https://speculiction.blogspot.com/2023/10/review-of-wounds-by-nathan-ballingrud.... ( )

When I started this book, I initially thought, WTH am I reading? I didn’t think this author’s work was for me, but as I went further and got used to his way of world building, which is to drop the reader straight into the darkest depths of hell, I became engrossed. For those of nervous dispositions they’d likely say they’re grossed out, but gory descriptions aside, it was the imaginative creativity of the writer’s style. Bizarre, surreal, warped… the stories presented here are all these things and more. From the borders of hell, indeed. Strangely, I enjoyed each subsequent story more, starting with my least favourite to the best — to my knowledge, The Butcher’s Table being a vision of piracy we’ve never seen before. ( )

http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2022-10.html#ballingrud ( )

I made it almost halfway through and then I put this book down. Ugh. ( )

Although I've had Ballingrud's first book, North American Lake Monsters, on my radar for a long time, this collection was my entrance into his world, and I'm so glad I stumbled upon it. The horror here is written with such casual style and grace, it's difficult to compare it to other horror collections at all. Here, each story is such a completely realized world, with so much character and atmosphere, the reading experience doesn't actually feel like what you get from reading a collection at all. This doesn't just apply to the last two 'stories' in the book, which are closer to novella length. The first four stories, all at about the length you'd expect for a short story, feel like worlds unto themselves. And although the last, longer novella felt a little bit slower than I might have liked, I suspect that's only because it might have been trying to demand an even longer form, the concept was so deserving.

My favorites here are, without question, "The Atlas of Hell" and "The Visible Filth". Both are stories which I felt compelled to read in one sitting (though "The Visible Filth" is the other story in the collection that's closer to novella lenght), and which I imagine I'll end up reading again.

Certainly, I recommend this to all horror readers, and I can't wait to pick up Ballingrud's first book, as well as whatever he writes next. ( )