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A review by anishinaabekwereads
After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones
5.0
When I first read Ledfeather back as an undergrad, I knew I was obsessed with the writing style of Stephen Graham Jones. Yet, outside of re-reading that novel, I hadn't picked up anything else he's written. Lucky for me, my teaching schedule has me slated to teach Native American Literature and I knew, without a doubt, that I absolutely had to teach something of his. I picked this up in the hopes that this would fit the bill.
The stories in the collection are just brilliantly unsettling. Atmospheric and halfway between tangible and intangible, I found my shoulders tensed up for much of this reading experience. It's precisely what I want in my horror fiction. Each one has lingered in my mind for days after reading them. In fact, I think I remember more about each of these stories than I remember about a quarter of the books I've read so far this year.
Listen, short story collections are difficult to rate because they're difficult to compile. Yet Stephen Graham Jones crafts such mesmeric, haunting stories that this rating is a no-brainer. Yes, there are points were "gore" is quite explicit, but it's the underlying questions that pin you down as a reader. This collection is about the supernatural and the natural, about if life is fantastical or if human beings make it seem so because of our over-imaginative, desperate brains that seek answers. It's got the sheer thrill of horror with the depth of asking real questions about the world and I love it.
Oh, and I haven't decided about teaching this in full, but I am definitely going to have them read at least a couple stories (the titular story among the top of my list).
The stories in the collection are just brilliantly unsettling. Atmospheric and halfway between tangible and intangible, I found my shoulders tensed up for much of this reading experience. It's precisely what I want in my horror fiction. Each one has lingered in my mind for days after reading them. In fact, I think I remember more about each of these stories than I remember about a quarter of the books I've read so far this year.
Listen, short story collections are difficult to rate because they're difficult to compile. Yet Stephen Graham Jones crafts such mesmeric, haunting stories that this rating is a no-brainer. Yes, there are points were "gore" is quite explicit, but it's the underlying questions that pin you down as a reader. This collection is about the supernatural and the natural, about if life is fantastical or if human beings make it seem so because of our over-imaginative, desperate brains that seek answers. It's got the sheer thrill of horror with the depth of asking real questions about the world and I love it.
Oh, and I haven't decided about teaching this in full, but I am definitely going to have them read at least a couple stories (the titular story among the top of my list).