Cry Your Way Home

by Damien Angelica Walters

“Once upon a time there was a monster. This is how they tell you the story starts. This is a lie.”

Sometimes things are not what they appear to be. DNA doesn’t define us, gravity doesn’t hold us, a home doesn’t mean we belong. From circus tents to space stations, Damien Angelica Walters creates stories that are both achingly familiar and chillingly surreal. Within her second short story collection, she questions who the real monsters are, rips families apart and stiches them back together, and turns a cell phone into the sharpest of weapons.

Cry Your Way Home brings together seventeen stories that delve deep into human sorrow and loss, weaving pain, fear, and ultimately resilience into beautiful tales that are sure to haunt you long after you finish the collection.

“Once upon a time there was a girl…”

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Collections, Anthologies

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 2018

About the author

Damien Angelica Walters is the author of The Dead Girls Club, Cry Your Way Home, Paper Tigers, and Sing Me Your Scars, winner of the 2015 This is Horror Award for Short Story Collection of the Year. Her short fiction has been nominated twice for a Bram Stoker Award, reprinted in The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror and The Year's Best Weird Fiction, and published in various anthologies and magazines, including the Shirley Jackson Award Finalists Autumn Cthulhu and The Madness of Dr. Caligari, World Fantasy Award Finalist Cassilda’s Song, Nightmare Magazine, Black Static, and Apex Magazine. Until the magazine’s closing in 2013, she was an Associate Editor of the Hugo Award-winning Electric Velocipede, and she lives in Maryland with her husband and two rescued pit bulls.

Reviews

[Karl]

Table of contents:

001 - "Tooth, Tongue, and Claw"
014 - "Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile"
031 - "On the Other Side of the Door, Everything Changes"
043 - "This is the Way I Die"
056 - "The Hands That Hold, the Lies That Bind"
077 - "Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys: The Elephant's Tale"
088 - "The Judas Child"
096 - "S Is for Soliloquy"
102 - "The Floating Girls: A Documentary"
115 - "Take a Walk in the Night, My Love"
128 - "Falling Under, Through the Dark"
138 - "The Serial Killer's Astronaut Daughter"
155 - "Umbilicus"
172 - "A Lie You Give, and Thus I Take"
182 - "Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home"
196 - "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice"
209 - "In the Spaces Where You Once Lived"
225 - Publication History
227 - Acknowledgements
229- About the Author
231 - Also By Damien Angelica Walters

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars
Wow! I think I just found a new favourite short collection.
Video Review: https://youtu.be/_hwMtkuGodE

Most of the stories fall under the umbrella of speculative fiction, ranging from fantasy to horror to science fiction. Many of the stories are dark twists on classic fairy tales, which I particularly loved. Some of the stories were fairly straightforward narratives, while others were more ambiguous and abstract. I loved that the stories took unexpected turns so I could rarely predict the endings.

There was a good range of variety within the stories while feeling like a cohesive collection. Most of the stories centered around women and adolescent girls, often exploring mother daughter relationships and female friendships. For this reason, I think this collection will particularly resonate with a female audience, although male readers can certainly still appreciate this book.

I loved the writing in this collection. It was beautiful, yet razor sharp. There were so many times I found myself wanting to highlight a sentence or a whole paragraph.  Walters reminded me of authors like Gillian Flynn and Kristi DeMeester in terms of both content and writing style.

There were no one stories in the book that I did not like, which I can rarely say about a short story collection. Certainly, there were stories I liked more than others, but they were all consistently good.

My Presonal Favourites Stories were:

"Tooth, Tongue, and Claw"
A lyrical, sexualized retelling of the Beauty and the Beast

"Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile"
An unexpected twists on the step sister narrative

"This is the Way I Die"
One of the more ambiguous stories that gave me science fiction vibes

"The Floating Girls: A Documentary"
Documentary transcripts of a particularly haunting event

"The Serial Killer's Astronaut Daughter"
A future where women are still stigmatized by the actions of their fathers

"A Lie You Give, and Thus I Take"
A darkly delicious tale of control

This was my first reading this author, but it certainly won’t be the last. Damien Angelica Walters has serious favourite author potential!

Disclaimer: I requested a digital copy of this collection from the publisher, Apex Books.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damien Angelica Walters is an author that's been on my radar for a while. She's a Bram Stoker Award nominee, a constant presence in the dark fiction community with her consistent short stories popping up in almost every dark literary magazine, and I really wanted too jump into her work. This collection, her latest release, is my introduction to her. Similar to Gwendolyn Kiste's fantastic And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe from last year, Walters collects a bunch of great dark fantasy stories and twisted fairytales. Aside from a few of the stories (including one narrated by a circus elephant), most of these are tales focusing on young girls and/or their parents dealing with some sort of transformation or transition. What I enjoyed about this book, and what makes this more than just a bunch of cool scary stories is Walters's focus on tackling a variety of real-life emotional issues but through the lens of the weird and the supernatural.

Through tears, she glares at the boxes piled in the corner—a sandcastle built by sorrow's hands.

She touches on topics like dealing with the death of a child ("Falling Under, Through the Dark"), sibling jealousy ("Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile"), postpartum depression ("Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home"), as well as bullying ("On the Other Side of the Door, Everything Changes" and my favorite, "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice"), and skillfully uses fantasy and horror to parallel the emotional turmoil of her characters. And to the reader's who avoid short stories because of the constant story reset? Fear not, because Walters's prose grabs you quickly and holds you and she knows just when to end each tale, making for a smooth read from story to story. If you want your horror to be about more than just ghosts and goblins, if you enjoy it when dark fiction provides us with a way of confronting real-life horrors, then make sure to pick this collection up!

Is this magic or madness or something undefinable?
Perhaps a bit of all three.

[Tyler Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review on blog

I really enjoyed this anthology over-all! Here are the story names and my individual ratings (which equaled to 3.51 average)

"Tooth, Tongue, and Claw" - 5 stars
"Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile" - 4.5 stars
"On the Other Side of the Door, Everything Changes" - 5 stars
"This Is the Way I Die" - 3.75 stars
"The Hands That Hold, the Lies That Bind" - 3.5 stars
"Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys: The Elephant's Tale" - 4 stars
"The Judas Child" - 3.5 stars
"S Is for Soliloquy" - 2 stars
"The Floating Girls: A Documentary" - 4.5 stars
"Take a Walk in the Night, My Love" - 4 stars
"Falling Under, Through the Dark" - 5 stars
"The Serial Killer's Astronaut Daughter" - 4.5 stars
"Umbilicus" - 3 stars
"A Lie You Give, and Thus I Take" - 3.5 stars
"Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home" - 1 star
"Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice" - 1 star
"In the Spaces Where You Once Lived" - 2 stars

As for the ones I didn't care for or like, sometimes it was as simple as it just wasn't for me or I didn't get it which could entirely be a me thing. Over-all though I loved the anthology with many of them packing hard emotional punches, and yes, some even made me cry! I cry easily at books but short stories? Now that's a feat! Many important themes were touched through-out the stories, delved into and written beautifully. My only complaint is I want more! <3 I definitely recommend checking this out when it comes out in January!

Blog | Youtube | Twitter | Instagram

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this collection in 2018 and it blew my mind...so much so I didn't write a single word about it? What the actual fuck? Anyways, I'm writing about it now, but I can't talk about that yet.
What I can talk about is a few of the stories here that belong in your frame of reference for horror:
Take A Walk In The Night, My Love
You can listen to this story on PseudoPod and read my review of it:
https://pseudopod.org/2021/02/15/moth...

My review of Fright Into Flight where I mention Walters' story, The Floating Girls: A Documentary as one of the best in the collection:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

Tooth, Tongue and Claw can be read here:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

More review to come!

[Michael Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Damien Angelica Walters has been on my radar for a while now, ever since the release of her novel Paper Tigers back in 2016. I have that book on my Kindle, although Cry Your Way Home is the first of her work I've actually managed to read thus far. Thankfully, this short story collection is a solid introduction to her skill and range as a storyteller.

Cry Your Way Home collects seventeen of stories that run the gamut from fairy tale to Lovecraftian horror, from psychological thriller to comic book-styled escapades. The majority of these dark works focus on women, predominately as teenagers and young adults, and their relationships, family lives, and places in society, all of which are often upended by the common events of life itself, before being further wrinkled by the intrusion of the supernatural and paranormal. Stories of loss bleed their way into Twilight Zone-esque ghost stories or, as is the case with "The Floating Girls: A Documentary", inexplicable cases of disappearance.

Loss provides one of the major themes across a number of these works, but I found the real spine of the work to be one of transformation. We have adolescent girls on the cusp of their adulthood as women, figures who become monsters, who disappear into others, who are forced into the spotlight and demanded they adapt or perish, and who must assume new roles in order to survive. Tucked in alongside these issues of transformation are questions of identity - who are you once you've been stripped of friends, family, memory, your job, or even life itself? In some instances, the answers are straight-forward; in others, the answers, and perhaps even the right questions, are more nebulous and deeper than the occasional vignette can provide. In these latter, it's up to the reader to provide an outcome and discover meaning, to do a good part of the heavy lifting. This is certainly no bad thing in my accounting.

While Cry Your Way Home presents a generous sample of Walters' capabilities, it also leaves me certain that I now must get to Paper Tigers sooner rather than later. I'm eager to explore more of Walters's works and see what other dark explorations she can lead me toward.

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher, Apex Book Company.]

[Benjamin Appleby-Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful, vivid stories about women dealing with horror, trauma or loss in a variety of real or fantasic situations.
Walters is a compelling storyteller, and sucks you into each situation within the first half-page. Most of her stories here don't have tidy endings - they leave lingering feelings behind rather than any sense of closure or wrapped-up narrative.
A couple of the pieces here didn't work quite as well for me - "S Is for Soliloquy" and "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice" felt more familiar and well-trodden than the others - and her open-ended style might not be to everyone's taste, but the greatest compliment I can pay the others is that I was sorry when most of them finished.
Well worth reading.

[Derek Patz · Rating 5 out of 5]

" Once upon a time there was a monster. That is how they tell you the story starts. This is a lie." This is how Bram Stoker Award-nominated author Damien Angelica Walters starts her synopsis. Reading this intrigued me. What possibly could she mean by this? I quickly discovered what this meant.

Cry Your Way Home brings together 17 dark tales in a style short story collection similar to horror pioneers Stephen King/Shirley Jackson and Clive Barker. Walters writes stories that will tear your heart out and question what constitutes a horror story.

Walters writes from character instead of plot. Most of the stories are told from the protagonists perspective. Her stories make you feel like your reading about a family member. Once you have forgotten that you are reading about a fictional character Walters adds a plot twist that will make your blood curdle.

Damien Angelica Walters will become a staple among horror fans in the coming years. My view of horror will never be the same.

Top 5

1. Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile - This got me hooked. Very Disturbing
2. Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice - Made my skin crawl. Mary Shelly came to mind.
3.The Hand that Hold, the Lies that Bind - Very Strange
4.Umbilicus - Yeah I could not believe what I was reading
5.Floating Girls: A Documentary - very Stephen Kingish

[Irene Well Worth A Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cry Your Way Home is a fitting title for a tome so heavily steeped in grief and despair. It touches on loss of a child in more than one way and in more than one story. Loss of a spouse, the pain of watching your husband forget you because of Alzheimer's, bullying, and more. Endless suffering can be found here.
Luckily for me I picked this up at a time when I have had enough sappy happy holiday cheer. There is some general dark fiction, and stories that straddled the line between fantasy and horror, occasionally dipping a toe in each. I hate to use the word "Enjoyed" in this case so I will just say there is mighty fine writing here.

I received a complimentary copy for review.

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read a few short stories by Damien Angelica Walters in various collections and always enjoyed her work so when I saw this on Netgalley I didn’t hesitate to request this book. It turns out that Walters is an even better writer than I thought; this is an impressive collection of stories that ranges across multiple genres and does so with ease. I loved the fact that a theme or plot point from one story made its way into the next, subtly linking each story and bringing this collection together nicely.
Damien Angelica Walters has a fantastic ability to swiftly set you within a characters mind and empathise with them from the get go. Each story grabbed me quickly and firmly held me until I had finished, and I really liked her writing style which was easy to read and still gracefully crafted.
Most of the stories have a subtle horror running through them, often supernatural, or for some something a bit more personal and emotive. This is done to great effect to compliment a story and not define it, these stories don't feel like they were written to scare but to illicit an emotional response and a lasting impression.
I’ll totally recommend this book, it’s fantastically written, and each story was great in its own way.

Netgalley sent me a review copy in return for a fair and unbiased review, cheers!

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.The nitty-gritty: Another fantastic collection from Damien Angelica Walters, with a wide range of stories that explore the themes of fear and grief.

This is the third book I've read by Damien Angelica Walters, and each time I read her work I'm surprised anew at how good she is. Her short stories often deal with tough subjects, like abuse, abandonment, illness, bullying and more. Much of her work has a strong feminist bent to it, showing how even now women are not always treated on an equal footing with men. Certain fears pop up in her stories again and again: the fear of losing a child and the fear of abuse and not being able to escape it are two of them. I was thrilled to see Walters branching out a bit from some of her earlier stories, embracing new genres, like science fiction, for example. And yet, these stories all have a distinct flavor that I would instantly recognize as a Damien Angelica Walters story. There were a couple of stories that I didn't enjoy as much as the others, but that's to be expected in any collection. Over all, though, this is an excellent group of stories. Here are my favorites:

S is For Soliloquy - 5 stars

By far my favorite story of the bunch, this is a fairly short story with a huge, delightful twist at the end. I can't say much about it, obviously, but the story is told by a woman who leads the reader through the timeline of her relationship with a man. As you might expect, the first few memories are happy ones—where they met, what they did on their first date, etc.—but things gradually take a darker tone as the woman realizes her boyfriend is keeping a big secret from her.

Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys: The Elephant's Tale - 5 stars

A beautiful and haunting tale of breaking away from physical abuse, this story is told from the perspective of an aging circus elephant. One by one, the members of a sad and crumbling circus realize that they've finally had enough of the abuse they've suffered at the hands of the Ringmaster, and they start the painful process of leaving him. Full of symbolism and gorgeous imagery, this story almost made me cry.

The Hands That Hold, the Lies That Bind - 5 stars

One day, a thirteen year-old girl discovers a thorn has broken through her skin. As strange and upsetting as this is, even worse is her mother's reaction to it. This story deals with family secrets and the tenuousness of childhood friendships. I loved the oddness of the situation and the raw feelings of a teenager who simply wants to blend in with her peers.

Tooth, Tongue, and Claw - 4.5 stars

This Beauty and the Beast-like story opens the collection, and it's about a village ruled by a monster, where second born daughters are used as sacrifices to the beast, in order for the village to live peacefully. The narrator is one such unlucky second born daughter who is forced to live as the monster's plaything, a prisoner who can never return to her home. But unlike the other sacrifices, this girl is determined to escape. In this tale, the villagers are just as monstrous as the monster, and I loved the unexpected ending.

Falling Under, Through the Dark - 4.5 stars

A woman whose young child drowned in a pool blames her husband for neglect, until one day she realizes the horrible truth. The fears of parenthood and the perils of raising a child are common themes in Walters' stories, and this one was just plain sad. The author uses the idea of drowning as both reality and a metaphor.

The Floating Girls: A Documentary - 4 stars

This weird tale about disappearing reminded me of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode called Out of Mind, Out of Sight. On a particular day, teen girls all over the world began to float up into the sky like balloons. They disappeared, never to be seen again. The story is told in documentary style as the narrator, a friend of one of the floating girls, tells her first hand account of what happened. Sad and eerie, this story is a cautionary tale of what happens to girls who are ignored.

The Serial Killer's Astronaut Daughter - 4 stars

Men are forgiven for their transgressions; women crucified for theirs even if theirs don't belong to them.

I loved this story! A woman who works on a space station gets some horrifying news: a notorious serial killer has just been caught, and it turns out he's her estranged biological father. The story deals with her reaction to the news and how she's treated by her male coworkers during the resulting uproar. This is an astute look at how far we (sadly) still have to go when it comes to the way women are treated in the workplace. I also loved the references to the movies Alien and Aliens and how the protagonist mulls over whether she wants to be more like Ripley or Vasquez.

Umbilicus - 4 stars

This creepy, Lovecraft-inspired story revolves around a woman whose young daughter disappeared into the ocean one day, and how she's desperately trying to get her back. I love when stories start out metaphorical but turn to reality, as the mother begins to feel the physical pull of the ocean. Many of these stories make the reader question what's real and what isn't.

Within this collection you'll find nine other beautifully crafted tales, filled with sorrow but also redemption. Fairy tales are the inspiration for several of the stories, and even Stephen King's Carrie inspires one tale. Walters brings everyday fears to light and twists them into her own brand of horror, and I can't wait to see what she writes next!

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy

[Britny Perilli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as a heads up, I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher in return for my honest opinion.

If you haven't heard of Cry Your Way Home from Apex Books then you should go look it up right now! These beautiful and dark stories are about the monsters hiding under our beds and deep in our hearts with a great voice and fantastic characters.

It is really hard to find a collection of stories that will read as well as a novel because, naturally, all of the elements of the stories are usually separate and different. What I found pleasantly surprising is that there are little bits and pieces in each of these stories that connect each other -- other than the theme. Things like the town of Edgewater, the element of water, relationships between family members (but more specifically focused on the roles of mothers, daughters, and other women), and the eariness of a seclusion, of a place that is maybe not rural, but embodies a distance, a detachment. There were more than a few moments when I wondered if characters had been listening to the nightly news or from hushed whispers and heard about the mother from "Falling Under, Through the Dark" or the young girl in "On The Other Side of the Door, Everything Changes" or watched "The Floating Girls: A Documentary" when it aired. Even some of the more fantastical stories still somehow felt as if they were connected to and a part of the world that mirrors ours.

Honestly, my second favorite thing was the type of relationships that are explored. "Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home," "Umbilicus," and "On the Other Side of the Door, Everything Changes" were not the only stories to focus on mothers but these three were definitely my favorite because it captured that darker side --the fear and frustration-- of motherhood. So many times I watched my own mother get frustrated and angry and how close those emotions tend to live to the surface when you're tired and stressed. It is so commonly accepted that mothers just have an unbreakable love and bond with their children as soon as their children are born and that is not always the case. I liked seeing mothers that weren't "bad" or "dark" because they were abusive or neglecting their kids, but because they made a mistake or were tired or something happens that is so beyond their control that it really drives home that these kinds of horrible things can happen every day. Maybe not always with the same dark, fantastical endings, but sometimes all it takes is for one little thing to ruin everything.

Damien A Walters hits so many great notes in not only the characters but the descriptions and the worldbuilding that you should really go out and get this book. This is a solid collection that I feel will appeal to many a dark, weird fiction, but also the more speculative fic readers out there. Some of the stories that were my absolute favorites:

- "Tooth, Tongue, and Claw"
- "Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile"
- "Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys: The Elephant's Tale"
- "Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home"
- "In The Spaces Where You Once Lived"

This collection comes out in October (how fitting) so go get it and I promise you won't be disappointed.

[Nicole Amburgey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damien Angelica Walters has some serious writing chops – this lovely lady can crawl under your skin, break your heart, cause you to look over your shoulder, and make you rethink your favorite childhood stories all in the breadth of less than a hundred pages. This book weighs in at 223, so you know you are in for a whirlwind of emotion and horror.

While I enjoy many different sub-genres of horror, my bread-and-butter, the horror that truly resonates with me, is the horror that is born out of emotion. It is the horror that comes from loving someone so deeply and watching them unravel, as in In the Spaces Where You Once Lived; the regret in knowing that you could have made a difference for someone, as in The Floating Girls: A Documentary; and handling the abiding grief of losing a child, as in Falling Under, Through the Dark and Umbilicus.

That being said, the stories collected in Cry Your Way Home are not all riddled with grief and heartache – far from it! This book is a well-blended mix of cosmic horror, fairy tale retellings, magical realism, and science fiction – all spun in a literary style with a dash of some seriously empowering female characters.

Complete review: https://tatteredandbroken.com/2019/09...

[Hope Sloper · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's only been in the last year that I have given short stories a real read. Most of them I've read have been in anthologies. Cry Your Way Home is the third book I've read where all the shorts were written by the same author.

There are eighteen shorts in this novel. A majority of them are great. Most of them have endings you don't see coming, which is great, it's a surprise in every story. Here are just a few that I really enjoyed.

"Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile" - A twisted stepsisters tale. I loved this short and I thought it was just going to be another story about sibling rivalry. Nope, surprise.
"The Hands That Hold, the Lies That Bind"- Will horrifyingly remind children to mind their parents.
"Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys: The Elephant's Tale" - A tragic tale indeed, but one of few with a happy ending.
"Take a Walk in the Night, My love" - Eerie hypnotic love therapy. I totally loved this one too. I was blown away by the revelation.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. It's well worth the read. It would even make a great introduction to short stories if you have not read an anthology before.

[Des Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

In hindsight, the only way to read this Story for Soliloquy (a monologue addressed to you who are the other half of a relationship she has had or is still having) is to read while gestalt real-time reviewing it in your head as you go through and writing down your comments immediately alongside each pause for breath or change of costume instead of leaving it to the end as I have just done. Now it’s too late. I can only spoil it now. Saying all that, I may have spoilt it already. At least I have made it clear, by inferring, that it is something worthwhile and surprising that CAN be spoilt by a review of it.

The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of my observations at the time of the review.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great stuff, but repetitive

The author nails both the human monsters (aging, divorce, isolation, grief) and the supernatural monsters. The is some great writing, but felt repetitive in parts. Overall, good read. 3.5 stars.

[Angela Dickinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved some, hated some. These short stories were designed to be read one at a time, not one after another. Whilst many were fun, she needs to learn how to broaden her descriptors as many were repeated in multiple stories.

[Kevin Lucia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, engrossing, moving, soul crushing, transcending, and horrifying....all these apply.

[Shani Asokan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing.

[Sarah Budd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damien Angelica Walters is an author whose work is constantly popping up in all the great magazines all writers dream of appearing in such as Apex, Black Static, Nightmare Magazine and Shimmer. Not only that she's a Bram Stoker Award nominee?! (she was robbed)

Cry Your Way Home is her second short story collection, the first being Sing Me Your Scars and was truly epic, hence why I was just dying to read Cry Your Way Home.

This is a really great collection of 17 dark tales. Cry Your Way Home focuses more on domestic horror such as relationship breakdowns, death of a loved one and sibling rivalry. Whoever said there was a happily ever after?

Inside are 17 tales of pain and suffering that arises when families breakdown for whatever reason. There's a really wide mix of stories in here illustrating that Damien Angelica Walters is not a one trick pony. In this collection she delves into folk horror, sci-fi and just downright creepy!

The stories are beautifully written in a way that is haunting and compelling. Damien Angelica Walters draws you in to her dark world with ease. I found them all as equally imaginative, she not only has the skill to write beautiful but horrific stories but also has the vision to pluck out these great tales from the ether. An examples of this skill is The Floating Girls: A Documentary. I thought this was a fantastic story and its the things in her stories she doesn't tell us about that are the darkest parts. Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home was another masterpiece.Tooth, Tongue and Claw was another great story that reminds me of the epic Angela Carter. It feels just like a fairy tale and has a great ending. Lastly a shout-out for Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile, this tale was so creepy and just shows that Damien Angelica Walters can spin a great horror story from any situation.

[Audra (ouija.reads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Walters’s work. From short stories to novels, she writes across the genres, though she is never far from horror’s door. This collection is no exception. Hauntingly beautiful and perfectly paced, I savored each story in this collection.

One thing that Walters excels at is in depicting women, both their struggles and relationships. Sometimes this is more metaphorical, leaning into fantasy or magical realism such as “The Floating Girls: A Documentary” or “Deep Within My Marrow, It’s Hidden in My Bones.” Sometimes she writes in fairy tales, though always offering an interesting disruption of the form, such as “Tooth, Tongue, and Claw.” Sometimes it is heartbreakingly real, situated in a world without any supernatural leanings, as in “On the Other Side of the Door, Everything Changes.”

These stories show all the hallmarks of a major talent. As horror fans, we are lucky that Walters is one of us, bringing her unique voice and perspective to the strange and dark. I will always look forward to reading her work.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Il est compliqué de parler de cette anthologie, parce qu'elle ne colle à aucune étiquette de ma connaissance. En réalité, les histoires qu'elle contient sont tellement de chose à la fois que j'en perd mes mots. En fait, tout est terriblement beau dans ce livre. Certaines histoires sont meilleures que d'autres, bien entendu, mais elles ont toutes leur charme et aucune ne m'a ennuyé. Elles concernent toutes, des filles ou femmes, ainsi qu'une dose de tragique. De fantomatique. Parfois c'était angoissant ou oppressant, d'autres plus doux, parfois cruel. Franchement j'ai eu beaucoup de mal à poser le livre, même quand je me jurais d'arrêter après l'histoire actuelle.

En fait, ce livre est comme un sac de bonbon. On a jamais assez et c'est délicieux, parfois plus sucré, avec des centres moelleux ou croustillant. Parfois on grimace mais plus souvent qu'autrement, on passe sa langue ses dents dans l'espoir d'encore le savourer. 😌❤️

[Jayson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would give it a six if I could.

[Alex (The Bookubus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories and my first time reading Walters' work. I'm so glad I finally picked up one of her books! Most of the stories deal with women and girls, our roles in the world, how we are viewed, what is expected of us. Relationships feature heavily in a lot of the stories.

A few of my favourites were:
Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile
The Floating Girls: A Documentary
The Serial Killer's Astronaut Daughter

There were a couple of stories that didn't really work for me but I thought the majority of them were excellent.

[mad mags · Rating 3 out of 5]

Walters is at her best when she's playing Frankenstein with fairy tale tropes.

(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewers program. Trigger warning for violence against women and suicide.)

Once upon a time there was a monster. This is how they tell you the story starts. This is a lie.
("Tooth, Tongue, and Claw ")

Don’t be fooled by the breadcrumbs in the forest. This is not a fairy tale.
("A Lie You Give, and Thus I Take")

You won’t catch me in my underwear. I sleep in my fucking coveralls.
(“The Serial Killer’s Astronaut Daughter”)

Between the oft-quoted "Once upon a time there was a monster..." line (reproduced above; I just couldn't help myself!), and the deliciously dark story titles, I was practically frothing at the mouth to read an early copy of Cry Your Way Home. Alas, this collection of short stories - an eclectic mix of science fiction, fantasy, fairy tale retellings, and the stray piece of contemporary fiction, all bound by a fierce undercurrent of feminism running throughout - is more of a mixed bag than I'd hoped. There are a few gems here, but also a good many underwhelming and ultimately forgettable stories, too.

The collection opens on a strong note with "Tooth, Tongue, and Claw," easily my favorite of the bunch. A mix of Beauty and the Beast and The Handmaid's Tale (or perhaps "The Lottery"), the story ends with a surprising twist that's as satisfying as it is lurid. A mashup of various fairy tales/spin on the entire genre, "A Lie You Give, and Thus I Take" is equal parts beautiful, chilling, and cautionary. While I think Walters is at her best when writing in this wheelhouse, I also quite enjoyed some of her science fiction; "The Serial Killer’s Astronaut Daughter," "Take a Walk in the Night, My Love," and "The Floating Girls: A Documentary" are all worth a read or two or three.

All of Walters' stories have a strong feminist bent; whether or not you find them preachy most likely hinges on your view of women. (Personally, I thought they were the exact right mix of righteous anger and engaging narrative device.) In "The Serial Killer’s Astronaut Daughter," for example, we see a woman being punished for the transgressions of a man - and one to whom her connection is tenuous at best. She's sure to be punished both for her silence and for speaking out - damned if you do, damned if you don't - and so she settles on a maxim that we'd all do well to adopt: "Be Ripley." (Or Vasquez, as it were.) Elsewhere, "The Floating Girls: A Documentary" is an allegory about sexual assault, rape culture, and the silencing of women that's as ethereal as it is (sadly) mundane.

Of the stories that fell flat for me, "On the Other Side of the Door, Everything Changes" stuck out like a sore thumb because it's the only non-fantastical piece in the collection (and kind of predictable, to boot). The others don't suffer from a lack of imagination; rather, I just found them unsatisfying, either in concept or execution. That said, the standouts more than make up for it. Even though I was considering DNF'in early on, I'm glad I stuck around: the book really starts punching up - and with such gratifying force - in the second half, so much so that you can (almost?) forgive the random misses.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Tooth, Tongue, and Claw - 5/5 stars
Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile - 3/5 stars
On the Other Side of the Door, Everything Changes - 2/5 stars
This Is the Way I Die - 3.5/5 stars
The Hands That Hold, the Lies That Bind - 3/5 stars
Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys: The Elephant’s Tale - 3/5 stars
The Judas Child - 3/5 stars
S Is for Soliloquy - 3/5 stars
The Floating Girls: A Documentary - 4/5 stars
Take a Walk in the Night, My Love - 4/5 stars
Falling Under, Through the Dark - 3/5 stars
The Serial Killer’s Astronaut Daughter - 4/5 stars
Umbilicus - 2/5 stars
A Lie You Give, and Thus I Take - 4/5 stars
Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home - 2/5 stars
Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice - 3.5/5 stars
In the Spaces Where You Once Lived - 3/5 stars

http://www.easyvegan.info/2018/01/09/...

[Giorgia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewers programme.

"Once upon a time there was a monster. This is how they tell you the story starts. This is a lie."

- Tooth, Tongue, and Claw

These are the first words that you will read as soon as you open up this collection of short stories. The title Cry Your Way Home perfectly describes the central theme of this book - loss, grief, and despair.

I was really curious to read this book but also sceptical because I am not usually attracted by such dark and heavy topics. I must say though, that I enjoyed this book and I appreciated every effort done by the authour to portray all of those negative emotions in a unique and original way. Be aware that this book deals with death and violence, so if you want to pick it up you should first get in the right mindset and, perhaps, wait for a happy day to start reading it.

The writing style is beautiful and easy to follow, without lacking in striking images and powerful descriptions. The style shift between horror (that many times made me think of Mary Shelly and her Frankenstein and dark fantasy and magical realism. I particularly appreciated how the stories were all linked together to a point that made me question if the characters knew about each other's existence or, at least, were all part of the same world.

I liked the feminist vibe all throughout the book. I love to read about female characters that are dealing with heavy issues because it makes them real and really gives me hope. Mothers, daughters, princesses, they are all protagonists of this collection but disguised as victims because of the sufferings they have to bear.

I cannot lie, I found it difficult to get through this book because of its topics but I suggest everyone should read it. It is an eye-opening read. Get to it.

[bex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Women in Horror Month and the awesome sale for the month from Apex Book Company gave me the perfect opportunity to obtain Cry Your Way Home by Damien Angelica Walters. I've been drooling over the collection since I finished another collection of hers, Sing Me Your Scars, and this one definitely did not disappoint.

The collection is one powerful story after another. The work sucked my emotions out of me, distilled them, then forced them back down my throat in concentrated form. They burned their way down and set my heart on fire over and over.

I've learned previously that Apex fiction needs time to breathe and work on my brain, but these pieces were so intense that I was needing a few days of light reading in between things before I had the emotional capacity to take on another.

Obviously it's a 5 star read all the way around.

Oddly enough, the themes in the book reminded me of an article I read recently about using horror to deal with mental health issues: https://gingernutsofhorror.com/featur...

And the stories definitely were pushing buttons both with my own mental health issues and sympathy buttons for other people. These themes include (at least in my perspective) abusive relationships, identity, parent-child relationships and loss, bullying, reactions to child abuse... So many powerful topics.

While I strongly recommend the collection, I also recommend approaching it with care in regards to your own mental health. If some of these topics are sensitive to you, make sure you are reading it at times when you are able to cope with those emotions and optionally have support available in case they hit you hard.

I don't feel like I can talk in any detail about how different stories hit me without potentially spoiling them. Read them, brace yourself for the burn, and see what you think yourself.

[Dawn Vogel · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Originally posted at Mad Scientist Journal 12/13/2017)

Cry Your Way Home features seventeen of Damien Angelica Walters’ previously published short stories in a brilliant collection showcasing her beautiful prose and carefully plotted tales. Not for the faint of heart, the stories contained within this book veer frequently toward the creepy and unsettling.

The opening story, “Tooth, Tongue, and Claw,” sets the stage for what is to come, telling the story of a secondborn daughter who is given to a monster so that her people can enjoy their continued well-being. Many of Walters’ stories involve female protagonists who struggle against the circumstances that life has brought them. And not all of those stories have happy endings, either.

Among my favorite stories in the collection were “Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile,” “S Is for Soliloquy,” and “Umbilicus.” The first of these stories examines the relationship between stepsisters, but goes in an unexpected direction. “S Is for Soliloquy” starts out innocently enough, but the twist in this story is absolutely fantastic. And “Umbilicus” is creepy and atmospheric, while still having just enough touches of realism to keep it grounded.

If you’re a fan of spooky stories and well-crafted prose, Cry Your Way Home is the book for you.

The publisher provided us with a free copy of this novel in exchange for review consideration.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

“There are many ways to drown; not all of them require water.”

Seventeen beautiful and harrowing short stories. It’s collections like these that reinforce my love for short stories!!

To call this strictly a horror collection would be a disservice. These stories deal with grief, fear, trauma and family both familiar and surreal, each either obviously terrifying or quietly disturbing. Whether a tale about bullying, dementia, an astronaut with a serial killer dad or the plight of a circus elephant, these vignettes cover an expanse of terrors to keep you up at night.

There were no duds in this collection, but definitely some that moved me more than others. Damien Angelica Walters’ writing is lyrical, seductive and indulgent in a way that needles under your skin and either keeps you warm and tingly or sears and damages you. Definitely will read her work again!

Stories:
Tooth, tongue and claw: 4⭐️
Deep within the marrow, hidden in my smile: 4⭐️
On the other side of the door, everything changes: 5⭐️
This is the way we die: 4⭐️
The hand that holds, the lies that bind: 3⭐️
Not my circus, not my monkeys: 3⭐️
The Judas child: 3⭐️
S is for soliloquy: 4⭐️
The floating girls: 4⭐️
Take a walk in the night, my love: 4⭐️
Falling under, through the dark: 3⭐️
The serial killer’s astronaut daughter: 4⭐️
Umbilicus: 3⭐️
A lie you give, and thus I take: 4⭐️
Little girl blue, come cry your way home: 4⭐️
Sugar and spice and everything nice: 4⭐️
In the spaces where you once lived: 4⭐️

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damien Angelica Walters presents unease with exceptional craft. There’s a lot of non-traditional families in this collection struggling to survive in an uncaring world. There’s a number of young girls struggling with friendship and its collapse and the need to be heard and understood.

I love the ominous exploration of blended families in "Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile" and the interaction of mothers and their teenage daughters in "On the Other Side of the Door, Everything Changes." Grief is a common theme, no better presented in "Falling Under, Through the Dark" (check it out for free over on PseudoPod) which bears the crushing weight of the loss of a child and the feelings of complicity in the guilt.

"S Is for Soliloquy" was an interesting changeup with superheroes and supervillains, but still full of darkness. This grim ambiguity is what I love to see in superhero fiction. "The Serial Killer's Astronaut Daughter" is simultaneously a love letter to the first two Alien films (particularly the second) and an anthem to women who refuse to be kept out of STEM careers.

Probably my favorite of the collection is "Take a Walk in the Night, My Love" which nods to the quiet unreliability of a du Maurier character and explores gaslighting. You get your money’s worth with this story alone, making every other excellent story in this collection a true gift.