The Worm in Every Heart
Stories
Published on 13. October 2020
347 pages
978-1-5040-6370-8 (ISBN)
Description
The second collection from the author of
Kissing Carrion, whose stories "overwhelm the reader with a true sense of wonder, awe, and horror" (
Paul Tremblay, award-winning author of
A Head Full of Ghosts).
As two-time Bram Stoker Award winner Paula Guran said in Horror Garage, "Nobody in a Gemma Files story puts a hand on a doorknob and opens the door they shouldn't-these folks are already in the other side." The inhabitants of the stories in The Worm in Every Heart include gods and madmen, arsonists and ancient vampires, monsters and mothers who don't know how to love. No matter where they live-Warsaw during World War II, British India, or modern-day Toronto-their realities are not our own, but ones in which we'll willingly immerse ourselves for a terrifying moment or two...
Praise for Gemma Files
"One of the genre's most original and innovative voices." - Los Angeles Review of Books
"What makes We Will All Go Down Together so riveting isn't its ideas or imagery, as richly atmospheric and detailed as they are. It's the author's voice. Colorful, powerful, and charismatic, her characters are rendered in bold strokes and poignant nuances." -NPR.org
"The recent republication of Gemma Files's first two collections of short fiction, Kissing Carrion and The Worm in Every Heart, was a reminder of how long and how well she has been writing." - Locus
As two-time Bram Stoker Award winner Paula Guran said in Horror Garage, "Nobody in a Gemma Files story puts a hand on a doorknob and opens the door they shouldn't-these folks are already in the other side." The inhabitants of the stories in The Worm in Every Heart include gods and madmen, arsonists and ancient vampires, monsters and mothers who don't know how to love. No matter where they live-Warsaw during World War II, British India, or modern-day Toronto-their realities are not our own, but ones in which we'll willingly immerse ourselves for a terrifying moment or two...
Praise for Gemma Files
"One of the genre's most original and innovative voices." - Los Angeles Review of Books
"What makes We Will All Go Down Together so riveting isn't its ideas or imagery, as richly atmospheric and detailed as they are. It's the author's voice. Colorful, powerful, and charismatic, her characters are rendered in bold strokes and poignant nuances." -NPR.org
"The recent republication of Gemma Files's first two collections of short fiction, Kissing Carrion and The Worm in Every Heart, was a reminder of how long and how well she has been writing." - Locus
More details
Person
Gemma Files, a former film critic, journalist, screenwriter, and teacher, has been an award-winning horror author since 1999. She has published two collections of short work; two chapbooks of speculative poetry; the "weird western" Hexslinger Series; a story-cycle; and the standalone novel
Experimental Film, which won the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel and the 2016 Sunburst Award for Best Adult Novel. Files also has several story collections and a collection of poetry forthcoming.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Introduction
- Nigredo
- Ring of Fire
- The Guided Tour
- Year Zero
- Flare
- Bottle of Smoke
- Fly-By-Night
- In the Poor Girl Taken by Surprise
- A Single Shadow Make
- Beyond the Forest
- Sent Down
- The Kindly Ones
- By the Mark
- The Emperor's Old Bones
- The Narrow World
- Disclaimer
- The Night the Comet Hit the Library: An Afterword to Kissing Carrion and The Worm In Every Heart.
- About the Author
- Copyright Page
