Wormwood/Swamp Foetus, Poppy Z. Brite
A collection of short stories, some ghastly and others gory, some scary and others just a (literally) bloody mess. As usually, Brites flare for drugs, sex and rock n’ roll (none of witch is exactly...conventional) firmly places her stories in the 80’ or 90’ and might seem almost nostalgic today, although MY life in those years didn’t have quite so many vampires in it. Or angels.
In Angels Brite returns to her two main characters from the novel Lost Souls, Ghost and Steve, to try to help two young twins get together (incomprehensible if you have not read Lost Souls)
In A Georgia Story four young men live happily in an abandon church until one of them hangs himself in the bell tower....(sad and scary)
In His mouth will taste of Wormwood two very jaded, necrophilic boys gets the thrill of their life in a graveyard (very squicky and outright disgusting)
In Optional music for Voice and Piano a young singer comes to the dread conclusion that his voice urges people to hurt themselves (interesting, but not very surprising)
In Xenophobia a wake at a morgue turns horribly awry (pretty amusing)
In The sixth Sentinel a woman in New Orleans gets a ghostly lover ( Brite at her best, horrible,
thoughtful and utterly jaw-dropping in the end)
In Missing, what would you do if the one you love dies? (Very sad and heart- wrenching)
In Footprints in the water a strong psycic tries to help a twin whose brother died, but even when it goes right it is so very wrong (scary...nightmares!)
In How to get ahead in NY Steve and Ghost goes to NY for a gig, but the two locals from Missing Mile are have a hard time in the big city (contains one of the most scary scenes I’ve ever read – homeless people in the subway)
In Calcutta, Lord of Nerves the dead are coming back to prey on the sick, the wounded, the poor...and nobody seems to think this is more than a slight annoyance (Gory but scary – compare with Hanteringen av odöda. In Sweden we would try to get them into the system, in Calcutta they are seen as population control)
In The Elder a father obsesses over his two year old son a little to much (pointless, in my opinion, but rather a good ending)
In The ash of memory, the dust of desire a scorned lover takes a hideous revenge on his pregnant partner (very...strange)
All warning flags on this as with any of Brites stories. Definitely NC 17. Explicit sex of the stranger kind, gory deaths, a LOT of drugs, people with odd powers. But what a language! To die for...
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