Living Shadows: Stories: New & Preowned

by John Shirley

One of the darkest, edgiest, boldest writers around, John Shirley lays down an adrenalized yet artful prose that fairly skids across the page, dragging the reader along into shadowed corners of terror and desire. Yet while it's thrilling, there's psychological depth, too, as Shirley bores into the brains of his characters, revealing the motivations of those who walk on the wild side. Many writers extrapolate from peripheral observation and research, but John Shirley's stories come from personal experience with extreme people and extreme mental states, and his struggle with the seductions of addiction. On the streets, in the midst of darkest suburbia, or just beyond consensus reality - Shirley brings the shadows to vivid life.

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

352 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2007

About the author

John Shirley won the Bram Stoker Award for his story collection Black Butterflies, and is the author of numerous novels, including the best-seller DEMONS, the cyberpunk classics CITY COME A-WALKIN', ECLIPSE, and BLACK GLASS, and his newest novels STORMLAND and A SORCERER OF ATLANTIS.

He is also a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He has been several Year's Best anthologies including Prime Books' THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, and his nwest story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is out from TOR books; his Halo novel, HALO: BROKEN CIRCLE is coming out from Pocket Books.

His most recent novels are STORMLAND and (forthcoming) AXLE BUST CREEK. His new story collection is THE FEVERISH STARS. STORMLAND and other John Shirley novels are available as audiobooks.

He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror), and his own recordings.

John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher.

John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD STORIES, and LIVING SHADOWS.

source: Amazon

Reviews

[Zach · Rating 1 out of 5]

I stall in reading many books out of absentmindedness or lassitude, but I can't remember the last time I gave up on a book from sheer frustration. In the end it wasn't the sloppy writing or apparent lack of editing, but the fact that these stories are just a grim parade of pointless scenes where the worst case scenario is guaranteed. There's no tension or reward when you know the author's just going to take the easy way out and kill the obvious character in every single story. Introduce a young girl, show the swimming pool, drown the girl. Over and over. Yay.

[Smiley III · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shirley's latest collection is breathtaking for how he effortlessly (which, I guess, must mean "seamlessly" — I don't want to make it sound like he mustn't've worked his ass off on these!) brings to bear the visceral and psychic achings more the metier of horror and "genre" fiction into the proverbial living room (in a sense, what Tobe Hooper/Spielberg were up to in Poltergeist and Wes Craven in Nightmare on Elm Street anyway -- you can't keep these things distant, just 'cause you've got your "suburban walls" up!).

Whether or not you'd usually think this sort of thing is your cup of tea, the "naturalist" fiction (to term it tentatively) peers much deeper into the recesses and cracks of people's minds and hearts than you'd usually find in ten issues of The New Yorker. Who's kidding who?

Shirley's got the shit you need. You'll get your eyes opened — and appreciate the stuff you like, anyway, all the better (and clearer) for it!

[Andy Hayleck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrible cover, great short stories.

[Barbara Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover is gorgeous. I wish the stories lived up to it. Shirley's writing is competent, but the stories in this collection suffer by their aggregation. Read one by one, months apart, each one might be striking or significant, but all together their weaknesses are magnified. The banality of casual, negligent evil loses not only its shock value but its interest after the first half-dozen examples. In fact the slowly (slowly!) escalating brutality of the first story pretty much covered what Shirley has on offer for the rest of the collection: a young girl sees an injured animal, worries about a suicidal boy, but her concerns are dismissed by her parents; worse and worse things happen and she does nothing, changes nothing, reflects on nothing. Read on and various bad things happen to children, mothers are neglectful or brutal, and nobody cares very much, including this reader.
If you like Joyce Carol Oates and her variety of litfic horror, you'll probably like this collection. I don't and didn't.

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read about half of these short stories. They were gruesome and surprisingly gripping, but overall the experience still left me a little flat. Recommended in the NYT Book Review, I was a little disappointed. I can't put my finger on what I didn't like - maybe when I read the rest I will like them better.

[David Agranoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a long time ago, so a review might be pushing it. Lets just say this is a great collection of a master story teller. a great introduction to Shirley and his work. Not to mention the amazing lovecratian novella Stranded in the sky.

[Mo · Rating 2 out of 5]

To paraphrase Thomas Hobbes, nasty, brutish and short. Sometimes I just don't want to read about the grimy, perverted corners of the human mind ad nauseum. Over it.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stuff again.