest generation to emerge on the Weird Fiction scene. Split Tongues is another winner from Dim Shores, so grab a copy before they're gone forever.
April 28, 2016
Two well written, intelligent, and truly weird tales from an up-and-coming talent. I enjoyed both, the first (Split Tongues) being the stronger of the two, but the second (The Dream Eater) had an interestingly unique assortment of speculative elements.
April 12, 2016
Beautiful.
Rarely do I feel compelled to immediately reread a book, or story, as I finish it like I did with these two stories.
Having only read these two stories by her so far I can tell she knows the mechanics of writing: relatively straightforward prose with some nice poetic lines when appropriate; it flows very well and doesn't detract from the story. The atmosphere throughout both stories is among some of the best I've read, throughout was a sense of melancholy, longing, and consistently unsettling. Dark depressing stuff.
The characters of both stories were mostly well fleshed out for how short both stories were, i.e. Alec could have been a little better like Brianne was. The only other possible negative I can think of at the moment was the incident in the parking lot of the first story, I'm not quite sure yet how I think about it.
I sometimes like to read synopsis of a story, or book, I'm going to start. With this chapbook, however, it be best to jump right in without any foreknowledge of what each story is about.
The chapbook itself is nice, as expected, with some art that compliments the stories within. I'll be keeping an eye out for more work by the photographer Natalia Drepina.
A combination of both technical talent and great ideas Demeester is most definitely an author I will be keeping an eye on in the future. I'm still surprised I never heard of her before these two stories, I'm glad I blind bought it. Now to hunt down every other story by her. I doubt I can wait until her eventual release in 2017 of her collection Everything That's Underneath to read more by her.
Rarely do I feel compelled to immediately reread a book, or story, as I finish it like I did with these two stories.
Having only read these two stories by her so far I can tell she knows the mechanics of writing: relatively straightforward prose with some nice poetic lines when appropriate; it flows very well and doesn't detract from the story. The atmosphere throughout both stories is among some of the best I've read, throughout was a sense of melancholy, longing, and consistently unsettling. Dark depressing stuff.
The characters of both stories were mostly well fleshed out for how short both stories were, i.e. Alec could have been a little better like Brianne was. The only other possible negative I can think of at the moment was the incident in the parking lot of the first story, I'm not quite sure yet how I think about it.
I sometimes like to read synopsis of a story, or book, I'm going to start. With this chapbook, however, it be best to jump right in without any foreknowledge of what each story is about.
The chapbook itself is nice, as expected, with some art that compliments the stories within. I'll be keeping an eye out for more work by the photographer Natalia Drepina.
A combination of both technical talent and great ideas Demeester is most definitely an author I will be keeping an eye on in the future. I'm still surprised I never heard of her before these two stories, I'm glad I blind bought it. Now to hunt down every other story by her. I doubt I can wait until her eventual release in 2017 of her collection Everything That's Underneath to read more by her.
March 4, 2016
Split Tongues perfectly captures a youthful moment of despair, confusion, and reckless hope. Portraits of young women seldom admit the degree to which they are trapped by social expectations and familial obligation. This is a rare and disturbing look at the bleak options available to a teenager who can't rely on her self-involved parents (mother seeking middle-aged romance, father burrowed into a delusional religious cult).
Plagued by nightmares and hallucinations inspired by the church her father attends, Brianne reaches out to an attractive classmate caught in similarly desperate circumstances. The need for comfort and understanding is all too real. Both characters desire the kind of solace that comes from ultimately unreliable relationships, built on inexperience, sexual longing, and a deep reserve of loneliness. That the tale achieves a moment of genuine and compelling beauty rather than collapsing under the weight of the unhappiness it presents is due to the author's talent and instinct as a storyteller. I expect we will read many fine stories by Kristi DeMeester in the coming years.
Plagued by nightmares and hallucinations inspired by the church her father attends, Brianne reaches out to an attractive classmate caught in similarly desperate circumstances. The need for comfort and understanding is all too real. Both characters desire the kind of solace that comes from ultimately unreliable relationships, built on inexperience, sexual longing, and a deep reserve of loneliness. That the tale achieves a moment of genuine and compelling beauty rather than collapsing under the weight of the unhappiness it presents is due to the author's talent and instinct as a storyteller. I expect we will read many fine stories by Kristi DeMeester in the coming years.
April 1, 2016
Beautiful limited-edition chapbook from the ever-spooky Kristi DeMeester. The two stories presented here share a heartbeat but veer in different directions from their mother-daughter roots. DeMeester channels a modern Southern Gothic vibe like few others, with well-rounded characters, believable dialogue, and enough creepy and crawly to satisfy *anyone*. I believe the chapbook is sold out now, but keep an eye out for her forthcoming collection, sure to include these two. Impressive stuff!
February 13, 2016
Another fantastic discovery courtesy of the Dim Shores line of Weird chapbooks. Ms. DeMeester's prose easily, assuredly weaves between naturalistic and poetic, giving the reader just enough to ground herself before realizing how alien is the terrain. I'll be looking forward to more from Ms. DeMeester.
June 3, 2016
DeMeester has a sly tongue for weird fiction. Very interesting!
I enjoyed the authors take on mother and daughter relationship.
Dream Eater has to be my favorite, I'm going to think differently about high grass from here on out.
This is copy number 111/150 And I'm glad to have this in my collection.
I enjoyed the authors take on mother and daughter relationship.
Dream Eater has to be my favorite, I'm going to think differently about high grass from here on out.
This is copy number 111/150 And I'm glad to have this in my collection.
August 19, 2022
(Originally appeared on my website, the Conqueror Weird. The book is now sold out.)
Anything that’s published by Dim Shores is bound to be special. They publish these beautiful limited chapbooks featuring fantastic stories by modern masters of the Weird, all illustrated gorgeously by wonderful artists. They’ve only published five chapbooks, and they’re all great – the bleakly surreal Ghosts in Amber, the extreme intensities of Rangel, the chilling after, and the theatrical epic of The Nectar of Nightmares. after, in particular, is an absolute masterpiece of horror, certainly the greatest novelette of 2015. But I’m not here to talk about after.
I’m here to talk about Split Tongues.
Split Tongues, written by Kristi DeMeester and illustrated by photographic artist Natalia Drepina, is a bit of a departure from the norm for Dim Shores. Instead of being a standalone story, it contains two short tales – the eponymous “Split Tongues” and the shorter “Dream Eater” – in a little mini-collection. Sharing some common themes, the stories were perfectly paired.
Kristi DeMeester is an amazing writer. The first story I read of hers, “Everything That’s Underneath” (from Nightscript, also on the to-review list), was a haunting story of a woman scorned by her disabled husband as he slowly becomes obsessed with a “door” he’s working on. The story effectively mixed Lovecraftian horror with Jamesian techniques (these latter literally making me jumpy), all the while managing to create an original and unique voice. The characterization was spot-on and the prose was beautiful.
“Split Tongues” follows a teenage girl named Brianne, and her relationship with her divorced parents. Her father has found some comfort (if you can call it that) in a strange religion, and whispers in tongues all about the house, which she visits on weekends (against the protests of her mother). Unfortunately, she is haunted by disturbing dreams; dreams establishing a strange connection between her and her crush (for lack of a better word); dreams with disturbing real-life ramifications.
The longer of the two, “Split Tongues” is truly disturbing. DeMeester makes excellent use of prose to create imagery, and I found myself almost gagging at some of the more…shall we say…intense passages. Other grotesque images will stay with the reader long after the book is closed. Hell, the first line gave me shivers! The creepiness factor is high from the first syllable of the book itself! But DeMeester doesn’t just focus on the oppressive atmosphere. The characterization is stunning. Underneath all of its horror and weirdness and surrealism, the story, at its core, is about a teenage girl who’s going through a divorce. Sure, Brianne can seem calm (even flippant) about the topic on the surface, but there are subtle, well-placed hints that reveal otherwise. She mentions that how, even after he did something unspeakable and divorced her mother, her father would talk to her, apologize again and again. The effect of the religion on the father, and the divorce on Brianne, is exemplified in one haunting line: “Once he found Jesus, he stopped apologizing.” DeMeester looks at the people caught up in the wake of the horrors Lovecraft was so fond of describing, but, more importantly, their emotional struggles with events that are, sadly, all too real.
“The Dream Eater” is short – only six pages – but still seems to pack a punch equal to (or even greater than) that of “Split Tongues”. Focusing on another daughter-parent relationship, this time examining a daughter’s relationship with her mother, the story hints at some cataclysmic tragedy which has had serious ramifications on the Earth. Grass seems to be swallowing everything up, inhabited, at night, by vaguely described monstrosities. The young girl has lost a father to them, and the government is trying (and evidently failing) to keep things under control. The daughter, however, seems to have been influenced by the grass at a young age, and eats the passing dreams of her mother at night while listening to it whisper. Things go downhill, of course…
First off – gorgeous prose. That’s a staple of DeMeester’s work – the grotesqueries, the fantasies, and the beauties. It’s written almost like a prose poem, dreamlike and delicate, all around beautiful. But with this one, the strong suit is the characterization.
I freely admit that I felt like I was going to cry during the final moments of this story. Amidst all the intense horror, my heart was breaking. That was because the mother in this story was characterized so strongly that I honestly could have wept for their plight. It left me in a gloomy depression all night. I have no words to describe it; it is a natural talent of DeMeester and it is truly one of the strongest points of her writing.
As for the three Natalia Drepina illustrations, they are beautiful! They do not specifically illustrate any particular scene, but instead aim to capture the mood of the stories, which they do incredibly well. The cover piece is my personal favorite, with its haunting silhouette, its woodland scenery, and its drifting clouds. The full composition (a wrap-around cover), however, is only available if you buy the book. It also comes with a nice print of the artwork.
Speaking of buying the book, you should go do that. Like, right now. It’s almost sold out (and rightfully so), it comes with a bunch of bonuses (including getting pre-order dibs on the next book – it’s a Cody Goodfellow…), it’s beautifully packaged, it’s extremely affordable, AND you get to read Kristi DeMeester. I see no downsides.
Anything that’s published by Dim Shores is bound to be special. They publish these beautiful limited chapbooks featuring fantastic stories by modern masters of the Weird, all illustrated gorgeously by wonderful artists. They’ve only published five chapbooks, and they’re all great – the bleakly surreal Ghosts in Amber, the extreme intensities of Rangel, the chilling after, and the theatrical epic of The Nectar of Nightmares. after, in particular, is an absolute masterpiece of horror, certainly the greatest novelette of 2015. But I’m not here to talk about after.
I’m here to talk about Split Tongues.
Split Tongues, written by Kristi DeMeester and illustrated by photographic artist Natalia Drepina, is a bit of a departure from the norm for Dim Shores. Instead of being a standalone story, it contains two short tales – the eponymous “Split Tongues” and the shorter “Dream Eater” – in a little mini-collection. Sharing some common themes, the stories were perfectly paired.
Kristi DeMeester is an amazing writer. The first story I read of hers, “Everything That’s Underneath” (from Nightscript, also on the to-review list), was a haunting story of a woman scorned by her disabled husband as he slowly becomes obsessed with a “door” he’s working on. The story effectively mixed Lovecraftian horror with Jamesian techniques (these latter literally making me jumpy), all the while managing to create an original and unique voice. The characterization was spot-on and the prose was beautiful.
“Split Tongues” follows a teenage girl named Brianne, and her relationship with her divorced parents. Her father has found some comfort (if you can call it that) in a strange religion, and whispers in tongues all about the house, which she visits on weekends (against the protests of her mother). Unfortunately, she is haunted by disturbing dreams; dreams establishing a strange connection between her and her crush (for lack of a better word); dreams with disturbing real-life ramifications.
The longer of the two, “Split Tongues” is truly disturbing. DeMeester makes excellent use of prose to create imagery, and I found myself almost gagging at some of the more…shall we say…intense passages. Other grotesque images will stay with the reader long after the book is closed. Hell, the first line gave me shivers! The creepiness factor is high from the first syllable of the book itself! But DeMeester doesn’t just focus on the oppressive atmosphere. The characterization is stunning. Underneath all of its horror and weirdness and surrealism, the story, at its core, is about a teenage girl who’s going through a divorce. Sure, Brianne can seem calm (even flippant) about the topic on the surface, but there are subtle, well-placed hints that reveal otherwise. She mentions that how, even after he did something unspeakable and divorced her mother, her father would talk to her, apologize again and again. The effect of the religion on the father, and the divorce on Brianne, is exemplified in one haunting line: “Once he found Jesus, he stopped apologizing.” DeMeester looks at the people caught up in the wake of the horrors Lovecraft was so fond of describing, but, more importantly, their emotional struggles with events that are, sadly, all too real.
“The Dream Eater” is short – only six pages – but still seems to pack a punch equal to (or even greater than) that of “Split Tongues”. Focusing on another daughter-parent relationship, this time examining a daughter’s relationship with her mother, the story hints at some cataclysmic tragedy which has had serious ramifications on the Earth. Grass seems to be swallowing everything up, inhabited, at night, by vaguely described monstrosities. The young girl has lost a father to them, and the government is trying (and evidently failing) to keep things under control. The daughter, however, seems to have been influenced by the grass at a young age, and eats the passing dreams of her mother at night while listening to it whisper. Things go downhill, of course…
First off – gorgeous prose. That’s a staple of DeMeester’s work – the grotesqueries, the fantasies, and the beauties. It’s written almost like a prose poem, dreamlike and delicate, all around beautiful. But with this one, the strong suit is the characterization.
I freely admit that I felt like I was going to cry during the final moments of this story. Amidst all the intense horror, my heart was breaking. That was because the mother in this story was characterized so strongly that I honestly could have wept for their plight. It left me in a gloomy depression all night. I have no words to describe it; it is a natural talent of DeMeester and it is truly one of the strongest points of her writing.
As for the three Natalia Drepina illustrations, they are beautiful! They do not specifically illustrate any particular scene, but instead aim to capture the mood of the stories, which they do incredibly well. The cover piece is my personal favorite, with its haunting silhouette, its woodland scenery, and its drifting clouds. The full composition (a wrap-around cover), however, is only available if you buy the book. It also comes with a nice print of the artwork.
Speaking of buying the book, you should go do that. Like, right now. It’s almost sold out (and rightfully so), it comes with a bunch of bonuses (including getting pre-order dibs on the next book – it’s a Cody Goodfellow…), it’s beautifully packaged, it’s extremely affordable, AND you get to read Kristi DeMeester. I see no downsides.
January 25, 2021
nullimmortalis February 17, 2016 at 3:49 pm Edit
Nearly forty pages, with two stories, and photographic art by Natalia Drepina.
This copy is numbered 132/150.
SPLIT TONGUES
“Things we aren’t supposed to see.”
Things we aren’t supposed to read about, too.
A powerful dark-Christian tale of young Brianne and her separated parents, before which many of us readers would have assumed our dreams are separate, too, separate from real life and from each other. But are they ever? Overlapping here, they create, I feel, various word biopsies in the physical form of tongue, revealed words that tell Brianne – and, via her, us – of the sexually accretive mutability of herself, her mother, father and the boy whom she fancies…indeed of the fleshy soul itself secreted within.
To speak more of it would let you see too much…
nullimmortalis February 17, 2016 at 4:44 pm Edit
I couldn’t resist reading on straightaway to the second story, to what I assume would be a short coda to this publication’s eponymous work and, although I was half right in my assumption, it now stands on its own with my having completed it… As a coda of this publication but also as its poetic apotheosis…
Another glimpse of Brianne and her mother?
THE DREAM EATER
“The nightmares split open on my tongue.”
This coda is in itself a meal replacement pill, passing over the tongue, not into the stomach but into a dream-claustrophobia… A green endworld, if that is not a contradiction in terms.
A story of a sin-eater in the guise of dream. A complex empathy with love being a palimpsest of awfulness and stoical acceptance of that awfulness, of God’s forked tongue and a blessed unvirgin mother. A reverential awfulness, that dark-Christian awe or aura, making this publication possibly the first of such a dark-Christian genre of fiction? Where God the father dug a well that you can never reach. The Life of Brianne. This chapbook’s front cover image.
end
Nearly forty pages, with two stories, and photographic art by Natalia Drepina.
This copy is numbered 132/150.
SPLIT TONGUES
“Things we aren’t supposed to see.”
Things we aren’t supposed to read about, too.
A powerful dark-Christian tale of young Brianne and her separated parents, before which many of us readers would have assumed our dreams are separate, too, separate from real life and from each other. But are they ever? Overlapping here, they create, I feel, various word biopsies in the physical form of tongue, revealed words that tell Brianne – and, via her, us – of the sexually accretive mutability of herself, her mother, father and the boy whom she fancies…indeed of the fleshy soul itself secreted within.
To speak more of it would let you see too much…
nullimmortalis February 17, 2016 at 4:44 pm Edit
I couldn’t resist reading on straightaway to the second story, to what I assume would be a short coda to this publication’s eponymous work and, although I was half right in my assumption, it now stands on its own with my having completed it… As a coda of this publication but also as its poetic apotheosis…
Another glimpse of Brianne and her mother?
THE DREAM EATER
“The nightmares split open on my tongue.”
This coda is in itself a meal replacement pill, passing over the tongue, not into the stomach but into a dream-claustrophobia… A green endworld, if that is not a contradiction in terms.
A story of a sin-eater in the guise of dream. A complex empathy with love being a palimpsest of awfulness and stoical acceptance of that awfulness, of God’s forked tongue and a blessed unvirgin mother. A reverential awfulness, that dark-Christian awe or aura, making this publication possibly the first of such a dark-Christian genre of fiction? Where God the father dug a well that you can never reach. The Life of Brianne. This chapbook’s front cover image.
end
October 12, 2016
'Split Tongues' was one of the most enjoyable and beautiful pieces of horror fiction that I've read in a long time. The two stories contained within are incredibly atmospheric and leave you wishing there was more here to get lost in, with the length being enough to easily get through in one relatively short sitting. I'll be eagerly awaiting Kristi's first novel or proper collection, because I can see her being one of the most promising authors in the genre.
September 29, 2016
if your taste in reading inclines to the weird, the strange, or the horrific, then sear Kristi DeMeester's name into your brain. story by story, she's proving herself to be one of the definitive writers of her genre
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews