Isis cried; I almost screamed
THE TEARS OF ISIS, now available at Amazon.
THE TEARS OF ISIS, a macabre short story collection by James Dorr, is dedicated to the memory of “Edgar Allan Poe who led the way,” and if Poe ever smiled, he’d be smiling now.
It’s an easy read, but not a light one. There’s plenty of weight in Dorr’s writing, but I still managed to rip through this one in just a couple of sittings.
Dorr’s compilation offers new twists on traditional fairy tales and classical mythology that creep up on you like the monster you raced up the stairs to escape when you’d stayed up too late watching horror movies.
My great-grandfather died of gangrene in a leg that was not amputated in time to save his life. Although I knew the story from family lore, I never knew what his death may have been like until I experienced the creeping decay of gangrene overtaking living flesh as I read “Pets”, my personal favorite. The images that Dorr paints with words burrowed into my psyche in the same way that the cockroaches in “Pets” burrowed into Gregor’s putrefying knee in a story echoing the tone of Franz Kafka’s METAMORPHOSIS.
And I may have nightmares about my grandmother’s dentures after reading “Store Teeth”, another gem that will make you think twice about visiting your dentist after dark. But don’t take my word for it. Pick up this eerie, insidious volume of 18 dark stories and then choose your own poison, but if you’re going to make it a double, better leave the light on.
February 4, 2014 at 9:31 pm
Christian, thank you, a very good review — I appreciate it!
February 4, 2014 at 9:33 pm
When I say it was my pleasure, I most definitely mean it.
February 4, 2014 at 9:37 pm
[…] also appears on Christian’s EX LIBRIS blog for today, February 4, which can be visited here, or, if one wishes the double header all at once, both can be found on Amazon’s page — […]