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madarauchiha's review against another edition
1.0
❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜 my about / byf / CW info carrd: uchiha-madara 💜 💙 💚 💛 🧡 ❤️
I mean this in the worst way: Gwendolin Kiste is the diet no sugar fat free version of Joyce Carol Oates. They both revel in fragile white woman victimhood. Though Oates far more so, and with thorough hypocracy to boot. I'm not familiar with Kiste also being hypocritical and shitty and writing fanfic about irl massacres. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in your own review. Liver me alone.
The author has very white cissexist upper class views of lesbianism/WLW love, and life in general. Don't expect much in ways of diversity. As far as I can tell there are no Black characters or Characters of Color. And honestly, I am glad. The way the characters are written, default cis abled and usually cisgender, I don't want to see Kiste try to portray a Black man or a woman of color. Leave us alone.
When not focusing on how victimized and fragile and useless white cishet girlwomen against [other white and cishet] men, Kiste's writings are decent. The prose is pretty and purple and flowery, but more delicate organic violets than harsh artificially dyed plastic bouquets, heavy with chemical scent straight from the hobby store. The plots are interesting and fair unique. I enjoyed most of them aside from Tower Princesses, which was a real study in white fragile woman victimhood.
The Five day Summer Camp story is yet another tired 'secret revolution' wherein the white mc [and hypothetically you, the reader] silently undermines the ambiguous dystopian government--who just so happens to borrow concentration camp and gas chamber / cremation incinerator aesthetics. Hm gee that seems familiar. I am goy [not Jewish] so I'm not the authority on antisemitism, obviously, but in this case I think there is tactlessness when it comes to using specific elements from real life concentration camps that Jewish people [and many other 'undesireables'] were genocided in.
The plot was already set in an alternate universe dystopia where SPOILER children were magically brainwashed via Mysterious Science. You can go ahead and utilize magic Science Corporeal Form Evaporate that fuels the evil bad Mysterious Science. Ultimately, the plot is abruptly resolved by the MC resolving to save other children the same way she saved her sister. SPOILERS
It's cute and heartwarming. Or would be if you haven't seen this a million times over in other media. I've mentioned this elsewhere but the problem with white authors writing dystopias and revolution is that they don't understand was radical and drastic changes to the white cishet dominating society needs to happen. They are part of this society, both in real life and in the fiction they create. They don't know how to alter either, not really. So stories like these, however short, alternative from reality, fictional, etc etc, fall flat. The status quo never changes. We get a build up, the conclusion, but never a climax.
Fortunately, most storyes are less than fifty pages, so it's a quick read. I finished it in 1.17 hours.
Faves. Skin Like Honey and Lace. The Man in the Ambry.
───────────────
◆ Something Borrowed, Something Blue
medium vomit,
major pregnancy, animal cruelty, child death, medical content, medical abuse, body horror, infidelity
◆ The Clawfoot Requiem
minor murder,
major suicide, blood, death, grief, mental illness, insects,
◆ All the Red Apples Have Withered to Gray
minor rape, sexual assault, incest,
major child abuse?, minor
◆ The Man in the Ambry
minor animal death, drugs hard drugs, pregnancy,
medium pregnancy,
◆ Find Me, Mommy
medium medical content,
major grief, child death,
◆ Audrey at Night
minor vomit,
major suicide, pregnancy,
◆ The Five-Day Summer Camp
medium vomit,
major medical abuse, child abuse, gore,
◆ Skin Like Honey and Lace
minor sexual content, suicide,
major blood, death, cannibalism, pregnancy, murder, toxic relationships, body horror,
◆ By Now, I'll Probably Be Gone
major suicide, infidelity, death,
◆ Through Earth and Sky
medium child abuse,
major domestic abuse,
◆ The Tower Princesses
minor excrement, unsanitary, blood, violence,
medium incest, sexual content,
major suicide, child abuse, child death, sexual harassment, bullying, sexual assault, victim blaming, lesbophobia,
◆ And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe
medium infidelity, murder,
major victim blaming,
◆ The Lazarus Bride
minor sexual assault,
medium body horror, sexual content,
major fire, death,
I mean this in the worst way: Gwendolin Kiste is the diet no sugar fat free version of Joyce Carol Oates. They both revel in fragile white woman victimhood. Though Oates far more so, and with thorough hypocracy to boot. I'm not familiar with Kiste also being hypocritical and shitty and writing fanfic about irl massacres. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in your own review. Liver me alone.
The author has very white cissexist upper class views of lesbianism/WLW love, and life in general. Don't expect much in ways of diversity. As far as I can tell there are no Black characters or Characters of Color. And honestly, I am glad. The way the characters are written, default cis abled and usually cisgender, I don't want to see Kiste try to portray a Black man or a woman of color. Leave us alone.
When not focusing on how victimized and fragile and useless white cishet girlwomen against [other white and cishet] men, Kiste's writings are decent. The prose is pretty and purple and flowery, but more delicate organic violets than harsh artificially dyed plastic bouquets, heavy with chemical scent straight from the hobby store. The plots are interesting and fair unique. I enjoyed most of them aside from Tower Princesses, which was a real study in white fragile woman victimhood.
The Five day Summer Camp story is yet another tired 'secret revolution' wherein the white mc [and hypothetically you, the reader] silently undermines the ambiguous dystopian government--who just so happens to borrow concentration camp and gas chamber / cremation incinerator aesthetics. Hm gee that seems familiar. I am goy [not Jewish] so I'm not the authority on antisemitism, obviously, but in this case I think there is tactlessness when it comes to using specific elements from real life concentration camps that Jewish people [and many other 'undesireables'] were genocided in.
The plot was already set in an alternate universe dystopia where SPOILER children were magically brainwashed via Mysterious Science. You can go ahead and utilize magic Science Corporeal Form Evaporate that fuels the evil bad Mysterious Science. Ultimately, the plot is abruptly resolved by the MC resolving to save other children the same way she saved her sister. SPOILERS
It's cute and heartwarming. Or would be if you haven't seen this a million times over in other media. I've mentioned this elsewhere but the problem with white authors writing dystopias and revolution is that they don't understand was radical and drastic changes to the white cishet dominating society needs to happen. They are part of this society, both in real life and in the fiction they create. They don't know how to alter either, not really. So stories like these, however short, alternative from reality, fictional, etc etc, fall flat. The status quo never changes. We get a build up, the conclusion, but never a climax.
Fortunately, most storyes are less than fifty pages, so it's a quick read. I finished it in 1.17 hours.
Faves. Skin Like Honey and Lace. The Man in the Ambry.
───────────────
◆ Something Borrowed, Something Blue
medium vomit,
major pregnancy, animal cruelty, child death, medical content, medical abuse, body horror, infidelity
◆ The Clawfoot Requiem
minor murder,
major suicide, blood, death, grief, mental illness, insects,
◆ All the Red Apples Have Withered to Gray
minor rape, sexual assault, incest,
major child abuse?, minor
◆ The Man in the Ambry
minor animal death, drugs hard drugs, pregnancy,
medium pregnancy,
◆ Find Me, Mommy
medium medical content,
major grief, child death,
◆ Audrey at Night
minor vomit,
major suicide, pregnancy,
◆ The Five-Day Summer Camp
medium vomit,
major medical abuse, child abuse, gore,
◆ Skin Like Honey and Lace
minor sexual content, suicide,
major blood, death, cannibalism, pregnancy, murder, toxic relationships, body horror,
◆ By Now, I'll Probably Be Gone
major suicide, infidelity, death,
◆ Through Earth and Sky
medium child abuse,
major domestic abuse,
◆ The Tower Princesses
minor excrement, unsanitary, blood, violence,
medium incest, sexual content,
major suicide, child abuse, child death, sexual harassment, bullying, sexual assault, victim blaming, lesbophobia,
◆ And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe
medium infidelity, murder,
major victim blaming,
◆ The Lazarus Bride
minor sexual assault,
medium body horror, sexual content,
major fire, death,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Vomit
Minor: Animal death, Blood, Drug use, Excrement, Incest, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit
evavroslin's review against another edition
5.0
My first instinct is to want to whack anyone who claims that women “can’t write” visceral or terrifying horror. Next time anyone dares to say something so stupid, I think I’ll use Gwendolyn Kiste’s masterful short story collection, And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, as my weapon of choice to hit them with. Through these stories, Kiste embodies herself as an heir to Shirley Jackson, providing a selection of phenomenal and memorable tales.
In the first of several of the short stories written in the second person point of view in this collection, we have “Something Borrowed, Something Blue,” which I was trying to think of how to convey, but let’s just say that disturbing doesn’t even begin to capture what this story is. I can’t do it justice, nor do I want to spoil it so all I’ll say is that it sets the tone for the rest of the collection with a tremendous force of impact.
“Ten Things to know About Ten Questions” starts with a rating survey format, which is an interesting narrative choice. People keep vanishing, and there are questions predict who will disappear next. Everyone has to take the test soon. You can imagine how the rest goes.
Morbid doesn’t begin to describe “The Clawfoot Requiem” about the relationship of two sisters and the impact of one’s death on the other with the theme of family secrets and the lies people tell each other. Other themes present in this story are loss, death, fear of abandonment, and the consequences of what happens when we can’t bring ourselves to let go.
“All the Red Applies Have Withered to Gray” could be a clever and twisted re-telling of Snow White, but it’s so much better while “The Man in the Ambry” is so creepy but that doesn’t begin to convey the impact of this story. It’s told in the form of an epistolary, through letters addressed to a man in the ambry, who sometimes gets a name. The protagonist defines the term ‘unreliable narrator’ here to a tee.
Continuing on the theme of girls drawn to darkness that doesn’t give them back (but with the notion that maybe they belonged to the darkness to begin with) is “Find Me, Mommy.” Meanwhile, one of my favourites, “Audrey at Night,” tells the story of a pregnant woman haunted by a ghost named Audrey, as the title implies. The twists and turns this story takes are like a roller coaster ride that ends in some ways inevitably but also with a huge bang.
Back to the theme of sisters, we get “The Five-Day Summer Camp,” about a summer camp that tries to force children to be obedient like robots. The grimness of this story spills from the pages. Continuing along the same lines is another of my favourites, “Skin Like Honey and Lace,” which presents women with a very unique supernatural affliction. This time, we also get the added theme of trying to fill the void of what we have lost with replacements we know won’t hold, but we have to try anyway until we realize that the void is a chasm that cannot really be filled. It is one of the most creative short stories I have read in a long time.
In “By Now, I’ll Probably Be Gone,” the vicious energy of the protagonist leaps off the page and presents another hugely memorable tale.
The next two stories — “Through Earth and Sky” and “The Tower Princesses” get into the theme of girls who are expected to ‘stay in line’ and never transgress, lest they be punished. We then get the title story, “And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe,” — one of the most unique turns of phrase I have encountered, period — which goes back to the second-person point of view, and is definitely a story film buffs will enjoy.
Extending the theme of doomed couples, we get “The Lazarus Bride,” which is beautifully told, and overall, as I read through this collection in one sitting, it ended up being one of my favourites as well. This collection should have won every major award for horror short story collections in my humble opinion. I’ve never encountered a collection in which I have enjoyed every single story I read, and although I enjoyed some more than others, the quality of the writing here was simply staggering and mind-blowingly good. If you haven’t read Gwendolyn Kiste’s fiction yet, please rectify that immediately. She is a shining talent in the horror genre, and one I hope to read more from soon.
In the first of several of the short stories written in the second person point of view in this collection, we have “Something Borrowed, Something Blue,” which I was trying to think of how to convey, but let’s just say that disturbing doesn’t even begin to capture what this story is. I can’t do it justice, nor do I want to spoil it so all I’ll say is that it sets the tone for the rest of the collection with a tremendous force of impact.
“Ten Things to know About Ten Questions” starts with a rating survey format, which is an interesting narrative choice. People keep vanishing, and there are questions predict who will disappear next. Everyone has to take the test soon. You can imagine how the rest goes.
Morbid doesn’t begin to describe “The Clawfoot Requiem” about the relationship of two sisters and the impact of one’s death on the other with the theme of family secrets and the lies people tell each other. Other themes present in this story are loss, death, fear of abandonment, and the consequences of what happens when we can’t bring ourselves to let go.
“All the Red Applies Have Withered to Gray” could be a clever and twisted re-telling of Snow White, but it’s so much better while “The Man in the Ambry” is so creepy but that doesn’t begin to convey the impact of this story. It’s told in the form of an epistolary, through letters addressed to a man in the ambry, who sometimes gets a name. The protagonist defines the term ‘unreliable narrator’ here to a tee.
Continuing on the theme of girls drawn to darkness that doesn’t give them back (but with the notion that maybe they belonged to the darkness to begin with) is “Find Me, Mommy.” Meanwhile, one of my favourites, “Audrey at Night,” tells the story of a pregnant woman haunted by a ghost named Audrey, as the title implies. The twists and turns this story takes are like a roller coaster ride that ends in some ways inevitably but also with a huge bang.
Back to the theme of sisters, we get “The Five-Day Summer Camp,” about a summer camp that tries to force children to be obedient like robots. The grimness of this story spills from the pages. Continuing along the same lines is another of my favourites, “Skin Like Honey and Lace,” which presents women with a very unique supernatural affliction. This time, we also get the added theme of trying to fill the void of what we have lost with replacements we know won’t hold, but we have to try anyway until we realize that the void is a chasm that cannot really be filled. It is one of the most creative short stories I have read in a long time.
In “By Now, I’ll Probably Be Gone,” the vicious energy of the protagonist leaps off the page and presents another hugely memorable tale.
The next two stories — “Through Earth and Sky” and “The Tower Princesses” get into the theme of girls who are expected to ‘stay in line’ and never transgress, lest they be punished. We then get the title story, “And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe,” — one of the most unique turns of phrase I have encountered, period — which goes back to the second-person point of view, and is definitely a story film buffs will enjoy.
Extending the theme of doomed couples, we get “The Lazarus Bride,” which is beautifully told, and overall, as I read through this collection in one sitting, it ended up being one of my favourites as well. This collection should have won every major award for horror short story collections in my humble opinion. I’ve never encountered a collection in which I have enjoyed every single story I read, and although I enjoyed some more than others, the quality of the writing here was simply staggering and mind-blowingly good. If you haven’t read Gwendolyn Kiste’s fiction yet, please rectify that immediately. She is a shining talent in the horror genre, and one I hope to read more from soon.
jesuisfarouche's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.75
maggiegil's review against another edition
I love short story collections but they almost always end up feeling sort of repetitive to me (especially reading them in under a day like this one lol). I definitely kind of had that problem with this book (particularly with how many stories are told from 2nd person pov... which isn't a flaw and I like 2nd person narration in some cases it just felt a little repetitive and didn't totally work for me in every story lol). but overall I really enjoyed this... I know I'll he thinking about some of these stories for a very long time. Standouts to me were: ten things to know about the ten questions, skin like honey and lace, and the tower princesses
espeidel's review against another edition
5.0
Loved every story. Loved every word. Cannot recommend this enough!
errantdreams's review against another edition
challenging
dark
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
5.0
Gwendolyn Kiste’s horror short story collection And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe is very intriguing and endlessly dark. There’s a woman who gives birth to birds. There are people who disappear, and society has decided that these people must be “deviants,” must have done something wrong. There’s a woman who tries to cope with her sister’s suicide.
One of my favorites is “All the Red Apples Have Withered to Gray,” in which the apples of one tree throw girls into endless sleep from which a prince’s kiss must wake them. Although maybe the princes aren’t always princes, and many of the girls never awaken. Yet the farmer who owns the orchard figures out how to make money from the mysterious events. This is such a beautiful fairy tale.
There’s a young woman who writes letters to the man in her cupboard. Another child goes missing. A woman discovers that the friend she caused to commit suicide years ago saw things a little differently–and isn’t resting peacefully. An odd five-day summer camp has profound effects on all of the children who go there–and ALL of the children must go.
There are women who live within other people’s skins. There are witches whose magic must go up against domestic abusers. There are girls who live in small towers that they must tote around with them. There’s a horror movie actress whose fan becomes completely obsessed with her. There’s a bride who isn’t so happy to be a bride.
These stories are at the creepy, dark, paranormal end of the horror spectrum. The characters tend to be quite vivid even within the short story format. I absolutely enjoyed this collection of horror stories, and I highly recommend it.
Content note for suicide, sexual assault, and domestic abuse.
One of my favorites is “All the Red Apples Have Withered to Gray,” in which the apples of one tree throw girls into endless sleep from which a prince’s kiss must wake them. Although maybe the princes aren’t always princes, and many of the girls never awaken. Yet the farmer who owns the orchard figures out how to make money from the mysterious events. This is such a beautiful fairy tale.
There’s a young woman who writes letters to the man in her cupboard. Another child goes missing. A woman discovers that the friend she caused to commit suicide years ago saw things a little differently–and isn’t resting peacefully. An odd five-day summer camp has profound effects on all of the children who go there–and ALL of the children must go.
There are women who live within other people’s skins. There are witches whose magic must go up against domestic abusers. There are girls who live in small towers that they must tote around with them. There’s a horror movie actress whose fan becomes completely obsessed with her. There’s a bride who isn’t so happy to be a bride.
These stories are at the creepy, dark, paranormal end of the horror spectrum. The characters tend to be quite vivid even within the short story format. I absolutely enjoyed this collection of horror stories, and I highly recommend it.
Content note for suicide, sexual assault, and domestic abuse.
vgartner's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.5 stars. Some fun stories in here, but they all felt underdeveloped to me. Like, she's going for an ethereal, dreamlike sort of vibe but everything feels too literal for the mood to really take. It's hard to keep from comparing this collection of short stories to those by Samanta Schweblin and Silvina Ocampo, which maybe isn't fair since they're both GOAT in my book. I kept waiting for any one story to really grab my heart and give it a good yank, but none did. Some stories were fun, like "Something Borrowed, Something Blue" and "The Man in the Ambry", but by the end it felt like a lot of tropes were being heavily recycled. Also, I feel like it must be possible to write about abuse of women as a main theme without it becoming as gratuitous as some of these stories felt to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Body horror
Moderate: Suicide
wrenxavier's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
valentinefleisch's review against another edition
3.0
WLW representation! There is lesbian/queer/WLW representation in a few of these stories, though not all. I have to include this as a disclaimer because I know some of you will always tune in for LGBTQ+ content. I know because I'm one of you.
Whenever I read a short story collection, I look for thematic cohesion. And Your Smile Will Untether the Universe is interesting because it seems to like to play with variation. Almost all of these stories follow women, and they often look at women's relationships, particularly with other women. Mothers, daughters, sisters, best friends, and lovers are often at the forefront of these tales. Across the volume, stories speak back and forth to each other: "All the Red Apples Have Withered to Gray" and "The Tower Princesses" are feminist fairy tale retellings. "The Man in the Ambry" and "Find Me Mommy" are situated in child-accessible hidden spaces. "The Five-Day Summer Camp" and "Ten Things to Know About the Ten Questions" involve the forcible segregation of children. "Audrey at Night" and "By Now, I'll Probably Be Gone" both contain vengeful hauntings. And so on. What I'm getting at is that there is cohesion among these stories, but there is also a quality that sometimes feels like variations on a theme. If I were to classify these stories, I would call them feminist horror, but they're also about connections between people and how these connections can be incredibly horrific and painful. Sometimes they can be beautiful. Sometimes they can be both at once.
I enjoyed all of these stories. Another thing that you could call And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe is consistent, which cannot always be said of short story collections. Every story was high quality, well-written, and well-plotted. Nonetheless, I want to say a few words about a few of my favorites (though as I indicated, it's quite hard to choose favorites when all the stories are of roughly equal caliber).
"The Man in the Ambry": Written in an epistolary style, this story follows a girl throughout several years of her life, depicted through the her letters to the man who haunts the ambry. I think that this might have been the creepiest one, because the horror is the kind that creeps around just out of reach of light. It's quite ambiguous throughout, so by the end it is uncertain whether this story should be viewed as horrific or heart-rending. I like to go with a triumphant interpretation, though.
"Audrey at Night": The image that is central to this story at the beginning is one of the creepiest throughout the book, though I won't elaborate so that you can read it for yourself. I also don't want to say much about the plot, other than that it follows a pregnant woman who is being haunted by the titular Audrey. The ending was what made the greatest impression on me, though obviously I can't tell you why. All I'll say, is that the relationship between the protagonist and the ghost is incredibly intriguing.
"Skin Like Honey and Lace:" One of the queer stories in the collection, and the one that strikes me as the most sci-fi. This story follows an unusual girl who must steal the flesh of others to fuse with her own. It's as a cool as it sounds, but it's primarily about friendship and loyalty rather than monster movie shenanigans (though those are there). It gave me kind of an Under the Skin vibe.
Verdict is highly recommend!
Whenever I read a short story collection, I look for thematic cohesion. And Your Smile Will Untether the Universe is interesting because it seems to like to play with variation. Almost all of these stories follow women, and they often look at women's relationships, particularly with other women. Mothers, daughters, sisters, best friends, and lovers are often at the forefront of these tales. Across the volume, stories speak back and forth to each other: "All the Red Apples Have Withered to Gray" and "The Tower Princesses" are feminist fairy tale retellings. "The Man in the Ambry" and "Find Me Mommy" are situated in child-accessible hidden spaces. "The Five-Day Summer Camp" and "Ten Things to Know About the Ten Questions" involve the forcible segregation of children. "Audrey at Night" and "By Now, I'll Probably Be Gone" both contain vengeful hauntings. And so on. What I'm getting at is that there is cohesion among these stories, but there is also a quality that sometimes feels like variations on a theme. If I were to classify these stories, I would call them feminist horror, but they're also about connections between people and how these connections can be incredibly horrific and painful. Sometimes they can be beautiful. Sometimes they can be both at once.
I enjoyed all of these stories. Another thing that you could call And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe is consistent, which cannot always be said of short story collections. Every story was high quality, well-written, and well-plotted. Nonetheless, I want to say a few words about a few of my favorites (though as I indicated, it's quite hard to choose favorites when all the stories are of roughly equal caliber).
"The Man in the Ambry": Written in an epistolary style, this story follows a girl throughout several years of her life, depicted through the her letters to the man who haunts the ambry. I think that this might have been the creepiest one, because the horror is the kind that creeps around just out of reach of light. It's quite ambiguous throughout, so by the end it is uncertain whether this story should be viewed as horrific or heart-rending. I like to go with a triumphant interpretation, though.
"Audrey at Night": The image that is central to this story at the beginning is one of the creepiest throughout the book, though I won't elaborate so that you can read it for yourself. I also don't want to say much about the plot, other than that it follows a pregnant woman who is being haunted by the titular Audrey. The ending was what made the greatest impression on me, though obviously I can't tell you why. All I'll say, is that the relationship between the protagonist and the ghost is incredibly intriguing.
"Skin Like Honey and Lace:" One of the queer stories in the collection, and the one that strikes me as the most sci-fi. This story follows an unusual girl who must steal the flesh of others to fuse with her own. It's as a cool as it sounds, but it's primarily about friendship and loyalty rather than monster movie shenanigans (though those are there). It gave me kind of an Under the Skin vibe.
Verdict is highly recommend!
mariahaskins's review against another edition
5.0
This is an excellent collection of speculative short fiction. In each and every story, Kiste deftly pulls reality inside out, twisting our everyday world into unsettling tales that straddle the line between horror, dark fantasy, and the weird.