Joyce Carol Oates assembles an outstanding cast of authors - including Margaret Atwood, Tananarive Due, and Megan Abbott - to explore, subvert, and reinvent one of the most vital subgenres of horror.
Featuring brand-new stories by Margaret Atwood, Tananarive Due, Joyce Carol Oates, Megan Abbott, Aimee Bender, Cassandra Khaw, Lisa Lim, Elizabeth Hand, Valerie Martin, Raven Leilani, Sheila Kohler, Joanna Margaret, Lisa Tuttle, Aimee LaBrie, and Yumi Dineen Shiroma.
While the common belief is that 'body horror' as a subgenre of horror fiction dates back to the 1970s, Joyce Carol Oates suggests that Medusa, the snake-haired gorgon in Greek mythology, is the 'quintessential emblem of female body horror.' In A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers, Oates has assembled a spectacular cast to explore this subgenre focusing on distortions to the human body in the most fascinating of ways.
'Should we know nothing of the female monsters of antiquity,' Oates writes in her introduction to the volume, 'still we would know that body horror in its myriad manifestations speaks most powerfully to women and girls. To be female is to inhabit a body that is by nature vulnerable to forcible invasion, susceptible to impregnation and repeated pregnancies, condemned to suffer childbirth, often in the past early deaths in childbirth and in the aftermath of childbirth.'
'In this haunting new collection, edited by Oates, 15 women writers explore the manifold horrors of living (and dying) in a patriarchal society...this collection may initially appeal to readers eager for tales filled with vampires and werewolves, influences from beyond the grave, and gore, guts, and ooze. They will not be disappointed. However, the stories not only bleed across the categorical boundaries they have been assigned, but also expand the scope of what is terrifying about the body - living or dead, human or nonhuman - in the first place...A bold collection of horror stories that flies in the face of both gender and genre conventions.' - Kirkus Reviews
'For this chilling anthology, Oates brings together 15 stories exploring body horror through women's experiences...the thematic probe into bodily autonomy makes this a must-read for fans of feminist horror.' - Publishers Weekly
