WE ARE HERE TO HURT EACH OTHER - PAULA D. ASHE

End of the year book extravaganza. Not sure where I heard of this one but I’m always looking to read more horror and spooky shit and this one had such a good title I couldn’t say no. Ashe is a good writer, the prose remains interesting and the styles of the different stories are varied. Often in genre fiction the idea or, to be less charitable, the gimmick, of the story is the star and the writing itself is secondary. Which isn’t always a problem, PKD is very guilty of this and I love him. Ashe manages to have interesting, original story ideas and good writing. The horror here is sometimes supernatural, sometimes more reality driven, almost always gory and bloody and 100% bleak and pessimistic. There’s not a hint of light in these things. My favorites were the more supernatural, Clive Barker inspired joints. There’s an epistolary short story featuring a drug named after Carcosa that makes you feel dead and is connected to a suffering -focused cult. You can tell she loves Hellraiser. I hope this lady writes a novel, I think she could really do some damage going deeper into some of these scenarios.