I wanted to review this for Locus, but I ran out of time. It happens—too many books, too many commitments. Sorry, Mike.

The collection is an equal mix of poetry and prose, comprising 13 stories and 14 poems (but I may have miscounted). Allen writes a visceral, gory horror that brought me back to the good old days of Ray Garton, Jack Ketchum and Ed Lee. Like Ed Lee and arguably Jack Ketchum, Allen’s stories feature—for the most part—working-class protagonists. But where authors like Lee played up their redneck qualities, Allen’s characters are people trying to make ends meet, whether it’s as a journalist for a tiny local paper or a masseuse or an office worker or a villager caught in the middle of a war. These characters ground the more Lovecraftian and cosmic elements.

The longest story is the novella “The Comforter”, which I read (and reviewed) when it was featured in the terrific collection A Sinister Quartet. Back then, I liked it but didn’t love it. This time around, I absolutely adored it. It helped that by this point in the collection, I’d read stories like “The Feather Stitch” and the title piece “Slow Burn” which are set in the same Universe, so I was aware of the broader context. But also, on a re-read, I realised how ambitious the story was, how Allen was pulling zero punches but also taking risks in cramming the narrative with multiple characters and points of view and a plot that seems too big for the space it’s been shoved in (which is apropos given the novella is about capacious creatures who can suck in all organic matter and then mimic it). And yet, it works. It’s violent, weird, shocking, and creepy. The climax is breathtakingly surreal and gory. 

I also loved the weirdly redemptive and moving “Gherem”, the utterly fucked up (in a good way, if that’s possible) “Abhors”, and the bizarre and unsettling “This Rider of Fugitive Dawns”.

If you love gore and Lovecraftian weirdness with a working-class vibe, you’ll have fun with this collection.*

*If I haven’t said anything about the poetry it’s because while I liked it, especially the dark and edgy imagery, my interests gravitated to the prose.