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Dear Sweet Filthy World
What exactly is the difference between a love letter and a suicide note? Is there really any difference at all? These might be the questions posed by Dear Sweet Filthy World, Caitlin R. Kiernan's fourteenth collection of short fiction, comprised of twenty-eight uncollected and impossible-to-find stories. Treading the grim places where desire and destruction, longing and horror intersect, the author rises once again to meet the high expectations she set with such celebrated collections as Tales of Pain and Wonder, To Charles Fort, With Love, and the World Fantasy Award-winning The Ape's Wife and Other Stories. In these pages you'll meet a dragon's lover, a drowned vampire cursed always to ride the tides, a wardrobe that grants wishes, and a lunatic artist's marriage of the Black Dahlia and the Beast of Gévaudan. You'll visit a ruined post-industrial Faerie, travel back to tropical Paleozoic seas and ahead to the far-flung future, and you'll meet a desperate writer forced to sell her memories for new ideas. Here are twenty-eight tales of apocalypse and rebirth, of miraculous transformation and utter annihilation. Here is the place where professing your undying devotion might be precisely the same thing as signing your own death warrant or worse. The stories in Dear Sweet Filthy World were first published in the subscription-only Sirenia Digest, run by Caitlin for her most devoted readers. This publication marks the first availability to the general public for most of these rare tales.
362 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 31, 2017
43 people are currently reading
689 people want to read
About the author
Caitlín R. Kiernan
416 books1,666 followersCaitlín Rebekah Kiernan is an Irish-born American published paleontologist and author of science fiction and dark fantasy works, including ten novels, series of comic books, and more than two hundred and fifty published short stories, novellas, and vignettes.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
dreaded-dnf
April 13, 2017I've been dragging my feet on this for two months and I've decided to throw in the towel. I can't bring myself to read any more solid walls of text.
"Great swaths of the rocky seafloor rising up to meet her beneath a carpet of calcified cyanobacteria and the branching lobes and solitary cups of archaeocyath sponges.There are knotted clusters formed by problematic chancellorids, an enigma to taxonomists, who must place all organisms in this box or that box; the chancellorids may be only sponges, or they may be slug like halkieriids protected inside their skins of star shaped, calcareous sclerites."
I wanted to like this so much, but I just can't get into it.
*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC, but since I did not finish, I do not feel it's fair for me to rate or review at this time.*
"Great swaths of the rocky seafloor rising up to meet her beneath a carpet of calcified cyanobacteria and the branching lobes and solitary cups of archaeocyath sponges.There are knotted clusters formed by problematic chancellorids, an enigma to taxonomists, who must place all organisms in this box or that box; the chancellorids may be only sponges, or they may be slug like halkieriids protected inside their skins of star shaped, calcareous sclerites."
I wanted to like this so much, but I just can't get into it.
*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC, but since I did not finish, I do not feel it's fair for me to rate or review at this time.*
February 4, 2017
As the blurb says, this is a collection of strange stories. When I first read what the book was all about I was super intrigued and I'm so glad I went for it and read it. To say that the stories are not what your usually read would be is an understatement. They are, at least to me, a mix of wonder, sadness, craziness and simply something that will leave you thinking about strange things. Each story is unique, so you will never be bored or uninterested. But I have to warn you, these stories are not for the faint-hearted. They are messy, even dark and definitely not a light read. But I'm sure that in the end you will find yourself enjoying them. If not, then maybe it's just me who's strange enough to like them. ;)
ARC received in exchange for an honest review.
ARC received in exchange for an honest review.
Want to read
April 12, 2017This lather bound hardcover is copy 373 of 600 signed and numbered copies, signed by Caitlin R. Kiernan.
This book comes shipped with an additional hardcover book titled "The Aubergine Alphabet (a Fourth Primer)" which is not signed or numbered. The book contains stories A - Z mostly based on Suggestions made by Sirenia Digest readers.
This book comes shipped with an additional hardcover book titled "The Aubergine Alphabet (a Fourth Primer)" which is not signed or numbered. The book contains stories A - Z mostly based on Suggestions made by Sirenia Digest readers.
July 29, 2022
Cosmic horror, sea monsters, paleontology, serial killers, and alien sex. A kaleidoscope of weird and grotesque imagery, and Kiernan’s prose is always something special. A few of the stories here fizzled for me, but a strong collection overall.
March 31, 2017
Caitlín R. Kiernan is an essential practitioner of weird fiction, one of those writers who combines a limitless imagination with a prodigious output: over a dozen novels and novellas, over two hundred short stories, successful runs on the comics Alabaster and The Dreaming, and an untold number of vignettes, not counting her scientific papers and nonfiction. She is one of the most inventive and daring authors in a genre that often prides itself on inventing new and interesting weirdness. Kiernan remains at the forefront of the Gothic fantastic; not only did she release the novella Agents of Dreamland earlier this month, her collection Dear Sweet Filthy World is shipping soon.
These 28 stories come from the pages of Kiernan’s own Sirenia Digest magazine, a subscription e-zine with the tagline “A Monthly Journal of the Weirdly Erotic.” And that’s exactly what you’ll find in this collection—a mix of unsettling passions and melancholic wonder, of obsessive lust and oppressive annihilation, the border realm where desire intersects madness. They are the middle ground where a love song becomes a suicide note, shrouded in ambiguity and mystery. Think H.R. Giger illustrating H.P. Lovecraft by way of Shirley Jackson or Angela Carter. Tales of the dark fantastique, weird fiction at its most sensual and surreal. Something that’s easier to experience than to describe.
Each of Kiernan’s stories is different—different views, perspectives, styles—but there are elements that recur from story to story. There are tales of sea monsters and drowned loves, of art and horror becoming one, of things beyond this world and of supplicants who willingly transform themselves for those otherworldly beings. In “Vicaria Draconis,” a woman becomes a dragon’s lover, a ritual in an ongoing battle waged between sun and moon. “Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)” follows two incestuous lesbian sisters as they murder their way across the highways of the American Southwest, a beautiful, gruesome love song written in lust and blood. And then there’s “– 30 –,” where a writer treks through the realm of faerie seeking the perfect end to a story that’s confounded her with its lack of finality.
“Shipwrecks Above” has the flavor of an old Gothic, its protagonist complete with a tragic back story and a curse forcing her to wander the briny deeps in search of revenge. It’s one of my favorites stories in the collection, one of several great stories showing Kiernan’s fascination with oceans and sea monsters. The excellent “Fairy Tale of the Maritime” is told by the ocean’s sentient fishes, a tale of a more-than-human woman banished from her village, who flees to the sea and becomes the wife of a Lovecraftian being deep below the waves. “Evensong” and “Scylla for Dummies” follow two different cults, each with their own rituals and supplicants worshiping aquatic monsters as deities. The minds of gods are immutable and unknowable, but sacrifices give up their lives in tribute to these monstrous deities.
“Another Tale of Two Cities” was a standout for me, another tale of willing transformation when a woman is infected by alien explorers—nano-machines, a spore or parasite, their origin isn’t explained. But they are in need of a home, and she offers herself up as their city; they process the iron in her blood and the calcium in her bones to build an empire out of her body, transforming her into a living city… until her supply of resources begins to run dry. She remains aware through the entire process, a distant observer of their culture, watching civilizations rise and fall in a matter of hours.
These are not tales for the prudish or faint-hearted, which should be obvious by now if it wasn’t already. These are stories of a darkening shadow world rich in atmosphere and imagination, grim little tales that envelope you with the cool embrace of the grave, or the fiery passions of lust and madness. They’re not like anything else in the genre, even when you can see elements of Lovecraft or Clark Ashton Smith or Ramsey Campbell in them. At their best, these stories are engrossing and disquieting, some top-shelf weird fiction from one of the greats. Fans of Kiernan and readers of weird fiction should enjoy this collection, one very much worth seeking out—or if not this volume, try the stories in The Ape’s Wife or Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea.
First published on my blog.
These 28 stories come from the pages of Kiernan’s own Sirenia Digest magazine, a subscription e-zine with the tagline “A Monthly Journal of the Weirdly Erotic.” And that’s exactly what you’ll find in this collection—a mix of unsettling passions and melancholic wonder, of obsessive lust and oppressive annihilation, the border realm where desire intersects madness. They are the middle ground where a love song becomes a suicide note, shrouded in ambiguity and mystery. Think H.R. Giger illustrating H.P. Lovecraft by way of Shirley Jackson or Angela Carter. Tales of the dark fantastique, weird fiction at its most sensual and surreal. Something that’s easier to experience than to describe.
Each of Kiernan’s stories is different—different views, perspectives, styles—but there are elements that recur from story to story. There are tales of sea monsters and drowned loves, of art and horror becoming one, of things beyond this world and of supplicants who willingly transform themselves for those otherworldly beings. In “Vicaria Draconis,” a woman becomes a dragon’s lover, a ritual in an ongoing battle waged between sun and moon. “Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)” follows two incestuous lesbian sisters as they murder their way across the highways of the American Southwest, a beautiful, gruesome love song written in lust and blood. And then there’s “– 30 –,” where a writer treks through the realm of faerie seeking the perfect end to a story that’s confounded her with its lack of finality.
“Shipwrecks Above” has the flavor of an old Gothic, its protagonist complete with a tragic back story and a curse forcing her to wander the briny deeps in search of revenge. It’s one of my favorites stories in the collection, one of several great stories showing Kiernan’s fascination with oceans and sea monsters. The excellent “Fairy Tale of the Maritime” is told by the ocean’s sentient fishes, a tale of a more-than-human woman banished from her village, who flees to the sea and becomes the wife of a Lovecraftian being deep below the waves. “Evensong” and “Scylla for Dummies” follow two different cults, each with their own rituals and supplicants worshiping aquatic monsters as deities. The minds of gods are immutable and unknowable, but sacrifices give up their lives in tribute to these monstrous deities.
“Another Tale of Two Cities” was a standout for me, another tale of willing transformation when a woman is infected by alien explorers—nano-machines, a spore or parasite, their origin isn’t explained. But they are in need of a home, and she offers herself up as their city; they process the iron in her blood and the calcium in her bones to build an empire out of her body, transforming her into a living city… until her supply of resources begins to run dry. She remains aware through the entire process, a distant observer of their culture, watching civilizations rise and fall in a matter of hours.
These are not tales for the prudish or faint-hearted, which should be obvious by now if it wasn’t already. These are stories of a darkening shadow world rich in atmosphere and imagination, grim little tales that envelope you with the cool embrace of the grave, or the fiery passions of lust and madness. They’re not like anything else in the genre, even when you can see elements of Lovecraft or Clark Ashton Smith or Ramsey Campbell in them. At their best, these stories are engrossing and disquieting, some top-shelf weird fiction from one of the greats. Fans of Kiernan and readers of weird fiction should enjoy this collection, one very much worth seeking out—or if not this volume, try the stories in The Ape’s Wife or Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea.
First published on my blog.
April 28, 2017
After being somewhat disappointed with her Agents of Dreamland novella that came out earlier this year, it pleases me to say that Dear Sweet Filthy World finds Caitlín R. Kiernan back in fine form (but then again, for the most part I've generally found her shorter fiction superior to her longer works, so no surprise there). Featuring as it does a grand total of 29 stories, there's a LOT of content in here, which I suppose can be intimidating. Many of these stories (which typically range from around 7-10 pages, with only 8 going above 10 pages) seem to be variations on the same theme, which cause some of them to seem to blur together in the mind: for example, at least 5 of the stories deal with the concept of the virgin that's sacrificed to a monster of some sorts, and many of the stories in general revolve around nautical settings and imagery, making this collection a sort of Sapphic Weird Fiction remodeling of Debussy's "La Mer" composition. Some of the better stories are (in my opinion), the very understated "Three Months, Three Scenes, With Snow," the utterly delightful and darkly whimsical "Fairy Tale of the Maritime" (which seems stranded somewhere on the borderline between Lovecraftian and twee), "-30-" (which, despite its seemingly banal title, creatively reimagines the city of Providence, Rhode Island as a secret haven for sinister fairies), "Here is No Why" (another good story involving fairies), and "Sanderlings" (which, despite being dedicated to Ramsey Campbell, also brings to mind Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space"). The final story in the collection, "Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8)" ends the book on a high note: an epic and gleefully violent account of two Impala-driving female bisexual twin sister serial killers going on a rampage of fucking and slaying in the South, done in a breathtaking phantasmagorical non-linear borderline Joycean stream-of-conscious style.
Oh, I also adored the author photograph on the back cover as well.
Oh, I also adored the author photograph on the back cover as well.
July 18, 2022
I really loved the concept behind the story collection and some of the prose, but the majority of the stories weren't appealing to me. The only one I remember truly enjoying was the first. The rest I just couldn't relate to. I still see the appeal and I see how these stories could mean a lot to a specific type of person.
September 4, 2021
Werewolf Smile ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Vicaria Draconis ⭐⭐⭐
Paleozoic Annunciation ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Charcloth, Firesteel, and Flint ⭐⭐⭐
Shipwrecks Above ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Dissevered Heart ⭐⭐⭐
Exuvium ⭐⭐⭐
Drawing from Life ⭐⭐⭐
The Eighth Veil ⭐⭐
Apsinthion ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Three Months, Three Scenes, With Snow ⭐⭐⭐
Workprint ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Tempest Witch ⭐⭐⭐
Fairy Tale of the Maritime ⭐⭐⭐⭐
– 30 – ⭐⭐⭐
The Carnival is Dead and Gone ⭐⭐⭐
Scylla for Dummies ⭐⭐⭐
Figurehead ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Down to Gehenna ⭐⭐⭐
The Granting Cabinet ⭐⭐⭐
Evensong ⭐⭐⭐⭐
VLatitude 41°21'45.89"N, Longitude 71°29'0.62"W ⭐⭐⭐
Another Tale of two Cities ⭐⭐⭐
Blast the Human Flower ⭐⭐⭐
Cammufare ⭐⭐⭐
Here Is No Why ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hauplatte/Gegenplatte ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sanderlings ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8) ⭐⭐⭐
Vicaria Draconis ⭐⭐⭐
Paleozoic Annunciation ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Charcloth, Firesteel, and Flint ⭐⭐⭐
Shipwrecks Above ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Dissevered Heart ⭐⭐⭐
Exuvium ⭐⭐⭐
Drawing from Life ⭐⭐⭐
The Eighth Veil ⭐⭐
Apsinthion ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Three Months, Three Scenes, With Snow ⭐⭐⭐
Workprint ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Tempest Witch ⭐⭐⭐
Fairy Tale of the Maritime ⭐⭐⭐⭐
– 30 – ⭐⭐⭐
The Carnival is Dead and Gone ⭐⭐⭐
Scylla for Dummies ⭐⭐⭐
Figurehead ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Down to Gehenna ⭐⭐⭐
The Granting Cabinet ⭐⭐⭐
Evensong ⭐⭐⭐⭐
VLatitude 41°21'45.89"N, Longitude 71°29'0.62"W ⭐⭐⭐
Another Tale of two Cities ⭐⭐⭐
Blast the Human Flower ⭐⭐⭐
Cammufare ⭐⭐⭐
Here Is No Why ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hauplatte/Gegenplatte ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sanderlings ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8) ⭐⭐⭐
April 25, 2017
This was a set of tales like few others I have ever read. Culled from so many different ideas, each one had it's own personality and feel. Yet through them all was the seamlessly flowing writing, the grim feel of desperation, and the delightful darkness I was hoping for when I picked up this title. Perfect little interludes of beautiful discomfort. ~George 4 stars
February 26, 2017
Full review to come!
January 24, 2018
I have mixed feelings about this collection of stories as a whole. This book started out so strong for me. There were stories that totally absorbed me and haunted me and then there were a few that I skimmed or gave up halfway through their reading. A great many of them revolved around the tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the (Were)wolf or women of the ocean ala Lovecraft Mythos. All were thoughtfully written about strong women. The following had the strongest impression on me.
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Werewolf Smile: mixes the European legends of werewolves, Little Red Riding Hood, and the world of abstract art.
Vicaria draconis: draws up images ancient mayan or pagan worship and sacrifice with sacrificial virgins.
Paleozoic Annunciation: science, time travel, and what one will do in the name of diplomacy.
Charcloth, Firesteel, and Flint: death and destruction by fire and brimstone
Shipwrecks Above: The evil faerie/queen/stepmother/goddess/witch/woman of the faerie tale or legend has to have a beginning, a reason, for why they are what they are.
The Dissevered Heart: I thought of this as Red Riding Hood's introspection...
Fairy Tale of the Maritime: a misunderstood woman, once a part of a community until religious zeal painted her as different. Fitting tale of racism, religious persecution, and misogyny in the political climate today.
Scylla for Dummies: Religion
Figurehead: a tale of a tree nymph
Evensong: Lovecraft inspired tale
Here is No Why: Transformation/gender fluidity
Hauplatte/Gegenplatte: One of the two most striking stories to resonate for me in this collection. Exploring the idea of who we are inside vs what we are on the outside and those that would change us instead of accepting what is there in front of us.
Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8): This was my favourite story of all. I remember reading this one years ago and it haunting me as well. Twin sisters riding the southern highways picking up people to amuse themselves and finally learning the consequences. This one deserves its own soundtrack of Nick Cave and Tom Waites tunes.
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.
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.
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Werewolf Smile: mixes the European legends of werewolves, Little Red Riding Hood, and the world of abstract art.
Vicaria draconis: draws up images ancient mayan or pagan worship and sacrifice with sacrificial virgins.
Paleozoic Annunciation: science, time travel, and what one will do in the name of diplomacy.
Charcloth, Firesteel, and Flint: death and destruction by fire and brimstone
Shipwrecks Above: The evil faerie/queen/stepmother/goddess/witch/woman of the faerie tale or legend has to have a beginning, a reason, for why they are what they are.
The Dissevered Heart: I thought of this as Red Riding Hood's introspection...
Fairy Tale of the Maritime: a misunderstood woman, once a part of a community until religious zeal painted her as different. Fitting tale of racism, religious persecution, and misogyny in the political climate today.
Scylla for Dummies: Religion
Figurehead: a tale of a tree nymph
Evensong: Lovecraft inspired tale
Here is No Why: Transformation/gender fluidity
Hauplatte/Gegenplatte: One of the two most striking stories to resonate for me in this collection. Exploring the idea of who we are inside vs what we are on the outside and those that would change us instead of accepting what is there in front of us.
Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8): This was my favourite story of all. I remember reading this one years ago and it haunting me as well. Twin sisters riding the southern highways picking up people to amuse themselves and finally learning the consequences. This one deserves its own soundtrack of Nick Cave and Tom Waites tunes.
June 6, 2018
My first experience with Kiernan's work was her short story Houses Under the Sea and by the final line I was infatuated. The other short stories I came across only added to my love of her as an author. I'd finally found a female author capable of taking the ideas of Lovecraft that had so fascinated me and turn them into compelling and enjoyable reads. Going into Dear Sweet Filthy World I had expected to find similar works to gush over... alas that was not to be.
I was disconcerted almost from the star once I started taking notice of the similarities between the first story Werewolf Smile, and her novel The Drowning Girl. The similarities didn't stop there. So many of these stories felt like retreads of one or more that came before it. I can only read about two lovers, genders and humanity aside interacting in a room so many times. Then there was all the weird genital growths. Seriously what in the hell was that all about? Broken up and read over a longer period of time I might have found it easier enjoying these stories but reading them back to back definitely grew tiresome.
That's not to say all of these stories came out like that. There are definitely some gems to be found. Charcloth, Firesteel, and Flint, while fitting in with the two lovers theme was the first story of this collection to really grab me. Fairy Tales of the Maritime and -30- won me over easily. Figurehead was touching and has lingered with me since finishing it. Another Tale of Two Cities brought to mind the works of H.R. Giger with impeccable ease. Others like The Dissevered Heart, Apsinthion, Workprint, Here is No Way, and Scylla for Dummies came close to being favorites as well. Also this cover is simply mesmerizing.
I likely won't revisit most of these stories but I still hold Kiernan in high regard and will be picking up more of her work in the near future.
I was disconcerted almost from the star once I started taking notice of the similarities between the first story Werewolf Smile, and her novel The Drowning Girl. The similarities didn't stop there. So many of these stories felt like retreads of one or more that came before it. I can only read about two lovers, genders and humanity aside interacting in a room so many times. Then there was all the weird genital growths. Seriously what in the hell was that all about? Broken up and read over a longer period of time I might have found it easier enjoying these stories but reading them back to back definitely grew tiresome.
That's not to say all of these stories came out like that. There are definitely some gems to be found. Charcloth, Firesteel, and Flint, while fitting in with the two lovers theme was the first story of this collection to really grab me. Fairy Tales of the Maritime and -30- won me over easily. Figurehead was touching and has lingered with me since finishing it. Another Tale of Two Cities brought to mind the works of H.R. Giger with impeccable ease. Others like The Dissevered Heart, Apsinthion, Workprint, Here is No Way, and Scylla for Dummies came close to being favorites as well. Also this cover is simply mesmerizing.
I likely won't revisit most of these stories but I still hold Kiernan in high regard and will be picking up more of her work in the near future.
June 7, 2017
i feel like i just rolled around in the leafy mulch on the ground of an ancient forest
in a good way
kiernan is such a hidden gem, and this book just proves that she should be on the same shelf as angela carter and shirley jackson, who she names in her dedication
these stories are mostly retold fairy tales, and they mostly revolve around the transformation, breakdown, and rebuilding of the female body
"paleozoic annunciation" is my favorite story, the imagery of the woman hanging in the water hundreds of millions of years in the past will stay with me forever
also, that story is a great example of showing the reader just enough that we can put together the scariest details ourselves
i'll be honest: "tempest witch" made me fall asleep
but everything else in this collection is ridiculously riveting
and the final story? guess what writers, kiernan won the prize for best title ever written
you might win a bunch of prizes, but you will never write a better title than "interstate love song (murder ballad no. 8)"
in a good way
kiernan is such a hidden gem, and this book just proves that she should be on the same shelf as angela carter and shirley jackson, who she names in her dedication
these stories are mostly retold fairy tales, and they mostly revolve around the transformation, breakdown, and rebuilding of the female body
"paleozoic annunciation" is my favorite story, the imagery of the woman hanging in the water hundreds of millions of years in the past will stay with me forever
also, that story is a great example of showing the reader just enough that we can put together the scariest details ourselves
i'll be honest: "tempest witch" made me fall asleep
but everything else in this collection is ridiculously riveting
and the final story? guess what writers, kiernan won the prize for best title ever written
you might win a bunch of prizes, but you will never write a better title than "interstate love song (murder ballad no. 8)"
February 5, 2017
Dear Sweet Filthy World by Caitlin Kiernan- Here we have twenty-eight almost impossible to find stories from Caitlin Kernan, published for the most part in her own online magazine and available only by subscription to die-hard fans. These are dark tales on the grim side, where nothing good happens to anyone. Werewolf Smile starts things off and is one of my favorites. It's a stream-of consciousness tale of an avant-garde artist designing an art piece using the Black Dahlia murder victim as his template and the narrator's familiar as his model. Yes, creepy. There's a lot more besides that, and everything is down and dirty to the last gory barb. As I've said before, I'm not much of a horror fan, but the writing here is so immediate, so challenging, it's hard to resist. Cast your eyes across a few opening lines and you find yourself deep into a shadow world that wraps around you and holds you in its cool embrace until it finally lets you go.
May 10, 2017
I devoured this in less than a week. She is truly brilliant. Some stories, yes, were a snore, but others were so good you forget about the bad stories. No writer can continuously write good tales, they must write some bad ones to feel their way into the other stories, which wind up always better!
I feel like this collection brings us back to classic Kiernan, that Tale of Pain and Wonder and Charles Fort days. Her past collections, Ape' s Wife, A is for Alien, Ammonite Violin and others, just felt lazy in comparison to Dear Sweet Filthy World. Those other collections lacked the passion I found in her early writing. I'm glad she's back.
I feel like this collection brings us back to classic Kiernan, that Tale of Pain and Wonder and Charles Fort days. Her past collections, Ape' s Wife, A is for Alien, Ammonite Violin and others, just felt lazy in comparison to Dear Sweet Filthy World. Those other collections lacked the passion I found in her early writing. I'm glad she's back.
August 6, 2024
DNF@25%. Ehhh, these feel more like character sketches or story notes or setting sketches rather than actual stories – the imagery is very nice, but not much is actually happening, and what little is happening didn’t really connect with me. Also, after the first few stories the characters almost seem to have fallen into a cookie-cutter pattern, repeating from story to story, further killing any remaining drive to continue reading.
November 26, 2018
I'm 30% of the way through this on my Kindle and I'm stopping. This pieces are not very motivating to get into. They revolve around many of the same setups, but have INCREDIBLE aesthetics Kiernan sets up through historical allegory and word choice, from a dragon-like Eldritch world to a fire-themed Americana one. I'm just having trouble, and I'm not going to force this one down.
August 6, 2019
Caitlin needs no review. I have all her books. From HPL inspired Cthulhu Mythos tales to horror and mind blowing terror stories she always delivers the goods with a haunting prose style and evocative mood and setting. The stories stay with you long after the lights go out though your sleep may prove full of nightmarish dreams that will leave you only very reluctantly.
February 13, 2020
Its hard for me to review this. Im coming right off the final story, "Interstate Love Story" which is everything youd want out of a Caitlin R Kiernan story; hypnotic, horrific, twistedly beautiful prose. In most cases this feels more like a series of images then actual stories, prose poems more then anything else.
October 5, 2025
honestly i have not finished this one and don’t know if i will. the stories get really repetitive and hard to get through, and a lot of them feel like more of a vague concept than an actual narrative. if you’re just looking for vibey short reads you may like it but personally i did not even find it weird enough to be compelling.
June 15, 2019
I stopped at 230 or so pages in and threw in the towel, which I NEVER do. I thought I’d enjoyed Kiernan’s work in various anthologies I’ve read but these were so repetitive (and almost all seemed to be about weird alien sex) that I wouldn’t seek out more of Kiernan’s short stories again.
compulsion
September 10, 2021This collection of stories is not your happy interspecies romps found in a Dr. Tingle novel with a nice hard life affirming morale lesson pounded into you at the end. So, Keep your creature romances confined to your Dungeons & Dragons games because in real life they can only end horribly.
May 17, 2017
Fucking twisted, fucking beautiful.
June 13, 2017
Her best collection since Charles Fort. We come back to the land of the strange, Angela Carter fairy tale and HPL mythos. Most of all, we have Kiernan's dark visions. Love her work.
October 23, 2018
Just couldn't get into it. I felt like on my audiobook I was listening to gibberish.
April 13, 2021
Very disturbing stories that walk the line between horror and just 'weird'.
100/100 for vocabulary level; would read more by same author.
100/100 for vocabulary level; would read more by same author.
April 3, 2018
I received a copy from Netgalley.
This particular author is one of my favourites of dark and bizarre fiction. Most of the time I love her work, there are the odd ones that I really don’t like or get at all. This collection of short stories has been on my radar since I heard about it. I was thrilled when I got approved for it on Netgalley (a hardcover is nearly $30). After reading a few of the stories I knew I had to have a finished copy and I did purchase a finished Kindle version.
Stand out stories for me were:
Werewolf Smile – a narrator’s flighty girlfriend posing for a series of disturbing photos based on a Red Riding Hood theme. There was something so dark and powerful about the prose that made this story stick with me more than the others. First story in the collection.
Charcloth, Firesteel and Flint – this is about a dude who picks up a random girl hitchhiking and finds himself sharing her memories of violent acts throughout history. Very vivid and uncomfortable.
The Eighth Veil – I loved this one, I wanted a full novel of this one. A group of weird people gathering in a bar to watch some sort of stage show which seems to be an execution.
-30- This one is about a woman who receives an anonymous photo of some sort of monster – is it real? Where did it come from? Who sent it? What is it? An intriguing mystery though was a little disappointed with the end.
The Carnival is Dead and Gone – This was another favourite, dude and has friend visiting a carnival of oddities and freaks head into a special area where the strangest of creatures are held including some sort of quivering mass with theatricals that resemble a giant vagina following some strange sex act. It was another one that was quite uncomfortable but utterly compelling and erotic as it was disturbing. It feels wrong but you can’t take your eyes away. The audience of the show seemed to find it really erotic. Something like this should not be erotic, but it was and what does that say about the state of my mind?
Interstate Lovesong (Murder Ballard No 8) Two sisters who pick up randoms and kill them on their journey get a shock of their own when they pick up a girl with an attitude of her own. Gory and fascinating.
These were the stand outs for me.
This collection is a host of stories from the strange, the weird, the bizarre, disturbing, erotic and sometimes just plain what the fuck was that? 28 of them. Some of them I loved, some of them I hated. Some of them were just bland. One in particular - Tempest Witch - I read the whole thing and didn’t get a word of it. The writing is beautiful and lyrical, dark and dreamy.
A good mixed bag.
Thank you Netgalley and Subterranean Press for approving my request to view the title.
This particular author is one of my favourites of dark and bizarre fiction. Most of the time I love her work, there are the odd ones that I really don’t like or get at all. This collection of short stories has been on my radar since I heard about it. I was thrilled when I got approved for it on Netgalley (a hardcover is nearly $30). After reading a few of the stories I knew I had to have a finished copy and I did purchase a finished Kindle version.
Stand out stories for me were:
Werewolf Smile – a narrator’s flighty girlfriend posing for a series of disturbing photos based on a Red Riding Hood theme. There was something so dark and powerful about the prose that made this story stick with me more than the others. First story in the collection.
Charcloth, Firesteel and Flint – this is about a dude who picks up a random girl hitchhiking and finds himself sharing her memories of violent acts throughout history. Very vivid and uncomfortable.
The Eighth Veil – I loved this one, I wanted a full novel of this one. A group of weird people gathering in a bar to watch some sort of stage show which seems to be an execution.
-30- This one is about a woman who receives an anonymous photo of some sort of monster – is it real? Where did it come from? Who sent it? What is it? An intriguing mystery though was a little disappointed with the end.
The Carnival is Dead and Gone – This was another favourite, dude and has friend visiting a carnival of oddities and freaks head into a special area where the strangest of creatures are held including some sort of quivering mass with theatricals that resemble a giant vagina following some strange sex act. It was another one that was quite uncomfortable but utterly compelling and erotic as it was disturbing. It feels wrong but you can’t take your eyes away. The audience of the show seemed to find it really erotic. Something like this should not be erotic, but it was and what does that say about the state of my mind?
Interstate Lovesong (Murder Ballard No 8) Two sisters who pick up randoms and kill them on their journey get a shock of their own when they pick up a girl with an attitude of her own. Gory and fascinating.
These were the stand outs for me.
This collection is a host of stories from the strange, the weird, the bizarre, disturbing, erotic and sometimes just plain what the fuck was that? 28 of them. Some of them I loved, some of them I hated. Some of them were just bland. One in particular - Tempest Witch - I read the whole thing and didn’t get a word of it. The writing is beautiful and lyrical, dark and dreamy.
A good mixed bag.
Thank you Netgalley and Subterranean Press for approving my request to view the title.
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