Beautifully bleak. That is an excellent way of describing Lane's collection of short stories. They are beautiful to read, extremely poetic in the way that images are quickly and lovingly portrayed. I was continually amazed at how well portrayed the stories were. But at the same time the subject matter is brutal, harsh, emotionally honest and blunt. These are not stories to lightly parse over and continue reading back to back to back. About halfway through the collection, I had to stop and read another book in order to break the grim feelings. I remember when I read Harlan Ellison's DEATHBIRD STORIES the introduction for that collection warned about not reading the book in one continual string. The same thing should be said here. The stories are dark and creepy. For fans though who like facing their own horrors and being honest about what affects them (emotionally and sexually), then this collection is for them. While an occasional story might be missing a plot (at least in my opinion), all of the stories invoke strong images and themes. My favorites are below.

"The Bootleg Heart" - A story summed up by the first line: "My first love was a girl I never actually met."
"The Only Game" - A man's girlfriend dies on him again and again.
"Beyond The River" - A writer takes a reporter into the world of her books.
"Reservoir" - A con visits the victim of his cellmate. ( )

I initially bought this book because other dark literary connoisseurs I know gave it very high marks. I'd never read anything by Lane before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Thankfully I was pleasantly surprised.

Joel Lane lives in Birmingham, England, the setting for most, if not all, the stories in the collection. Trust me, after reading this book you'll NEVER want to visit Birmingham, ever. I suspect he didn't make any local friends by writing this book. He really makes Birmingham out to be an incredibly bleak, violent, dirty and corrupt place; a place with an eternal dark cloud over it; a place where dreams go to die. Each of the stories are amazingly powerful in a subtle way. Most aren't "horror" in a traditional sense; rather, they're more darkly weird and surreal, but with purpose. I really like his writing style. He has a very imaginative way with words, some of which are laugh-out-loud hilarious. He's not afraid to tell it like it is using simple, if not crude, examples. For example, when a character describes how ugly a certain girl's dreadlocks are he describes them as, "hanging like dog turds".

The book has a very autobiographical feel to it.

Two gripes: they have nothing to do with Lane's writing. First, the typesetting; the body of text comes less than an inch from the top of the page. I prefer healthy margins. Secondly, no art. Not even a sketch at the beginning or end of a chapter. His publisher, Nightshade Books, often has art. I don't know why they didn't this time, though the cover is great. I think a smattering of art would have greatly enhanced the book's effect. One good thing though, I didn't catch a single typo -- something really rare these days. ( )