Silk - Softcover

Kiernan, Caitlin R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451459008 ISBN 13: 9780451459008

Publisher: Roc Trade, 2002

Synopsis

The mysterious owner of a secondhand store in a small southern city, Spyder Baxter becomes the mad queen of a flock of social misfits, who begin to wonder whether she has come to redeem them or drag them into Hell. Reprint.

About this title

About the Author:

Caitlín R. Kiernan's short fiction was recently collected in two volumes, Tales of Pain and Wonder and From Weird and Distant Shores. Her latest novel is Threshold: A Novel of Deep Time. She is also trained as a vertebrate paleontologist.

From Publishers Weekly:

Despite its title, there's nothing smooth or sexy about this skin-crawling debut from Kiernan, an author with one helluvan imagination and a startling lack of inhibition. At the center of this modern gothic horror story is Spyder Baxter, a deeply troubled young woman haunted by terrifying memories of childhood and her insane, abusive father. But his transgressions were so heinous that the demons aren't just in her head anymore; they've taken on a life of their own and are taking over Spyder's house, crawling out of the basement and into everything and everyone she cares about. Caught in Spyder's web of bad karma are a motley crew of disenfranchised Gen Xers all living on the edge and trying to heal various psychic wounds of their own. They've each got plenty of reasons to be hallucinating, and the author does a good job of blurring the lines between their bad acid trips and spectral sightings. But reading Kiernan is rather like deciphering entrails, filled with the violence of raw, edgy words: "The angry screech of denied retribution, raging shadows and nightshade teeth." Her rambling metaphors ("Dull smack of her shoulder against the wall, again and again, meat-thud tattoo") hint at inexperience, but her naked energy will appeal to grungers weaned on The Hunger.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Roc Trade
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0451459008
• ISBN 13: 9780451459008
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368