‘Will burrow under your skin and live forever in your darkest dreams’ Bust
Joyce Carol Oates assembles a spectacular cast to explore, subvert and reinvent one of horror’s most visceral of subgenres. Focusing on distortions of the human body, the fifteen short stories of A Darker Shade will delight, disgust and shock you.
From the metaphysical horror of a snail trapped in body of a young office worker, to a women cursed to dance endlessly, her body ravaged and torn, these are stories that confront the inextricable link between physical and mental terror.
Featuring brand-new stories by:
Margaret Atwood, Raven Leilani, Lisa Tuttle, Tananarive Due, Joyce Carol Oates, Megan Abbott, Aimee Bender, Cassandra Khaw, Lisa Lim, Elizabeth Hand, Valerie Martin, Sheila Kohler, Joanna Margaret and Aimee LaBrie, and Yumi Dineen Shiroma.
‘A bold collection of horror stories that flies in the face of both gender and genre conventions’ – Kirkus Reviews
‘Will burrow under your skin and live forever in your darkest dreams’ – Bust
‘A provocative and incisive collection . . . Prepare yourself for some truly unsettling stories’ – CrimeReads
‘For this chilling anthology, Oates brings together 15 stories exploring body horror through women’s experiences . . . the thematic probe into bodily autonomy makes this a must-read for fans of feminist horror’ – Publishers Weekly
Joyce Carol Oates is the author of a number of works of fiction, poetry and non-fiction, including A Garden of Earthly Delights and Blonde; and is a recipient of the National Book Award, the PEN America Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Humanities Medal and a World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.