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Pacifier
Ira Rat's debut collection of 4 stories of "misfit fiction" flavored with transgressive horror and existentalist bizarro.
55 pages, Paperback
Published October 31, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
December 26, 2024
living conditions are squalid but provide closed doors. are the vampires after you? does the world care? i hear they fly with monarchs in the night, sprinkling glittering colors that alight on us all. still, we glide like the albatross to a safer place. small-town life is bitter, but some of us still live here.
June 5, 2021
"Suck the pacifier. Come on baby, suck it!"
If you thought that a book couldn’t be as f**ked up as the cover, then you’re so wrong. This book was pure f**ked up insanity and I loved it.
This contains four short stories that made me laugh, side-eye my dog, Louie, and cringe. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.
Ira Rat is one person that I would eat dirty bandaids with.
If you thought that a book couldn’t be as f**ked up as the cover, then you’re so wrong. This book was pure f**ked up insanity and I loved it.
This contains four short stories that made me laugh, side-eye my dog, Louie, and cringe. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.
Ira Rat is one person that I would eat dirty bandaids with.
August 22, 2020
This was a really quick collection (only 4 stories long) but don't let that fool you, there was certainly some emotional heft to these short dark tales. Gory, weird, a little funny (at least I thought the first one was) but mostly just a punch right to the gut. Not a wasted word. This collection is short enough that you could read it in a day and have yourself a real depressing afternoon. I did.
I fucking love the cover for this, BTW.
I fucking love the cover for this, BTW.
December 17, 2019
I’ve been keeping an eye on Ira’s work for a while now, and I was entirely prepared to very much enjoy this book. What I was not prepared for was to be so thoroughly floored by how great this was. It was scary, it was funny, it was smart, it was imaginative, and it made me think.
I can’t really ask for much more.
I can’t really ask for much more.
February 24, 2021
Pacifier by Ira Rat. Four short stories that spiral into madness.
Story 1) Mad
Story 2) Madder
Story 3) Maddier
Story 4) Daft
I look at the cover a lot. The image of the titular story. Apropos. It can tell a lot of stories. I'd love to read Pacifier II: Many stories of one image.
This is a tasty morsel. Bloody. Yum.
Story 1) Mad
Story 2) Madder
Story 3) Maddier
Story 4) Daft
I look at the cover a lot. The image of the titular story. Apropos. It can tell a lot of stories. I'd love to read Pacifier II: Many stories of one image.
This is a tasty morsel. Bloody. Yum.
December 13, 2019
Whether you peel slowly or let it bleed Ira Rat’s collection is a pleasure wound, dark-unsettling matters mixed with horror that leaves everything to a soothing withered thumb, feed for the pig or just dead at your feet. If you watched the first two seasons of Black Mirror then these strange shorts are in the same fruit bowl with your very own bloody banana. Start peeling...What are you waiting for!
March 23, 2020
Why is everything NihilismRevised so cool? Because they're a frigging cool press, that's why.
March 26, 2024
This is one of the best collections of short stories I have ever read. Ira Rat is a tremendous author of tiny books.
November 17, 2019
Pacifier hurts you, tickles you, and makes you question the ridiculous world we live in. Open your mouth and give it a suck. You won't regret it.
It also has one of my favourite short stories I've read in ages.
It also has one of my favourite short stories I've read in ages.
November 25, 2019
3.5 stars.
Ira Rat's debut collection contains four short stories, containing elements of body horror and absurdism. The first two stories, "Last Good Day, Before Goodbye" and "Pacifier," were great. The former reminded me a bit of Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkeyhouse" and, I think, it is the strongest piece in the collection. The latter is a great piece of body horror that, while probably not too gross for readers of body horror, really got under my skin (maybe because I obsessively bite my fingernails and it kind of reminded me of that and I kept projecting the main character's fingers onto my own).
The last two stories were enjoyable, but the endings really fell short. Even the ending to "Pacifier" wasn't the strongest, but it was stronger than the final half of the collection. The stories are definitely still enjoyable and worth the read, they just didn't seem to meet their full potential.
Overall, fans of body horror and bizarro should definitely check out this short collection. And I'm looking forward to seeing what Ira Rat will do next.
Ira Rat's debut collection contains four short stories, containing elements of body horror and absurdism. The first two stories, "Last Good Day, Before Goodbye" and "Pacifier," were great. The former reminded me a bit of Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkeyhouse" and, I think, it is the strongest piece in the collection. The latter is a great piece of body horror that, while probably not too gross for readers of body horror, really got under my skin (maybe because I obsessively bite my fingernails and it kind of reminded me of that and I kept projecting the main character's fingers onto my own).
The last two stories were enjoyable, but the endings really fell short. Even the ending to "Pacifier" wasn't the strongest, but it was stronger than the final half of the collection. The stories are definitely still enjoyable and worth the read, they just didn't seem to meet their full potential.
Overall, fans of body horror and bizarro should definitely check out this short collection. And I'm looking forward to seeing what Ira Rat will do next.
August 19, 2022
In a quartet of transgressive tales seasoned with an expert’s dash of wit and satire, my favorite of the four is “Feedlot,” where a photographer lands an artist’s grant to collect images of dead towns in Iowa: “They had their way of keeping you in. He shuddered. He had nightmares that he would someday end up in one of those factories even if it wasn’t producing dead things. The stale, recycled air, bad coffee, having to ask Hank about his kids every day for all eternity. A hell worse than anything Dante could have dreamed up.” Bravo to Ira Rat, who penned a unique lineup of dark tales that never keep their color inside of the lines.
May 26, 2023
Four stories, each models of understated strangeness. Without a wasted paragraph, Ira Rat creates vividly realized characters and settings that feel concrete, then gradually introduces the sense that something is off.
The horror, when it comes, is visceral, but woven in so seamlessly it feels like a natural part of the landscape. No cheap jump scares here.
It’s said that most horror is about the unnatural intruding into the “real” world; these stories, by contrast, understand the intrinsic weirdness of everyday life.
The horror, when it comes, is visceral, but woven in so seamlessly it feels like a natural part of the landscape. No cheap jump scares here.
It’s said that most horror is about the unnatural intruding into the “real” world; these stories, by contrast, understand the intrinsic weirdness of everyday life.
March 29, 2023
A fantastic quartet of fucked up little stories. Each draws you in like an archer pulling their bowstring and then snap you’re pierced.
May 22, 2025
Wow, what a surprising find, shuffling through the independent small press section of Powell’s books. This would have definitely earned 5 stars had it not been a small chapbook and limited in its size. Sometimes buying things at face value, because the cover is very intriguing, works out just fine.
October 3, 2020
As ira rat himself wrote on the title page: “peel slowly + bleed.”
July 7, 2021
Four amazing short stories. I was blown away on how good this is. There is so much horror in this tiny package.
March 22, 2023
every story is beautiful and interesting. i found myself rereading each one before moving onto the next.
Read
December 20, 2023Pacifier is a fun collection of horror and horror-adjacent short stories from Ira Rat. Last Good Day, Before Goodbye is my favorite the bunch.
August 19, 2025
Four pretty surreal horror stories one package that I overall enjoyed. I feel like Ira Rat could write some amazing graphic novels, I had fun imagining the visuals along with the narrations. My only issue is that the first story felt like the strongest in the collection and the others afterwards felt less satisfying.
SPOILERS (somewhat) -
An interesting note is that all four stories, though unrelated, have main characters who are in some way or another simultaneously disconnected from and trapped by their environments. Next to that was also a trend of people being reduced to their flesh by means of their consumption, both metaphorically ("consumed" either by victims of isolation or to nourish the place they are isolated by) and literally. These are the first stories I've read by Ira Rat so I'm curious to look into more works to see if there's some commonalities to this booklet, since I liked what I saw.
SPOILERS (somewhat) -
An interesting note is that all four stories, though unrelated, have main characters who are in some way or another simultaneously disconnected from and trapped by their environments. Next to that was also a trend of people being reduced to their flesh by means of their consumption, both metaphorically ("consumed" either by victims of isolation or to nourish the place they are isolated by) and literally. These are the first stories I've read by Ira Rat so I'm curious to look into more works to see if there's some commonalities to this booklet, since I liked what I saw.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 19, 2025
This was disjointed at best. The writing didn't flow very well. Sometimes I had to go back and reread a section multiple times and then just skip it because it wasn't making sense no matter how many times I reread it.
March 5, 2025
Rounded up to a generous four. Zany horror straight from Whatdafuckville
December 19, 2025
Fun and quick lil read!
February 1, 2024
THIS IS NOT A PAID REVIEW-
Pacifier (published 2018, 2nd edition 2021), holds the distinction as being the book that drew my attention to Filthy Loot, and the writings of Ira Rat. The characters that populate this anthology, occupy the liminal spaces that can be found peppering the Iowa landscape. Rural hamlets more ghost town than real locations on a map. Cookie-cutter industrial parks, relegated to the edge of cities that are themselves struggling for relevance.
Ira has the gift of a writer who can fill his stories with individuals whose tragic circumstances, existential crisis and personal problems give them a sense of reality. That same realism drives home the unhinged acts and bizarre events, like a splinter into the eye. The tales presented in Pacifier are able diffuse in the mind of the reader, feelings of unease, horror and dread that expands like a fungus. you'll find yourself thinking over these stories months later.
The locations
Pacifier (published 2018, 2nd edition 2021), holds the distinction as being the book that drew my attention to Filthy Loot, and the writings of Ira Rat. The characters that populate this anthology, occupy the liminal spaces that can be found peppering the Iowa landscape. Rural hamlets more ghost town than real locations on a map. Cookie-cutter industrial parks, relegated to the edge of cities that are themselves struggling for relevance.
Ira has the gift of a writer who can fill his stories with individuals whose tragic circumstances, existential crisis and personal problems give them a sense of reality. That same realism drives home the unhinged acts and bizarre events, like a splinter into the eye. The tales presented in Pacifier are able diffuse in the mind of the reader, feelings of unease, horror and dread that expands like a fungus. you'll find yourself thinking over these stories months later.
The locations
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews