Parallel Hells

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To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. In the thirteen darkly audacious stories of Parallel Hells we meet a golem, made of clay, learning that its powers far exceed its Creator's expectations; a ruined mansion which grants the secret wishes of a group of revellers and a notorious murderer who discovers her Viking husband is not what he seems. Is this a story in part about acting in other peoples' interests as YOU see them, and then making a choice not to do that? It is such a fresh and playful approach to storytelling that you cannot help but be totally enamoured with Craig's abilities. The beating heart of this community is The Arms, a rodent-infested pub where many of the characters glance off of each other.

Throughout these startling and original short stories, readers' expectations are regularly subverted - and amply rewarded.The little details make the stories more encompassing and really add to the eerie theme of the collection. These juicy, gothic tales draw you in with a warm embrace, detailed settings and characters with personality that transcends the short stories they feature in.

She has had previous work published in The Sundae, Digital Fix, Bindweed Magazine, The Independent and Refinery29. Part-way through the narrative of this story, the page splits and we are presented with two characters’ perspectives running parallel down the page. They're such a simple concept that you can use to explore some really interesting and deep questions about things like slavery, heritage, free will, ownership.It instantly reminded me of Tell Me I'm Worthless but I feel that it felt a lot more gimmicky in this book/didn't work/wasn't necessary for this story whereas in Rumfitt's novel, it complemented the story? Frustrated by Luke’s trite ignorance, Carly goes to “find the rest of the party or I can find out how it feels to murder somebody”. Macabre, Gothic, sensuous (textures are everywhere), sharp (neither too rich nor too sparse) extraordinarily, varied from Icelandic sagas to London sex dungeons (OK, maybe not that varied! In one story, titled “raw pork and opium,” a character re-applies her lipstick in the only reflective surface to be found “the kitchen knife we used to rack up lines. I have given this book three stars because for me they represent not a comment on the author's writing but on the failure of the stories in this collection to match up to the praise and promotion they have received.

By turns dark, sharp, witty and tender, I'm a huge fan of Leon Craig's writing, and the way she reveals the complex dance of beauty and brutality in our innermost, most vulnerable selves. Through those concepts, Leon Craig explores identity and queerness as she modernizes the familiar tropes — the satanic ritual is suggested by a character in response to trauma; a father who sacrificed to have a child can’t accept that his son is actually his daughter; the shame-sucking demon is trying to figure out whether or not to be honest about their true self with friends; a haunted book is used to help a student get ahead in their über-competitive doctoral program at Oxford. Leon Craig confidently navigates real places and imaginary spaces most of us shy away from and leaves us deliciously teased, unsettled and hungry for more .Most of the endings were very open and vague and I feel like I would've enjoyed that more if some others had more clear cut endings.

Tommy talks about the fear of getting stuck and jamming “like a piece of wood you stick in a wall or something.

The stories and characters run parallel to each other, but these themes are repeatedly reworked in surprising ways throughout the collection to give each narrative its little slice of hell. Parallel Hells pulled me in with its wonderful cover, but it was Leon Craig’s writing that took me on a rollercoaster of emotions that kept me unnerved and ecstatic. There are a lot of turns of phrase that I lingered on because they were either quite romantic or just particularly lovely to read. Favorite stories from this collection included: “A Wolf in the Temple,” “Lipless Grin,” “Hags,” “No Dominion,” and “Saplings.