Divine in Essence

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$18.00


Divine in Essence is a collection of strange, beautiful, horror stories that often feel like they belong more in a dream than on the printed page. Fairies dance atop graves to wake their sleepers. Amnesiac girls try to understand their unsettling surroundings. Mothers and stepmothers alike prove dangerous to young children, even under the guise of maternal affection.

I have never read anything like them.

That is not to say I entirely enjoyed them.

The concepts behind each story were fascinating, certainly. Yarrow Paisley has brought a fantastic imagination to the page, encapsulating within the space of a few pages a world somewhat like our own but also deeply strange and unsettling, made all the more so due to its similarity to the world readers are familiar with. The characters are archetypal, which makes them fit all the better into the stories. They would not belong in the grounded world we know, but within the dreamlike constructions of this book, they seem entirely natural.

Less natural is the prose in many of the stories. Paisley’s writing calls to mind the stories of Golden Age science fiction and 1920s horror. In some, the style fits, adding yet another layer onto the sense that these are not entirely of the world we know but belong somewhere else, to some other people. In others, however, it feels affected, a step further than is necessary. It never reaches the point of feeling like Paisley has swallowed a thesaurus, but some of the diction is strained, more obtuse and complex than is necessary for the story to achieve its purpose.

And what is that purpose? In some stories, it is hard to say. They have captivating atmospheres, but little else beyond that. The endings feel abridged at times, as though the story has led the reader up to some precipice and left them there, balanced on the edge of what might be a conclusion. While this does serve the atmosphere of most stories, it is hard to say whether it serves anything else.

Divine in Essence is one of the strangest collections of stories I have read this year. I do mean this as a compliment, at least for the most part. True strangeness can be hard to come by, and it is something that Paisley does very well. Lovers of the odd and eccentric will surely enjoy this collection, but for some it will be too ethereal and verbose.


Reviewed By:

Author Yarrow Paisley
Star Count 4/5
Format Trade
Page Count 200 pages
Publisher Whiskey Tit
Publish Date 16-Oct-2024
ISBN 9781952600555
Bookshop.org Buy this Book
Issue January 2024
Category Horror
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