Riding the Nightmare

Starred review from June 26, 2023
These 12 macabre stories from Tuttle (The Dead Hours of Night) abound with intensely unsettling explorations of the dark side of gender dynamics. In the title tale, a spurned woman’s anger toward her lover and his pregnant wife manifests as a nightmarish entity with an uncontrollable life of its own. “The Third Person” follows a woman who allows her friend to conduct an adulterous liaison in her apartment, only to find herself later absorbed into a ménage à trois with their discarnate presences, which linger in her home. The narrator of “Bits and Pieces” assembles a companion who best suits her desires from the body parts past lovers have left behind in her bed. In each of these stories, Tuttle homes in with uncanny precision on the subtle power dynamics that shape how men and women relate to one another, seen nowhere more vividly than in “The Dragon’s Bride,” a stunning novella in which a contemporary romantic relationship is revealed to have roots in a classic folk legend dealing in traditional gender stereotypes. These stories are all the more memorable and terrifying for centering horrors that grow out of their characters’ most vulnerable moments of shared intimacy. Tuttle delivers the goods. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Agency.

Starred review from July 1, 2023
Tuttle's (The Dead Hours of Night, 2021) latest collection, containing 12 stories published over the last 30 years, is a disturbing delight. An introduction by Neil Gaiman will pique interest, but Tuttle's strong world building, complicated and intriguing characters, and masterful ability to palpably invoke and sustain discomfort will turn readers into fans fairly quickly. Strong, imperfect women drive these stories and are unequivocally responsible for the horrors resulting from their actions. Shirley Jackson's inspiration is evident on every page, but especially in Tuttle's memorable closing sentences, which shift each tale from dark to sinister with breathtaking ease. The eponymous opening story perfectly sets the tone to follow, but it is standouts like the thought-provoking and terrifying body horror of "Bits and Pieces'' and "The Last Dare," an old-fashioned ghost story with a new twist, that will have readers gasping before turning the page for more. The near-future dystopia of "Wounds," written in 1987, is remarkable and chilling in its ability to comment upon the plight of LGBTQ+ Americans today and should not be missed. Suggest to fans of today's practitioners of confidently crafted, unapologetically feminist, uncanny tales like Karen Russell, Carmen Maria Machado, and Samanta Schweblin.

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