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A review by horrorbutch
EUSECT by C.L. Methvin
5.0
Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy by the publisher in exchange for a review.
Trigger warnings for this review for discussions of gore!
This is a short story collection with a focus on the gorey, the messy, the dark things. If you like horror and gore, I don’t think you will need a lot of convincing after enjoying the gorgeous cover to pick this book up. But if you need some more convincing, let me tell you that this is an incredibly well written and very intriguing collection of horror short stories (& it features some great art inside as well!). It includes multiple genres of horror and from cosmic horror to deep sea horror to gruesome body horror, there’s something here for everybody who enjoys the macabre. Most stories feature gore or other forms of body horror, but some focus on more interpersonal horror and for that I just want to mention that I loved the way this book handled trigger warnings. They are provided at the end of the book, but mentioned in the beginning. This makes them easy to check out, without running into the risk of accidentally spoilering yourself, if you choose to skip them.
Besides the cover setting the mood for the stories included here, there’s another cool aspect that I enjoyed at the beginning of the book: It includes a word definition for the title and if you’re a gorehound like me, I think you can understand the giddy joy I felt when reading “to cut something purely for the enjoyment of cutting; generally understood to be enacted upon something living or once living”. Just lovely!
While not every short story was perfectly suited to me, I really enjoyed most of them and felt that most managed to really work with the genre of short story well. Only one story was too short for me to fully enjoy it and I still adored all the concepts presented here and found them to be explored in interesting ways and with some great detailed and gruesome imagery. There’s a roommate with a dangerous curse, deep-sea scientists, self-inflicted amputations, women with weird fixations on corpses and more. My personal favorite stories were “Eusect” (the self-amputation story), “Aurozoa Sleep” (the deep-sea scientist horror), “In Miriam’s Arms” (the corpse-obsessed woman), “We, the Water, the Stars” (a scholar of the cosmic embarks on a sea voyage, but his plans there are sinister) and “Tender Writhing” (a man wrecked by grief over the loss of his partner cannot let him go). As I already mentioned the stories tend to be intimate, exploring character’s reactions to facing the horrors or their descent into depravity or desperation. Despite being very short, these stories managed to provide great character (and world) building and I found myself deeply intrigued by most of them.
All in all, this is an incredible short story collection and if you enjoy your horror gorey, queer and with a variety of bodily fluids, check it out. For myself I definitely have found a new author whose work I will be keeping an eye on!
My Roommate’s Locks: Living with roommates can be tough in the best of times. Living with a roommate, whose name you cannot remember and who keeps losing things, is worse. Really tense, but intriguing story and I really liked the ending. It’s short, but very unsettling.
Tw: violence, suicide
*FAV* Eusect: The main character of this story decides that today they will cut off their leg. We follow through a gruesome but methodical depiction of the process using a variety of knives and this story absolutely deserves the title it got. Very gorey, very enjoyable and I really liked the end.
Tw: dismemberment, self-mutilation, violence towards animals
*FAV* Aurozoa Sleep: Deep Sea Horror my most beloved! Science Horror my also very beloved! This story follows two women as they investigate the life cycle of the lion mane’s jellyfish, when one of them begins to sleepwalk. Haunting and filled with despair, this is an incredible story that I adored!
Tw: animal death, hypnotism, ocean/deep water, gore, body horror
Doors and Dead Men: A horror short about a haunting, interesting, but not as intriguing as the rest of the stories so far. A bit too short to reveal its full terrifying potential to me, but still a cool concept.
Tw: death
An Account of Five Hundred and Nine, or Sower’s Descent: A short story about a really fucked up prison and a person with the ability to grant an immortality of the worst kind called in to get some information out of people, deeply unsettling and one of the stories I would love to have more of!
Tw: body horror, death, mention of suicide
Ximena’s Fall: A story investigating the unsolved case of a woman’s corpses appearing all across the globe with her face beaten to a bloody pulp. Very interesting and I liked it quite a lot and especially the end was unsettling!
Tw: suicide, domestic abuse, gore, body horror
Need Only Be Closer: A concert ends up with two friends getting separated in the crowd. As a not that tall person this takes a fear I have and just makes it so much scarier. Really well done and with some quite fun body horror, fans of the Lonely from TMA will love this one! Loved the very hopeless end.
*FAV* In Miriam’s Arms: An elderly woman rediscovers her younger self’s passion when she accidentally hits and kills a dog on her way home from work. Incredible depictions of gore, embracing the intimacy of getting to touch something’s insides in the best way. Loved it!
Tw: gore, murder, animal death, child death, disembowelment
Mouths: A woman returns from her shopping trip with lots of meat to feed the many hungry mouths in her home. Kind off sweet, despite the weirdness. Very short, but I like the concept!
Tw: mention of possible future suicide
*FAV* We, the Water, the Stars: A scholar of stars convinces a captain to let him set out to sea with him. Shortly before their voyage starts an unfortunate accident causes two more sailors to join their little crew. Thankfully the scholar has means to deal with that unfortunate distraction. Very fun, I love cosmic horror, and as I already mentioned I love oceanic horror and this combines these two in wonderful ways. If you enjoy this one, I would also definitely recommend “From the Belly” by Emmett Nahil to you.
Tw: murder, gore, dissociation, ocean
*FAV* Tender Writhing: A man arrives home to find his boyfriend dead on the floor. Unable to let go and knowing that reporting his death would mean his boyfriend’s family cutting him out from any funeral proceedings, he simply leaves him there. And that’s when things really start to spiral out of control. Very messy, very gross, very good, I loved it. Queer horror and bugs my beloved!
Tw: death, homophobia, necrophilia, bugs, insects, suicide
The Firetender: A person finds a little fire and takes it home, soon watching their life become devoured by the flames. Interesting analogy for domestic abuse.
Tw: domestic abuse, fire
A Stagnant Song: A father struggling with his child that stopped aging as it turned one year old tries to find a solution to his problem. Messy, but interesting.
Tw: infanticide, death due pregnancy complications, abusive father
Stay: A mom unable to deal with her son leaving for college tries to find a way to make him stay. Really fucked up and again, with some incredibly great gore! Enjoyable, in a heartbreaking way.
Tw: abusive parents, poisoning, violence, murder
Trigger warnings for this review for discussions of gore!
This is a short story collection with a focus on the gorey, the messy, the dark things. If you like horror and gore, I don’t think you will need a lot of convincing after enjoying the gorgeous cover to pick this book up. But if you need some more convincing, let me tell you that this is an incredibly well written and very intriguing collection of horror short stories (& it features some great art inside as well!). It includes multiple genres of horror and from cosmic horror to deep sea horror to gruesome body horror, there’s something here for everybody who enjoys the macabre. Most stories feature gore or other forms of body horror, but some focus on more interpersonal horror and for that I just want to mention that I loved the way this book handled trigger warnings. They are provided at the end of the book, but mentioned in the beginning. This makes them easy to check out, without running into the risk of accidentally spoilering yourself, if you choose to skip them.
Besides the cover setting the mood for the stories included here, there’s another cool aspect that I enjoyed at the beginning of the book: It includes a word definition for the title and if you’re a gorehound like me, I think you can understand the giddy joy I felt when reading “to cut something purely for the enjoyment of cutting; generally understood to be enacted upon something living or once living”. Just lovely!
While not every short story was perfectly suited to me, I really enjoyed most of them and felt that most managed to really work with the genre of short story well. Only one story was too short for me to fully enjoy it and I still adored all the concepts presented here and found them to be explored in interesting ways and with some great detailed and gruesome imagery. There’s a roommate with a dangerous curse, deep-sea scientists, self-inflicted amputations, women with weird fixations on corpses and more. My personal favorite stories were “Eusect” (the self-amputation story), “Aurozoa Sleep” (the deep-sea scientist horror), “In Miriam’s Arms” (the corpse-obsessed woman), “We, the Water, the Stars” (a scholar of the cosmic embarks on a sea voyage, but his plans there are sinister) and “Tender Writhing” (a man wrecked by grief over the loss of his partner cannot let him go). As I already mentioned the stories tend to be intimate, exploring character’s reactions to facing the horrors or their descent into depravity or desperation. Despite being very short, these stories managed to provide great character (and world) building and I found myself deeply intrigued by most of them.
All in all, this is an incredible short story collection and if you enjoy your horror gorey, queer and with a variety of bodily fluids, check it out. For myself I definitely have found a new author whose work I will be keeping an eye on!
My Roommate’s Locks: Living with roommates can be tough in the best of times. Living with a roommate, whose name you cannot remember and who keeps losing things, is worse. Really tense, but intriguing story and I really liked the ending. It’s short, but very unsettling.
Tw: violence, suicide
*FAV* Eusect: The main character of this story decides that today they will cut off their leg. We follow through a gruesome but methodical depiction of the process using a variety of knives and this story absolutely deserves the title it got. Very gorey, very enjoyable and I really liked the end.
Tw: dismemberment, self-mutilation, violence towards animals
*FAV* Aurozoa Sleep: Deep Sea Horror my most beloved! Science Horror my also very beloved! This story follows two women as they investigate the life cycle of the lion mane’s jellyfish, when one of them begins to sleepwalk. Haunting and filled with despair, this is an incredible story that I adored!
Tw: animal death, hypnotism, ocean/deep water, gore, body horror
Doors and Dead Men: A horror short about a haunting, interesting, but not as intriguing as the rest of the stories so far. A bit too short to reveal its full terrifying potential to me, but still a cool concept.
Tw: death
An Account of Five Hundred and Nine, or Sower’s Descent: A short story about a really fucked up prison and a person with the ability to grant an immortality of the worst kind called in to get some information out of people, deeply unsettling and one of the stories I would love to have more of!
Tw: body horror, death, mention of suicide
Ximena’s Fall: A story investigating the unsolved case of a woman’s corpses appearing all across the globe with her face beaten to a bloody pulp. Very interesting and I liked it quite a lot and especially the end was unsettling!
Tw: suicide, domestic abuse, gore, body horror
Need Only Be Closer: A concert ends up with two friends getting separated in the crowd. As a not that tall person this takes a fear I have and just makes it so much scarier. Really well done and with some quite fun body horror, fans of the Lonely from TMA will love this one! Loved the very hopeless end.
*FAV* In Miriam’s Arms: An elderly woman rediscovers her younger self’s passion when she accidentally hits and kills a dog on her way home from work. Incredible depictions of gore, embracing the intimacy of getting to touch something’s insides in the best way. Loved it!
Tw: gore, murder, animal death, child death, disembowelment
Mouths: A woman returns from her shopping trip with lots of meat to feed the many hungry mouths in her home. Kind off sweet, despite the weirdness. Very short, but I like the concept!
Tw: mention of possible future suicide
*FAV* We, the Water, the Stars: A scholar of stars convinces a captain to let him set out to sea with him. Shortly before their voyage starts an unfortunate accident causes two more sailors to join their little crew. Thankfully the scholar has means to deal with that unfortunate distraction. Very fun, I love cosmic horror, and as I already mentioned I love oceanic horror and this combines these two in wonderful ways. If you enjoy this one, I would also definitely recommend “From the Belly” by Emmett Nahil to you.
Tw: murder, gore, dissociation, ocean
*FAV* Tender Writhing: A man arrives home to find his boyfriend dead on the floor. Unable to let go and knowing that reporting his death would mean his boyfriend’s family cutting him out from any funeral proceedings, he simply leaves him there. And that’s when things really start to spiral out of control. Very messy, very gross, very good, I loved it. Queer horror and bugs my beloved!
Tw: death, homophobia, necrophilia, bugs, insects, suicide
The Firetender: A person finds a little fire and takes it home, soon watching their life become devoured by the flames. Interesting analogy for domestic abuse.
Tw: domestic abuse, fire
A Stagnant Song: A father struggling with his child that stopped aging as it turned one year old tries to find a solution to his problem. Messy, but interesting.
Tw: infanticide, death due pregnancy complications, abusive father
Stay: A mom unable to deal with her son leaving for college tries to find a way to make him stay. Really fucked up and again, with some incredibly great gore! Enjoyable, in a heartbreaking way.
Tw: abusive parents, poisoning, violence, murder