Books
Things We Say In The Dark
A shocking collection of dark stories, ranging from chilling contemporary fairytales to disturbing supernatural fiction, by a talented writer who has been compared to Angela Carter.
So here we go, into the dark.
Some things can’t be spoken about in the light of day. But we can visit our fears at night, in the dark. We can turn them over and weigh them in our hands and maybe that will protect us from them. But maybe not.
The characters in this collection find their aspirations for happy homes, happy families and happy memories dissected and imbued with shimmering menace. Alone in a remote house in Iceland a woman is unnerved by her isolation; another can only find respite from the clinging ghost that follows her by submerging herself in an overgrown pool. Couples wrestle with a lack of connection to their children; a schoolgirl becomes obsessed with the female anatomical models in a museum; and a cheery account of child’s day out is undercut by chilling footnotes.
These dark tales explore women’s fears with electrifying honesty and invention and speak to one another about female bodies, domestic claustrophobia, desire and violence. From a talented writer who has been compared to Angela Carter, Things We Say in the Dark is a powerful contemporary collection of feminist stories, ranging from vicious fairy tales to disturbing horror and tender ghost stories.
Here is an article about the strange and beautiful Icelandic residency where I wrote Things We Say in the Dark.
Listen here to a podcast about the process of writing Things We Say in the Dark.
Reviews
“Just in time for Halloween comes Kirsty Logan’s deeply, deeply unsettling and brilliant collection of short stories. Some feature horror, nearly all feature dread and, in the manner of Shirley Jackson, all will burrow their way into your brain and not let go.”
– Stylist
“In a literary world seemingly saturated with gaudy horror that attempts to induce fear through the ill-treatment of women and the harmful othering of disabilities, Kirsty Logan is here to shine a flickering light on what horror could and should be…Logan is truly one of the best contemporary horror writers. Inclusive, powerful and eerie, Things We Say in the Dark is a dark shimmering potion of both unease and nourishment.”
– The Skinny
“Logan aims for the jugular – the things that unsettle us most. Her poetic, supernatural prose has lace edges of sticky, violent terror.”
– The Herald
“In Logan’s quick-witted feminist realm, manipulative men will always get their comeuppance.”
– New Statesman
“Feminist horror stories your inner goth will thank you for.”
– Cosmopolitan
“Logan’s prose shimmers with menace, and her tightly wrought nightmares feel intensely real.”
– i