5/31/2023 0 Comments Leon craig parallel hellsMy personal favourites of the collection were 'Ingratitude', in which a girl inherits a serpentine bracelet that will sever the hand of those who fail to procreate, and 'Sapling', based on faerie lore, in which a young woman is tasked to battle a transphobic father and his Fae creditors to save the woman she loves. While not favourable for everyone, the discordance the reader is made to feel gets under the skin, which is something any horror writer should be proud to achieve. With an unlikeable viewpoint character, a lot of the narrative is uncomfortable to witness, which is a common theme throughout most of the short stories. Many questions are raised in this story without many answers given, leaving the bulk of the events up for interpretation. As her father lays in bed with a mysterious illness, the woman befriends one half of a neighbouring couple, quickly learning that something sinister is afoot. The first story, 'Suckers', sets the general tone of the collection as we're thrown into a tale of an eerie vacation taken by a young woman and her father. This atmospheric collection contains tales of vampires, a golem, a dibbuk, a Viking murderess and more, as Craig makes use of different tropes and creatures from around the world. In Parallel Hells, Leon Craig offers a compelling dive into themes of identity, sexuality and trauma through the lens of folklore and Gothic horror. “Horror is not dissimilar to love, in that all time gets folded in to meet it.”
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