An unsettling collection of queer horror stories that takes readers on a dark journey down desolate country roads, through the vacant halls of Gothic homes, and into the dark heart of modern-day Britain. These are Kafkaesque tales of loneliness, brutality, and paranoia.
In a labyrinthine house at the edge of a quiet English village, a hollowed-out and anxious housekeeper works to keep the place tidy while writing religiously in their diary. After settling into a routine, they meet a secretive and seductive woman living in a room upstairs who promises them a better life. All she asks for in return are a few parts and pieces.
Faye is a YouTuber who enjoys reviewing movies. When she takes pity on a lonely and obsessive fan, she finds herself falling into something dark and deeply distressing.
Cassandra only has one person left to come out to: her mother, and she has decided to do so during a weekend visit. But her mother offers Cassandra no love or understanding, and making matters worse is the threatening ghost of a man that only Cassandra can see.
Trans teen runaway Mel is hitchhiking, hoping to reach London, when she is picked up by a woman who seems at first to be a kindred spirit, but there is something gnarled and twisted hidden beneath the surface.
A young couple recently had a baby together, but the baby is very sick; its body is changing—mutating—and they need to find out why before it’s too late.
After the death of her husband, an abused woman is suddenly liberated and makes plans to start her life anew, but she may not get to experience the freedom she hopes for.
Dark bleatings, my gorgeous tribe. Today’s book review is a real pleasure for me because this book has been on my TBR since it came out, and I was finally able to get to it. Even better, I loved it. It’s a collection, so let’s jump right in.
Managing
I am obsessed with this story, even though I’m not entirely confident that some of its meaning didn’t go over my head a little bit. A trans woman takes a job as a house and groundskeeper, thinking she’ll be alone, but her space is invaded instantly by two people, a man and a woman. They’re clearly not a couple, but neither of them properly introduce themselves and so our protagonist doesn’t know if either of them own the place, work there, or just stay there.
The man is a mean, judgmental, ignorant brute that won’t stop asserting his unsolicited opinions about our main character, her routine, and her progress with the garden in particular. He’s constantly interfering under the guise of “just helping”, and there’s generally a hostile edge to him that made me nervous. I certainly hate these types of guys being anywhere near me.
The woman seems to live there, and spends her time upstairs, bartering with the protagonist when the opportunity arises. She’ll offer things like an item of clothing, but what she wants in return is…unconventional, to say the least.
There’s an escalation between the characters, and the man and woman serve as metaphors, which I’ll leave for you to interpret. I have my own ideas of what they represent, and regardless of whether I’ve interpreted them the way the author intended, I got a lot out of this story and I can’t stop thinking about it.
Chloe.Claire1
OMFG what a great story (and an absolute nightmare!). It’s written as a series of comments, mostly on YT, between Chloe, a fan, and Faye, the creator she likes. Willow runs a YT channel so though this story is obviously inspired by that, I sincerely hope the Chloe character is more from her imagination and not from actual lived experience because….eeeeeeeee.
Chloe is a loyal fan and frequent commenter of Faye’s film reviews, and has clearly formed a para-social relationship with her. At first, anyway. Her comments are a little intense, and she has a tendency to overshare about things, which might illicit some sympathy initially, but I smelled an emotionally manipulative rat. At first, Faye’s responses are genuinely friendly and polite, but she clearly isn’t looking for a new best friend in a stranger. She does get more involved, however, when Chloe manages to finally reel her in by connecting over what Faye believes is their shared experiences with their gender identities (this could be genuine on Chloe’s part, but I’m unsure because by the time she mentions it, she’s already employed a few connection tactics that haven’t quite landed).
I can’t say more without spoilers, but with each new comment, my dread deepened. What a great, anxiety-inducing, contemporary horror story.
A Mother’s Love
More creativity with the story telling here, as this one is written as a theatre script. Cassandra is nervous about visiting her mum, the last person in her life whom she is about to officially come out to as a trans woman. She fears her mother will be cruel and unaccepting, and she’s right. But there’s something else in that house…
This isn’t just the script, but the director’s notes on it, which are very illuminating. Lots of metaphor and subtext here, and it broke my heart a little bit.
We Understand Each Other Perfectly
Oh good lord. About a third of the way in, I thought that I’d be writing that I didn’t like this one very much, but then discovered I was wrong. Mel is hitchhiking to London and is relieved to be picked up by Eleanor. Their conversations in the car revolve around the danger some men pose, and this is where I thought I wasn’t enjoying things too much because Eleanor was quite repetitive in her talking points and I – very foolishly – thought this was weak writing. It isn’t, there is a point to this that very much serves the character and where the story goes.
I was very surprised in the last few pages, and also absolutely horrified for everyone that has ever been in the situation that one of the characters finds herself in. I’m sorry for being vague but I don’t want to accidentally lay out spoilers here.
Baby
This one made me a little tearful, even though I’m not 100% sure I got it. I think that what’s playing out here is a metaphor about how some parents see and treat their trans children, but I could be wrong about that, and frankly, I hope I am. In any case, it’s a disturbing story.
I very much enjoyed the telling of it, as it’s entirely dialogue, first told through phone conversations, and then an in-person encounter.
Little Blue Sticky Notes
This is a creepy story about an abused wife, whose husband is thankfully dead, killed in a hit and run. That might sound callous, but I’d imagine that anyone in dire need of an escape from someone like that would count this circumstance as a win. She’s moving to a smaller place, finally somewhere all her own, and purges a lot of her pain by getting rid of her husband’s possessions in the process.
Unfortunately for her, once she’s moved, reminders of him start to surface. Things that should not have moved with her…
Overall, I am obsessed with this book. Every story is written in a different style that serves the narrative perfectly, and so there’s not only variety in the types of stories but also in the telling of them. Every character felt real and loaded with personal history, most of which we don’t glimpse but somehow still get a sense of.
If you’re looking for more interesting perspectives and creativity, I’d definitely recommend this to you. If you’d like to check out the book, the author, or her YT channel, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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