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A review by motherhorror
Everything That's Underneath by Kristi DeMeester
5.0
I read Kristi DeMeester's book Beneath earlier this year and I was so impressed! I was eager to read something else so I jumped at the opportunity to read this collection of short stories.
I kept a journal by my bed and recorded some reoccurring themes, words and moods that are threaded throughout this collection as a whole entity and then I will highlight some of my favorite stories.
Here are some words that describe the kind of terror Kristi builds:
Organic, raw, visceral, earthen, tangible, threatening.
Elemental, biological, familial.
Something about these stories reminds me of hidden, organic terrors growing right under our beds or the floorboards of our houses--like evil mushrooms or spores. I can't really explain it and I wish I was a wordsmith like the author so I could really dig in and push the images in your face so that you'd understand what I experienced with this book.
Each story brings diversity to the author's book of skills. I believe she could literally explore *any* topic, no matter how mundane or simplistic and craft it into something that sinks into the marrow of your bones to unsettle you at a core level.
Some of the stand out horrors in this book were:
The title story, Everything That's Underneath
The Beautiful Nature of Venom (because I have a very real phobia)
Worship Only What She Bleeds
The Marking
Daughters of Hecate (scared me to DEATH last night!!!)
And the last four stories were all stand outs-all favorites.
There are themes of loss, themes of Mothers & Daughters, generational dysfunction or "curses", themes of love, even toxic love, femininity, sexuality, blood...I could go on and on, the words on the pages have been literally sewn into my mind's reserve. The things that scare Kristi DeMeester, the things she thinks about, are now the same things that effect me. This book opens new doors of fear.
You need it.
I kept a journal by my bed and recorded some reoccurring themes, words and moods that are threaded throughout this collection as a whole entity and then I will highlight some of my favorite stories.
Here are some words that describe the kind of terror Kristi builds:
Organic, raw, visceral, earthen, tangible, threatening.
Elemental, biological, familial.
Something about these stories reminds me of hidden, organic terrors growing right under our beds or the floorboards of our houses--like evil mushrooms or spores. I can't really explain it and I wish I was a wordsmith like the author so I could really dig in and push the images in your face so that you'd understand what I experienced with this book.
Each story brings diversity to the author's book of skills. I believe she could literally explore *any* topic, no matter how mundane or simplistic and craft it into something that sinks into the marrow of your bones to unsettle you at a core level.
Some of the stand out horrors in this book were:
The title story, Everything That's Underneath
The Beautiful Nature of Venom (because I have a very real phobia)
Worship Only What She Bleeds
The Marking
Daughters of Hecate (scared me to DEATH last night!!!)
And the last four stories were all stand outs-all favorites.
There are themes of loss, themes of Mothers & Daughters, generational dysfunction or "curses", themes of love, even toxic love, femininity, sexuality, blood...I could go on and on, the words on the pages have been literally sewn into my mind's reserve. The things that scare Kristi DeMeester, the things she thinks about, are now the same things that effect me. This book opens new doors of fear.
You need it.