 Dark Blood Comes From the Feet might at first be considered an odd name for this eclectic collection of seventeen literary horror short stories. Once you delve within the pages, suddenly the title proves to be a perfect fit. The line is from the story, "Cellar Door" and states: "I felt your trauma. I saw it pour out from the soles of your feet. Old, dark blood. Old trauma you have hung on to for too long. The dark blood comes from the feet." If that quote doesn't immediately give you a feeling for Emma J. Gibson's dark and gorgeous prose, I don't know what will. There's a haunting almost melodic quality to her writing. Mainly told in first-person narrative, her characters are—like in the quote above—those who have or are experiencing something soul-changing. An awakening to a new reality if you will. The children of Lovecraftian orphanage "St. Scholastica's Home for Children of the Sea" open new and terrifying eyes for the narrator, but the monsters aren’t always the ones you expect. "Janine" tells us of a woman whose frightful experience is ultimately too much to handle; Sometimes just knowing is dangerous. The narrator in "This Is Not the Glutton Club" learns the truth about his uncle's long flirtation with disease and mortality.  The diversity of styles and settings confirm that Gibbons is nothing but adaptable. Stories with a contemporary slant like "Rise", in which a neglected wife's transformation brings freedom, fit seamlessly beside the darker, gothic feel of Victorian-set tuberculosis tale "Infection". Locations are just as varied. You will find yourself transported one moment to a post-apocalyptic world in "Sermon from New London" and the next to purgatory in "The Limbo Lounge". Spanning horror themes from the consumptive body horror of “Devour” to the paranormal “Ghost Maker”, every story contained within this collection was a joy to read. The emotional spectrum in the stories was everything! Sadness, disgust, fear, and yes, even hope and happiness. My personal favorite of the collection was “Porch”, about a big, black cat named Rufus bringing his barely-alive, broken treasures to his owner who becomes a odd sort of grim reaper, escorting those poor creatures from their pain and suffering. "Porch" broke my heart, as it did the narrator's, but the ending was simply beautiful. While this was my favorite, there weren't any of the seventeen stories that I didn't enjoy. Dark Blood Comes From the Feet was a delight. Emotional, visceral, and just a lovely assortment of horror. Review by Valerie Lester   the heart and soul of horror fiction reviewsComments are closed.
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