They were also strong believers in the library, and they pretty much let me check out anything I wanted to check out, even things that I might have doubts about letting my own son check out. They were both liberal (at least in Utah terms) and my father was the head of the local democratic party for a while. So, where did your love of horror (and fantasy and sci-fi) come from? What do you consider the inspirations and roots of your own brilliantly macabre writing?īRIAN EVENSON- My parents were pretty atypical Mormons. But from what I know of your background growing up in the LDS community, I’m guessing such materials weren’t as openly available to you. KEATON- I can trace my love for horror and the fantastic back to my early childhood, with my mom’s Stephen King collection, my grandmother gifting me books on Greek mythology, checking out Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark from my school library, and every midnight showing of some schlockfest I could manage to view on TV behind my parents’ backs.

And Evenson’s latest collection, Song for the Unraveling of the World, is more unassailable proof of why this consummate writers’ writer deserves a much larger readership to scare senseless. At the same time, though, his stories are also prime examples of how and why such genre works are currently resonating so powerfully with our current cultural milieu. While steeped in the tropes of horror, science fiction and fantasy, Evenson’s fiction is highly literary and elusive-leaving his readers with more questions than answers as he chaperones us further into the uncanny with each word. However, it is a disservice to relegate his work to the realm of genre. Each of the compact nightmares he concocts is an object lesson in suspense, subtlety, and manipulation of the most primal of human emotions-fear. 'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.Brian Evenson is not only a master of horror, he is a master of the short story form. is a detective novel and a cult novel (in that it is about cults-though perhaps the other designation would work too) and a brutal horror novel and a fine work of minimalist literary fiction.” -LitHub Brian Evenson is the kind of writer who should be rediscovered by every generation.” -Vol. “ is a novel that must be read by fans of mysteries, noir, and horror if they want to have an idea of what those genres can be. This is Evenson's singular, Poe-like gift: He writes with intelligence and a steady hand, even when his characters decide to lop their own limbs off.' -Time Out New York 'The deceptively simple prose keeps the book brisk and even gripping as its puzzles grow more craggy and complex. Nothing is real, so everything is real.” -VICE “The clinical tone with which Evenson is able to traverse such situations, and the strange stark architecture of their world, makes even the most insidious or repulsive situations seem plausible, mathematical, nearby.

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