Un lugar mejor

by Michael Wehunt, Simon Strantzas (Prólogo), Miguel Ángel Martín (Illustrator)

Dicen que siempre cabe la posibilidad de que encontremos un lugar mejor.

En los relatos de este libro se analiza el precio a pagar por alcanzar dicha tierra prometida.

Las historias, de marcado tono new weird, transitan por la vida y por el horror, del más mundano al más cósmico, aunque la presencia, más o menos velada de ese horror, sea solo una excusa, un utensilio del que Wehunt se vale para componer unas historias maravillosas (que bien podrían venir firmadas por Borges, Kafka, o Aickman) sobre seres perdidos que alcanzan a ver la realidad que se oculta tras el velo de la nuestra; así, el lector encontrará historias que revisitan el mito del vampiro, de los pactos con el diablo, de las mutaciones, de la mitología angelical, de las creencias religiosas, de las posesiones demoníacas,...

En "Junto a mí, cantando en las tierras salvajes", Michael Wehunt aborda el tema del vampirismo y se plantea cuestiones que giran en torno a lo que significa vivir siendo un monstruo a ojos de los demás; "Onanon" es un acercamiento al horror cósmico con abejas de por medio, así como un juego literario con la idea de un texto infectado que tiene algo oculto entre sus pliegues; "Un lugar mejor", la historia que da título a esta colección, es lo más parecido que el lector va a encontrar a un episodio de Twilight Zone, y nos acerca a ese concepto de rasgar el velo de la realidad al que hacíamos alusión unas líneas más arriba; "Una música discreta" le sirve a Michael Wehunt para rendir tributo a Robert Aickman por medio de la historia de un hombre que comienza a sufrir una mutación tanto física como emocional; "El diablo bajo la Maison Blue" gira en torno a la idea de un pacto con el diablo con sabor a jazz; "La Quedada Fílmica de Octubre: Bajo la Casa" es un claro homenaje a las películas de género found-footage, una de las pasiones del autor; "Descontado de vuestro tiempo en el Paraíso" parte de la premisa de unas mujeres que caen desde el cielo y de cómo su llegada a un parque de caravanas de Texas altera la monótona vida de las gentes que en él habitan; "El inconsolable" persiste en esa idea de la soledad, el abandono y las creencias a las que uno se aferra para seguir adelante; "Bailarines" nos acerca también la peculiar visión del horror cósmico de Michael Wehunt, algo que utiliza como excusa para ahondar en las entrañas del matrimonio y el compromiso; "Cientos de miles de años" gira en torno a la desaparición de una niña y a la vida que ya no tendrá; por último, "Acotación", el único relato que no es de horror de toda la colección, nos habla de esa sensación de pérdida pero, a la vez, es el más esperanzador y parece que trate de hacernos ver que siempre hay una luz al final del túnel.

Michael Wehunt creció en el norte de Georgia, lo suficientemente cerca de los Apalaches como para percibirlos, pero no lo suficiente como para verlos. Había bosques, humo de leña y calor. No llegó lejos cuando se marchó de allí, cayendo sesenta millas al sur hasta la ciudad perdida de Atlanta, donde hay menos bosques, pero todavía muchos árboles. Vive con su pareja, su perro y demasiados libros, entre los cuales Robert Aickman coquetea con Flannery O’Connor en su estantería favorita. Su trabajo ha aparecido en diversos medios, tales como The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, The Year’s Best Weird Fiction, y Electric Literature. Ha sido nominado a los Premios Crawford y a los Shirley Jackson. Esta es su primera colección de cuentos.

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

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2016

About the author

MICHAEL WEHUNT has been a finalist for multiple Shirley Jackson Awards and was shortlisted for the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts' Crawford Award. In Spain, his stories have garnered nominations for the Premio Ignotus and Premio Amaltea, winning the latter. He haunts the woods outside Atlanta with his partner and their dog. Together, they hold the horrors at bay. Find him in the digital trees at www.michaelwehunt.com.

Reviews

[Char · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm picking this one up to re-read the story: October Film Haunt: Under the House
Then, I will be prepared to read the full sized novel right afterwards.

Greener Pastures is simply OUTSTANDING! This is literary dark fiction at its finest.

These stories almost all deal with heavy themes like loss, grief, and loneliness and yet, they're all distinctly different from each other. A lot of them reminded me of the stories of Robert Aickman, Laird Barron or Thomas Ligotti, but I actually liked Wehunt's tales more than those. I've been thinking about why that is and here's what I've come up with: Laird Barron and Thomas Ligotti are both fantastic with dark, nihilistic fiction and I don't find these stories to have that nihilistic flavor. (I didn't feel like killing myself when I finished Greener Pastures-so that's a plus. Also, the very last story, Bookends , ended on a hopeful note which was SO PERFECT, it gave me shivers.) Where Aickman is concerned, I enjoy his weird tales, but I often find myself left wanting, whereas with Greener Pastures I always felt satisfied at the end of the story, with more of an understanding, (I think), of what the author intended.

All that said, my favorite stories were: Greener Pastures -a weird little piece about truckers and the "spaces between". Without anything overtly scary, this tale made me feel extremely unsettled. October Film Haunt: Under the House -this story had a distinct House of Leaves vibe to it, minus all the side stories and footnotes. After I read it, the cover of the book finally made sense to me. Just a glimpse of that dog with the wooden crown in his mouth gives me the serious creeps. I also adored Dancers the story of a long, but unfulfilling marriage, some trees, and a creepy-ass thing in a jar. It makes me shudder just to think of it.

I enjoyed almost every. single. story in this collection. Each one was beautifully written, thought provoking and some of them caused genuine unease. What more could a dark fiction lover ask for? Oh, I know- MORE, please!

My highest recommendation to everyone, but-especially to fans of weird tales like those of Aickman, Ligotti and Barron. This one stands right up there with the best of them, so don't miss out!

*Shock Totem provided me a free e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*

[Janie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each of the eleven stories in this richly textured collection is drawn from a wide range of color and depth. While each story has a skeleton of its own making, the details are left to the reader to discover within his or her imagination. These gems contain levels of darkness and mysterious beauty which coalesce to form a nimbus around the heart of each tale. The interpretations and final details are drawn by the reader. Highly recommended.

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

..

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPOOKTOBER DAY NINETEEN

welcome to my spooktober audio advent calendar, where, each day during the month of spooktober, i will be celebrating by listening to a free audio short from nightfire's Come Join Us by the Fire series, and you can join ME by following the links. let's all be scared together!


21 minutes

one of the veryfew movies that ever scared me (and i mean SCARED ME, so that even now, just thinking about it, i'm looking over my shoulder a little bit), was one i saw at a very young age, with a little story-within-a-story sequence involving a trucker.

YEAH, YOU KNOW WHICH ONE I MEAN, DON'T MAKE ME LOOK AT HER!!



NOOOOOOOOO

so when it comes to trucker-horror, i'm predisposed to being spooked by it, but, paradoxically, i got childhood scars toughening up my psyche's susceptibility to it, and a high-set bar you're gonna have to work hard to clear.

like many of the other shorties i've listened to for this project, this one was very atmospheric and eerie but it didn't make me eek or anything. his writing is descriptive enough to almost have a visual quality to it, and i could see this story being adapted into one of those horror anthology shows on the teevee.

there was one thing, though, that was truly creepy, and that was the grown-man-narrator doing the voice of a little girl. ramón de ocampo, you will make my nightmare reel with that one.

and that's a good thing.

i wanna be skeered, please.

listen to it here:

https://play.google.com/books/listen?...

THE STORIES:

OCTOBER 1: 57 REASONS FOR THE SLATE QUARRY SUICIDES - SAM J. MILLER
OCTOBER 2: SOME BREAKABLE THINGS - CASSANDRA KHAW
OCTOBER 3: EMERGENCY LANDING - SEANAN MCGUIRE
OCTOBER 4: THE CHANGELING - SARAH LANGAN
OCTOBER 5: THE BEASTS OF THE EARTH, THE MADNESS OF MEN - BROOKE BOLANDER
OCTOBER 6: THE FIREPLACE - CLAY MCLEOD CHAPMAN
OCTOBER 7: BONE - TADE THOMPSON
OCTOBER 8: IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING - MOLLY TANZER
OCTOBER 9: DREAM HOME - KAT HOWARD
OCTOBER 10: SPAWNING SEASON - NICHOLAS KAUFMANN
OCTOBER 11: THE GIRLS FROM THE HORROR MOVIE - GWENDOLYN KISTE
OCTOBER 12: IT WASHED UP - JOE R. LANSDALE
OCTOBER 13: BLACK NEUROLOGY - RICHARD KADREY
OCTOBER 14: WHEN THE ZOMBIES WIN - KARINA SUMNER-SMITH
OCTOBER 15: WASP & SNAKE - LIVIA LLEWELLYN
OCTOBER 16: THIS GUY - CHUCK WENDIG
OCTOBER 17: THE POND - PAUL TREMBLAY
OCTOBER 18: A LIFE THAT IS NOT MINE - KRISTI DEMEESTER
OCTOBER 20: THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL YOU - LUCY A. SNYDER
OCTOBER 21: COLD, SILENT, AND DARK - KARY ENGLISH
OCTOBER 22: WAS SHE WICKED? WAS SHE GOOD? - M. RICKERT
OCTOBER 23: THE DAYS OF FLAMING MOTORCYCLES - CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE
OCTOBER 24: FLAYED ED - RICHARD KADREY
OCTOBER 25: MAMA TULU - JESSICA GUESS
OCTOBER 26: THE VAULT OF THE SKY, THE FACE OF THE DEEP
OCTOBER 27: EL CHARRO - JOHN LANGAN
OCTOBER 28: STANDING WATER - CAITLIN R. KIERNAN
OCTOBER 29: MIDNIGHT CALLER - STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES
OCTOBER 30: TOOTH, TONGUE, AND CLAW - DAMIEN ANGELICA WALTERS
OCTOBER 31: THE QUIET BOY - NICK ANTOSCA

come to my blog!

[Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

The blurbs that introduce this collection are a who's-who of writers whose work I greatly appreciate: Gemma Files, Steve Rasnic Tem, Brian Evenson, Nathan Ballingrud, and S.P. Miskowski, among others. So, I had high expectations going into this lauded collection.

Unfortunately, things started slowly.

"Beside Me Singing in the Wilderness" takes the old tropes of vampirism and twists it up a bit. It's good, smoothly written, but not extraordinary to me. Your mileage may vary.

"Onanon" was more the sort of thing I expected from all the blurbs and praise I've read. Cosmic horror of the natural world told in a sparse, unforgiving voice.

And from here on out, the stories were incredibly strong, outside of one dip, which I'll mention below.

The title story is strong. Very strong. Like "could have been an episode of Rod Serling's original Twilight Zone" strong. It's the power of the unspoken and the unseen between the words that is so unsettling. The words only mark the boundaries. It's the gaps in-between where the horror dwells. I have a few friends who are truckers that I'm going to recommend this story to. Or maybe I shouldn't . . .

"A Discreet Music" is subtle and strange, but mostly not horrific. And this is good. I actually like the calm weirdness of this transformation, of the shedding of an old life for the new. It's not without its painful moments. On the contrary, there is deep pain in Hiram, the protagonist. And there are jarring revelations about the self, as well. But the metamorphosis is profound and moving.

"The Devil Under the Maison Blue" is such a gently-delivered story that one embraces the horror as, well, just fine. A horror story needn't be stark or harsh or jarring in any way to elicit a powerful response. This is a clear case in point. Sometimes it's the devil you don't know that makes the biggest impression.

I, too, am a sucker for lost footage stories. "October Film Haunt: Under the House" is a melange of the weird and the eerie, full of things that ought not to be, but are, and empty of things that should be, but are not. The lines between fact and fiction and between observer and observed are smeared beyond recognition, resulting in a kaleidoscope of horror that will haunt the reader for a very, long time. And if you're wondering what the cover art is all about: this is it!

"Deducted From Your Share in Paradise" defies expectations in every way. It's a story of maintaining innocence while in a maelstrom of selfish choices, about endings and new beginnings, and possibly about heaven and hell. But it's not so cut and dried as these pairings. One must worm their way between these things and question the very meaning of their outmost bounds. Or maybe, boundaries need to be ignored.

"The Inconsolable" presses deep on the depression button, then asks "what is faith?" and "what is comfort?" It's a poignant tale about breakups and new beginnings, along with the caveats inherent in leaving a piece of one's old life, and a piece of one's own soul, behind.

"Dancers," while weird, was just too soft-spoken for my tastes. It might even be an (gasp) "ineffective" story, trying too hard to be too many things at once. This was the one gap in this collection. I guess every collection has to have one.

"A Thousand Hundred Years" pushes even further through the boundaries of Mark Fisher's "Eerie" and "Weird", namely "that which should be there, but is missing" and "that which is there, but should not be," to great emotional effect. The story is a strange admixture of tears and fears, of melancholy and hope, a tale of being pulled in multiple directions, some good, some bad, all at once. It is life and loss in all its complexity, and reveals the true, confusing horrors of the world. Like many of the stories in this collection, this injects a great deal of emotion, without becoming sickly sweet or cynical, into a tale that squeezes the breath out of you.

Oof (again). "Bookends" is a poetic, sublime, beautiful gut punch. Grief is at the heart of it all, grief and loss, both of which I've experienced in bucketloads over the course of the last few years. Do not read this if you are dealing with an open emotional wound, specifically the death of a close loved one. This story will absolutely wreck you. Then again, it might just open some doors. Approach with caution.

The blurbs are deserved. Minus one miss, this collection hits on all cylinders. I will be reading more of Wehunt's work, for sure. But that's for the future, after I've recovered from this one and the deep emotional grooves it cut in me start to smooth out. For now, I am left scarred, but better for it. Kind of like . . . life.

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high expectations for this collection of stories seeing as it had such glowing reviews. Sadly I was left a bit disappointed and wanting more. Don't get me wrong, there were stories that I very much enjoyed. But the ones I didn't enjoy outweighed the ones I did.

The shining star of this collection for me was "October Film Haunt: Under the House". It was SO deliciously creepy, it actually made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and was just downright terrifying. This is what I wanted from ALL of the stories! I think it resonated with me so strongly because don't all horror fans imagine what would happen if their favourite horror movie/book came to life and they found themselves a part of it?

My other two favourites were "Dancers" and "A Thousand Hundred Years". They didn't scare me as much as "October Film Haunt: Under the House" but they definitely came very close! They were creepy and chilling and I quite enjoyed them.

What I enjoyed most about this collection other than the three stories I particularly liked, was that Wehunt managed to scare me but without being especially gory or over the top. It was subtle scares and those are almost more terrifying than the big bang scares we see all too often in horror stories.

[Mother Suspiria · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREENER PASTURES by Michael Wehunt is haunting, otherworldly, and unforgettable. Every one of these fantastic, weird tales has tendrils that crept into and found purchase in my head. He creates rich, eerie, disquieting worlds thick with imagination, atmosphere, and above all, humanity. Truly an experience to read; a magical, creepy book.

[Mindi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's absolutely shameful that I'm just now getting around to writing a review for such a brilliant collection of short stories. And a debut collection at that! But the truth is, I read Greener Pastures while on Thanksgiving vacation in San Francisco last year, and by the time I got home I was jet lagged and overly full from too much holiday food. The holidays are a busy time of year, and this review slipped through the cracks. That's why I'm making a point to write it now, long past when I should have actually posted it.

This debut collection completely blew me away. I read most of it in airports, on airplanes, and in hotel rooms, so I'm sure I will revisit it again in the future. I read these short stories at a very busy time of the year, in some of the most distracting places possible, and yet I was totally engrossed and drawn in. Wehunt has a very particular style of writing, and because of that every story in this collection stands out as purely his voice. There isn't a weak story in the entire book, even though a few of them stood out for me more than others.

Beside Me Singing in the Wilderness is the haunting first story in the collection, and a perfect way to start it off. The Devil Under the Maison Blue sticks with you. It's shocking and sad all at once. October Film Haunt: Under the House is probably the creepiest stories in the collection and one that will have you thinking about keeping the light on a little longer after reading it at night.

The more I think about these stories, the more I realize I could sincerely list all of them as favorites. This book was a selection for The Nocturnal Reader's Box one month, so I know a lot of my fellow bookstagrammers received this one. If you haven't read it yet I cannot encourage you enough to give this one a chance. It's brilliant and lyrical. It's literary horror that stays with you, long after you have finished. I cannot recommend it enough.

[Cody | CodysBookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This year I’ve been lucky enough to come across several noteworthy short story collections. Greener Pastures is one of those. Comprised of eleven quiet tales that take on the genre “weird horror,” these stories seep into the skin and take root in the marrow.

This is not a collection which yields its fruits easily. One must work for it. I found myself skimming a bit last night as I grew tired and I realized things were going over my head. I had to reread a few passages. That wasn’t the book’s fault; it was mine. As Stephen King once said, good books don’t give up their secrets all at once. Quite often these stories went in directions I wasn’t expecting. This author is daring and unafraid, and it shows.

I think my personal favorite is “The Inconsolable,” or maybe the title story. Heck, they’re all winners! A worthy addition to the collection of anyone who enjoys tales of quiet and cosmic horror, this is a collection literary tales not to be missed.

[Adam Nevill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literary horror that reminded of what I enjoy about the writing of regional American writers like Daniel Woodrell and William Gay, or in Brian Evenson's horror stories. Sensitive and sensory writing with some terrific descriptions, and simple but poignant insights. Always surprising and never predictable. One of my favourite horror stories in recent times sits in this book too. I wanted it to be a novel. 'October Film Haunt: Under the House.'

[T.E. Grau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Straightaway, it should be noted that with his debut collection Greener Pastures, Michael Wehunt positions himself among an elite group of contemporary Horror/Weird Fiction writers that are producing work that is vital to the continuation and expansion of the field, moving it into the true realm of the literary where it has sometimes resided and always belonged when done properly.

And this is work properly done.

There is a ripeness to these tales, a lushness and a perfume, even in the face of grit and gravel. It could be that Georgia air, or more likely what that air is doing to Wehunt's brain as he crafts these carefully rendered tales of woe and loss, of age and disease and transformation, pain, desolation, and horror. Lots of horror, here. Lots of sadness too, and regret. Difficult stuff, often centered on family and the breaking of covenants, in the vein of Ballingrud and Evenson. And behind it all are those stars, and those trees, that seem to appear in each and every one of these tales. Darkness of the land meets darkness of the cosmos at the horizon line, leaving behind a sheen of strange beauty to mark the impact. Southern Gothic sprinkled with cold stardust.

I don't feel the need to break down each story, as they all should be taken-in blind, without preview, for maximum effect. Of the eleven presented here, some grabbed me more than others, and a few of them downright shook me. Standouts include "Beside Me Signing in the Wilderness," "Onanon," "Greener Pastures," and "October Film Haunt: Under the House," which are true slices of Horror and the Weird that can trade blows with anyone working today.

Pick up Greener Pastures, and then everything else Wehunt writes. More than being work worthy of your time, you owe it to yourself to read these stories, to experience this writer.

[Tom Over · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 star McCarthy-esque prose festoons 3-4 star stories which are often too restrained for my taste and too mature for their own good. October Film Haunt and Greener Pastures though are, of course, unassailable bangers.

[Diz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an intriguing collection of horror short stories. There were two stories that I particularly liked: "Beside Me Singing in the Wilderness," a story of transformation in a creepy Appalachian setting, and "Greener Pastures," a story about a trucker at a lonely diner surrounded by darkness. I don't want to write too much about these stories so that you can experience them yourself, but the author has a talent for creating a building sense of dread as a story goes on.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a kid, I fell is love with A Wrinkle in Time. I read it over and over and over. I loved it so much, that it inspired me to try and write a book myself (I think I was 9 years old). I called it Away We Go, wrote an amazing first chapter, and then realized that it was essentially a variation of the first chapter of A Wrinkle in Time.

So I stopped. No big loss to the literary world.

Over the years, a handful of authors have affected me in the same way; they've been so incredibly good that they have made me wish I was a writer. Harlan Ellison. Kurt Vonnegut. William Faulkner.

And now I can add Michael Wehunt to that list.

Greener Pastures, Wehunt's first book, is an absolutely outstanding collection of short dark fiction. It's so good, in fact, that I put it aside several times because I didn't want to finish it too quickly (especially after "Onanon." Holy cow. I had to take a few days off from reading after finishing that one). It's so good, in fact, that it quickly moved to my "Best Book Read in 2017" spot. It's so good, in fact, that even though I just finished it, I'm going to read it again. Right now.

It is not possible to discuss the stories themselves without spoiling them for you, and that's the last thing I would want to do. I will tell you, however, that every story is a winner. They are creepy and unsettling, and almost always go where you aren't expecting.

On top of that, Wehunt is a helluva good writer. Here's an example:

“I came home the next day and her part of us was all in boxes slashed with black marker strokes. We only saw each other once more before the hospital. I don’t remember what I said to her then either. She had the end of her things in her car and the walls were full of vacant nails. It was one of the last hot days with sweat all over me just from the helplessness of my words I now forget."

That's from the story "Inconsolable" (or maybe "The Inconsolable"--it's listed both ways in the book) and it is amazing. Here's another:

"I remember us going to the Baptist church there the first Sunday, such hope in our breasts. How we saw one another’s eyes crust black one step inside the vestibule and our skin cracking like tree bark."

That's from "Beside Me Singing in the Wilderness," one of the most original takes on a well-trodden horror trope I've ever read.

So, long story short (if that's possible at this point): if you are a fan of the horror genre, do yourself a favor and get this. Read it. Enjoy it. Savor the juicy turns of praise. Perhaps you, like I, will find yourself a new literary hero--one who simultaneously reminds you of your favorite past authors and gives you something to look forward to.

Here's the part where I say

************************

I received a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review. This is it.

************************

But it doesn't matter, cause I just ordered a copy from Amazon. That's how much I loved this book.

[Lena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beside Me Singing in the Wilderness ★★★★
Unique vampire story. It reminded me a little of the origin in Byzantium. It should be expanded into a novella.

Onanon ★★★
Weird and inexplicable.

Greener Pastures ★★
Reads like a lesser Twilight Zone story.

A Discreet Music ★★
Oh Kee Doe Kee. It's an LGTB weird and inexplicable story.

The Devil Under the Madison Blue ★★★
Sad incest tale about doing what you have too.

October Film Haunt: Under the House ★
That was SO BORING. I can't even be mad about the dogs because I'm exhausted from fighting the narcolepsy induced by this Weird Blair Witch nonsense.

Deducted From Your Share In Paradise ★★★
Interesting take on fallen angels.

The Inconsolable ★★★
Strange, poignant, and, I suppose, allegorical.

Dancers ★★
Boring story about exorcism that ends oddly.

A Thousand Hundred Years ★★★
Strange, but oddly satisfying, story of a father who lost his daughter.

Bookends ★★★
Sad story about a man who loses his wife in childbirth.

Sigh. This was not my book. I prefer my strange fiction to make sense by the end of the story, like American Elsewhere and The Library at Mount Char. These often didn't and worse they bored me. Literally putting me to sleep.

This short story collection was part of the Nocturnal Readers Book Box September 2017 Monster Madness Box.

[Philip Fracassi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading GREENER PASTURES is much like listening to a dark and full-bodied symphony, the swelling chords rising and dipping like waves, like currents of air, drifting like cloud patterns and then striking down like hard lightning filled with demonic laughter, before inexplicably soaring heavenly once again. Perhaps the word is operatic, but symphonic sounds more correct because it's closer to poetry, and while these stories are bursting with passages of genius prose they don't hide behind it, the smoky air sparking with color continues to take shape, crafting hard images and hard characters that live through something. These stories begin and end and have something to say, something much of today's dark literary imaginings fail to do, relying instead on coaxing the reader solely with the musical language of the prose. Hiding the point or leaving the space for answers left blank.

Believe me, this is first and foremost a book of stories, not passages of ubiquitous prose, but real tales of woe and heartache and horror that you'll have to see for yourself in order to truly believe.

And while I won't go story-by-story, although I could happily, I will say that the stories each set out to achieve a different goal, often via a different modus operandi. They are each of them a unique solo performance. Some are tales of transformation, some are tales of loss. Some are written to do nothing but terrify you and leave you shaking away those skin-crawling chills that can only come from deep inside where fear lies scratching at the door of your mind.

And yet the stories all work together, the rising and falling of the symphony again creating a unique piece of music that crescendos like thunder and simmers like hard rain on the roof at midnight, sometimes leaving you breathless, sometimes leaving you scared, but never completely leaving you.

When the concert is over and you are left staring dumbly at that final, lingering low-thrumming note of hope (or is it loss), you finally realize you've experienced something masterful, and can only wait and itch and pace until a new song comes and you can immerse yourself in that music once again.

Masterful, brilliant, symphonic. A debut that will shake the literary world's crust a bit I think, because Mr. Wehunt, I'm sure, is only just tuning up.

[T.E. Grau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Straightaway, it should be noted that with his debut collection Greener Pastures, Michael Wehunt positions himself among an elite group of contemporary Horror/Weird Fiction writers that are producing work that is vital to the continuation and expansion of the field, moving it into the true realm of the literary where it has sometimes resided and always belonged when done properly.

And this is work properly done.

There is a ripeness to these tales, a lushness and a perfume, even in the face of grit and gravel. It could be that Georgia air, or more likely what that air is doing to Wehunt's brain as he crafts these carefully rendered tales of woe and loss, of age and disease and transformation, pain, desolation, and horror. Lots of horror, here. Lots of sadness too, and regret. Difficult stuff, often centered on family and the breaking of covenants, in the vein of Ballingrud and Evenson. And behind it all are those stars, and those trees, that seem to appear in each and every one of these tales. Darkness of the land meets darkness of the cosmos at the horizon line, leaving behind a sheen of strange beauty to mark the impact. Southern Gothic sprinkled with cold stardust.

I don't feel the need to break down each story, as they all should be taken-in blind, without preview, for maximum effect. Of the eleven presented here, some grabbed me more than others, and a few of them downright shook me. Standouts include "Beside Me Signing in the Wilderness," "Onanon," "Greener Pastures," and "October Film Haunt: Under the House," which are true slices of Horror and the Weird that can trade blows with anyone working today.

Pick up Greener Pastures, and then everything else Wehunt writes. More than being work worthy of your time, you owe it to yourself to read these stories, to experience this writer.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You ready to go into the mouth? It goes far and maybe all the way to forever.”

I wanted to read a collection of good horror stories during the Halloween season and while this wet my palette, I was also treated to some of the best writing that I’ve seen during my reading this year! While each story in here is undoubtedly horror, there’s a poetic, romantic tone to the prose, giving the stories a texture and a weight that I haven’t seen in the genre in a while.

While the stories do vary based on subject, there are common themes throughout, themes like transformation, as in the best stories in the collection:

“Deducted From Your Share of Paradise,” about a town’s obsession with a group of fallen angels, and armed with this opening line:

The women fell from the sky, silhouetted as dying eagles against the sunset. They struck the huddled trailers of Twin Firs and buckled thin ceilings, the sound of their impacts like God drumming His fingers on the earth.

and “A Discreet Music,” about a widower’s journey toward something beyond grief.

Another running theme is the burden of loss, as seen in the devastating breakup in “The Inconsolable” or the breakdown of a marriage in “Dancers.” Other stories veer into pure cosmic horror territory and sneak under your skin but they all have the same urgent lyricism that I’m excited to see in more of Wehunt’s work.

[Κωνσταντίνος Κέλλης · Rating 5 out of 5]

Η πρώτη συλλογή διηγημάτων του Michael Wehunt είναι μια από τις καλύτερες συλλογές διηγημάτων που έχω διαβάσει ποτέ, μια συλλογή τρόμου που χειρίζεται διαφορετικά είδη τρόμου με μαεστρία, πεντακάθαρη γραφή και πανέμορφες δημιουργικές πινελιές σε όλες τις ιστορίες. Ξέρετε πόσο δύσκολο είναι να είναι όλες οι ιστορίες πετυχημένες σε μια συλλογή, εδώ όμως τις ευχαριστήθηκα όλες, ενώ κάποιες από αυτές πραγματικά τις λάτρεψα. Ένας εξαιρετικός συγγραφέας με απίστευτο ξεκίνημα και υπέροχο μέλλον.

ΥΓ: Όσοι έχετε διαβάσει τη δική μου δουλειά γνωρίζετε ότι ο φόβος της απώλειας είναι το καύσιμο που κινεί τις περισσότερες ιστορίες μου.
Ο Michael γράφει λοιπόν στα story notes στο τέλος του βιβλίου:
"I believe I will always write about loss. Is there a greater fear? Thus far I have escaped the deepest of losses, but I know this fortune will one day have to end. And then I will write about it from the well of experience".
Θα μπορούσα να έχω γράψει εγώ το συγκεκριμένο χωρίο χωρίς να αλλάξω ούτε πνεύμα.

[Michelle {Book Hangovers} · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection has been on my tbr for quite some time. Mainly, because… I rarely read short story collections or anthologies. Thankfully, my reading habits have changed and I’ve been able to “read” loads of collections by listening to their audiobooks.

This collection by Michael Wehunt blew me away. There’s a mixture of loneliness and grief, skin-crawling creepiness and the far-out strange and peculiar weaving it’s way throughout each story. Wehunt was able to create a top-notch, debut collection, and I NEED MORE ASAP!!!

S/N: My favorite story from this collection was the very last one, BOOKENDS. I don’t want to spoil anything by giving too much information, but I have a huge love for Cicadas. 😏

I loved this collection so much. So much so, that I now need to purchase myself a physical copy because owning the audiobook just isn’t enough. This book deserves a place on my “Favorites” book shelf!

[Jon Recluse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review pending

[Seregil of Rhiminee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at Risingshadow.

Ah, what a pleasure it was to read Michael Wehunt's Greener Pastures! When I began to read this collection I was already familiar with some of the author's stories and knew how well he writes dark stories and weird fiction, but I was truly amazed by its dark and chilling beauty.

Greener Pastures is a gem among other weird fiction collections, because the author paints a unique landscape of captivating weirdness that fascinates and terrifies readers in equal measure. The stories contained within its covers evoke feelings of awe, terror and wonder in an effective way. Reading this collection quickly dispells all other collections from your mind, because you'll be enchanted by its subtle strangeness and quiet horror.

This subtle and outstanding debut collection leads readers into the strange and disturbing world of the author's dark imagination that seems to know no bounds. It's an essential collection for those who love the darker and weirder side of speculative fiction.

I consider Michael Wehunt to be one of the most talented authors of weird fiction to emerge during the recent years, beause many of his stories have quiet horror that is lacking from other horror stories. He has already garnered plenty of praise for his stories, but I think that this debut collection will cement his place at the very top of modern weird fiction authors.

One of the best things about this collection is that Michael Wehunt is not afraid to write something different and new. He wonderfully plays and experiments with a few ideas that are not often seen on the pages of weird fiction stories and fluently combines different genres. He's also capable of surprising his readers with stories that observe the world around us through a twisted lens and make us think about our own lives.

This collection contains the following stories:

- Beside Me Singing in the Wilderness
- Onanon
- Greener Pastures
- A Discreet Music
- The Devil Under the Maison Blue
- October Film Haunt: Under the House (original to this collection)
- Deducted from Your Share in Paradise (original to this collection)
- The Inconsolable
- Dancers
- A Thousand Hundred Years (original to this collection)
- Bookends

I found these eleven stories amazingly powerful and harrowing, because the author uses such things as family, loss of loved ones, painful memories and yearning as his building tools to create emotional responses in the reader.

Here's a bit more information about the stories and my thoughts about them.

Beside Me Singing in the Wilderness:

- A mesmerisingly beautiful and strange story in which an old woman resides on a mountain that pours blood from its bowels.
- The author writes excellently about the woman's sister and life.
- I was very impressed by this story and its strangeness. It's one of the best and most impressive weird fiction stories I've ever read.

Onanon:

- A fascinatingly told creepy story about Adam, his old mother and a mysterious girl.
- This is an excellent story with a powerful and disturbing ending.
- This story is definitely one of the best modern weird fiction stories I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

Greener Pastures:

- In this story, Forsyth talks with a trucker in the diner and experiences something strange.
- A wonderfully told weird tale with a strong touch of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, because the author writes about lonely nights and mysterious voices heard on the radio.

A Discreet Music:

- I'd already had the pleasure of reading this story, because it appeared in the excellent Aickman's Heirs (edited by Simon Strantzas), but it was nice to read it again.
- This is a story about an aging man called Hiram who has to confront widowhood. Hiram visits his old lover, Jim, and tries to sort out his feelings.
- An impressive and well told story.

The Devil Under the Maison Blue:

- In this beautifully written story, Gillian meets the ghost of a deceased jazz musician who tells her about his life.
- This story is a powerful exploration of quiet horror.

October Film Haunt: Under the House:

- A fascinating and deeply effective story about horror movie fans and a cult film called 'Under the House'.
- I consider this story to be a fine example of good and intense modern horror.
- This story is definitely one of the best stories of its kind because of the way the author writes about the characters.

Deducted from Your Share in Paradise:

- This intriguing story begins with women falling from the sky into a trailer park. Soon the women begin to build something.
- This is one of my favourite stories in this collection, because the author writes excellently about the strange happenings from various perspectives.

The Inconsolable:

- An excellent story about a man, whose suicide attempt has failed, struggles with depression and faith.
- This story is one of the absolute highlights of this collection, because it's a memorably told story about difficult issues.

Dancers:

- A story about Mae whose husband has been exorcised. She's been unable to sleep since the exorcism. She and her husband consider their Japanese oak trees to be their children.
- The author writes well about Mae's life and feelings concerning her life and not having children.
- This story is a memorable examination of marriage.

A Thousand Hundred Years:

- A beautifully written story about a man whose daughter is missing. The man searches for his daughter.
- In my opinion, this story is powerful on so many levels that it will haunt readers for a long time after they've finished reading it.

Bookends:

- In this story, a man has lost his loved one during childbirth.
- A beautifully and captivatingly written story about loss and grief.
- This is one of the best stories I've ever read about loss, because the author examines loss in a harrowing way.

What makes these stories especially powerful is Michael Wehunt's way of being able to deliver stories that lie somewhere between literary fiction, fantasy fiction and weird fiction. This brings plenty of versatility to the stories and separates them from other weird fiction stories (when weird fiction and literary fiction intertwine with each other, the result is very powerful).

Michael Wehunt's stories are spellbindingly beautiful, disturbing, heartbreaking and bittersweet. This is quite an amazing achievement considering that he's only been active in the weird fiction genre for a few years, because there are authors who have been active for years, but haven't produced anything like this.

The author has an uncanny ability to write emotionally touching and harrowing stories that emphasise the pain and terror found in our everyday lives. His stories are filled with exceptional beauty and wistfulness that will touch each of us in different ways.

Michael Wehunt's prose is beautiful and filled with nuances. His evocative and eloquent prose is one of the reasons why I love his stories, because I expect beautiful prose from dark and strange stories (to me, good and well written prose is an essential part of weird fiction stories). With his distinct literary voice, he creates complex and observant stories that are heartbreakingly beautiful.

Greener Pastures is contemporary weird fiction at its finest and most impressive. It contains complex and strange stories that feature beautiful prose and uncanny happenings. I highly recommend it to fans of weird horror stories and literary strange fiction, because it's a memorable tour-de-force of dark imagination, spellbinding strangeness and beautifully written prose. Please, take a look at this magnificent collection and let your imagination be stimulated by compellingly dark stories and exquisitely beautiful prose.

Highly recommended!

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

With stories in publications like The Dark, Nightscript, and Shock Totem, Michael Wehunt has been making a name for himself and his own brand of dark, weird fiction. I hadn’t read anything of his before this, but if Greener Pastures is any indication, readers have some fantastic stories to look forward to. It’s a highly impressive debut collection; chock-full of imaginative plots, flesh and blood characters, and universal themes, all delivered through prose so lyrical it practically sings.

Highlights include:

“Beside Me Singing in the Wilderness” is a story of blood ties, blood frenzy, and the blood which pours forth from a cursed mountain near a small southern village. The mountain calls for the villagers to imbibe, and the story’s focus is on two sisters who are immune to the madness it brings, but not the longevity. It’s a vampire story for people who are sick of vampires, told in gorgeous, distinctly southern prose.

A long haul trucker is faced with the inexplicable in “Greener Pastures.” It’s a story of lonesome nights, haunted souls, and mysterious voices on radio waves luring unwary folk into a darkness from which they may never return.

“Deducted from Your Share in Paradise” begins with a group of women falling from the sky into Twin Furs trailer park. The mute survivors quickly heal and set to work building a strange spire. The residents of Twin Furs each deal with these events in their own way, while from their backs bulbous growths begin to emerge. Through a fantastical lens, this story looks at human nature versus humanity, the often slippery distinction between the two, and where the nature of sacrifice fits in with them.

After his fiancé leaves him, a suicidal man struggles with depression and with the faith he lost long ago in “The Inconsolable.” It’s one of the shorter pieces in the collection, but no less emotionally affecting than the rest.

A desperate man searches for his missing daughter in “A Thousand Hundred Years.” Guilt nestles deep in his mind alongside an irrational yet powerful hope. This story drives home the fact that looking away from the world for one moment is all it takes for it to slip away from you. But maybe, just maybe, tucked away inside that moment is the potential to bring that world back.

“Bookends” offers a different take on loss. After his partner dies in childbirth, a man is left with a newborn in his care and thirteen years of happy memories cut short in an instant. Grief affects people in various ways, of course, and in this case things take a pitch-dark turn. It’s a harrowing story, but ultimately a redemptive one, and a fine coda for a collection built on the balance of light and darkness, pain and hope.

As Simon Strantzas says in the introduction, Wehunt has “… managed to garner a reputation for delivering strange and bizarre stories that exist in the overlap of Horror, Fantasy, and Literary fiction. Any of these camps could reasonably claim him.” Reading the first story is all it takes to confirm this. Wehunt takes all the best aspects of each, discards the worst, and lays out eleven of the most haunting stories you’re likely to read this year. Greener Pastures is highly recommended.


Review originally posted at cemeterydanceonline.com

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm trying to be sparing with 5-star reviews, but, well, 'Greener Pastures' deserves it. This collection does not have one off note. I devoured every story, which must make me some kind of masochist because they hurt. Some of them hurt a little, some hurt a lot. Often heartbreaking, occasionally infuriating - if you can get through 'The Devil Under the Maison Blue' without at least one surge of unwelcome but undeniable bloodlust then you are a better person than I.

Stories such as 'Beside Me Singing in the Wilderness,' 'A Discreet Music,' and 'Deducted From Your Share in Paradise' have an especially strong fantasy element and are as wondrous as they are dark. And at least one story, 'Bookends,' has almost no fantastic trappings at all. Wherever he goes on the fiction map, Wehunt displays a surprising level of dexterity in his vivid and varied characters and the intimate details of their environments. You can almost smell some of these stories.

Michael Wehunt has put together a close-range gutshot of a book. 11 stories that will linger and not make a quick end of things. Featuring an unsettling wrap-around cover from ace illustrator Michael Bukowski and an elegant and readable layout from Shock Totem, 'Greener Pastures' has my highest recommendation for those interested in emotionally raw and truly weird (and Weird) literature.

[Shane Douglas Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

*** The following is an excerpt from my review on This Is Horror ***

When we think of weird horror fiction there are several names definitive of the subgenre that we tend to think of. Names like Robert W. Chambers, H. P. Lovecraft, and Clarke Ashton Smith come to mind, as does Arthur Machen to some degree. But this is a new generation and there is a group of contemporary authors who are taking the weird in new, previously uncharted, directions. Authors such as Kelly Link, Brian Evenson, Nathan Ballingrud, and Stephen Graham Jones are a few, but there are countless others that are proving to be just as fresh and exciting. One of those is Michael Wehunt, author of the debut collection, Greener Pastures.

*** To read the rest please visit http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/book-re... ***

[Rebecca Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Wehunt's writing in Greener pastures is beautiful. His stories are both delicate and powerful, simple yet strangely complex. There's some kind of magic at play in his words and I feel quite haunted by these stories. I hope there are many more stories to follow this excellent collection.

[Arka Chakraborty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wehunt is very creative and highly imaginative

[Adriane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had such a huge impact on me that it took me almost a month to pull myself together enough to write a review here. While aware of all the praise that Greener Pastures got by lots of top reviewers and some of the best authors of horror and weird fiction, I went into it thinking of it as an "in-between" reading while waiting for the release of some much anticipated novels out this Summer. However, this book has exceeded by far any expectations I had and I must say, it provided for a richer and more enjoyable experience than the novels I was looking forward to reading. I agree with Christopher Slatsky and Seregil of Rhiminee about the stories being "compelling, heartbreaking and terrifying" and that "The author has an uncanny ability to write emotionally touching and harrowing stories that emphasize the pain and terror found in our everyday lives". The elements of weird/supernatural in these stories are not always the main focus and seem to act as catalysts for a further experience that often results in a marvelous revelation for both the character and the reader, all of this delivered in “achingly beautiful prose”, to use Slatsky’s words again. In this aspect, Greener Pastures reminds me of Nathan Ballingrud’s North American Lake Monsters. Both collections had such a powerful effect on me because they managed to bring up a host of emotions in such an unexpected way and, in my mind, this is the best gift a book can give you.

[Benoit Lelièvre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wehunt admits it himself in the afterword of the collection: these are some of his greatest hits published in online magazines and literary journals. So prepare to skip from theme to theme, setting to setting and subgenre to subgenre. Now that this detail is out of the way, there's a lot to like about Michael Wehun't writing. There's an identity to it. Recurring obsessions with nature, loneliness and death-as-an-inevitable-tragedy. There ARE some cosmic horror narratives in there including the title story (in case you're wondering I'm reading this book as part of the cosmic horror month on my blog) but it's a small part of a larger, more exploratory weird fiction collection. While I've enjoyed this book, I believe Wehunt's voice might be best suited to novels and longer form as his stories often take time to take off the ground.

Keep an eye on Wehunt. He's an intriguing talent.