Wormwood: A Collection of Short Stories
by Billy Martin
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"Big talent gives off thermonuclear vibes. I can feel them . . . this is the voice we're going to be hearing for a long time."--Harlan Ellison In an old car rocking down a North Carolina highway with the radio on so loud you can't hear the music. . . Behind a dusty Georgia carny show. . . In a mausoleum in Baton Rouge, or in an alley in Calcutta. . . Here wanderers come to rest, the lost and lonely press their bodies up against each other, the heat rises, flesh yields, bones are bared, show more blood spills. This is the landscape of today's most brilliant young horror writer, Poppy Z. Brite. Now, in a collection that sings like cutting edge rock 'n' roll and shows the deft touch of a master storyteller, Poppy Z. Brite weaves her unique spell of the sensual, the frightening, and the forbidden. . . "Every page of Brite's work stresses the beautiful and heartbreaking strangeness of the world."--Fangoria show lessTags
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Member Reviews
An 8,5/10 collection of (rather) short stories, most with a Southern/cajun touch, about various things hiding in plain sight on the fringes of our ordinary world.
The good: highly original in ideas; very good expressive and descriptive (but not too much) writing; very believable and convincing ”facts”; powerful story-telling (one feels sucked into the dread); King-like quality, but even creepier.
The bad: almost all the stories are about a couple of young emo male rockers, under different guises/names, most times gay, sometimes (maybe) just friends, which gets boring really fast. Also, sometimes the author overdoes the story, crossing the thin, but essential line between horror and excess gore.
If i will come over more of her books, I show more will definitely read more Poppy Z Brites. show less
The good: highly original in ideas; very good expressive and descriptive (but not too much) writing; very believable and convincing ”facts”; powerful story-telling (one feels sucked into the dread); King-like quality, but even creepier.
The bad: almost all the stories are about a couple of young emo male rockers, under different guises/names, most times gay, sometimes (maybe) just friends, which gets boring really fast. Also, sometimes the author overdoes the story, crossing the thin, but essential line between horror and excess gore.
If i will come over more of her books, I show more will definitely read more Poppy Z Brites. show less
The third book I read as part of my Poppy Z. Brite (now Billy Martin) phase years ago.
I do remember certain characters quite vividly and I really liked some of the stories. And some of the stories I just didn't connect with at all. I felt that some of the characters were a little bit flat -- it's hard to develop characters with a lot of depth in just a few short pages.
I think the missing element here was Martin's classic New Orleans atmosphere that he's so well-known for. Some of the stories had different settings, Calcultta in India or some awful motel in some unnamed part of America, so I really missed that element.
There's plenty of LBGT themes though and I'm so glad that I've read some works by a trans author. I was hungry for show more representation and I found in it in his twisted, erotic, weird and wonderful writing. show less
I do remember certain characters quite vividly and I really liked some of the stories. And some of the stories I just didn't connect with at all. I felt that some of the characters were a little bit flat -- it's hard to develop characters with a lot of depth in just a few short pages.
I think the missing element here was Martin's classic New Orleans atmosphere that he's so well-known for. Some of the stories had different settings, Calcultta in India or some awful motel in some unnamed part of America, so I really missed that element.
There's plenty of LBGT themes though and I'm so glad that I've read some works by a trans author. I was hungry for show more representation and I found in it in his twisted, erotic, weird and wonderful writing. show less
There were a few great stories in this collection but as I got deeper into the book, it felt a bit like Brite was a one trick pony. She's great at setting atmosphere but her characters began to feel like carbon copies of one another after awhile and on some occasions I felt like she wrote details in for shock value as opposed to because they really added anything.
A collection of erotic horror stories follows the adventures of solace-seeking lonelyhearts on a North Carolina highway, behind a dusty Georgia carny show, in a Baton Rouge mausoleum, and an alley in Calcutta.
A nice collection of eerie stories - nothing earth shattering - but a nice collection sure to give you a few shivers.
Ludicrously awful but I keep it for the lolz.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: Acknowledgments -- A Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics of Poppy: An Introduction / Dan Simmons -- Angels -- A Georgia Story -- His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood -- Optional Music for Voice and Piano -- Xenophobia -- The Sixth Sentinel -- Missing -- Footprints in the Water -- How to Get Ahead in New York -- Calcutta, Lord of Nerves -- The Elder -- The Ash of Memory, the Dust of Desire
Adele read, #48 in our old book database, January 13, 1996, not rated.
Contents: Acknowledgments -- A Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics of Poppy: An Introduction / Dan Simmons -- Angels -- A Georgia Story -- His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood -- Optional Music for Voice and Piano -- Xenophobia -- The Sixth Sentinel -- Missing -- Footprints in the Water -- How to Get Ahead in New York -- Calcutta, Lord of Nerves -- The Elder -- The Ash of Memory, the Dust of Desire
Adele read, #48 in our old book database, January 13, 1996, not rated.
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Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Gallimard, Folio SF (385)
Présence du futur (609)
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Contains
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Wormwood: A Collection of Short Stories
- Original title
- Swamp Foetus
- Alternate titles
- Swamp Foetus
- Original publication date
- 1994
- People/Characters
- Ghost; Steve Finn
- Dedication
- To the memory of Alcohol
My dear lost love. - First words
- "Can'tcha see the time is here for us to find . . . Rivers, mountains, nothin' can be far behind . . . Can'tcha see . . . You gotta find out this one for yourself . . . Can'tcha see . . . " [Angels]
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And nowhere else on the horizon have I ever seen so many billions of lights . . . or so many patches of darkness. [The Ash of Memory, the Dust of Desire]
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- From Wikipedia: Also published in limited edition and in the UK under author's original title as Swamp Foetus; 1993.
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- 1,115
- Popularity
- 22,698
- Reviews
- 8
- Rating
- (3.84)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 7