A short story collection that may seduce or repel you, but is impossible to ignore. The stories reach extreme places of terror and horror, but are always grounded in a tangible reality and recognisable social divisions of class, adolescence and generational trauma. Although an intense reading experience, most of the stories are brief stabs, allowing you chance to gasp and reach for daylight in-between tales.
That night, we smelled burnt meat. Mom was in the kitchen and we went in to reprimand her - was she crazy, putting a steak on the grill at the hour? People were going to catch on. But Mom was trembling beside the counter.
'That's not regular meat,' she said.
We opened the blinds a crack and looked up. We saw the smoke coming from the terrace across from us. And it was black, and it didn't smell like any other smoke we knew.
