First published 2016
New Orleans pulses with supernatural menace in these seven stories from splatterpunk fiction's reigning master. Spirits drift through Lantern Marsh while sentinels keep their ancient watch. In Calcutta, nerves fray under cosmic horror. Jazz music mingles with violence as Mussolini's shadow falls across the city. Lovers taste bitter wormwood on each other's lips. The French Quarter's heart beats with occult rhythms. Bodies transform in ways both desired and feared. Voodoo practitioners summon powers that blur the line between the living and the dead. Cannibals stalk through cemeteries where corpses refuse to rest. Museums display death as art while creatures emerge from Louisiana's darkest corners. Each tale weaves together brutality and poetry, creating horror that cuts deep while revealing unexpected beauty. The city itself becomes a character, mothering these stories of transformation and decay. Brite crafts an innovative brand of terror that combines melancholy with savage intensity, painting New Orleans as a place where the supernatural feels inevitable and love carries the taste of absinthe.
Genres: short-stories, horror, supernatural, dark-fantasy
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, lyrical
Tropes: horror-thriller, supernatural
Setting: New Orleans, Calcutta, Louisiana
Period: 20th-century
218 pages · Paperback · Independent Legions Publishing
Content warnings: body-horror, gore, graphic-violence