Gemma FilesRecensioni

From the very first story, this collection had me hooked and speeding forward. Gemma File's gorgeous descriptions combined with her haunting concepts makes for a collection which feels far more rich than the average short story collection. Most of the stories here are on the longer side, and deservedly so--I loved sinking into each concept and world, and feeling the reality she brought to each new horror. In a few cases, I finished a story only to want to immediately re-read and re-experience it.

I'd absolutely recommend this to horror lovers.½

Reviewed on Hearts On Fire... http://heartsonfirereviews.com/

Damn this book was one wild ride and definitely not the kind of western Grandpa read. Set a couple of years after the civil war, Asher Rook is a powerful hexslinger or sorcerer. With his lover and budding hexslinger, Chess Pargeter, they and their gang of outlaws wreak havoc in the old west. Rook's magic is unstoppable and what Rook seems to miss, Chess just shoots. A Pinkerton agent, Ed Morrow, is sent to infiltrate Rook's gang to gather information that will counter the hexslingers. Rook and Chess have much bigger and bloodier problems than the Pinkerton Agency. Rook is haunted by an old Aztec goddess who is set on bringing herself and some of her gang through Rook into the wild west. It's hard to believe that this is Ms Files first novel. She has her own magical way of weaving a gay, horror filled, bloody and gritty western into a terrific story. Rook and Chess jump right off the pages in chapter one and you can't help but like the guys. All of the very different characters that you come across in the book are very well developed and the detailed sex is hot. I was disappointed that the complex story ended with a cliff hanger but I'm ready to jump into book two. This was definitely not a light, easy read but it was worth the time.

I can't decide how to rate this. I'm not going to finish it. It is not my taste. (Too much sex)

One of my favorite covers of all time.

One of my favorite titles of all time.

One of my favorite collections of all time.

Seriously, this is such a great collection. Every story here is spooky, disturbing, memorable, and inventive. It represents everything that horror can and should aspire to be.

I highly recommend you pick up this collection today.

I would have given this four stars, but halfway through some thoroughly unnecessary and misleading foreshadowing started kicking in and implying various fates that never seemed to come true. It interfered with my enjoyment of the book a little. Still, the premise is interesting, and the fact that the author mixes the real with the constructed in terms of art and history and art history is right up my alley.

Outstanding creep novel of a higher type. We still have cosmic forces trying to worm their way into our universe via... Well, that would be telling. Leave it to say that hapless (by her own estimation) film critic Lois Cairns's life takes a turn for the even worse when she becomes obsessed with documenting the life of a little known pioneer of cinema (not just Canada here, we're talking world); a thing she feels may make her career again. Everyone seems bent on derailing her project or stealing her work. It's no help that at the same time she's trying to do the best she can with her autistic son. As she digs deeper into her "grant" it starts to feel like there is more to celluloid than meets the eye, or maybe not.

The minutiae of Canadian film history was lost on me although I would probably be keenly interested if I was from the Great White North myself. One thing I know Canada has some fine horror writers and Files is one of them based on this novel and the stories I've read.

Having read some pretty weak "Lovecraftian" fare recently by the likes of [a:Pete Rawlik|4912242|Pete Rawlik|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] it's a breath of charnel air that somebody can still write a novel about cosmic horrors without name checking Innsmouth or mentioning a tentacle.

Reading this book was the literary version of walking on the wild side. The dark and wild side.

This was my first experience reading Gemma Files' work, but it won't be my last. I've read comparisons to Ligotti and Barron, and even though I think they're comparable, I think Ms. Files holds a distinct spot of her own. IN THAT ENDLESSNESS, OUR END contains a wide array of stories and among the ones I enjoyed most were:

THIS IT HOW IT ENDS. I kind of felt a science fiction vibe with one. Maybe I was duped?

BULB In light of the power outages going on in Texas right now, it's easy for me to imagine that something might be living in the grid.

THE PUPPET MOTEL The title of this alone is creepy, but add in the sound, a tone perhaps, "an inhuman frequency." A sound beckoning for you to...

COME CLOSER. What happens when that spooky house in neighborhood keeps somehow moving?

CUT FRAME Picture old school Hollywood, featuring the dark and mysterious star of B movies, Tamar Dusk.

ALWAYS AFTER THREE In their apartment in an old building where renovations are never over-where is that smelling coming from? And why does it only start stinking after 3:00 am?

VENIO Draw your door and tell your story! (Really loved this one!)

I responded to most of these tales on a visceral level. There is a constant...hum, a certain..tone, that permeates all of the stories in this volume. It sneaks past the factual, logical, Spock-like portions of my brain and speaks directly to that emotional portion, that portion that senses things, that senses things aren't right. It's unsettling and disturbing and I loved every freaking second of it!

My highest recommendation!

*Thank you to Grimbscribe Press and to the author the paperback ARC in exchange for my honest review. This is it.*

I really want to give this 5 stars but a couple sections/stories took away from my overall enjoyment of the book, but I also LOVED the sections I loved so?

I would describe this as....?literary? urban fantasy? One of a pair of twins slowly turns into a Cthulhian monster. Mediums channel ghosts through their skin. Young women are possessed by Nephalem. MONSTER-HUNTING NUNS. Witches are burned! Changelings! Fae!

It's pretty neat and I absolutely love Files' writing style, her formatting, her use of fake blog posts and historical documents, etc. Also, what a lovely afterword about dark!Canada.

Think The Ring The Curse (another Japanese horror flick icydk) Begotten (a crazy German... experimental film) The Blair Witch Project.

One of the best horror novels I've ever had the pleasure of reading. A great mix of film history/technology and Slavic folklore. So glad I went ahead and bought this with Files' other book "We Will All Go Down Together" because this is slow-burn horror at its finest.

*shiver*

This is a superb collection, even better than *Kissing Carrion*, Files' previous collection. These stories are well-written with strong emotional content. I liked all 15 tales, some more than others. "The Emperor's Old Bones" is, without doubt, one of the most disturbing horror stories I've ever read, and is, quite frankly, unforgettable. The book is worth owning just for that story. Also, the novella "The Narrow World" is remarkable, taking place in a modern Toronto where magic is present, and features one of the most intriguing takes on a doppelganger plot I've encountered.

Gemma Files sets home and family against and within the mythic in her collection Invocabulary. The poems in this collection pull from a wide range of western mythologies, folktales, and later works, ranging from biblical figures and those from Greek and Nordic myths to Little Red Riding Hood and Golems which appear alongside poems that reference Lovecraft and Sweeney Todd. The variety makes for a deeper view into the themes of horror in the book, and it also makes the poignant moments more affecting. Among the strongest poems in the book are those that take a more contemporary voice, such as "The Black Telephone," "Onion Boy," and the wonderful "Build Your Own." For readers of speculative poetry or poetry that explores the relation of myth to how we see our present world, this is a worthwhile read.

I liked a lot about the book (Lois was great, the Canadian Film stuff was excellent, and I'm a sucker for creepy folk legends) but I couldn't muster up much interest in the actual plot. I just didn't click. It's nicely written but feels a little densely packed at times and that's great when the subject is something I was interested in but otherwise it just felt dry. This one might not have been for me but I'm excited to check our some of Files' other work.

This is a fine horror collection, full of excellent tales, with only one clunker. Some of the stories fall into the category of "extreme horror", but powerful, literate, and intelligent.

As mentioned, most of the tales are of very high quality, but two of them really blew me away, and I would call them masterpieces:

"Hidebound" is a brilliant story of a woman, suffering through the waning days of a relationship, who works the graveyard shift at a construction site as a security guard. She discovers animalistic predators, who seem to be subtly invading Toronto at large.

"Torch Song" is equally brilliant, about a bad cop who, following an encounter with an "Aphrodite cult", becomes obsessed with his straight-laced partner, leading to highly unsettling events.

Overall, a terrific collection that deserves a wide readership.½

En mi caso, falla como novela de terror cuando encuentro mucho más interesantes las escenas de vida cotidiana con Simon y Clark (especialmente éste último) o las conversaciones con la madre. El principio es un poco 'Historia del cine canadiense' que aunque resulta ameno de leer, no es lo que esperaba encontrar tampoco en una novela de 'terror'. No está mal, pero no la recomendaría.

I found this book to be fantastic.
Recommended by the toronto(ist) website because of where the author lives and publishes, I finally got around to borrowing it from the local library.
Despite the size of the book, it was a great read, and not to be rushed.
Can't wait to read the second Hexslinger novel.

A strange wonderfully inside out upside down horror tale. Middle aged mother protagonist beloved by husband, female old god of noontime, sun not slime. And flickering movies!

I had read really good things about this book and I usually love books about movies, so I started “Experimental Films” with high expectations. Once I got into the book, I found the premise of the story quite promising and it kept me quite hooked during the first third of the book, but from that point on I started to feel that the story was getting bogged down with the main character’s personal and familiar problems (too many tiresome and repetitive arguments with her mother, for instance) instead of focusing in the supernatural and spooky side of the plot. I started to feel disengaged from the story and during the last 100 pages I even had to struggle to finish it.
So, what started as a four stars book ended for me as a two stars book, hence my three stars, just a mathematical average.

Strange book. I liked the writing and the point of view character, but this book never really grabbed me. The opening incident of the woman disappearing from the moving train intrigued me. A lot of the esoteric details about Canadian film lost me. The Lady Midday vengeful pagan work goddess didn't do much for me at all.

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

Are you familiar with obscure experimental Canadian film? Yeah, me neither.

I really hate to say this, but the story just couldn't keep my interest. At first their is a lot about Canadian film, which probably is interesting if a) you know something about it and b) it doesn't turn out to be completely fictional. The second part is a ghost story, based on an old European myth, which was more interesting but I felt it was still lacking something.

The writing is confusing, on purpose, at times, but I probably wouldn't have minded if I were more invested in the story. It's really a shame. I chose this book, even though it seemed quite out of my comfort zone, because Chi in the past has surprised me with some really good books. However, this particular one didn't work for me, although I'm quite sure there will be fans.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

(Re-posted from http://theturnedbrain.blogspot.com)

I follow and read a lot of book review blogs. Like, a lot. Sometimes I feel like I read more book reviews then, you know, actual books. Some people question the worth of reading reviews, because after all books are highly subjective and what one person likes you might not and so on. But I think you have to approach reading reviews in the right way. I mean, if there’s a reviewer whose tastes always line up with yours then you might avoid a book just because they didn’t like it, but I think any good reviewer provides enough information that even if they didn’t like the book, you can take their review and make up your own mind.


Which brings me to Gemma Files’ “Book of Tongues.” A book I had never heard of until Calico Reaction posted a review of it. Now, Calico was not a fan of this book, indeed she didn’t even finish it. But she neatly outlines the things that didn’t work for her personally, and they kinda sounded like things that would work for me. So I tracked the book down, and I’m very glad I did.


I honestly don’t understand why this book is not getting more mentions across the reviewing corner of the blogosphere. Not because it’s necessarily fantastically awesome, (although I rather think it is), but because it’s hugely ambitious. I think it’s the kinda book that you have to feel strongly about, either love it or hate it, and it’s these kind of books I’m used to seeing discussions of.


It’s set right after the American civil war in an America where some people are “hex’s.” That is, men or women with some pretty trippy magical powers that manifest on the onset of menstruation (if you’re a women) or upon suffering serious bodly harm (if you’re a man). A really cool twist on the idea is that to hex’s can not spend any long length of time together as they will involuntarily suck the power out of each other until one is dead. When being hung for a crime he didn’t commit Reverend Asher Rook learns he has some serious power going on, and he turns outlaw along with the rest of his army regiment. (Regement? Unit? I don’t know, I’m not down with military lingo…)


This regiment includes one Chess Pargeter, also known as the reason I loved this book so very much. He’s a whore turned Reverend Rook’s fiercely loyal lover, he’s an indiscriminate murderer, he’s more than a little bit crazy and he definitely makes the book for me. The best character I can think of to compare Chess to is George R. R. Martin’s Jamie Lannister. You start out completely disgusted by him, and by the end he’s your absolute favourite (at least if you’re me). Not that I’m equating being gay with having an incestuous relationship with your sister! It’s more the way that Chess kills so freely and so gleefully, he seems wholly without empathy and it’s easy to dislike him. But by the time the novel ended my heart had broken for him ten times over, and I was cheering for him to come out on top. The transition is completely natural, I couldn’t even tell you the moment Chess went from zero to hero for me, and without changing the core of his character either.


It took George Martin four massive tomes to pull that off with Jamie, and Gemma Files does it in just a couple of hundred of too short pages. Impressive? Very. The other characters were just as skilfully crafted. The character arc of Reverend Rook was just as dramatic as Chess’s, and the skill it took to pull it off even more impressive. There is an almost complete lack of women, but given the setting and nature of the book I’m willing to forgive that. (And while the female hex Songbird felt a little flat to me, I loved Chess’s mother, so I’m confident in Files’ ability to write a female characer). The only character I was a little disappointed with is Ed Morrow, our main POV character. He spends most of his time observing and commenting upon Rook and Chess, so we don’t really get to see much of who he himself is. Files does hint at greater depths inside of him, so hopefully the honourable Mr. Morrow will grow a bit in the next books.


The writing style and structure is what I think will divide the people who read this book into those who like and those who don’t. It’s told in an odd mix of flash backs and present day scenes. I say odd because it feels uneven, like there will be three flashbacks and then a present scene and then a flash back and then five present scenes… Like when your iPod shuffle randomly throws up five songs out of ten by the same band? The flashbacks and present day scenes are not quite randomly placed, but not quite structured either, and it sticks out. The writing itself is highly stylised. I think Files definitely captured the voice of the setting. Think the southern twang that leaps of every page of a Sookie Stackhouse novel, or the British manners of Naomi’s Novik’s Temeraire books. If by the end of a novel I’m reading it in my head with an accent, then the author has been effective.


I will say that some of it got a little confusing for me. All of the Aztec names started to run together, but that’s probably because I am entirely unfamiliar with Aztec legends beyond what I’ve learnt from Mountain Goats albums. And there is a lot of religion. Like, A LOT. Rook’s powers come from the bible, like he reads a phrase and havoc is wrought. (Think turned people into pillars of salt, plagues of locusts, ect). Actually, and this coming from a die hard atheist, I found it be pretty unique and interesting. Normally I can’t stop yawning when reading about characters struggling with their religion and god and what have you, but Files definitely handled it pretty well. And she couldn’t very well have avoided it, with Rook being a once pious Reverend now killing people left and right and enthusiastically sodomising his boyfriend every chance he gets.


It is the first part in a trilogy, and the ending is definitely a first part of a trilogy kind of ending. So if you have the patience you might want to wait until they’re all out, but if you’re anything like me you’ll be snapping the next one up as soon is you can!

(Re-posted from http://theturnedbrain.blogspot.com)

One of the most unique reading experiences for me in a long time was Gemma Files' "Book of Tongues." (I recommend reading that one before reading this review.) The book was not without its flaws, but I'd take flawed and interesting over perfect and safe any day of the week, believe me.

Not surprising then that I dived straight into its sequel, and book two of Hexslinger trilogy, "Rope of Thorns" as soon as it arrived at my doorstep. As always with a sequel I began with a small amount of trepidition. Would this book be as good as the first one? All too often it seems that the answer to that question turns out to be no. But not this time my friends. Not this time!

I loved "Rope of Thorns." It was everything "Book of Tongues" didn't quite manage to be, and all of the faults (all of them!) that I found with the Hexslinger Trilogy's first book had been addressed.

Despite having a lot less narrator time this go around, the character of Ed Morrow finally became real to me. There's a genuine goodness in Ed that's lacking from the other men in these books, but for all that he's just as capable as Chess or Rook as committing acts of great violence. It was a contrast I found fascinating.

Instead of Ed most of this book was told from the point of view of Mister Chess Partager himself. I didn't reread "Book of Tongues" before starting this one (way too eager!) but I'm fairly sure there wasn't any Chess point of views in it. He's an enigmatic figure in many ways, and when I realised I was seeing things through his eyes I was concerned that it would "ruin" the mystery of him. Not so! If anything the greater insight into the workings of Chess's, uh, shall we say unique? mind only made him more interesting to me. And more sympathetic, by a mile!

Ah, poor Chess. Rook's monstrous betrayal has changed him, that's for sure. And you have to feel for the guy. There's one scene where he has to stay in disguise while a song is sung about how every bad thing Rook ever did is pretty much all Chess' fault, and I don't remember the last time I felt so keenly for a character. I kept oscilating between wanting Chess and Rook to somehow work things out, and and wanting Chess to just blow Rook's smug head clean off. Or maybe some combination of both?

We have some new characters this time around, the most noteworthy of this being Experiance "Yancy" Kloves, who neatly takes care of complaints that these books lack women. Yancy is a capable, practical young woman, but she manages to be so while staying true to the time period, in my opinion. There was a dry humour to her point of view that really appealed to me, and I enjoyed watching Chess try and figure out exactly what to do with her.

Personally my biggest issue with "Book of Tongues" was that the plot tended to jump around a bit haphazardly. But in "Rope of Thorns" things are pretty much linear. There's an interlude set in Rook's newly founded Hex city (very interesting. It was satisfying watching him realise the enormity of his mistakes, and I'll be very interested to see how things in Hex City play out in the next book) but other than that we stick with Chess and his entourage, without even any flashbacks.

Really "Rope of Thorns" is everything you hope for in a sequel, but so rarely get. The plot is advanced, a greater understanding of characters is granted, new and interesting characters are introduced. Files' prose remains a delight to read, the cadence of her sentences captures the wild west setting perfectly, and the images she paints are a fascinating mix of frontier practicality and magic bred surrealism.

Role on "Tree of Bones."

Holy fuck man and hot damn.

Didn't finish because: 1) don't like any of the characters 2) have no clue what's going on 3) don't like the dialog 4) don't want to read any more.

Book Info: Genre: Weird Western/Supernatural Horror/Steampunk
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of Weird West, horror, those interested in Meso-American religious practices
Trigger Warnings for series: murder (including mass murder), killing, execution, non PC language, fighting, violence, suicide, explicit M/M sex (first book only), human sacrifice, self injury, giant spiders
Animal Injuries: several horses are killed during a melee

My Thoughts on Omnnibus: The omnibus includes the Hexslinger trilogy as well as three bonus short stories, “Hexmas”., “Like a Bowl of Fire”, and “In Scarlet Town (Today)”. I have written individual reviews for each of the books in the trilogy, so for more detail on any given book, check that out. I will use this review to talk about the series as a whole, and also to review the three short stories.

One of the things I really liked about this series is the characters, and character development. Some of these people are really quite horrible human beings at the beginning, like Songbird and Chess Pargeter, yet they grow and change through the course of the series in such as way as to begin on a path to redemption. Others start out good people, like Ash Rook and Mesach Love, only to fall out of grace through one reason or another. I liked that the author was willing to make that sort of gamble. While I imagine there will be plenty of people for whom this series is definitely not their cup of tea, but for those who might like a Weird Western with some gay romance, well, this should fulfill that nicely.

As far as the short stories:
“Hexmas” is set 6 or 7 years after the events of the main trilogy. Ed Morrow and Yancey Colder Kloves are homesteading in the desert on a plot that Chess helped set up, but a new neighbor—a hex woman from Iceland—is causing trouble for them due to her fear that Yancey is a hex and will try to destroy her. To make things even more tricky, Yancey is close to delivering her first child, and afraid the neighbor woman will kill the babe upon its birth. Chess, recently elected Sheriff of Hexicas, comes to visit just in time. This short is more lighthearted, at least at the beginning, than a lot of the trilogy, and that was nice to see. It was also neat to see how Ed and Yancey have been keeping themselves during the time in question. There is mention that Yancey has been using her dead-speaker skills to try to learn more about her heritage, both from her father's Jewish tradition, and her mother's Romani.

“Like a Bowl of Fire” is set shortly after the events of the trilogy. Chess is traveling with Charlie, the young man he meets in the epilogue of book 3. They have traveled back east, where a local man has pointed them toward a section of land on which nothing will grow. Anything that goes there burns, be it a person or a plant. Chess and Charlie have to figure out why this is happening and try to stop it. During this short, we find out that Charlie has a special way with the arachnorses, the large spiders born from the giant spider in the third book, which are being trained as mounts. We also see how Chess has grown in his wisdom over the years.

“In Scarlet Town (Today)” takes place about a year before “Hexmas”. The leaders of Hexicas summon Chess to help them solve a murder, which should be impossible due to the Oath that all hexes must take to live in Hex City. Chess uncovers a cauldron of bad feelings between the hexes and the so-called “naturals”, upon whom many of the hexes look down and consider inferior, while the “naturals” are resentful of their treatment but feel they are stuck there and unable to leave. Charlie does as much to solve this as Chess.

I really did enjoy all the short stories, which gave a more in-depth look at some of the people from the series, as well as catching the reader up on them since the end of the series. Fans of the trilogy might want to purchase the omnibus mainly so they can read these stories, if for no other reason. I really have enjoyed reading these stories and look forward to whatever this author might come up with next. Watch for a guest post from the author, and a giveaway, coming on Friday on my blog!

Series Information: The Hexslinger Series
Book 1: A Book of Tongues, review linked here
Book 2: A Rope of Thorns, review linked here
Book 3: A Tree of Bones, review linked here

Disclosure: I received a copy of the omnibus from ChiZine in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Omnibus Synopsis: It’s 1867, and the Civil War is over. But the blood has just begun to flow.

For Asher Rook, Chess Pargeter, and Ed Morrow, the war has left its mark in tangled lines of association and cataclysmic love, woken hexslinger magic, and the terrible attentions of a dead god. “Reverend” Asher Rook is the unwilling gateway for the Mayan goddess Ixchel to birth her pantheon back into the world of the living, and to do it she’ll force Rook to sacrifice his lover and fellow outlaw Chess Pargeter. But being dead won’t bar Chess from taking vengeance, and Pargeter will claw his way back out of Hell, teaming with undercover-Pinkerton-agent-turned-outlaw Ed Morrow to wreak it. What comes back into the world in the form of Chess Pargeter is a walking wound, Chess’s very presence tearing a crack in the world and reshaping everything around him while Ixchel establishes Hex City, a city state defying the very laws of nature—an act that will draw battle lines between a passel of dead gods and monsters, hexes galore, spiritualists, practitioners of black science, a coalition set against Ixchel led by Allan Pinkerton himself, and everyone unfortunate enough to be caught between the colliding forces. None of which will stop Chess from hunting down Rook, now consort to Ixchel, even if he has to rip the world apart to do it.

With the barriers between worlds crumbling, a new war being waged across the American West, and Ixchel preparing to kick off an Apocalypse fed by shed human blood while Rook plots one, final, redemptive treachery of his own, everything will come down to Chess Pargeter, once again trapped in a nightmarish underworld. But Chess has fought his way out of hell before. . . .

Book Info: Genre: Weird Western/Supernatural Horror/Steampunk
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of Weird West, horror, those interested in Meso-American religious practices
Trigger Warnings for Book 3: killing, human sacrifice, bullying, non PC language

My Thoughts on Book 3: This really is a most satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. Watching Chess's evolution has been quite amazing, and I've also quite enjoyed seeing how Yancey and Ed and Songbird all grew and changed through the course of the trilogy.

These books are very LGBTQ oriented, with a number of characters from the QUILTBAG included, as well as the inherent hostility toward them of the time. Still, it was refreshing to see a piece set during the late 19th century that was open and honest about the existence of all types.

Ultimately there is not a lot I can say here without there ending up with spoilers, so I'll just say that I really did enjoy this book—this whole trilogy—quite a lot. Watch for my review of the omnibus, which also includes a bonus short story.

Series Information: The Hexslinger Series
Book 1: A Book of Tongues, review linked here
Book 2: A Rope of Thorns, review linked here
Book 3: A Tree of Bones

Disclosure: I received a copy of the omnibus from ChiZine in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: New Mexico, 1867: Months have passed since hexslinger Chess Pargeter sacrificed himself to restore the town of Bewelcome, once cursed to salt by his former lover, "Reverend" Asher Rook. Now a coalition led by Allan Pinkerton's Detective Agency lays siege to reborn Mayan goddess Ixchel's notorious "Hex City," the one place on earth where hexes can act in concert, and the desert just outside Bewelcome has become the front line in what threatens to become a new Civil War—one in which wild magic and black science clash headlong, producing carnage like nothing the world has ever seen!