(Originally appeared on my website, the Conqueror Weird. The book is now sold out.)Anything that’s published by Dim Shores is bound to be special. They publish these beautiful limited chapbooks featuring fantastic stories by modern masters of the Weird, all illustrated gorgeously by wonderful artists. They’ve only published five chapbooks, and they’re all great – the bleakly surreal Ghosts in Amber, the extreme intensities of Rangel, the chilling after, and the theatrical epic of The Nectar of N...

This chapbook is beautifully haunting. DeMeester's stories are exactly what I love best about weird/body horror stories: they are intimate, despairing, and beautiful. I can't wait to get my hands on her forthcoming collection, "Everything That's Underneath"!

Beautiful limited-edition chapbook from the ever-spooky Kristi DeMeester. The two stories presented here share a heartbeat but veer in different directions from their mother-daughter roots. DeMeester channels a modern Southern Gothic vibe like few others, with well-rounded characters, believable dialogue, and enough creepy and crawly to satisfy *anyone*. I believe the chapbook is sold out now, but keep an eye out for her forthcoming collection, sure to include these two. Impressive stuff!

Kristi DeMeester—Split Tongues (Dim Shores)The title tale in this exquisitely presented chapbook of two tales from Dim Shores is a deep foray into the fractured psyche of a teenage girl, Brianne, trying to hold onto something forever broken: her parents’ marriage and the façade of family, even as she seems flippant about the situation. While living with her mother, Brianne sees her father every other weekend; her mother questions her about why she would ever want to see him again, with what he d...

nullimmortalis February 17, 2016 at 3:49 pm EditNearly forty pages, with two stories, and photographic art by Natalia Drepina.This copy is numbered 132/150.SPLIT TONGUES“Things we aren’t supposed to see.”Things we aren’t supposed to read about, too.A powerful dark-Christian tale of young Brianne and her separated parents, before which many of us readers would have assumed our dreams are separate, too, separate from real life and from each other. But are they ever? Overlapping here, they create,

(Be aware, this is not a novel but a very limited run chapbook of two stories). Both stories are wonderfully atmospheric, oblique, and creepy.

Beautiful.Rarely do I feel compelled to immediately reread a book, or story, as I finish it like I did with these two stories. Having only read these two stories by her so far I can tell she knows the mechanics of writing: relatively straightforward prose with some nice poetic lines when appropriate; it flows very well and doesn't detract from the story. The atmosphere throughout both stories is among some of the best I've read, throughout was a sense of melancholy, longing, and consistently uns...

'Split Tongues' was one of the most enjoyable and beautiful pieces of horror fiction that I've read in a long time. The two stories contained within are incredibly atmospheric and leave you wishing there was more here to get lost in, with the length being enough to easily get through in one relatively short sitting. I'll be eagerly awaiting Kristi's first novel or proper collection, because I can see her being one of the most promising authors in the genre.

With beautiful, disquieting finesse, Kristi DeMeester delivers a powerful one-two punch with this (über-limited) micro-collection.The title story, centering around a teenager struggling with the strange (yet heartbreaking) events unfolding in her broken family, is thick with a distinctly not-quite-palpable dread. And in "The Dream Eater," a girl and her mother are spending their days struggling to survive - all while the narrative terror builds with the same creeping intent as the grass surround...

Split Tongues is a pair of short stories, not connected but for a thematic similarity, focusing on dysfunctional and bizarre families, or more specifically a young woman protagonist and her mother. Both pieces are creepy, mysterious and painful, with top-notch prose. Kristi DeMeester is one of the most talented and promising writers of the latest generation to emerge on the Weird Fiction scene. Split Tongues is another winner from Dim Shores, so grab a copy before they're gone forever.

Split Tongues perfectly captures a youthful moment of despair, confusion, and reckless hope. Portraits of young women seldom admit the degree to which they are trapped by social expectations and familial obligation. This is a rare and disturbing look at the bleak options available to a teenager who can't rely on her self-involved parents (mother seeking middle-aged romance, father burrowed into a delusional religious cult).Plagued by nightmares and hallucinations inspired by the church her fathe...

DeMeester has a sly tongue for weird fiction. Very interesting!I enjoyed the authors take on mother and daughter relationship. Dream Eater has to be my favorite, I'm going to think differently about high grass from here on out.This is copy number 111/150 And I'm glad to have this in my collection.

Two stories from the ether regions of consciousness, both diaphonous and prickly.

“Split Tongues” is my first exposure to Kristi DeMeester’s work, also my first exposure to the publisher Dim Shores. The publisher has created a beautiful chapbook, well laid out , nice paper, fantastic art by photographer Natalia Drepina which creates an excellent and beautiful package. The chapbook contains two stories by Ms. DeMeester: 07 - “Split Tongues” 27 – “The Dream Eater” Both stories are have a common theme on concerned with dreams and our interactions with them. In fact “Split Tongue...

Two well written, intelligent, and truly weird tales from an up-and-coming talent. I enjoyed both, the first (Split Tongues) being the stronger of the two, but the second (The Dream Eater) had an interestingly unique assortment of speculative elements.

Two tautly-told tales make up this collection from Dim Shores. Each is strong in its own right, and the author takes great care to include small details that unite the two pieces. I was particularly interested in the juxtaposition of expulsion and consumption that form the backbones of each story. DeMeester is adept at imagining strange and unsettling happenings in her stories, but what makes them work so well is the emotional development of the characters and their relationships. If I had to pi...

Another fantastic discovery courtesy of the Dim Shores line of Weird chapbooks. Ms. DeMeester's prose easily, assuredly weaves between naturalistic and poetic, giving the reader just enough to ground herself before realizing how alien is the terrain. I'll be looking forward to more from Ms. DeMeester.

if your taste in reading inclines to the weird, the strange, or the horrific, then sear Kristi DeMeester's name into your brain. story by story, she's proving herself to be one of the definitive writers of her genre