Needles & Sins – John Everson

John Everson is one of those authors who has been part of the horror scene for years. His stories have graced the pages of dozens of magazines, some anthologies, a previous collection, and more recently in the Delirium NEW VOICES series, which was where I last encountered his work – and enjoyed it immensely. Needles and sins is a brutal collection. This is not horror for the squeamish, but for hard-hitting horror it delivers a powerful punch. There are several new pieces in this book, as well as a carefully selected compendium of earlier works. I don’t like to get too in depth on short story reviews, because to do so often lessens the power of the work itself…but I want to mention the new story “Letting Go,” as my favorite from this collection.

The reason is simply that this is the type of story I truly love. The characters are very deeply drawn and intensely real, but the setting is not this one. They are not “here” in any real sense, but inhabiting some otherwhere entirely born of the author’s mind – and it is in no way jarring or irritating. This is a major feat – something that a lot of short stories fail at due to the very limitation of being too short for painting new worlds. This is a story about loss…and redemption. It’s a story about faith, and belief…and demons. Gotta love those demon stories.

There is a lot of good fiction in this collection, and the packaging is top-notch. I highly recommend this to any lover of graphic horror. A fine collection of early works by a voice I expect to see grow in prominence over the years.

Contents:

Needles & Sins
Something Inside
The Strong Will Survive
Beginning Was the End
Letting Go
The Char-Lee
Bloodroses
Made For Each Other
Spirits Having Flown
Warming the Women
Mary
Green Green Glass
Devil’s Platoon
Mutilation Street

Love & Sex & Rope & Screams: A Circus in Five Acts

And Then Some
After the Fifth Step
Birth and Death
You Never Got Used to the Needle
Irrelevant in Anathzebra

-DNW