There are two standout stories in this collection: "Worship Only What She Bleeds", which I had already read in Year's Best Weird Fiction 5, where it was the highlight of the anthology; and "Split Tongues", which seemed to me to be the most lucid and best realised of the stories here. I suspect that I would also have considered many of the other stories in this collection to be standouts if I had come across them in the midst of anthologies or magazine issues full of other authors' writing. DeMee...

Absolutly loved this book from Kristi DeMeester and Apex Book Company! In terms of the genre, these shorts can best be described as The New Weird. One of my favorite types of horror this genre relies heavily on real life events or settings and turns them on their head with elements of fantasy, science fiction and horror. Kristi's DeMeester's mastery of the minutia is the true hero here. Despite the unsettling subject matter these stories all feel real and uncannily normal. As if they are ripped

I read Kristi DeMeester's book Beneath earlier this year and I was so impressed! I was eager to read something else so I jumped at the opportunity to read this collection of short stories.I kept a journal by my bed and recorded some reoccurring themes, words and moods that are threaded throughout this collection as a whole entity and then I will highlight some of my favorite stories.Here are some words that describe the kind of terror Kristi builds:Organic, raw, visceral, earthen, tangible, thre...

"There's so much more. Underneath our skin. Living and breathing and drinking in what it can. Waiting to be born. Waiting for is to gobble it up. There's power in that blood." I really loved Everything That's Underneath. Kristi DeMeester's writing is absolutely stunning, and these stories are creepy. These are definitely atmospheric horror, and a lot of them are very dream-like. Many of them appear to be linked with recurring themes.Last year I read Michael Wehunt's Greener Pastures, and Everyth...

Everything's That's Underneath is the debut short story collection from Kristi DeMeester, and about time too. For years she has been gracing the pages of all the top horror magazines such as Black Static, Apex, Shimmer, Jamais Vu, Nightscript, Lamplight, Shock Totem, Gamut Three Lobed Burning Eye and many, many more."There's so much more. Underneath our skin. Living and breathing and drinking what it can. Waiting to be born. Waiting for us to gobble it up."From Daughters of Hecate.I would descri...

First off I want to thank my generous friend Kimberly for sharing this book with me!All of the stories in this collection are infected with a darkness that creeps under your skin. All of them. This review would become a book in itself if I were to break down every story as I usually do with collections so I’m not going to do it this time. The other reason is the fact that many of the stories contain very similar themes and I’m lazy. Some of the stories are only two pages long but they all pack a...

DNF after Worship What She Bleeds (about 1/3 of the way through, plus I skipped ahead and read Birthright). Read a total of 8 stories, out of 18.This collection just isn't for me. The stories are too short, there's little development of the characters/plot (with the exception of a couple stories), and the endings left me cold and disappointed. There were some good ideas here, but I wish she'd fleshed them out into longer short stories. One of the stories was TWO PAGES. I need a lot more than tha...

“Sometimes, things are meant to be lost. There are things you aren’t supposed to go looking for.”A collection of 18 weird and unsettling tales!*sigh* This was disappointing for me. I had heard such great things about this collection but stories that are very ambiguous and unclear are just not to my personal taste... but if those kind of stories do appeal to you, then I would highly recommend this one!I’m a sucker for beautifully quotable writing in books, and if it was a case of me physically hi...

I really enjoyed this collection. I’ll write more after I gather my thoughts.

Didn't finish this, but I read enough of the stories to know I should go read something else. Some interesting imagery in here, though.

4.0 StarsDeMeester seriously knows how to get inside my head. Something about her descriptions and word choices always connect with some weird part of my brain. As the title suggests, the stories played with ideas about those intangible things that live under the surface of reality. Walking the line between literary horror and weird fiction, there was quite a range within this collection. Some of the stories were more emotional, while others were more visceral or abstract. Admittedly, some of t

I am immensely into the way that the author attacks her stories. Her choice of language is very stark and gross and physical in the best ways. I will be keeping an eye out for more from her in the future!

* I received this book free for review from Apex*4.5I was very impressed by this short story collection. There's something about the way DeMeester writes that has a dream-like quality to it. I found myself falling into this stories. I've always thought that "weird horror" wasn't my thing, but there was something about this collection that was different. Perhaps it was the way the stories were focused on human relationships (mostly mother-daughter and some romantic) with the other-worldly element...

This collection was just not my cup of tea. DeMeester is a competent writer, on a whole though... I found these stories to be largely monotonous and repetitive in imagery and thematic exploration... "dirt in the mouth", bad mommies, and hungry inner darkness.I have posted more specific comments about my thoughts on this collection here...https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...Mind you, this collection was well received by a few folks in our group read.*shrugs* Wasn't for me.

I've been hearing a lot of positive chatter about Kristi DeMeester's work lately, so I was eager to give her a try for myself, and I definitely wasn't disappointed! I'd say Everything That's Underneath is a healthy mixture of horror and speculative fiction: while some pieces were perfectly creepy, others were confusing and immersive—the kind of stories that you finish and have to clear your head for a moment because you're not sure what you just read, you just know you really liked it. T...

Kristi DeMeester’s Everything That’s Underneath reads something like a creative thesis on horror fiction's inherently allegorical potential. The story’s title speaks to the collection's persisting concerns. Namely, the book faces the menace undergirding polite society, and the unseen specters clawing at the outskirts of consciousness, even of reality itself (consider, for example, the title story, “Birthright,” and “Split Tongues”). The author navigates lived-in, conflicted protagonists through

Wow! Such a good collection. So much dread and atmosphere. Buy this book if you care about weird horror.

Beautiful and horrific collection from a stunningly original new voice.This is a kind of surrealism that's very difficult to pull off. I loved how the stories took off into these vague worlds of lush language and self-contained logic. Weird kings referred to in passing, things lurking in the darkness only half-revealed, strange forms of (in)justice doled out upon the unsuspecting or those that invite it as they lead themselves into temptation.I also enjoyed the realistic cruelness of some of the...

Loved the imagery the author had with her writing in this book.The stories all different and interesting, some seemed similar to one another.A lot of good ones, a few so so ones, but over all a great book.Can't say any of it was particularly scary, but creepy for sure on a few of them.Bizarre, strange, and interesting? Absolutely. For that, 4 stars seems like a legitimate rating for this book.

Several years ago, I read Kristi DeMeester's novel BENEATH, and was absolutely blown away by her sense of mystery, the strange and weird, her worldbuilding and sense of myth, and her ability to invoke a creeping Otherness in her prose which stays with you long after you've stopped reading. Her short fiction collection is no different. Through stories ranging from horror, spec fic, dark mythic tales, and weird tales, DeMeester invokes a creeping unease in her depiction of cosmic horrors which wai...