Locus Recommended Reading List

“Supernatural menaces, body thieves, and ferocious killers pervade Allen’s grim collection of stories and poems … An assemblage of horror tales and somber verses that frighten and fascinate.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“Nebula, Shirley Jackson, and World Fantasy Award finalist Allen (Aftermath of an Industrial Accident) presents a titillating collection of 14 horror stories and [13] poems. Throughout, Allen takes the idea of nothing being as it seems to supernatural extremes … these slippery, surprising stories will appeal to horror fans seeking something fresh.”
— Publishers Weekly

“Mike Allen is a master of horror, dark fantasy, and dark science fiction … … If you haven’t read any Mike Allen, this is certainly a solid place to start your addiction.”
— Cemetery Dance

TABLE OF CONTENTS

“Introduction: Worlds of Myth and Horror” by Christina Sng
“The Windows Breathe” (Dreams & Nightmares, 2004)
“The Feather Stitch” (Lackington’s, 2020)
“They Say That Time Assuages” (with Ian Watson) (Moon Milk Review, 2010)
“The Green Silence” (The Pinworm Factory: A Tribute to Eraserhead, 2023)
“Edifice” (Star*Line, 2021)
“Strange Wisdoms of the Dead” (with Charles M. Saplak) (H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror, 2006)
“Vacant” (Sycorax Journal, 2019)
“Falling Is What It Loves” (Not One of Us, 2022)
“The Shadow Train” (Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, 2011)
“Abhors” (Pluto in Furs 2, 2022)
“The Dream Eaters” (Strange Wisdoms of the Dead, 2006)
“Slow Burn” (Cosmic Horror Monthly, 2023)
“Thanomorphosis” (with W. Gregory Stewart) (The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, 2005)
“The Butcher, the Baker” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 2019)
“Dispelling the Arcana” (The Roanoke Rambler, 2021)
“Good to the Last Drop” (with Anita Allen) (Sudden Fictions Podcast, 2023)
“Godbody” (with Christina Sng) (Penumbric, 2004)
“Matres Lachrymarum” (Cosmic Horror Monthly, 2022)
“Supernumerary” (with S. Brackett Robertson) (Spectral Realms, 2015)
“The Comforter” (A Sinister Quartet, 2020)
“The Fifth Horseman” (Spectral Realms, 2020)
“Gherem” (with Charles M. Saplak) (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, 2007)
“The Sacrifices” (Sycorax Journal, 2019)
“Machine Learning” (Cosmic Horror Monthly, 2024)
“The Strip Search” (Strange Horizons, 2005)
“This Rider of Fugitive Dawns” (Pluto in Furs 2, 2022)
“Astynome, After” (The Deadlands, 2021)

2021 Shirley Jackson Award finalist for Best Collection
Locus Recommended Reading List

“Allen (Unseaming) overflows the tank with nightmare fuel in this collection of 23 stories and poems that showcase his ability to find the monstrous in almost any setting … Readers will be impressed by the variety, intensity, and skilled craftsmanship Allen brings to this collection. These horror shorts are sure to linger in the dark corners of readers’ minds.”
— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“An incredible read. This collection of horror and dark fantasy poetry and short fiction needs to be on the shelf of any horror reader … This is a really powerful and dark collection of short stories and poetry, and any reader of horror will enjoy it immensely.”
— Cemetery Dance

“Mike Allen has hit another home run with this subtle and multi-nuanced collection.”
— The Lovecraft Ezine

TABLE OF CONTENTS

“Introduction: Aftermath of an Explosive Imagination” by Jeffrey Thomas
“Six Waking Nightmares Poe Gave Me in Third Grade” (Weird Tales, 2009)
“The Sun Saw” (original)
“The Paper Boy” (Strange Horizons, 2014)
“A Deaf Policeman Heard the Noise” (original)
“Tick Flick” (Drabblecast, 2014)
“The Cruelest Team Will Win” (Corvidae, 2015)
“The Nightmare Avatar’s Nightmare” (with Christina Sng) (H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror, 2007)
“Tardigrade” (A Dark Phantastique, 2014)
“Burn the Kool Kidz at the Stake” (Not One of Us, 2017)
“Puppet Show” (original)
“The Bone Bird” (Spectral Realms, 2015)
“Longsleeves” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 2016)
“‘Toujours Il Coûte Trop Cher.’” (with C. S. E. Cooney) (Spectral Realms, 2015)
“Binding” (Phantasm/Chimera: An Anthology of Strange and Troubling Dreams, 2017)
“Nolens Volens” (Nowhereville: Weird Is Other People: Tales of the Urban Weird, 2019)
“Sad Wisps of Empty Smoke” (Van Gogh’s Ear, 2015)
“Blue Evolution” (original)
“The Ivy-Smothered Palisade” (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 2012)
“With Shining Gifts that Took All Eyes” (Pluto In Furs: Tales Of Diseased Desires And Seductive Horrors, 2019)
“Follow the Wounded One” (Not One of Us standalone chapbook, 2008)
“Drift from the Windrows” (Tomorrow’s Cthulhu: Stories at the Dawn of Posthumanity, 2016)
“Aftermath of an Industrial Accident” (Transmissions from Punktown, 2018)
“The Night Watchman Dreams His Rounds at the REM Sleep Factory” (Dreams & Nightmares, 2004)

“Elegant language and surrealistic themes defy genre and moral expectations in the weird and transgressive stories found in this collection. … Poet Allen’s (Unseaming) pairing of individualistic suffering and cosmic hugeness evokes a lyrical friction between dread and wonder.”
— Publishers Weekly

“The seven stories in this slim collection range from dark fantasy to sf to horror—sometimes all within one tale … Allen weaves intriguing connections among his tales, applying dizzying, sensual images.”
— Library Journal

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction by Nicole Kornher-Stace
“The Spider Tapestries” (Lackington’s, 2015)
“Sleepless, Burning Life” (Steam-Powered, 2011)
“Twa Sisters” (Not One of Us, 2012)
“Silent in Her Nest” (original)
“She Who Runs” (Sky Whales and Other Wonders, 2009)
“Stolen Souls” (Altair, 1999)
“Still Life With Skull” (Solaris Rising 2, 2013; sequel to “Twa Sisters”)

2015 Shirley Jackson Award finalist for Best Collection
2015 This Is Horror Award finalist for Best Collection

“Allen’s 14-story debut collection saturates alternate dimensions with literal horrific fleshiness. … Never obvious, sometimes impenetrable, Allen’s stories deliver solid shivering terror tinged with melancholy sorrow over the fragility of humankind.”
— Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“The stories in this debut collection range from the sly to the splatteringly horrific, with every nuance of dread and menace in between. … These 14 stories show that Allen (The Black Fire Concerto) is an author to watch, as capable of wringing sadness from a tale as he is of causing chills. From his background in poetry, the author surely learned his deft construction skills, placing words and evoking emotions with impressive economy but maximum effect. “
— Library Journal, Starred Review

“Allen can write as lyrically and as viscerally as the best of them … an exceptional debut collection, and its stories show an imaginative writer with a very original voice working at the top of his game.”
— Locus

“You just can’t turn your eyes away from the stunning cover by Danielle Tunstall: the seams of the skin coming undone and revealing the new flesh beneath. The image is a perfect introduction to the haunting world of Mike Allen, one of the most original practitioners of the body horror subgenre since Clive Barker’s Books of Blood.”
— Rue Morgue

TABLE OF CONTENTS

“Introduction: A Stitch in Darkness” by Laird Barron
“The Button Bin” (Helix: Speculative Fiction Quarterly, 2007; 2008 Nebula Award Finalist for Best Short Story)
“The Blessed Days” (Tales of the Talisman, 2009)
“Humpty” (Flesh & Blood, 2002)
“Her Acres of Pastoral Playground” (Cthulhu’s Reign, 2010)
“An Invitation via E-mail” (Weird Tales, 2008)
“The Hiker’s Tale” (Cabinet des Fées, 2007)
“The Music of Bremen Farm” (Cabinet des Fées, 2006)
“The Lead Between the Panes” (Lakeside Circus, 2014)
“Stone Flowers” (Scheherezade’s Bequest, 2009)
“Gutter” (original)
“Condolences” (original)
“Let There Be Darkness” (Penny Dreadful, 1998)
“The Quiltmaker” (original novella; the sequel to “The Button Bin”)
“Monster” (Nameless, 2014)