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Furnace
Horror fiction has long celebrated and explored the twin engines driving human existence. Call them what you like: Sex and Death, Love and Destruction, Temptation and Terror. While many may strive to reach the extremes, few authors manage to find the beauty that rests in the liminal space between these polar forces, the shuddering ecstasy encased within the shock.
And then there’s Livia Llewellyn, an author praised for her dark, stirring, evocative prose and disturbing, personal narratives. Lush, layered, multifaceted, and elegant, the thirteen tales comprising Furnace showcase why Livia Llewellyn has been lauded by scholars and fans of weird fiction alike, and why she has been nominated multiple times for the Shirley Jackson Award and included in year’s best anthologies.
These are exquisite stories, of beauty and cruelty, of pleasure and pain, of hunger, and of sharp teeth sinking into tender flesh.
And then there’s Livia Llewellyn, an author praised for her dark, stirring, evocative prose and disturbing, personal narratives. Lush, layered, multifaceted, and elegant, the thirteen tales comprising Furnace showcase why Livia Llewellyn has been lauded by scholars and fans of weird fiction alike, and why she has been nominated multiple times for the Shirley Jackson Award and included in year’s best anthologies.
These are exquisite stories, of beauty and cruelty, of pleasure and pain, of hunger, and of sharp teeth sinking into tender flesh.
193 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 2016
94 people are currently reading
2476 people want to read
About the author
Livia Llewellyn
61 books233 followersI was born in Anchorage, Alaska, and spent my childhood in Tacoma, Washington. And now I live on the East Coast. I’m not quite sure how that happened….
By day I’m a secretary. I file papers, create spreadsheets, update calendars, sort papers — the usual secretarial things.
At night, I write about lonely young girls who can speak to engines, Nikola Tesla’s secret journals, long-horned demons lost in Northwest suburbia, giant biomechanical insects, mothers who are good monsters, monsters who are good mothers, lots of consensual human-&-creature sex, and even more broken hearts.
You can also find me on my website, where I talk a lot about ants (too many), coffee (too little), and cheese (never enough!).
By day I’m a secretary. I file papers, create spreadsheets, update calendars, sort papers — the usual secretarial things.
At night, I write about lonely young girls who can speak to engines, Nikola Tesla’s secret journals, long-horned demons lost in Northwest suburbia, giant biomechanical insects, mothers who are good monsters, monsters who are good mothers, lots of consensual human-&-creature sex, and even more broken hearts.
You can also find me on my website, where I talk a lot about ants (too many), coffee (too little), and cheese (never enough!).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews
February 29, 2016
Dark, disturbing, strange, erotic collection of stories. So expertly, beautifully written. Sometimes when I finish a book I think, "I wish I wrote that." I closed the cover on Furnace and thought, "There's no way I'll ever be good enough to write that."
March 11, 2016
The talented and gifted author Livia Llewellyn has recently released her second collection of stories titled “Furnace”. This is an excellent and solid set of stories which enter the world of the weird and ultra strange. Some of the stories are highly emotional and even more erotically charged.
Ms. Llewellyn does not shy away from graphic descriptions her characters encounter.
The power of Livia Llewellyn is in her ability to describe scenes and inject horror and fright She is a master. Her writing is so strikingly vibrant that the characters that inhabit the stories shimmer and shine with energy from a cosmic source.
My favorite story in the collection is “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer”. Is the coming of age story of a young sheltered girl. The story is both frightening and totally bizarre. It evokes the influence of Arthur Machen and H. P. Lovecraft then shaken, stirred and filtered through Ligotti to create a totally frightening vision of strangeness and dread and sexual depravity. The story will adhere itself to your inner safe places and shred them to pieces and make you gasp at Ms. Llewellyn’s ability to shock and twist the psychosexual reality beyond of any preconceived notions.
This is an important and masterfully created collection of weirdness that will raise the bar on in the world of the strange and those who think to create such stories.
Table of contents:
001 - "Pantopticon"
009 - "Stabilimentum"
025 - "Wasp & Snake"
031 - "Cinereous"
043 - "Yours Is the Right to Begin"
057 - "Lord of the Hunt"
067 - "In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982" (original to collection)
085 - "It Feels Better Biting Down"
097 - "Allochthon"
109 - "Furnace"
127 - "The Mysteries"
139 - "The Last, Clean, Bright Summer"
157 - "and Love shall have no Dominion"
171 - "The Unattainable"
193 - Acknowledgments
195 - Titles Available From Word Horde
This copy of Furnace came with a signed book plate signed by Livia Llewellyn.
Ms. Llewellyn does not shy away from graphic descriptions her characters encounter.
The power of Livia Llewellyn is in her ability to describe scenes and inject horror and fright She is a master. Her writing is so strikingly vibrant that the characters that inhabit the stories shimmer and shine with energy from a cosmic source.
My favorite story in the collection is “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer”. Is the coming of age story of a young sheltered girl. The story is both frightening and totally bizarre. It evokes the influence of Arthur Machen and H. P. Lovecraft then shaken, stirred and filtered through Ligotti to create a totally frightening vision of strangeness and dread and sexual depravity. The story will adhere itself to your inner safe places and shred them to pieces and make you gasp at Ms. Llewellyn’s ability to shock and twist the psychosexual reality beyond of any preconceived notions.
This is an important and masterfully created collection of weirdness that will raise the bar on in the world of the strange and those who think to create such stories.
Table of contents:
001 - "Pantopticon"
009 - "Stabilimentum"
025 - "Wasp & Snake"
031 - "Cinereous"
043 - "Yours Is the Right to Begin"
057 - "Lord of the Hunt"
067 - "In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982" (original to collection)
085 - "It Feels Better Biting Down"
097 - "Allochthon"
109 - "Furnace"
127 - "The Mysteries"
139 - "The Last, Clean, Bright Summer"
157 - "and Love shall have no Dominion"
171 - "The Unattainable"
193 - Acknowledgments
195 - Titles Available From Word Horde
This copy of Furnace came with a signed book plate signed by Livia Llewellyn.
August 22, 2018
Beautifully written passages trickle ornate imagery into your psyche on a steady drip. These stories will wrap you tightly in their coils, lovingly caressing you before they show you true destruction. Spent, yet ready for more of Llewellyn's elegantly painted ecstasy, I absorbed Furnace like the drug it is and my need for it only increased as the book progressed.
October 5, 2018
This second collection of tales both erotic and horrific demonstrates Llewellyn's command of decadent prose, as well as when the excess of language slips free of her control. With prose reminiscent of Angela Carter and Rikki Ducornet, Furnace operates as a cabinet of curiosities, each of its stories displaying a moment in which the appetites of her protagonists become entangled with those of fantastical creatures, resulting often in violence, transformation and the exchange of bodily fluids. In her best stories collected here, a young post-punk ditches one celestial lover for the vines of another; a woman discovers her high rise is a surreal commune for tenants both human and arachnid; a woman wishing to combat a parasitic ancestor approaches a salesman specializing in birthing parades; a plucky teenager takes a family trip to the beach to participate in a monstrous seaside mating ritual; twin sisters discover that they can steal body parts from one another through osmosis; the three wives of Dracula perform lusty monologues as they prowl around Nina Harker and Van Helsing at their campfire. But in other stories, Llewellyn's experimentation with language and convention end in messes, but pretty messes regardless. In one story a demon existing outside of time recounts its tormenting of a woman through Missed Connection posts in a prose style fashioned out of sentence fragments and internet lingo. In another, a mad housewife's attempt to escape a time loop is told to the reader in a series of obtuse sentences. But even when Llewellyn's stories, which are all considerably brief, lean towards the inscrutable, their presentation of curious imagery and insidious atmosphere bespeaks a talented author with the brio to tackle her own wild imagination.
September 5, 2018
dark and sensual stories. Horror, the strange, and the erotic blend together and weave though one another throughout this bold, evocative, and haunting collection, which is marked by sumptuous prose and unsettling dream logic. Highly recommended.
September 19, 2025
Abbandonato a pagina 200....non lo reggeva più sinceramente.
Tutto bene Livia?
No perché di tutto quello che hai scritto qui dentro io non ci ho capito un cazzo!
Sei in astinenza da sesso? Hai problemi relazionali? No perché a me è sembrato che tu abbia scritto uno spicy.
Cioè, la tua copertina è altamente fuorviante, uno si aspetta grandi cose poi dalla collana modern weird di Hypnos, ma che porca zozza è sta roba?
Un guazzabuglio di parole.
Cosa volevi dire? Volevi almeno dire qualcosa?
Insomma, disturbante lo è, disgustoso pure, ma non come mi aspettavo.
Tutto bene Livia?
No perché di tutto quello che hai scritto qui dentro io non ci ho capito un cazzo!
Sei in astinenza da sesso? Hai problemi relazionali? No perché a me è sembrato che tu abbia scritto uno spicy.
Cioè, la tua copertina è altamente fuorviante, uno si aspetta grandi cose poi dalla collana modern weird di Hypnos, ma che porca zozza è sta roba?
Un guazzabuglio di parole.
Cosa volevi dire? Volevi almeno dire qualcosa?
Insomma, disturbante lo è, disgustoso pure, ma non come mi aspettavo.
February 15, 2016
Dark, disturbing, and exquisite!
May 9, 2016
This is weird fiction for people who have graduated from the usual Cthulhu anthologies and are ready to swim in the deep end. If I had to compare it to something I'd say that at times it has the intensity and dream-like style of Cisco with a Ligotti-esque philosophical bent. Other times it's less dream-like, but remains very rich in language. But Llewellyn is her own writer, and writes in a pleasantly unpredictable style.
I put off reading her first collection "Engines of Desire" because to some extent I'm not a big fan of mixing sex with weird fiction, and reviews I read of it gave me the impression that sex was a big element in it. Don't get me wrong, I love transgressive stuff and I think it can be done properly, but with a TBR pile a mile high I just kept putting it off and reaching for something else. Well, let's just say I'll be going back and reading that collection too. The sexual element is well-handled and adds to the material.
This is another case where, yeah maybe I didn't like everything here, but I certainly respected everything. I'm willing to bet this will be one of the best short story collections I read all year and I wouldn't be surprised if this collection will be something of a weird fiction classic in years to come.
Panopticon - I loved this one, very powerful imagery, so Ligotti-esque in it's implications. In the end, "You never received answers to all the questions you asked. You do not watch. You were never the audience. You were the space, the void." We're just another discarded piece of matter, tossed on the heap. A woman feels summoned to a distant, run down warehouse district to learn something about herself.
Stabilimentum - Another good story, I not among my top favorites here. I liked the more standard (but effective) horror elements used throughout more than the weird ones that enter at the conclusion, but it still comes together well. A woman finally gets the high-rise Manhattan apartment she always wanted but finds it overrun with cosmic horrors.
Wasp & Snake - A very short, dream-like, steampunkish story. Quite impressive for it's length. Someone is hired to commit murder, in a most original fashion.
Cinereous - This is among my favorites here. How someone would even think this up, much less write it so well shows a great imagination. It's a grotesque, cruel and horrific story that's still beautifully told with an increasingly surreal mood. A girl works for a group of scientists in France, helping to perform horrifying medical experiments.
Yours is The Right to Begin - We're in dream-like territory again, but this is even more brilliant and worth reading slowly. It's poetic with a romantic flair and some darkly nihilistic, Ligottian themes. This is a play on Dracula, descending far deeper however into the idea of nature as a vampire, seen through the eyes of the hypnotized Mina Harker.
Lord of the Hunt - A shorter story, not among my top favorites, a bit more straight-forward and effective for what it is. A woman who is always wandering a mall to fill her emptiness is captivated by a strange, virile statue.
In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982 - The sexual element is used to great effect here, as is the way it continually dives above and below reality and a surreal dream-like world. I liked the retro feel of it, you know, back when people found fliers and still went out and did things? A college girl goes out for a night on the town with her boyfriend, neither of them are mere humans, but she's in for an experience wilder than she can imagine.
It Feels Better Biting Down - There's a lot packed into this one. It's got some humor, some really creepy moments, and some wild weirdness. Two twins home alone discover a very strange being in the yard nextdoor.
Allochthon - This one confused me the most after I read it, but I still admire it. I continued to mentally digest this one and like it even more as it continues to haunt me. It's mind-bendingly wild description is fascinating and the increasingly disintegrating perception makes me think it's about mental illness. During the Great Depression a housewife finds herself reliving a picnic over and over, in increasingly surreal fashion and personal desperation.
Furnace - This was a re-read for me, I read this one about a year ago in the "Grimscribe's Puppets" Ligotti tribute anthology. This is a great story, I think it makes more sense after reading the stories in this collection than it did when I read it in the anthology. A young girl describes her decaying town where time seems to repeat itself in a constant morphing of forms, sometimes in horrific ways.
The Mysteries - Another great story, short, very surreal and cosmic. I loved the imagery here, both the wild stuff later on, but also the descriptions of the muted, dark old house. A young woman is called and told it is her turn to stay with a very strange and hungry family member.
The Last, Clean, Bright Summer - As with the stoy "Cinereous," I just don't know how someone can come up with these ideas, much less make them work so damn well. This is a masterpiece of weird fiction, probably the best in the book, and believe it or not it's also one of the least surreal and dream-like. It's so shocking and transgressive even I was exclaiming out loud while reading it. A girl travels to the seaside with her family to engage in an unforgettable ritual.
and Love shall have no Dominion - Another to file under "Extremely Surreal." This is fierce and feverish writing with very dark implications. This sort of writing can express things the straight forward stories cannot, in fact it's got a very mind-bending premise, but I have to admit that I don't remember these as much as something like the previous story. A demonic being capable of manipulating time rescues a life, for purposes of love, romance and incredible horror. Torture seems never-ending, days are relived and memories are changed.
The Unattainable - This was a good story, not my thing, but I won't ruin it and just say it's much different from the others. A world-weary woman is driving back to her hometown, and stops in at a fair hoping to find some rough trade.
I put off reading her first collection "Engines of Desire" because to some extent I'm not a big fan of mixing sex with weird fiction, and reviews I read of it gave me the impression that sex was a big element in it. Don't get me wrong, I love transgressive stuff and I think it can be done properly, but with a TBR pile a mile high I just kept putting it off and reaching for something else. Well, let's just say I'll be going back and reading that collection too. The sexual element is well-handled and adds to the material.
This is another case where, yeah maybe I didn't like everything here, but I certainly respected everything. I'm willing to bet this will be one of the best short story collections I read all year and I wouldn't be surprised if this collection will be something of a weird fiction classic in years to come.
Panopticon - I loved this one, very powerful imagery, so Ligotti-esque in it's implications. In the end, "You never received answers to all the questions you asked. You do not watch. You were never the audience. You were the space, the void." We're just another discarded piece of matter, tossed on the heap. A woman feels summoned to a distant, run down warehouse district to learn something about herself.
Stabilimentum - Another good story, I not among my top favorites here. I liked the more standard (but effective) horror elements used throughout more than the weird ones that enter at the conclusion, but it still comes together well. A woman finally gets the high-rise Manhattan apartment she always wanted but finds it overrun with cosmic horrors.
Wasp & Snake - A very short, dream-like, steampunkish story. Quite impressive for it's length. Someone is hired to commit murder, in a most original fashion.
Cinereous - This is among my favorites here. How someone would even think this up, much less write it so well shows a great imagination. It's a grotesque, cruel and horrific story that's still beautifully told with an increasingly surreal mood. A girl works for a group of scientists in France, helping to perform horrifying medical experiments.
Yours is The Right to Begin - We're in dream-like territory again, but this is even more brilliant and worth reading slowly. It's poetic with a romantic flair and some darkly nihilistic, Ligottian themes. This is a play on Dracula, descending far deeper however into the idea of nature as a vampire, seen through the eyes of the hypnotized Mina Harker.
Lord of the Hunt - A shorter story, not among my top favorites, a bit more straight-forward and effective for what it is. A woman who is always wandering a mall to fill her emptiness is captivated by a strange, virile statue.
In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982 - The sexual element is used to great effect here, as is the way it continually dives above and below reality and a surreal dream-like world. I liked the retro feel of it, you know, back when people found fliers and still went out and did things? A college girl goes out for a night on the town with her boyfriend, neither of them are mere humans, but she's in for an experience wilder than she can imagine.
It Feels Better Biting Down - There's a lot packed into this one. It's got some humor, some really creepy moments, and some wild weirdness. Two twins home alone discover a very strange being in the yard nextdoor.
Allochthon - This one confused me the most after I read it, but I still admire it. I continued to mentally digest this one and like it even more as it continues to haunt me. It's mind-bendingly wild description is fascinating and the increasingly disintegrating perception makes me think it's about mental illness. During the Great Depression a housewife finds herself reliving a picnic over and over, in increasingly surreal fashion and personal desperation.
Furnace - This was a re-read for me, I read this one about a year ago in the "Grimscribe's Puppets" Ligotti tribute anthology. This is a great story, I think it makes more sense after reading the stories in this collection than it did when I read it in the anthology. A young girl describes her decaying town where time seems to repeat itself in a constant morphing of forms, sometimes in horrific ways.
The Mysteries - Another great story, short, very surreal and cosmic. I loved the imagery here, both the wild stuff later on, but also the descriptions of the muted, dark old house. A young woman is called and told it is her turn to stay with a very strange and hungry family member.
The Last, Clean, Bright Summer - As with the stoy "Cinereous," I just don't know how someone can come up with these ideas, much less make them work so damn well. This is a masterpiece of weird fiction, probably the best in the book, and believe it or not it's also one of the least surreal and dream-like. It's so shocking and transgressive even I was exclaiming out loud while reading it. A girl travels to the seaside with her family to engage in an unforgettable ritual.
and Love shall have no Dominion - Another to file under "Extremely Surreal." This is fierce and feverish writing with very dark implications. This sort of writing can express things the straight forward stories cannot, in fact it's got a very mind-bending premise, but I have to admit that I don't remember these as much as something like the previous story. A demonic being capable of manipulating time rescues a life, for purposes of love, romance and incredible horror. Torture seems never-ending, days are relived and memories are changed.
The Unattainable - This was a good story, not my thing, but I won't ruin it and just say it's much different from the others. A world-weary woman is driving back to her hometown, and stops in at a fair hoping to find some rough trade.
May 2, 2017
Holy shit Livia Llewellyn's Furnace was staggeringly good. Unlike anything I'd ever read before. And I don't just mean the horror/erotic elements (which isn't something I've ever read that much of before). I mean the ridiculous talent on display here. Her writing is so good that even the stories that I didn't love had elements that impressed me and moments that wouldn't let me go. These stories have a palpable power to grab a hold of you, never relenting, until it's over.
Llewellyn's voice is so developed and strong that, despite the variety of stories (and I mean all over the map in content, monsters and time period/setting), they coalesced under her vision . These are stories only she could write and I'm glad she did. She writes with a beautiful conviction and confidence that was impressive. I'd heard great things about this collection but that in no way prepared me for reading this.
My favorites were:
"The Last, Clean, Bright Summer" (this was just, such an amazing story, so well done, so well written)
"Stabilimentum"
"Yours is The Right to Begin"
"In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982"
"It Feels Better Biting Down" (the first story of hers I read that lead me to the collection)
"Furnace"
"The Mysteries"
Others that I really liked:
"Panopticon" (
"Lord of the Hunt"
"Allochthon"
"and Love shall have no Dominion"
Llewellyn's voice is so developed and strong that, despite the variety of stories (and I mean all over the map in content, monsters and time period/setting), they coalesced under her vision . These are stories only she could write and I'm glad she did. She writes with a beautiful conviction and confidence that was impressive. I'd heard great things about this collection but that in no way prepared me for reading this.
My favorites were:
"The Last, Clean, Bright Summer" (this was just, such an amazing story, so well done, so well written)
"Stabilimentum"
"Yours is The Right to Begin"
"In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982"
"It Feels Better Biting Down" (the first story of hers I read that lead me to the collection)
"Furnace"
"The Mysteries"
Others that I really liked:
"Panopticon" (
"Lord of the Hunt"
"Allochthon"
"and Love shall have no Dominion"
March 3, 2017
I fancy myself a proficient reader of contemporary weird and horror fiction. One of my favorite things about the genre is how bewildering it can be. It took me a while to deal with the suspension of reality but now it is what I love about this type of fiction. Furnace truly is some top of the line work in the genre. It is literary, it is sexually provocative, it is truly scary in some parts (not a superlative I throw around lightly or often), and when it veers into the weird it is like nothing I have ever read before. I don't know much about Llewellyn's previous work as I just copped Furnace on the strength of my previous experiences with Word Horde Press books, which have all been delightful. Despite my lack of experience with the author, I am comfortable saying that she is truly a master of the disorienting transition between dimensions and creating new monsters. The only author's I can remotely draw comparisons to the work of Llewellyn in this book are Charlee Jacob and Michael Cisco.
Every story in the book is a purely poetic onslaught of mindfuckery but I did enjoy a few in particular. Stabilmentum is kind of like Charlotte's Web meets the Twilight Zone in New York City. Stabilmentum does a great job of making the unknown pretty scary. Another of my favorites is In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982 which is a story about a young college student that has fallen for a ghost with some incredible otherworldly mating style. As mentioned before Furnace has these subtle alterations in reality that can be disorienting and before you know it you're reading passages like this:
"now she is truly frightened because there is that moment when he catches her and cannot quite be certain he remembers who she is and what dreamlike emotions from that other world he inhabits that alien other world which is her world might prevent him from devouring her with all of his needle thin teeth in all those mouths she catches quick glimpses of as they click and slide back in and out of other times and now she is an animal running racing in the dark under stars under moons the great raging beast just behind her now in the wind at her back"
Wasp and Snake is an incredibly creative short cyberpunk tale of revenge and death. Definitely one of my favorites. Lord of the Hunt is a mindbending tale about obsession and giving everything to a demon. Allochthon is kind of like if Chuck Palaniuk wrote Groundhog Day set during the great depression. It sounds bizarre, and it is, but far from in a silly way, more of in a way I would have never taken my mind if Llewellyn hadn't lead me there. Finally, another of my favorites is It Feels Better Biting Down which is hands down one of the creepiest stories I have ever read.
I cannot recommend this book enough for fans of dark fantasy with a sexual and mind altering bend to it. If you are a huge fan of Barron, Langan or even Ligotti as I am then I can assure you that you will like Livia Llewellyn. She definitely has my attention. I look forward to reading more of her work and honestly, I can't wait to read Furnace again. It is one of those books that you will be able to read over and over and find new things and it will still be as creepy as the first time you read it. I honestly have no complaints about it.
Every story in the book is a purely poetic onslaught of mindfuckery but I did enjoy a few in particular. Stabilmentum is kind of like Charlotte's Web meets the Twilight Zone in New York City. Stabilmentum does a great job of making the unknown pretty scary. Another of my favorites is In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982 which is a story about a young college student that has fallen for a ghost with some incredible otherworldly mating style. As mentioned before Furnace has these subtle alterations in reality that can be disorienting and before you know it you're reading passages like this:
"now she is truly frightened because there is that moment when he catches her and cannot quite be certain he remembers who she is and what dreamlike emotions from that other world he inhabits that alien other world which is her world might prevent him from devouring her with all of his needle thin teeth in all those mouths she catches quick glimpses of as they click and slide back in and out of other times and now she is an animal running racing in the dark under stars under moons the great raging beast just behind her now in the wind at her back"
Wasp and Snake is an incredibly creative short cyberpunk tale of revenge and death. Definitely one of my favorites. Lord of the Hunt is a mindbending tale about obsession and giving everything to a demon. Allochthon is kind of like if Chuck Palaniuk wrote Groundhog Day set during the great depression. It sounds bizarre, and it is, but far from in a silly way, more of in a way I would have never taken my mind if Llewellyn hadn't lead me there. Finally, another of my favorites is It Feels Better Biting Down which is hands down one of the creepiest stories I have ever read.
I cannot recommend this book enough for fans of dark fantasy with a sexual and mind altering bend to it. If you are a huge fan of Barron, Langan or even Ligotti as I am then I can assure you that you will like Livia Llewellyn. She definitely has my attention. I look forward to reading more of her work and honestly, I can't wait to read Furnace again. It is one of those books that you will be able to read over and over and find new things and it will still be as creepy as the first time you read it. I honestly have no complaints about it.
October 16, 2016
Llewellyn's calling card is her use of language, really. FURNACE goes from good to great in these moments where she freezes time and disintegrates really using her gift for supernatural and quasi-abstract depictions. I liked several stories in the collection: STABILIMENTUM, LORD OF THE HUNT (which I thought was particularly clever), ALLOCHTON, but perhaps my favorite was AND LOVE SHALL HAVE NO DOMINION where Craigslist meets the infinite. I've always been a sucker for stories that connected the mundane and the sweeping unknown. Not every story worked for me, Llewellyn has a rich, abundant and demanding style, but she has to be one of the most talented stylists working in horror today. That alone is worth checking out this collection.
February 8, 2022
Che dire!?! Una scrittura contorta, con una quantita' di aggettivi spropositata, subordinate in serie infinita, iperboli in quantita', di tutto e di piu' per arrivare in definitiva... al niente. Tutto e' freddo, lucente, duro, fetido, viscido, metallico, putrido, ma alla fine, piu che altro, noioso.
February 15, 2019
"Her screams cram up all the unused cracks of the night. Many hear them. No one cares."
Furnace was my introduction to Livia Llewellyn's work, and this collection of 14 stories is something special. Most (not all) of the stories in Furnace are erotic horror, and her writing is hauntingly beautiful. A lot of these stories seem like magical realism since the fantastical aspects are woven into the stories so well. I was first drawn in by the cover design, but I stuck around for the amazing content.
This collection is dreamlike, and I had to re-read sections of it to make sure I grasped everything - this is not a bad thing; I was happy to spend more time in these stories. If Livia ever writes poetry, I'll be first in line for her book. This collection is so fantastic as a whole, and I rated all the stories between 3.5 to 5⭐ (which is great). They are all grim and gorgeous.
My top 5 favorite stories were It Feels Better Biting Down, Wasp and Snake, Yours is the Right to Begin, Lord of the Hunt, and The Last, Clean, Bright Summer. It was hard to narrow down, but these are probably the ones that stuck with me the most. I can't stop thinking about The Last, Clean, Bright Summer and It Feels Better Biting Down. I don't want to say why so that I don't give anything away, but both stories clawed their way into my brain and made a home. I want more! There are so many brilliant stories here.
If you haven't read this one yet, I highly recommend it. I'm very happy that I read this one for the Ladies of Horror Fiction Readathon; it was the perfect pick. Livia is creative and talented; I can't wait to read more from her!
Furnace was my introduction to Livia Llewellyn's work, and this collection of 14 stories is something special. Most (not all) of the stories in Furnace are erotic horror, and her writing is hauntingly beautiful. A lot of these stories seem like magical realism since the fantastical aspects are woven into the stories so well. I was first drawn in by the cover design, but I stuck around for the amazing content.
This collection is dreamlike, and I had to re-read sections of it to make sure I grasped everything - this is not a bad thing; I was happy to spend more time in these stories. If Livia ever writes poetry, I'll be first in line for her book. This collection is so fantastic as a whole, and I rated all the stories between 3.5 to 5⭐ (which is great). They are all grim and gorgeous.
My top 5 favorite stories were It Feels Better Biting Down, Wasp and Snake, Yours is the Right to Begin, Lord of the Hunt, and The Last, Clean, Bright Summer. It was hard to narrow down, but these are probably the ones that stuck with me the most. I can't stop thinking about The Last, Clean, Bright Summer and It Feels Better Biting Down. I don't want to say why so that I don't give anything away, but both stories clawed their way into my brain and made a home. I want more! There are so many brilliant stories here.
If you haven't read this one yet, I highly recommend it. I'm very happy that I read this one for the Ladies of Horror Fiction Readathon; it was the perfect pick. Livia is creative and talented; I can't wait to read more from her!
April 2, 2016
Furnace, Llewellyn’s second collection, is every bit as dark and weird as her first (Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors, which I also highly, highly recommend). A sense of cosmic horror underlies Llewellyn’s tales, even when they aren’t overtly Lovecraftian. They capture the spirit of the Weird in the classic sense, and update it, injecting overt sexuality and horror in new ways. In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982, a story original to the collection, hearkens back to Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows, presenting nature as a malevolent force. Unlike Blackwood, however, Llewellyn’s vision of nature isn’t a passive, lurking horror, but an active one, one her characters can either choose to embrace (literally) or refuse. There is an erotic edge to many of the tales, and like her first collection, desire plays dangerously close to the edge of pain and terror, often slipping over that edge. Love and want are kinds of violence, after all, with the power to tear people apart. There is a dream-like (nightmare-like) quality to many of the stories. Haunting imagery saturates the collection, carrying readers alone and making them willing to accept irrational things. Women buzz like lawn mowers, and sisters swap body parts to merge into one terrible and beautiful creature. Massive spiders occupy the penthouse floors of an impossibly tall apartment building. The subway system is a living, wanting thing. Giants rise out of the ocean and birth horrors upon the world. Many of the stories in the collection were new to me, but even in those I had read before I found myself discovering new things – previously hidden sharp angles ready to draw blood, and strange mirrors displaying warped visions of the world. It’s an incredibly strong collection. Fans of weird fiction, horror, erotica, or just damn good stories, will definitely want to get their hands on this one.
December 18, 2016
This is my Book Of the Month- June 2016, with GR group- Literary Horror
DNF- 23%
This is a collection of 14 short horror stories.
The genre of horror can be classified as more of Grotesquerie & weird fiction and it just did not click with me.
DNF- 23%
This is a collection of 14 short horror stories.
The genre of horror can be classified as more of Grotesquerie & weird fiction and it just did not click with me.
January 20, 2022
Terror, erotismo, surrealismo, experimental, algunas historias bien y otras incomprensibles.
June 27, 2022
4 stars--I really liked it. Llewellyn writes difficult, bizarre, melancholy, uneasy stories. I adore them. Here are my favorites in this collection:
Stabilimentum. It starts as spiders, and ends as cosmic horror in a high-rise apartment building. Really amazing.
Lord of the Hunt. Fey beings toying with mortals.
In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982. Another story of the fey bleeding into our world.
The Last, Clean, Bright Summer. Creepy, sad story of a family's yearly tradition, which involves the pacification of a giant sea creature.
The Unattainable. Cowboy kink, if you're into that sort of thing!
Stabilimentum. It starts as spiders, and ends as cosmic horror in a high-rise apartment building. Really amazing.
Lord of the Hunt. Fey beings toying with mortals.
In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982. Another story of the fey bleeding into our world.
The Last, Clean, Bright Summer. Creepy, sad story of a family's yearly tradition, which involves the pacification of a giant sea creature.
The Unattainable. Cowboy kink, if you're into that sort of thing!
August 13, 2018
Enjoyed "Furnace", "The Mysteries", and "The Last, Clean, Bright Summer", for the rich and hallucinatory ideas, and how they were worked out.
I have a lot of trouble with the writing in the rest. Really wanted to like "In the Court of King Cupressaceae..." more; I have a soft spot for many of the bands at the "Dark Wave" party, and Knox is, well, hot. But.
The Michael Garlington cover is quite perfect for the book.
Update 2018: "The Last, Clean, Bright Summer" is really impressive, probably one of my very favorite stories in the last few years.
I have a lot of trouble with the writing in the rest. Really wanted to like "In the Court of King Cupressaceae..." more; I have a soft spot for many of the bands at the "Dark Wave" party, and Knox is, well, hot. But.
The Michael Garlington cover is quite perfect for the book.
Update 2018: "The Last, Clean, Bright Summer" is really impressive, probably one of my very favorite stories in the last few years.
August 27, 2016
(Originally appeared on my website the Conqueror Weird.)
Some people believe it is impossible to find beauty in horror. It is certainly easy to understand why they should think so – one appeals to the sensation of, for lack of a better word, love, or happiness; the other instead causing fear and disgust. I should make it clear that I am not referring to beauty in the sense of awe, wonder, or amazement – I mean beauty, human beauty, love and compassion and comfort. A lot of people find that this particular emotion cannot be found in the depths of fear. And yet some have managed to find a point where the scales are equal.
Livia Llewellyn is a master of the horror genre. Her stories (often featuring strongly female viewpoints and heavy sexual elements) are hard-hitting and personal, brutal stories that haunt their reader long after they have finished the tale. Her second collection, Furnace, published by the excellent Word Horde of Ross E. Lockhart, features an impressive oeuvre of stories to toy with the reader’s psyche.
Take the first tale, “Panopticon”, a grim prose poem set in Llewellyn’s locale of Obsidia. Word Horde is notoriously good at assembling the structure of their books, and Furnace is no exception. A perfect tone-setter, it features key elements of Llewellyn’s work – a female viewpoint, urban decay (rivaling the very best of Ramsey Campbell), and explicity grisly erotic moments. The prose is of the finest quality, the language a perfect evocation of the filth and decay and depravity of a decayed urban backwater. Though I currently live on Long Island, I was born in NYC and have visited it quite often, so her descriptions – in particular those of the subway – resonated me. While the surreality of the writing does not allow much in the way of a plot summary, the prose is absolutely stunning.
A later tale , “Wasp and Snake”, certainly succeeds a bit better with its similarly stylistic approach. The story, a little more coherent, follows an assassin (equipped with a nifty interdimensional stinger) hunting down her prey. Unfortunately, there’s a little more to the job then she expected. Clocking in very short, the story (which has fascinating sci-fi/fantasy elements) still managed to pack a strong punch. This gorgeously evocative poetic language forms the basis of the collection – most of the tales are written in the same style. This is not a bad thing; it is often a good thing. I just saw it as the shape of the collection.
Other tales are more plot-driven, and these are generally my favorites. A particular treat was “Stabilimentum” (Latin for “Stay”). I have a dreadful fear of spiders, so this might not disturb you as much as it disturbed me, but I honestly think it will. A young woman, having recently moved into an expensive New York apartment, has a spider problem in her bathroom. It rapidly escalates beyond her control, but don’t think you know where this story is going, because trust me, you don’t. While the characterization is really well done (Thalia’s sense of vertigo is excellently described), it’s all-in-all a plot-driven tale – in the sense that it focuses on the horror and the characters, with little room for other details. The story also features more wonderfully evocative descriptions of urbanity (in this case, New York City as opposed to rotting Obsidia) – perhaps a little less gruesome than the ones found in the prose poems. The descriptions of spiders literally had me itching all night – Llewellyn knows how to capture those nasty little buggers in all their hairy, bristly, prickly…agh. I’m creeping myself out. I promised never to do that here. But the descriptions are spot-on and capture the dreadful fears of an arachnophobe. Hopefully some newcomers to the story will walk away arachnophobes; either way, nobody can deny that it’s a fantastic, creepy story – one of my favorites in the collection for sure.
“Cinereous” forms a nice equilibrium between the eloquent language/surrealism of the prose poems and the plot/character of “Stabilimentum”. Llewellyn combines various chilling elements (all based in fact) – feral children, the ghastly executions in 18th century France, and the awareness of the head after abrupt decapitation – and combines them into a unique and grisly story of blasphemous experiments and unflinching ambition. It’s also the first story in the book that seems to have no fantasy/sci-fi/weird elements, though it is certainly an intensely disturbing story wonderfully executed by Llewellyn.
More poetic tour-de-forces follow. “Yours is the Right to Begin” is an interesting play on Dracula (the original Stoker novel, of course) – the story takes the form of three monologues delivered to Mina in her hypnotic trance by the Three Sisters. While there certainly are stunningly gruesome moments, as there are in almost all of Llewellyn’s work, the overall tone is not horrifying but more haunting, a bleak rumination on life, death, immortality, and love. It certainly takes some inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film version of the story (full disclosure: I LOVE that movie with the strongest of nostalgia, since it was my first horror movie EVER. Even though Keanu Reaves is one of the worst actors I’ve ever seen, I feel like the film makes up for it in other departments.), with its intensely visual nature, its heavy erotic undercurrents, and its depiction of Dracula himself (including the fact that his wife leapt from the window, also depicted in the movie – a story with factual basis in the life of Vlad the Impaler). A depressing piece about the sadness of immortality and the depths to which one can sink, “Yours is the Right to Begin” is a fitting homage to the most influential horror novel of all time (Dracula, an abridged version, anyway, was really my first exposure to horror literature).
My favorite of the collection is undoubtedly “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” (a story I originally encountered in The Monstrous, ed. Ellen Datlow). It is a jaw-dropping epic of horror storytelling, terrifying on many more levels than its initial shock. It takes the form of a diary – the diary of a fourteen year old girl, Hailee, who’s involved in some rather unusual coming-of-age activities with her family. Influence from Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” and Machen’s “The White People” are clear, but Llewellyn runs with these stories in her own unique way – an exceedingly bloodier, nastier way. Oh yes, it is quite horrifying, with some complex backstory that Llewellyn cleverly dodges around and hints at. This is made even more jarring by the firm YA voice. She goes to places Lovecraft wouldn’t even think about, but moreover there are more deeply rooted concerns than a witch cult. Disturbing psychosexual concepts are explored, fears that we need to have a discussion about but are too afraid to touch. Fears about the oppression of women while men just stand around with their cocks in their hands, teenage fears about rape and unwanted pregnancy, fears that women – and, indeed, some men – hold in their hearts. It is an important story, however, because it starts a discussion. I loaned a copy of this story to a friend of mine – a girl – and the next day we had a deep discussion about this topic. That is imperative. That a horror story, a stomach-churning, gut-wrenching horror story, started a discussion. An important discussion, one that we only hope can continue.
Now, friends, do you see why Livia Llewellyn is certainly one of the most important writers of horror fiction, living or dead? Do you see why Furnace is such a masterpiece, such a triumph? It brings to light things we SHOULD be talking about but are too afraid to touch in beautiful prose, in stark brutality, in blood and filth. And, if you look under the billions of layers you can search through in these amazing stories, you will find the beauty in horror.
Some people believe it is impossible to find beauty in horror. It is certainly easy to understand why they should think so – one appeals to the sensation of, for lack of a better word, love, or happiness; the other instead causing fear and disgust. I should make it clear that I am not referring to beauty in the sense of awe, wonder, or amazement – I mean beauty, human beauty, love and compassion and comfort. A lot of people find that this particular emotion cannot be found in the depths of fear. And yet some have managed to find a point where the scales are equal.
Livia Llewellyn is a master of the horror genre. Her stories (often featuring strongly female viewpoints and heavy sexual elements) are hard-hitting and personal, brutal stories that haunt their reader long after they have finished the tale. Her second collection, Furnace, published by the excellent Word Horde of Ross E. Lockhart, features an impressive oeuvre of stories to toy with the reader’s psyche.
Take the first tale, “Panopticon”, a grim prose poem set in Llewellyn’s locale of Obsidia. Word Horde is notoriously good at assembling the structure of their books, and Furnace is no exception. A perfect tone-setter, it features key elements of Llewellyn’s work – a female viewpoint, urban decay (rivaling the very best of Ramsey Campbell), and explicity grisly erotic moments. The prose is of the finest quality, the language a perfect evocation of the filth and decay and depravity of a decayed urban backwater. Though I currently live on Long Island, I was born in NYC and have visited it quite often, so her descriptions – in particular those of the subway – resonated me. While the surreality of the writing does not allow much in the way of a plot summary, the prose is absolutely stunning.
A later tale , “Wasp and Snake”, certainly succeeds a bit better with its similarly stylistic approach. The story, a little more coherent, follows an assassin (equipped with a nifty interdimensional stinger) hunting down her prey. Unfortunately, there’s a little more to the job then she expected. Clocking in very short, the story (which has fascinating sci-fi/fantasy elements) still managed to pack a strong punch. This gorgeously evocative poetic language forms the basis of the collection – most of the tales are written in the same style. This is not a bad thing; it is often a good thing. I just saw it as the shape of the collection.
Other tales are more plot-driven, and these are generally my favorites. A particular treat was “Stabilimentum” (Latin for “Stay”). I have a dreadful fear of spiders, so this might not disturb you as much as it disturbed me, but I honestly think it will. A young woman, having recently moved into an expensive New York apartment, has a spider problem in her bathroom. It rapidly escalates beyond her control, but don’t think you know where this story is going, because trust me, you don’t. While the characterization is really well done (Thalia’s sense of vertigo is excellently described), it’s all-in-all a plot-driven tale – in the sense that it focuses on the horror and the characters, with little room for other details. The story also features more wonderfully evocative descriptions of urbanity (in this case, New York City as opposed to rotting Obsidia) – perhaps a little less gruesome than the ones found in the prose poems. The descriptions of spiders literally had me itching all night – Llewellyn knows how to capture those nasty little buggers in all their hairy, bristly, prickly…agh. I’m creeping myself out. I promised never to do that here. But the descriptions are spot-on and capture the dreadful fears of an arachnophobe. Hopefully some newcomers to the story will walk away arachnophobes; either way, nobody can deny that it’s a fantastic, creepy story – one of my favorites in the collection for sure.
“Cinereous” forms a nice equilibrium between the eloquent language/surrealism of the prose poems and the plot/character of “Stabilimentum”. Llewellyn combines various chilling elements (all based in fact) – feral children, the ghastly executions in 18th century France, and the awareness of the head after abrupt decapitation – and combines them into a unique and grisly story of blasphemous experiments and unflinching ambition. It’s also the first story in the book that seems to have no fantasy/sci-fi/weird elements, though it is certainly an intensely disturbing story wonderfully executed by Llewellyn.
More poetic tour-de-forces follow. “Yours is the Right to Begin” is an interesting play on Dracula (the original Stoker novel, of course) – the story takes the form of three monologues delivered to Mina in her hypnotic trance by the Three Sisters. While there certainly are stunningly gruesome moments, as there are in almost all of Llewellyn’s work, the overall tone is not horrifying but more haunting, a bleak rumination on life, death, immortality, and love. It certainly takes some inspiration from Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film version of the story (full disclosure: I LOVE that movie with the strongest of nostalgia, since it was my first horror movie EVER. Even though Keanu Reaves is one of the worst actors I’ve ever seen, I feel like the film makes up for it in other departments.), with its intensely visual nature, its heavy erotic undercurrents, and its depiction of Dracula himself (including the fact that his wife leapt from the window, also depicted in the movie – a story with factual basis in the life of Vlad the Impaler). A depressing piece about the sadness of immortality and the depths to which one can sink, “Yours is the Right to Begin” is a fitting homage to the most influential horror novel of all time (Dracula, an abridged version, anyway, was really my first exposure to horror literature).
My favorite of the collection is undoubtedly “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” (a story I originally encountered in The Monstrous, ed. Ellen Datlow). It is a jaw-dropping epic of horror storytelling, terrifying on many more levels than its initial shock. It takes the form of a diary – the diary of a fourteen year old girl, Hailee, who’s involved in some rather unusual coming-of-age activities with her family. Influence from Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” and Machen’s “The White People” are clear, but Llewellyn runs with these stories in her own unique way – an exceedingly bloodier, nastier way. Oh yes, it is quite horrifying, with some complex backstory that Llewellyn cleverly dodges around and hints at. This is made even more jarring by the firm YA voice. She goes to places Lovecraft wouldn’t even think about, but moreover there are more deeply rooted concerns than a witch cult. Disturbing psychosexual concepts are explored, fears that we need to have a discussion about but are too afraid to touch. Fears about the oppression of women while men just stand around with their cocks in their hands, teenage fears about rape and unwanted pregnancy, fears that women – and, indeed, some men – hold in their hearts. It is an important story, however, because it starts a discussion. I loaned a copy of this story to a friend of mine – a girl – and the next day we had a deep discussion about this topic. That is imperative. That a horror story, a stomach-churning, gut-wrenching horror story, started a discussion. An important discussion, one that we only hope can continue.
Now, friends, do you see why Livia Llewellyn is certainly one of the most important writers of horror fiction, living or dead? Do you see why Furnace is such a masterpiece, such a triumph? It brings to light things we SHOULD be talking about but are too afraid to touch in beautiful prose, in stark brutality, in blood and filth. And, if you look under the billions of layers you can search through in these amazing stories, you will find the beauty in horror.
April 21, 2020
A collection of dark, erotically-tinged horror stories.
The first two stories here are exquisite, and the next few are superlative. After that, they're good, solid, but not as disturbing or transgressive as the first few. If I had to sum them up, I'd say...they're about how some people are never satisfied. Not that some people are never satisfied, but exactly the variety of methods by which some people express their eternal lack of satisfaction.
Recommended for horror readers heading off the well-beaten paths of slasherdom.
The first two stories here are exquisite, and the next few are superlative. After that, they're good, solid, but not as disturbing or transgressive as the first few. If I had to sum them up, I'd say...they're about how some people are never satisfied. Not that some people are never satisfied, but exactly the variety of methods by which some people express their eternal lack of satisfaction.
Recommended for horror readers heading off the well-beaten paths of slasherdom.
March 11, 2021
A potent protean voice, archaic and modern, evoking the wild and weird, the cosmic, infernal, and internal, with the aspects of lust and grotesque within a disquieting beauty and poetically intriguing hypnotically succumbing succulent prose.
Panopticon
According to Cambridge Dictionary
Panopticon=
“a prison with cells (= rooms) arranged in a circle, so that the people in them can be seen at all times from the centre”
One to be warned adult content.
I have read for you can skip this one if concerned.
Memorable interlude into a …queen and a kingdom with poetically intriguing hypnotically succulent prose.
Stabilimentum
You feel for Thalia, empathy built within reader with your character that box is ticked by the author in this one.
In the middle of a block flats on the thirty-seventh floor lives Thalia she’s having a little catch and dispose of creepy insect problems and whilst dealing with her ongoing vertigo.
Trauma contained connected to spider and heights.
Time to move on I have a spare room.
Visceral orchestration and trepidation.
Wasp & Snake
Plenty sting in this one. Strange realm and character having you feeling one will never want to trouble this type of Wasp.
Cinereous
“She will become a scholar, a doctor, a brilliant beacon of light and an example to all women of France.”
Will she?
The tale commences with a character named Olympie in Paris street fall of 1799.
She is smart and involved in scientific research with gullotines involved and diseased sauvages with copper bowl and notebook nearby.
Off with the heads time.
Dealing with grotesqueries and abominations not a job for everyone.
Grotesque gothic atmospheric tale.
Yours is The Right to Begin
Many rules and there is one in charge I mean even books are forbidden they are asking a lot.
He needs to stop the demands.
I like this Queen of Lies but when it’s feeding time need to be invisible.
Lyrical piece.
In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982
Well that was a ride, lyrical and visceral potency with one woman, not your average woman, Severin, whilst not at school and studies, amidst the magic of Knox, two worlds, and “numinous transformations.”
Adult content.
Allochthon
This small life..”This small house. This small life. This cage. She can’t do it anymore. The clock on the bookcase chimes ten.”
One can empathize with her and existing.
An encounter with black static awaits.
Great cosmic horror tale by a wondrous potent protean voice.
Furnace
Town is dying ashes are falling.
A thirteen year old voice on the precipice of adulthood with feelings in a world dying and topsy turvy.
Cold town, dying towns, a world brought alive with haunting evocations, memories, a childhood lost, and the joyful turned foul.
Time is relevant.
The Mysteries
The Grand is sending for them, it may not be good.
A crucible and nightmarish world.
The unattainable
A submission and a wild endeavour.
Adult content.
Short stories reviewed with excerpts that don't appear here @ https://www.more2read.com/review/furnace-by-livia-llewellyn/
Panopticon
According to Cambridge Dictionary
Panopticon=
“a prison with cells (= rooms) arranged in a circle, so that the people in them can be seen at all times from the centre”
One to be warned adult content.
I have read for you can skip this one if concerned.
Memorable interlude into a …queen and a kingdom with poetically intriguing hypnotically succulent prose.
Stabilimentum
You feel for Thalia, empathy built within reader with your character that box is ticked by the author in this one.
In the middle of a block flats on the thirty-seventh floor lives Thalia she’s having a little catch and dispose of creepy insect problems and whilst dealing with her ongoing vertigo.
Trauma contained connected to spider and heights.
Time to move on I have a spare room.
Visceral orchestration and trepidation.
Wasp & Snake
Plenty sting in this one. Strange realm and character having you feeling one will never want to trouble this type of Wasp.
Cinereous
“She will become a scholar, a doctor, a brilliant beacon of light and an example to all women of France.”
Will she?
The tale commences with a character named Olympie in Paris street fall of 1799.
She is smart and involved in scientific research with gullotines involved and diseased sauvages with copper bowl and notebook nearby.
Off with the heads time.
Dealing with grotesqueries and abominations not a job for everyone.
Grotesque gothic atmospheric tale.
Yours is The Right to Begin
Many rules and there is one in charge I mean even books are forbidden they are asking a lot.
He needs to stop the demands.
I like this Queen of Lies but when it’s feeding time need to be invisible.
Lyrical piece.
In the Court of King Cupressaceae, 1982
Well that was a ride, lyrical and visceral potency with one woman, not your average woman, Severin, whilst not at school and studies, amidst the magic of Knox, two worlds, and “numinous transformations.”
Adult content.
Allochthon
This small life..”This small house. This small life. This cage. She can’t do it anymore. The clock on the bookcase chimes ten.”
One can empathize with her and existing.
An encounter with black static awaits.
Great cosmic horror tale by a wondrous potent protean voice.
Furnace
Town is dying ashes are falling.
A thirteen year old voice on the precipice of adulthood with feelings in a world dying and topsy turvy.
Cold town, dying towns, a world brought alive with haunting evocations, memories, a childhood lost, and the joyful turned foul.
Time is relevant.
The Mysteries
The Grand is sending for them, it may not be good.
A crucible and nightmarish world.
The unattainable
A submission and a wild endeavour.
Adult content.
Short stories reviewed with excerpts that don't appear here @ https://www.more2read.com/review/furnace-by-livia-llewellyn/
February 17, 2017
Apart from China Miéville and Jeff Vandermeer, Livia Llewellyn was one of my first forays into 'Weird Fiction'. I have Lovecraft and Ligotti on my shelf as well, but I just haven't got around the reading those guys. What was great about the stories in this collection was the intense atmosphere. Llewellyn manages to create a creepy, otherworldly feeling in quite banal or commonplace settings, which I love.
However, there were only a few stories I can say that I liked, those being: Stabilimentum, Yours Is the Right to Begin, Allochthon and The Last, Clean, Bright Summer. In these stories, I feel the language used really helped to build the narratives. In the rest of the stories, however, I just didn't feel much. I like weird and strange tales, but there's only so far a story can be stretched just by using flowery language. I'm certain that three stories back-to-back all used the word 'antediluvian', which really stuck out to me in the wrong way.
Maybe once I've read some more 'Weird Literature', I'll be able to see more clearly how authors write within this genre (John Langan's The Fisherman is high on my list at the minute). I wanted to love it, but I just didn't find myself feeling that way.
However, there were only a few stories I can say that I liked, those being: Stabilimentum, Yours Is the Right to Begin, Allochthon and The Last, Clean, Bright Summer. In these stories, I feel the language used really helped to build the narratives. In the rest of the stories, however, I just didn't feel much. I like weird and strange tales, but there's only so far a story can be stretched just by using flowery language. I'm certain that three stories back-to-back all used the word 'antediluvian', which really stuck out to me in the wrong way.
Maybe once I've read some more 'Weird Literature', I'll be able to see more clearly how authors write within this genre (John Langan's The Fisherman is high on my list at the minute). I wanted to love it, but I just didn't find myself feeling that way.
October 1, 2017
I’m not sure I could lay a finger on Llewellyn’s narrative voice binding this collection, but it is a phenomenal assemblage of responses to other styles and themes. I would be satisfied if this was just an anthology of fantastic modern responses to traditional horror tales, but it is somehow uncannily more.
“Stabilimentum” is everything I want from a story about spiders living in your bathroom, and also possibly simultaneously in an adjacent dimension. If you want a sampling of what is in this collection, go listen to this over on PseudoPod. “Allocthon” is a grim cosmic horror tale that while it is aware of “The Colour Out of Space” and “The Lurking Fear” it owes them no loyalty and plucks out their eyes to have for their own.
“Cinereous” is grotesque and gory and beautiful. I might want all my Victorian horror to look like this. I was unsurprised to find that “Furnace” originally appeared in “Grimscribe’s Puppets” as it is very much an unsettling Ligotti response. It is “Yes, We’ll Gather at the River” set in a brutal cosmic hellscape. “It Feels Better Biting Down” is amazing and seriously grotesque and “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” took my breath away with its unblinking brutality.
“Stabilimentum” is everything I want from a story about spiders living in your bathroom, and also possibly simultaneously in an adjacent dimension. If you want a sampling of what is in this collection, go listen to this over on PseudoPod. “Allocthon” is a grim cosmic horror tale that while it is aware of “The Colour Out of Space” and “The Lurking Fear” it owes them no loyalty and plucks out their eyes to have for their own.
“Cinereous” is grotesque and gory and beautiful. I might want all my Victorian horror to look like this. I was unsurprised to find that “Furnace” originally appeared in “Grimscribe’s Puppets” as it is very much an unsettling Ligotti response. It is “Yes, We’ll Gather at the River” set in a brutal cosmic hellscape. “It Feels Better Biting Down” is amazing and seriously grotesque and “The Last, Clean, Bright Summer” took my breath away with its unblinking brutality.
March 18, 2016
Dark and intense stories, mostly falling within the category of literary horror. My favorites were "In the Court of King Cupressaceae", "It Feels Better Biting Down", "The Mysteries", and "Furnace", all of which eschew genre and realism for a kind of alien nightmare logic. Also noteworthy was "The Last Clean, Bright Summer", a tale with a more traditional narrative style but which is excitingly imaginative nonetheless.
July 23, 2018
2.5 stars.
January 8, 2022
Efectivamente, es rarísimo. Pero deja poso.
November 12, 2020
Furnace var en uppenbarelse. Llewellyn var en författare som jag blev nyfiken på efter att ha läst en artikel om en novell på Tor.com (tyvärr inte med i denna samling) och när jag nu läst denna samling så har mina förväntningar infriats, med råge. Det enda namnet jag kan komma att tänka på för att beskriva det är egentligen New Weird, med mycket sex. Tänker ibland på Ligotti (titel-novellen, b.la) och ibland på Vandermeers Veniss Underground, specifikt scenen då huvudkaraktären är i katedralen. Det är mycket sex och mycket body horror; Lovecraft själv (som ju är ett evigt inflytande på denna sorts genre) skulle ha satt i halsen redan på första sidan.
Det är bra, som sagt. Fantastiskt bra. En blandning av alla möjliga -punk stilar och en som jag nog inte ens skulle kalla för skräck, snarare en slags psykologisk western; lite som Cormac McCarthy om han var väldigt, väldigt kåt. Det är tyvärr en av de minst imponerande i samlingen (tillsammans med The Last Clean, Bright Summer), men i alla fall. Den största behållningen är utan tvekan Llewellyns underbara språk och en fantastisk fantasi. Det är lite som att vara på en dålig LSD-tripp, på ett liknande sätt som att läsa Ramsey Campbell, men på ett riktigt bra sätt. De bästa i samlingen är nog utan tvekan Stabilimentum (speciellt om man har spindelfobi), Furnace (ett underbart homage till Ligotti), And Love Shall have no Dominion och Allochthon. Men det finns ingen dålig, utom de två tidigare nämnda, som inte är dåliga, egentligen, utan bara inte min kopp te; alla andra är fempoängare.
Det är bra, som sagt. Fantastiskt bra. En blandning av alla möjliga -punk stilar och en som jag nog inte ens skulle kalla för skräck, snarare en slags psykologisk western; lite som Cormac McCarthy om han var väldigt, väldigt kåt. Det är tyvärr en av de minst imponerande i samlingen (tillsammans med The Last Clean, Bright Summer), men i alla fall. Den största behållningen är utan tvekan Llewellyns underbara språk och en fantastisk fantasi. Det är lite som att vara på en dålig LSD-tripp, på ett liknande sätt som att läsa Ramsey Campbell, men på ett riktigt bra sätt. De bästa i samlingen är nog utan tvekan Stabilimentum (speciellt om man har spindelfobi), Furnace (ett underbart homage till Ligotti), And Love Shall have no Dominion och Allochthon. Men det finns ingen dålig, utom de två tidigare nämnda, som inte är dåliga, egentligen, utan bara inte min kopp te; alla andra är fempoängare.
January 20, 2020
There aren't many authors that can simultaneously creep you the fuck out AND get you kinda turned on in the same sentence like Livia Llewellyn. And what she lacks in variation she sure as hell makes up for with intensity and gruesome, squeamish, unsettling eroticism. I had to stop reading a few times to quiet my mind, she is so unrelentingly dark and sensual with her prose. Her descriptive use of language to paint a tapestry of evil domination and blatant orgasmic delight is beyond compare. She has the uncanny ability to make you feel ashamed and excited, kinda like reading erotica on the subway or something similarly untoward. Ahem.
A thoroughly enjoyable and sexually explicit feast of ghastly, gothic wonder. Yum.
A thoroughly enjoyable and sexually explicit feast of ghastly, gothic wonder. Yum.
August 13, 2025
Furance presents a striking image of emotion, the tension between horror, lust, anxiety. Written with beautiful prose and a delirious, dreamlike atmosphere. The highlights for me were Cinerous, Lord of the Hunt, Furnace, and The Last, Clean, Bright Summer.
February 15, 2019
A solid set of erotica-tinged horror stories (and one at the end that's basically just straight-up erotica). Well-written, with interesting concepts and a whole lot of darkness. Sexy in an uncomfortable way. The standout for me was "The Last Clean, Bright Summer" which I thought did a fantastic job of establishing a truly bizarre and unique setting, asking many questions and answering just enough of them. I love when stories leave you somehow both satisfied but also wishing they were longer, and several of the ones in this book manage that feat.
If you're into dark stories and aren't bothered by explicit sexual content (some of which is, uh ... extremely forceful), then this is definitely worth a look.
If you're into dark stories and aren't bothered by explicit sexual content (some of which is, uh ... extremely forceful), then this is definitely worth a look.
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