Jordan Shiveley

I've been following Jordan "@DreadSingles" on Twitter and now Bluesky for ages, so I figured why not try a book from the author of such banger tweets as HOT SINGLES IN YOUR AREA, TEETH FILED INTO HUNGRY POINTS, DONNING WRITHING VESTAMENTS OF WHISPERING DARK, PRE-ORDERING THE FRESH NEW APOCALYPSE.

Well, turns out there's a long way between a banger tweet and a book. Hot Singles is weird fiction following two characters. Noah is some guy, started a new job with a newspaper called Printed Matter show more that publishes personals like the one above. His orientation involves a blood draw and watching a VHS of a red orb that erases your memory. It beats mopping up blood and teeth in a bus station bathroom. Maybe.

Malachia is a bone nun in an empty city called Silence, once ruled by nine Great Powers, but now practically empty. Her daily rituals and search for a lost lover take her to the Corpse Oak, which sends her on a mission to return the Great Powers who are overdue.

And that's about it. There are lots of weird little scenes, juxtaposing rotting mundane places like offices and apartment complexes with the teeth strew weirdness of Silence. But the overall impression is just so-so, more funny than horrifying (except for one bit, a kiss). And while I don't need rigorous worldbuilding, there's an utter carelessness towards Silence, Great Powers, and bone nuns. Like, we're supposed to recognize all these things as uncanny signifiers of hidden world who's truths would break our fragile human sanity, but it's just a bricolage of body horror. show less