Parallel Hells

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My favourite stories included ‘Raw Pork and Opium’ and ‘Lick the Dust’ and I will probably reread them in the future. The author uses unfinished 'endings' too often where the reader sits and goes "Wtf was that supposed to mean? Carly had attempted to explain her sexuality to a male character, Luke: “why should I put myself through something I know I won’t enjoy.

This is a collection of horror stories that spans multiple styles and genres, inspired by mythology, folk horror, and modern popular culture. Leon Craig confidently navigates real places and imaginary spaces most of us shy away from and leaves us deliciously teased, unsettled and hungry for more. The horror in this collection is less overt than you might be expecting; these aren’t stories that will make you squeamish, they’re stories that will wake you up in the middle of the night. I'm really pleased I picked this up because one of my 2022 booktube resolutions was to read more horror. It is such a fresh and playful approach to storytelling that you cannot help but be totally enamoured with Craig’s abilities.In using it to overcome her academic rival, the character tells us “There was nothing so pure as being in things but not of them.

The little details make the stories more encompassing and really add to the eerie theme of the collection. The collection is aptly named, as these threads run through all of the thirteen stories which take the reader from a coastal holiday resort in Mexico, to the mythical and medieval Scandinavia, abandoned mansions, and contemporary London. The characters in the novel are eager to observe others, but refuse to see themselves, even when staring into mirrors. Both the mood and the content were very up my street, the writing style was not my favourite but still enjoyable. Her academic work focuses on contemporary trauma literature and theory but her freelance and creative work covers any and all topics, particularly those which deal with the horrors of capitalism and issues of gender and class.Parallel Hells pulled me in with its wonderful cover, but it was Leon Craig’s writing that took me on a rollercoaster of emotions that kept me unnerved and ecstatic. Lots of queer rep though, and a few stories really grabbed my attention, especially the longer ones where the characters and the story arc felt more fleshed out. I loved the two stories that really experimented with form: “raw pork and opium,” which features two narratives side-by-side across several pages; and “No Dominion,” which is told in an elliptical form. Even when Yves introduces himself later in the narrative as Michael, the eerie character of “Stoker” is indelible, a second skin we can’t peel away. I think it's super interesting that you can present a story and offer the audience multiple ways to digest it.

raw pork and opium: 2 stars, I liked the 2 parallel perspectives up until the girl had sex with her friend because he suddenly had boobs and then told him that she did not want him and was the other part a metaphor for how gay the two men are for each other? In some way in a lot of these stories there's this element of characters thinking they're in control, when they're absolutely not, and they're totally in denial and there's a refusal to accept powerlessness or lack of authority. Particularly engaging is the attention to the body and relationships as the site of these transformations and reconfigurations, as this vividly expresses the ability for the body to provide us with the utmost pleasure, affirmation, and joy – as well as fear, alienation, and horror.

One thing I will say is that one of the short stories played with formatting and had two simultaneous narratives occurring at once. But, on the whole, the collection had a well-judged pace and it is difficult to pick out a favourite story amongst so many full of such intriguing characters.

This book is best consumed in multiple sittings, but with the rule of reading a full story every time.In 2006, he was a semi-finalist for BBC Radio Voice of Musical Theatre at the New Theatre in Cardiff. While Craig has filled this book with recognizable horror elements, she seems to be telling us that the most spine-chilling thing is the everyday human experience. The beating heart of this community is The Arms, a rodent-infested pub where many of the characters glance off of each other. I have given this book three stars because for me they represent not a comment on the author's writing but on the failure of the stories in this collection to match up to the praise and promotion they have received.