Song for the Unraveling of the World

Starred review from February 18, 2019
In the title tale of this collection, the main character identifies the mood of disorienting uncertainty that pervades all 22 unsettling stories when he ponders a world “that was always threatening to come unraveled around him.” In “Line of Sight,” one of three stories that juxtapose movie make-believe to everyday life, an actor on set is startled to glimpse something peering out at him through “a seam where reality had been imperfectly fused.” The viewpoint characters of “The Glistening World”and “Wanderlust” are disturbed by their paranoid perception that they are being followed by persons with inscrutable motives. “Sisters” is a ghoulish lark about a strange family whose exploration of ordinary Halloween traditions reveals their own Addams Family–like proclivities. Most of these stories are carefully calibrated exercises in ambiguity in which Evenson (Windeye) leaves it unclear how much of the off-kilterness exists outside of the deep-seated pathologies that motivate his characters. His work will hold great appeal for fans of subtly unnerving dark fantasy.

April 1, 2019
Twenty-two otherworldly short stories that are equal parts Poe, Lovecraft, King, and Twilight Zone. Prolific author, translator, and professor Evenson (Critical Studies/CalArts; Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, 2018, etc.) offers up a fistful of new nightmares culled from years of publications in literary magazines and horror anthologies that are well-poised to send chills up the most fearless of spines. Take the opener, "No Matter Which Way We Turned," which begins, "No matter which way we turned the girl, she didn't have a face." There are certainly a few prominent themes here--anyone who puckers at the idea of a "skin suit" will certainly be horror-struck by the stories "Leaking Out," "Sisters," and the aptly titled "Shirts and Skins." Movies also play a big role: We get a house haunted by a filmmaker on a budget in "Room Tone" and other behind-the-camera horror stories in "Line of Sight" and "Lather of Flies." Although Evenson's mimicry of gothic terrors from the past is first-rate, he also has a chameleonic ability to dart between eras and styles, as evidenced by the excellent "A Disappearance," which evokes Gillian Flynn's talent for misdirection, and "Lord of the Vats," which echoes the existential angst found in writers like Cory Doctorow and Daniel Suarez. It seems that no matter where Evenson turns his attention, be it to something mundane like "Glasses" or a wetwork fragment like "The Cardiacs," he conjures a remarkable sense of paranoia, anxiety, and dread. While terrors abound here, Evenson can occasionally summon some humor, too, as in the satire "Trigger Warnings": "Caution: ghosts. Caution: flaming ghosts (as in ghost on fire, not flamboyantly gay ghosts). Caution: gay ghosts. Caution: spiders." Evenson's little nightmares are deftly crafted, stylistically daring, and surprisingly emotional.

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June 1, 2019

The title story in this collection follows the frantic efforts of a father to find his missing daughter. But is she missing? Does she even exist? Evenson (Immobility) lures readers into each twisted tale by starting not at the beginning, but...somewhere else, creating a sense of disorientation and unease. As each tale unspools and each surreal world clarifies into a malformed sort of logic, the creeps set firmly in. Solitude links many of the stories and serves as a principle source of terror: being alone in outer space, alone in a house with a ghoul, alone in a delusional nightmare. These are contemporary tales of sf, horror, and fantasy told in unpretentious prose yet reminiscent of the heyday of pulps including Weird Tales, home to writers such as H.P. Lovecraft. Indeed, one story, "Lord of the Vats," even quotes an incantation from Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward." The one exception to this unsettling collection is Evenson's hilarious send-up of the trigger warnings found in today's college syllabi; beware flaming ghosts and other off-beat literary devices. VERDICT Readers of literary horror will not want to miss this one.--Michael Russo, Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2019
This latest collection from Evenson (The Warren, 2016) showcases his particular brand of disturbing short fiction. Whether delving into purely psychological horror or chronicling invasions into reality by alien forces, Evenson's precise and spare prose effortlessly creates pervasive and intimate forms of dread. In some stories, such as "Born Stillborn," "Menno," or "Room Tone," everyday obsessions drive characters to acts of violence. In others, people come into random contact with the supernatural, such as a woman tormented by a man in a golden suit in "The Glistening World" or the woman in "Glasses" given sinister biofocals that reveal too much about shapes in the corner of her eye. Other stories are told through the eyes of inhuman protagonists like the loyal but deadly sister in "Kindred Spirit" or the mysterious body-stealing family celebrating Halloween in "Sisters." And many stories explore what happens when humans encounter the alien?supernatural or otherwise?deep in the heart of space. As comfortable plunging into the depths of the human psyche as he is into the cosmic abysses, Evenson continues to be one of the most talented and stylistically enthralling horror writers around.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)