Lazy Eyes

by James Nulick

Ten new tales of contemporary horror from acclaimed cult writer James Nulick.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction

220 pages, Paperback

Published June 3, 2022

Reviews

[Janie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very strong and moving collection of stories, stitched together with wistfulness, flesh and ephemeral souls. The soft caress of the inside forms a surface that is both palpable and malleable, approximating life, both human and otherwise. I want more.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I enjoyed this new compilation of short stories even more than James Nulick's debut collection (2019's HAUNTED GIRLFRIEND), and I'm not just saying that because one of the stories contained herein ("Dark Web") is dedicated to yours truly. After making a tentative stab into the genre with HAUNTED GIRLFRIEND's "Husk," Nulick's second collection, LAZY EYES, identifies itself as a collection of 'contemporary horror,' and certainly most (though I would not say all) of the ten tales collected here fit that criteria, abounding as they do with some of the standard tropes such as black magic grimoires, witchcraft, ghosts, inanimate objects coming to life, human monsters, and what have you, all given a contemporary sheen. At times one is reminded of the body-oriented sex horror of a 1980's-period Clive Barker, or the sci-fi-infused body horror of Cronenberg: certainly "Spiders" (one of this book's artistic highpoints) strikes me as a 21st-century updating of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, with its focus on humanity being overwritten by the Other (though one of my other favorite stories in this book, "Claws," which concerns itself with a malevolent shapeshifter in the form of a housecat, made me think of Saki, for whatever reason). Having said that, the dominant mood created by the stories is less frequently terror and more often a deep and lonely sadness: there is a frequent mourning for a lost time and a dead past, and many of the narrators (human, animal or otherwise) in this book are seeking to transcend themselves, be it via love (or some other simple human connection), transforming one's shape/form/species, or, in the case of the book's more etheric beings, achieving a state of exalted corporeality. The collection's final story, "Doe," seemed particularly sad and melancholy to me (it probably didn't help matters I was listening to Nico's CHELSEA GIRL album on headphones at the time), though ends on a note of hope. As always, the Nulick touch is present in the creation of well-realized characters one can empathize with, and the prose style is vivid and evocative, as decadently gorgeous as "...a wasp's nest under the eaves of the house vibrating with black doom."

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an amazing short story collection that I want to read it again before writing a longer review -- it's a delightful read, emotionally resonates, beautifully written but clear, direct language.

[meow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Camden Joy writes at the top of the book’s cover “delicious sentences”. Some of these sentences are snacks but for the most part they are savory layered courses

Like the plot of the stories the sentences get unwieldy kind of mythological over the course of the collection, idk it oscillates in effect. Mythological meaning open to some samsaric hacking, memories of childhood or neighborhood trauma coming unburrowed from unknown places

I read a dark humor in here—there’s a warning before the first one about the brujeria contained used to kill the protagonists sister, and while the story is serious I guess the teenage pettiness and passion with tremendous consequence was funny in a touching sad way… this is one of the straightforward stories.

I was taken if maybe perplexed by the forementioned mythological aspects especially taken body in the more complex stories. These deal with transmigration, perpetuity of souls over history and bodies. This appears in the classical childhood-trauma-informing-adulthood, such as the mannequin, or the ghost watching over the life without it a la Enter the Void (esp the rebirth), or literal gods (?) remolding form over and over from basic life form to human to…?

I especially like the dedications for each story