BOOK REVIEW: IN DREAMS WE ROT BY BETTY ROCKSTEADY

Dreams are hard to capture on page. You might wake up in the middle of the night and fumble for a pen and paper, grasping at the last moments you remember. Then in the morning you look at what you wrote and none of it makes sense. Well, In Dreams We Rot, you don’t have to worry about any of that, because Betty Rocksteady did all of the hard work for you. In her first collection of short stories she has tapped into the secret well of nightmares to offer up a healthy serving of madness and heart, delivering one of the best collections of the year.

Rocksteady held back nothing with the 21 stories you’ll find here. She’s bared her soul for all and isn’t afraid of what’s exposed. There are stories about love, sex with skeletons, the death of children, the desire for what you can’t have, the urge to create, and cats. Each story has something that will touch you deeply, finding that place you don’t want to talk about and prodding at it until you have no choice but to face your thoughts and feelings. There are some things in here that make you question humanity, but also make you cheer on those that find the strength to deal with the terrible situations they find themselves in. It’s a powerful collection that could have come across as heavy handed, yet Rocksteady expertly navigates the concepts presented here to give us something that feels natural and poignant.
You will come out of this book hating a lot of society. Most of the men in these stories are dicks that treat women like shit. Women also don’t look so great here either, they insult other women or hate children. Families bicker and fight, never listening to each other. It’s a tough brutal look at real life, but there’s a truth buried in here. I appreciate that Rocksteady didn’t shy away from holding a mirror up to humanity and let us see that everything is not perfect. Life isn’t all roses and sunshine, it’s dirty and painful.

Now, I don’t want you to think all of the stories are downers that make you question the world, because she does throw in hope where it’s needed. Some of the characters find happiness in the end. But, I think it needed this dash of realism. It gives each story the heart it needs to be more than just a spooky story. There’s plenty of horror here, Rocksteady just added the touch of real life to show that humans can be just as scary as monsters.

But, don’t you worry, this isn’t just a collection of stories that’ll make you want to live alone on an island. This is horror collection by one of our great horror writers. Rocksteady knows exactly what makes a story haunting and has no problem delivering. We have stories about demon skulls that want effigies and sacrifices, an evil ocean that drives an island mad, a car that plays with the mind, and ants that sing and bite. Hell, there’s even an amazing story about creating art that is also a love letter to old cartoons. All of it shows off Rocksteady’s range, from writing the weird, to writing straight horror, to explore the terror of love. And her ability to tease out the horror, keeping it just under the surface until it’s too late for you to back out, really makes you appreciate how much control she has over you with her words.
​
There are disturbing things in here. Be it the characters and their actions, or the monsters and nightmare creatures that haunt the pages. Every story packs a mean punch that’ll knock you down but have you begging for more. Rocksteady has shown here that you can mix the horrors of real life with the terrors of dreams to create something truly wonderful. In Dreams We Rot is already at the top of my list for best books of the year and will definitely be something I go back to in the years to come.

IN DREAMS WE ROT BY BETTY ROCKSTEADY

FICTION LIKE A FEVER DREAM
A voyeur becomes the one being watched, terrifying beasts are stitched together, strange new insects appear, ancient sex gods rise, and an island on the brink of madness falls apart. 
Betty Rocksteady's debut collection blends surrealism and horror, tearing apart tropes as words bleed and transform down unexpected avenues of nightmare logic. These twenty stories run the gamut from splatterpunk to somber. They're hot and wet and nasty, guaranteed to leave you with an unspeakable sense of dread.

---