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Haunting Muses
In this collection of lesbian stories, ghosts, be they actual or the metaphorical ghosts of memories, aren't necessarily evil and hauntings may or may not be bad. How do we move beyond the foul spirits or integrate the shining beings who haunt us in the cruelest or the best ways? And how do we or our characters reconcile these ghosts into transformation and healing within present reality?
182 pages, Paperback
First published October 12, 2016
31 people want to read
About the author
Doreen Perrine
7 books3 followersFrom the author's website: Most of my characters appear in dreams so that my mother believed they spoke to, or through, me to tell their stories. Essential to my writing is a connection to character.
Given my childhood fascination with the intense people of Dickens’s novels and a lifelong love of theater, this jives with the drama of my stories. Story and character are interlaced and I write to give voice to invisible lives that might, otherwise, get overlooked.
Beyond my being a sucker for a happy (or happier) ending, I hope to portray my characters as everyday heroes with dynamic inner lives. Delving into who inspires my stories, becomes the flesh and blood of my writing.
From the publisher's website: Doreen Perrine has been published in various anthologies and literary ezines including The Copperfield Review, Lacuna, Freya's Bower, Raving Dove, Harrington Lesbian Literary Quarterly, Sinister Wisdom, Lesbian Connection, Queer and Catholic, Gay Flash Fiction, Lesbian Memoirs, Read These LipsQueer Collection. Doreen's plays have been performed at Here Arts Center, WOW Café, Under St. Marks Theatre, and Manhattan Theatre Source in New York City.
Given my childhood fascination with the intense people of Dickens’s novels and a lifelong love of theater, this jives with the drama of my stories. Story and character are interlaced and I write to give voice to invisible lives that might, otherwise, get overlooked.
Beyond my being a sucker for a happy (or happier) ending, I hope to portray my characters as everyday heroes with dynamic inner lives. Delving into who inspires my stories, becomes the flesh and blood of my writing.
From the publisher's website: Doreen Perrine has been published in various anthologies and literary ezines including The Copperfield Review, Lacuna, Freya's Bower, Raving Dove, Harrington Lesbian Literary Quarterly, Sinister Wisdom, Lesbian Connection, Queer and Catholic, Gay Flash Fiction, Lesbian Memoirs, Read These LipsQueer Collection. Doreen's plays have been performed at Here Arts Center, WOW Café, Under St. Marks Theatre, and Manhattan Theatre Source in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 15, 2019
I don't think you can expect anything from this book since it's short stories but important topics are talked about, and the emotions felt throughout the book are incredible.
In just one story, you can go from goosebumps due to fear and then you're just overwhelmed by a moment of cuteness between the characters.
There's a lot of sadness in this book because of the different ghosts of the stories but there's also happy moments which makes it really good.
In just one story, you can go from goosebumps due to fear and then you're just overwhelmed by a moment of cuteness between the characters.
There's a lot of sadness in this book because of the different ghosts of the stories but there's also happy moments which makes it really good.
December 4, 2017
2017 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Haunting Muses Doreen Perrine
1) This was also a book where some of the stories were better than others, but as a whole it wasn’t bad. If I had have bought the book I wouldn’t have been mad that I’d wasted my money as I really did enjoy most of the stories.
2) An anthology of provocative, well-curated pieces that stretches the boundaries of what a sapphic ghost story can be while still celebrating the women and specters that helped form the genre. Every piece spoke to me, leaving me haunted and awed (or even going “aww”) in equal turn. This may be a near-perfect score, but upon examination, this is a near-perfect anthology. There are three types of plot at play across this anthology. The first are those styled like a typical ghost story, involving a chance encounter with a stranger and their ghostly nature being the twist. There is nothing detrimental about this; rather, they felt like an homage to the genre while providing their own sapphic spin, the sort of stories one would imagine listening to around a late-night campfire. The second type of plot at play is the observation; most common in the poetic pieces, the focus is musing on the situation at hand through use of form and description. Though a few of these lean toward enigma or purple prose, most of these still evoke a haunted sensation in both the speaker and the reader. The remaining stories played with the concept of ghosts in a less literal sense, and often felt like chapters from a larger piece of work. From memories and time travel to guilt and A.I. recordings, the unique takes these stories took on ghosts made their plots harder to predict. Most of these had more positive endings than the other pieces; I applaud one particular piece for making a zombie-transformation loving and romantic. Despite the similar theme, every short story in this collection has a unique location and mood. There are Victorian-esque seaside manors, the last quiet Sunday before school in suburbia, and marooned spaceships eaten alive by growing desperation, and each place feels equally believable. Real world locations like the graveyard-filled Colma feel well researched and lived-in, while the glimpses we see of fantastical locations like a zombie-friendly moon are enticing and leave me wanting more stories in these settings. The range of moods is impressive as well; plenty of stories are as creepy as one would expect a ghost story to be, while others are more action-packed tales of desperation and survival, and a few even feel sweet. Due to the theme of ghosts, many of the characters involved are either learning to deal with loss, or wish they were as they are haunted by their pasts—though explorations of a loss of self are just as common as the loss of a loved one. Most of them manage to find strength and hope by the end of the story, even if their newfound acceptance has a darker twist to it in some of the tales. There are also quite a few unreliable narrators in this anthology, leading the readers to question how real some of these ghosts (or even our protagonists themselves) may be. As expected from an anthology, there are a wide array of writing styles at play. There are third-person adventures, first person musings with unreliable narrators, even a couple poems and a second-person piece. There are modern voices a-plenty, with a few authors bringing elements of other languages and cultures into play, while others are more reminiscent of classic authors like Jane Austen or Mark Twain. A couple stories lean toward the verbose or even purple prose, but otherwise, the writing is clear, poetic, and typo-free.
1) This was also a book where some of the stories were better than others, but as a whole it wasn’t bad. If I had have bought the book I wouldn’t have been mad that I’d wasted my money as I really did enjoy most of the stories.
2) An anthology of provocative, well-curated pieces that stretches the boundaries of what a sapphic ghost story can be while still celebrating the women and specters that helped form the genre. Every piece spoke to me, leaving me haunted and awed (or even going “aww”) in equal turn. This may be a near-perfect score, but upon examination, this is a near-perfect anthology. There are three types of plot at play across this anthology. The first are those styled like a typical ghost story, involving a chance encounter with a stranger and their ghostly nature being the twist. There is nothing detrimental about this; rather, they felt like an homage to the genre while providing their own sapphic spin, the sort of stories one would imagine listening to around a late-night campfire. The second type of plot at play is the observation; most common in the poetic pieces, the focus is musing on the situation at hand through use of form and description. Though a few of these lean toward enigma or purple prose, most of these still evoke a haunted sensation in both the speaker and the reader. The remaining stories played with the concept of ghosts in a less literal sense, and often felt like chapters from a larger piece of work. From memories and time travel to guilt and A.I. recordings, the unique takes these stories took on ghosts made their plots harder to predict. Most of these had more positive endings than the other pieces; I applaud one particular piece for making a zombie-transformation loving and romantic. Despite the similar theme, every short story in this collection has a unique location and mood. There are Victorian-esque seaside manors, the last quiet Sunday before school in suburbia, and marooned spaceships eaten alive by growing desperation, and each place feels equally believable. Real world locations like the graveyard-filled Colma feel well researched and lived-in, while the glimpses we see of fantastical locations like a zombie-friendly moon are enticing and leave me wanting more stories in these settings. The range of moods is impressive as well; plenty of stories are as creepy as one would expect a ghost story to be, while others are more action-packed tales of desperation and survival, and a few even feel sweet. Due to the theme of ghosts, many of the characters involved are either learning to deal with loss, or wish they were as they are haunted by their pasts—though explorations of a loss of self are just as common as the loss of a loved one. Most of them manage to find strength and hope by the end of the story, even if their newfound acceptance has a darker twist to it in some of the tales. There are also quite a few unreliable narrators in this anthology, leading the readers to question how real some of these ghosts (or even our protagonists themselves) may be. As expected from an anthology, there are a wide array of writing styles at play. There are third-person adventures, first person musings with unreliable narrators, even a couple poems and a second-person piece. There are modern voices a-plenty, with a few authors bringing elements of other languages and cultures into play, while others are more reminiscent of classic authors like Jane Austen or Mark Twain. A couple stories lean toward the verbose or even purple prose, but otherwise, the writing is clear, poetic, and typo-free.
January 23, 2018
"Haunting Muses" is an anthology of provocative, well-curated pieces that stretches the boundaries of what a sapphic ghost story can be while still celebrating the women and specters that helped form the genre. Every piece spoke to me, leaving me haunted and awed (or even going “aww”) in equal turn.
There are three types of plot at play across this anthology. The first are those styled like a typical ghost story, involving a chance encounter with a stranger and their ghostly nature being the twist. There is nothing detrimental about this; rather, they felt like an homage to the genre while providing their own sapphic spin, the sort of stories one would imagine listening to around a late-night campfire.
The second type of plot at play is the observation; most common in the poetic pieces, the focus is musing on the situation at hand through use of form and description. Though a few of these lean toward enigma or purple prose, most of these still evoke a haunted sensation in both the speaker and the reader.
The remaining stories played with the concept of ghosts in a less literal sense, and often felt like chapters from a larger piece of work. From memories and time travel to guilt and A.I. recordings, the unique takes these stories took on ghosts made their plots harder to predict. Most of these had more positive endings than the other pieces; I applaud one particular piece for making a zombie-transformation loving and romantic.
Despite the similar theme, every short story in this collection has a unique location and mood. There are Victorian-esque seaside manors, the last quiet Sunday before school in suburbia, and marooned spaceships eaten alive by growing desperation, and each place feels equally believable. Real world locations like the graveyard-filled Colma feel well researched and lived-in, while the glimpses we see of fantastical locations like a zombie-friendly moon are enticing and leave me wanting more stories in these settings. The range of moods is impressive as well; plenty of stories are as creepy as one would expect a ghost story to be, while others are more action-packed tales of desperation and survival, and a few even feel sweet. The writing styles for each piece vary as well, including third-person adventures, first person musings with unreliable narrators, even a couple poems and a second-person piece.
Due to the theme of ghosts, many of the characters involved are either learning to deal with loss, or wish they were as they are haunted by their pasts—though explorations of a loss of self are just as common as the loss of a loved one. Most of them manage to find strength and hope by the end of the story, even if their newfound acceptance has a darker twist to it in some of the tales. There are also quite a few unreliable narrators in this anthology, leading the readers to question how real some of these ghosts (or even our protagonists themselves) may be.
If you're not just looking for an anthology, but a celebration of womanhood, literature, and the varying definitions of ghosts, then pick up "Haunting Muses" immediately.
There are three types of plot at play across this anthology. The first are those styled like a typical ghost story, involving a chance encounter with a stranger and their ghostly nature being the twist. There is nothing detrimental about this; rather, they felt like an homage to the genre while providing their own sapphic spin, the sort of stories one would imagine listening to around a late-night campfire.
The second type of plot at play is the observation; most common in the poetic pieces, the focus is musing on the situation at hand through use of form and description. Though a few of these lean toward enigma or purple prose, most of these still evoke a haunted sensation in both the speaker and the reader.
The remaining stories played with the concept of ghosts in a less literal sense, and often felt like chapters from a larger piece of work. From memories and time travel to guilt and A.I. recordings, the unique takes these stories took on ghosts made their plots harder to predict. Most of these had more positive endings than the other pieces; I applaud one particular piece for making a zombie-transformation loving and romantic.
Despite the similar theme, every short story in this collection has a unique location and mood. There are Victorian-esque seaside manors, the last quiet Sunday before school in suburbia, and marooned spaceships eaten alive by growing desperation, and each place feels equally believable. Real world locations like the graveyard-filled Colma feel well researched and lived-in, while the glimpses we see of fantastical locations like a zombie-friendly moon are enticing and leave me wanting more stories in these settings. The range of moods is impressive as well; plenty of stories are as creepy as one would expect a ghost story to be, while others are more action-packed tales of desperation and survival, and a few even feel sweet. The writing styles for each piece vary as well, including third-person adventures, first person musings with unreliable narrators, even a couple poems and a second-person piece.
Due to the theme of ghosts, many of the characters involved are either learning to deal with loss, or wish they were as they are haunted by their pasts—though explorations of a loss of self are just as common as the loss of a loved one. Most of them manage to find strength and hope by the end of the story, even if their newfound acceptance has a darker twist to it in some of the tales. There are also quite a few unreliable narrators in this anthology, leading the readers to question how real some of these ghosts (or even our protagonists themselves) may be.
If you're not just looking for an anthology, but a celebration of womanhood, literature, and the varying definitions of ghosts, then pick up "Haunting Muses" immediately.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews