Black Butterflies

by John Shirley

A collection of sixteen short stories captures a world of strangely sweet nightmares and dark places that gleam like onyx, by an author whose dreams of black butterflies with razor-sharp wings motivated him to put his imagination on paper. Original.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fiction, Mystery, Collections, Gothic, Anthologies

350 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

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

[mark monday · Rating 1 out of 5]

finally finished this one; ugh what a chore. it was just sitting on my Unfinished shelf, staring me down, and finally i couldn't take it anymore.

Shirley knows how to construct a story, that can't be denied. he has interesting themes, can set a tone immediately, and his characters are diverse and often surprisingly well-developed. he's no hack; he knows how to write. which makes this overrated collection of short stories all the more frustrating. whether writing about junkies, the middle class, the lower class, secretaries, bike messengers, whatever... the overriding end result is an author writing unpleasant and condescending tales of people he holds in contempt, characters he seems to want to punish simply because they exist and are not him. there is a smug callowness and sense of superiority in his treatment of every segment of society - one that becomes increasingly eye-rolling and then finally revolting to read.

now in general i am not a person who likes to trash authors on a personal level, and i am sure that mr. Shirley is surely a decent enough sort. i'll give him the benefit of the doubt; he's a human being after all, right? but i can't help but react to any perspective that seems so invested in demeaning the humanity in others - in ALL others. the only thing i took from this collection was getting to know an authorial perspective that appears to have been born to look down upon the world. is getting inside such a complacently small-minded point of view of any value in the end? what is the point? if all i'm looking at when i'm looking at humanity is a big cesspool, why even bother to be alive?

[Evans Light]

If you see this review pop up in my status update over and over, it's because I'll be adding reviews for each story as I work my way through the book. Reviews are possibly, but not necessarily, in order.

I've never read anything by John Shirley before (at least that I can remember), but have heard many good things. Fingers crossed.

Now on with the individual story reviews:

***** Barbara

What a great short story! A woman gets kidnapped by amateur thugs hoping to force her to withdraw cash from an ATM. Things go not quite as planned. Reminiscent of Richard Laymon, with excellent writing to boot.

*** War and Peace

Two crooked cops, and one of them has a dead wife. Did he do it? Gritty and interesting, but doesn't really go anywhere.

*** You Hear What Buddy and Ray Did?

Lots of drugs, crime, and transexual hijynx in this all around mess of a situation. You'll be ready to shower and brush your teeth after this one. Not for the offendable, and not for everyone. Not sure this one was for me.

*** Answering Machine

A pretty experimental piece in that the entire story is supposed to be the written transcript of an answering machine message about - you guessed it - an all around mess of a situation.

**** The Rubber Smile

A man is working on his doctorate, studying the effects of horror films on audiences. The horror flick THE RUBBER SMILE seems to being having a profound effect on some...
I wasn't digging this story too much at first, but ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

*** The Footlite

You know that girl, the one who died from cum?

This is her story. Very similar vibe and pervasive transexual lifestyle setting as the "You Hear What Buddy and Ray Did?" story. Doesn't really go anywhere, pretty much strives to recreate the experience of sitting at the bar in a sleazy inner-city gay/transexual dive while having the drunk person beside you chew your ear off with nasty gossip about the people who hang out there. Does not increase my desire to do so one iota. Why is the author so enamored with this subset of people living tragic lives, bisexual/transexual junkies and hookers in particular? It is out of fascination, or is this his social circle?

**** Cram

A tight little Laymonesque story, less focused on alternative lifestyle sleaze and more focused on straight ahead real-life horror.

Two bicycle delivery boys are riding in the BART subway, that travels through a tunnel dug deep beneath the frigid waters of San Francisco Bay. Hey, they have earthquakes there...right?

[Garrett Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing one good piece of short fiction is hard. Writing one good piece of short fiction that defines a personal aesthetic is really hard. Writing several good pieces of short fiction that do that borders on the impossible. Splatpunk and Cyberpunk meet. Genre disappears and nothing's left behind but John Shirley. This, to me, is what great short fiction collections are about and that's why I consider this to be one of them. There's a lot in here to haunt you.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite all the fawning endorsements and the fact that a couple of these stories were nominated for awards, I found BLACK BUTTERFLIES to be a very sub-par collection of highly-polished turds. By "highly-polished," I mean that John Shirley's prose is excellent, especially when it comes to giving each story a unique narrative voice. But by "turds," I mean that, not only do these stories SUCK in all-caps, they are generally off-putting almost to the point of being offensive. Shirley is considered one of the founders of "splatterpunk," and this collection seems to be his way of proving he can still be hardcore. As someone who'd only read a couple of his HELLBLAZER and ALIENS tie-in novels, I wasn't quite prepared for the level of sexual depravity in a few of these stories, especially since it felt like Shirley was being extreme simply for the sake of being extreme.
The only reason I don't give BLACK BUTTERFLIES a one-star rating is that a couple of the stories are marginally OK. "War and Peace" is a somewhat enjoyable hard-boiled crime story, and "Aftertaste" is a passable zombie tale whose only innovation is that it mostly centers around crack dealers and addicts. "The Rubber Smile" is pretty bad, but I found its distinctive Richard Laymon-vibe amusing. Sadly, half these stories are just flat-out terrible: "Cram," "Pearldoll," "Woodgrains," "The Exquisitely Bleeding Heads of Doktur Palmer Vreedeez" (one of the worst stories I've ever read in my life), "Flaming Telepaths," and "Black Hole Sun, Won't You Come" (good song, though). What makes them even worse is how pretentious they are. It's one thing to write a dumb story on purpose solely to entertain, and quite another to mistake your dumb story for great art.

P.S.: I just saw on Wikipedia that this collection won both an International Horror Guild Award and a Bram Stoker Award. Whoops! Maybe it's great art after all...

[Isidore · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Shirley must be one of the most reckless writers of short fiction in the horror genre. He takes chances which would make other writers blanch, and much of his fiction is precariously poised between the outrageously brilliant and the outrageously ridiculous. Fortunately, the former usually prevails, as in this collection. It contains many stunningly effective tales, such as "Barbara", "Cram", and "Delia and the Dinner Party", and only a few where Shirley's distinctly unusual internal censor lets him down, as in the very silly "Flaming Telepaths".

[Bogdan · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you`re hoping to get a regal of horror stories, like I was, then, definitely, this is not the place! So, beware~!
Overall the stories are very heavy on the sexual/deviant/trans/ side, but the writing is quite clear and easy to graps, not an strong feature for a lot of the writers out there.

There are only kind of four stories with a supranatural element to them and I can`t say that I disliked those peculiar ones.

In fact the stories didn`t bother you with a lot of exposition, they`re going straight to the point, with a lot of frenetic action and crazy things going on.

Yeah, I had high hopes, but even with a Bram Stoker Award for this Anthology (and this makes you just wonder!) I couldn`t pass the meeehh, ok, line.

[Adam Wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Black Butterflies by John Shirley is BY FAR the worst short story collection i've ever read. Compaired to Peaceable Kingdom by Jack Ketchum, Night Shift by Stephen King, Blue World by Robert R. McCammon, and Strange Highways by Dean Koontz, this is a tree who's life should not have been wasted to form this book. Each story seems to me as if were written by a thirteen year old who only cares about sex and violence. Each story is incredibly thoughtless and pointless. This short story collection won the 1998 Bram Stoker award for best collection? Why? This isn't horror at all! The only story that I even became interested in was the Rubber Smile, and that was only because I liked the idea. It was still put together with a bunch of sentences that seemed like the half-formed thoughts of a kid who can't play Grand Theft Auto because his playstation broke. This is pathetic beyond anything to do with horror that I've read so far. Guys raping each other with claw hammers? A guy having sex with a girl under a mound of dead bodies, blood, and sewage? A girl getting raped and then shooting up the rapist's sperm instead of heroin and dying because of it? It's aweful. Just aweful. Don't waste your time. Please. I only finished it because I kept thinking, "well, it won the Stoker award. There has to be at least one story in here worth reading." Wrong. Sex, blood, disgusting acts and characters, horrible plots, repetitive and nonsensicle themes, and all of it written with the skill of an adolescent using a dictionary to make himself sound smart. In the weak introduction, the writer suggests that maybe the world is ready for John Shirley. I don't think it is. Not yet. Give it time.

[Smiley III · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Shirley collection brings together (yet another) collection of Stories That Go Places Most Don't Dare: somehow singular, and feeling so right at the same time.

The requisite knowledge of drives and desires and sub-cultural modes (that being: any cultural strata's unspoken rules of conduct & behavior) that Shirley masterfully flaunts his command of like a composer or violin virtuoso "just warming up" with a trill over-and-back-again is something few would know how to fake, or covet, so rare is its actual existence: almost forgotten, like the "wake ups" he gave Sterling & Gibson, et. al., back in the day, of really digging in to the Prose Fiction Medium like it was, just, so goddamn worth it.

(I sound more like a jerk than these stories read, though: ignore me, and hit this shit hard!)

[Cheri Keay · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like weird, haunting, uncomfortable at times, read this book of short stories. They will make you squirm, make you gag. Make you laugh and cry. Honestly it's one of the most f'ed up things I've ever read, but I actually really liked it. The writing is pretty amazing and the visuals you get are one of a kind.

[A1Cvenom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I rank this one at 3.5 rounded down to 3 stars. There were some great stories mixed in here, but there were some really terrible ones too. I feel he writes the strongest when he bases the story in reality and not fantasy. There were also several stories based in explicit gay sex scenes, which simply seemed forced for shock value and made me want to put the book down or skip a chapter. I don’t regret reading these short stories however it might be a while before I read this author again. If anything I may read his novel wetbones and see if the positive elements shine through.

[🐴 🍖]

a collection with some uhhhh real peaks and valleys! on the one hand is the stuff where shirl is just yelling "you guys, come look how transgressive i'm being!," the transgression often amounting to nothing more than, like, a trans sex worker existing. on the other is the actually interesting stuff, e.g. "rubber smile" (spooky tale of a horror movie that's a lil too realistic, resonates nicely w/ the wicker man) & "cram," a piece re a very bad ride on the BART train that's like a swans song rendered in prose. it's close but imo more often engaging than not; if nothing else the reader will get a good lmao outta the fedora-clad author pic. (been badly remiss in reviewing stuff but will be endeavoring to get caught up, in case you care!!)

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite my rating, I would not call John Shirley a bad writer. Not in the slightest. There are some very creative story set-ups here, and some brilliant writing.

But...while I don't consider myself prudish by any means, I really have a problem with writing that is this sexually explicit for seemingly no purpose beyond being explicit. By the end of this 250 page short story collection, I really felt like I needed a shower. The best reference point I can come up with is the later Anita Blake books (only in terms of explicitness--Shirley tops Laurell K. Hamilton by far in terms of ability).

I've read other Shirley stories in anthologies, and enjoyed them, which is why I read this collection, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

[Spencer Distraction · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Cram". A short story about an earthquake in the Bay Area that focuses on the people that are on the BART, UNDER the gawdsdamned sea, going vertical as the earth opens a hole to swallow the train, & the mofo water starts to seep in. AW HELL NAW! After reading this (years ago) I have not been able to ride the BART without thinking of this and needing xanax. Shivers...

[Maggie · Rating 1 out of 5]

i read the first story in this collection and that was it for me. just awful. terrible, horrible, choose your own adjective. not well-written AT ALL, and i felt dirty reading it. if only there were an option for zero stars.

[Lynda Lacasse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creepy and dark...Loved it!

Sometimes there's just nothing like a scary bedtime story, and this had more than one. These were all hair raising, and I couldn't stop reading. Recommended to anyone who wants to stay up late reading.

[Clif · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you like weird stuff that's nasty for the sake of being shocking, then you'll probably still hate this book.

[Roxanne]

I believe I picked this book up at a bookstand in an airport. It has got to be one of the best short story anthologies I have ever read. Very dark, very psychologically twisted.

[Sandra Bassett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far my favorite John Shirley book. I don't care for short stories but this book is fantastic. The stories are strange and strangely horrific in an interesting way.

[Kirby · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you only read one piece of work by John Shirley, read "Cram" from this book.

[Allan Dyen-Shapiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short horror fiction by a master; half the book realistic horror, half supernatural. Highly recommended--horror doesn't come any better.

[Joseph Duffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twisted, entertaining, dark, never dull.

[Imo Greenwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

a stomach-churning read (extremely derogatory). each story comes across as incredibly wannabe 'edgy,' but all just comes across as being written by a massive loser with no soul, no integrity and nothing to be stood for. blatant farming for book sales via incredibly graphic and violent content (largely targeting marginalised groups), under the pretence of creating some form of 'art' or 'commentary.' we have gotta stop handing out prizes for this (bram stoker prize ????).

would be interested to try out something else from the splatterpunk genre - see if it's redeemable.

[Doug Hohbein · Rating 4 out of 5]

The themes are not my cup of tea, but the writing is so good I have to recommend it. Meant to shock, these stories fill the bill. If bizarre, sick, twisted and thought provoking short stories are what you crave, this book is for you.

[Clara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I ended up reading this because I was looking for another book with the same name. No shame but I beg your finest pardon? What was that?

Please check your authors when adding books to your ebook, it might spare you a couple traumas.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

First time reading John Shirley. A pretty good collection. I liked the first half of the stories more than the 2nd part. My favorite story was Aftertaste.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

None of the stories really did anything for me, feeling like wannabe edgy purple prose rather than actual ideas.

[Bartosz Stój · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've recently read this short story collection. It's one of only three horror collections that won both Bram Stoker Award and IHG Award (the others being '20th Century Ghosts' by Joe Hill and 'The Nightmare Chronicles' by Douglas Clegg) so I've thought it's worth a read and I've found it to be pretty good book with no truly weak stories and few standouts.

The book is divided into two parts: This World which deals with real life horrors and That World which contains stories with supernatural elements.

My two favorite stories were 'You Hear What Buddy and Ray Did?' and 'Cram', both from This World part. Other good stories in that segment include 'Barbara', 'War and Peace', 'Answering Machine' and 'The Rubber Smile'. On the other hand, I was slightly disappointed with 'What Would You Do For Love?' (the story which had nominations for two major horror awards so I was expecting something special) and I was somewhat repulsed by 'The Footlite'.

I must say I've liked That World part little less. The stories weren't bad though, and my two favorites were 'Delia and the Dinner Party' and 'Black Hole Sun, Won't You Come?

Ratings for every story:

This World:
Barbara - ****
War and Peace - ****
You Hear What Buddy and Ray Did? - ****
Answering Machine - ****
The Rubber Smile - ****
The Footlite - ***
Cram - ****
What Would You Do For Love? - ***

That World:
Delia and the Dinner Party - ****
Pearldoll - ***
Woodgrains - ***
The Exquisitely Bleeding Heads of Doktur Palmer Vreedeez - ***
Flaming Telepaths - ***
How Deep the Taste of Love - ***
Aftertaste - ***
Black Hole Sun, Don't You Come? - ****

OVERALL RATING: ****

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did I love it? Yes. Did I hate it? Yup. Did it take me 5 months to finish? Yeah, yeah. That, too.

Black Butterflies is an anthology that polarizes many readers, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that I, myself, was polarized. Hell, even the book itself is divided into two sections "This World" and "That World," referring to complete reality-based vs. stories with supernatural or science fiction elements.

Several of the stories were top notch, including "Barbara," "The Rubber Smile," "How Deep the Taste of Love." "Delia and the Dinner Party," about a young girl whose spectral companion allows her to see through the facade of her parents' dinner party to reveal a whole mess of carnal undertones makes the cut of one of my favorite short stories I've ever read.

At the same time, the overly gratuitous violence and graphic sexual content started to get old after a few stories. I also wish there'd have been a bit more variety in the writing style. For the most part, nearly every story was narrated in the same gritty, in your face tone.

All said,, I think that John Shirley deserves credit for coming up with some of these insane ideas, even as repulsive as a few of some of most of all of them are.

[Kitap · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't remember whether I first heard of John Shirley in the context of cyberpunk, the Church of the SubGenius, or the Gurdjieff Work. Regardless, when I found this anthology at the BOGO sale at the local public library, I was impressed enough by his provenance and diverse preoccupations to check it out, in spite of the horrible cover. (Half off of $1 makes me overlook bad covers, fyi.) As other Goodreaders have noted, Shirley is an excellent writer in terms of concepts, plotting, dramatic tension, etc., but few of the stories in this anthology spoke to me in a meaningful way. It isn't that he focuses on the darkest of the dark in these stories (after all, I really liked a similarly dark work, William T. Vollman's Whores for Gloria ). It is just that most of these stories simply didn't make an impact and weren't too memorable. Because of his reputation and diverse interests, I will certainly give Shirley another chance, but I don't think this was a good place to start exploring his short fiction.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black Butterflies, by John Shirley, is a collection of horror short stories. It’s broken into two pieces: This World, and That World. “This World” is comprised of stories in the ‘real,’ non-supernatural world. “That World” includes some less-explainable phenomena.

Sex, drugs, street life, sexual assault, and death are strewn all over the pages. This World is lurid and dark. Drug dealers, addicts, and hustlers abound. We find ourselves in the midst of cannibals, affairs, domestic abuse, and drunks.

In That World some items are genuinely creepy, but a few feel more silly than scary. Shirley seems to have a bit of a fixation on the act of eating people’s flesh. The Old Ones and zombies make cameo appearances.

I enjoyed Black Butterflies. It isn’t my ideal of horror, but it’s well worth reading


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