Wormwood by Poppy Z. Brite

Wormwood Reviews

• 
  Abel

  Really brilliant horror stories. The kind you get jealous of. They tread the lines between horrors, they're subtle and rich and tactile. They're never ever predictable or stale. Of particular interest is "His Lips Will Taste of Wormwood," which uses Lovecraft's "The Hound" blueprints and constructs a startingly good yarn with. Exciting prose, sensuality, good macabre notes for us death-centric types. I'd never read Brite/Martin before but I've got other paperbacks coming and look forward with interest to see how he developed his mark on the horror world.
• 
  J.w. Schnarr

  I rescued this book at the Calgary Horror Con because I couldn't stand to see it sitting there like an orphaned puppy, waiting for someone to pick it up. This kind of puppy, however, is for very special owners. It drinks human blood and shifts in and out of reality like a shadow in a strobe light.
  
  For those who have not been exposed to Poppy's work, this is an excellent primer for what is to come. And, honestly, if you haven't read at least something by Poppy Z. Brite,your horror education is sorely lacking and your image of what horror was in the 1990s is a warped thing at best, missing so many chromosomes it's unable to survive on its own.
  
  The book includes the story "Calcutta, Lord of Nerves", which, for my money, is one of the best zombie stories ever written. A collection of stories beautiful in their celebration of the dark.
• 
  Spencer Distraction

  I actually have the original version of this, called 'Swamp Foetus'. Yes, I'm gloating.
• 
  Taske

  Zbirka kratkih priča pod imenom Ukus Pelina od Popi Z. Brajt, ostavila je snažan utisak na mene, i zbog toga sam joj dao ocenu 5. Većina ovih priča mi se urezala u sećanje i mislim da će me pratiti tokom celog života.
  
  Što se tiče samih priča, najviše mi se svidela - Kalkuta, Gospodar nerava, jedna od boljih ako ne i najbolja zombi priča koju sam pročitao do sada. Čoveče jebena zombi apokalipsa je, ali to nekako u ovoj priči nije ni važno, sve se odigrava sporo, nihilistički, kao da je sve to neki san, san koji sanja neko drugi, i polako, neprimetno, svi počinjemo da sanjamo taj isti san, koji postaje naša realnost.
  U priči Stariji, pustio sam jednu kapljicu suze, izuzetno teška priča.
  U priči Andjeli, govori se o čudnim (najblaže rečeno) blizancima.
  Priča iz Džordžije, je prica o izgubljenim tinejdžerima sa nihilističkim pogledom na svet.
  Šesti čuvar, je potresna priča o zabranjenoj ljubavi.
  Opcionalna muzika za glas i klavir - Dečko peva, ubija.
  Njegova usta imaće ukus pelina - Gorka, ali sočna i stravstvena priča. Pitka kao pelinkovac ;)
  Ostale priče su mi se takodje dopale, ali su mi ostavile nešto blaži utisak od ovih gore pomenutih.
  
• 
  Momčilo Žunić

  Možda Popi [Popica od milošte] nije autorka široko razbokorene imaginacije, što jamačno ne mora mnogo da znači, kao što uostalom ni ne znači. Možda sam i sâm očekivao nešto još drastičnije i raskalašnije, a dobio tek po koji zavrtanj više bizarno-hororičnog na južnjački gotik. Malo li je i to!
  
  Preče mi ipak bude to što Popi onaj opsesivni gotovo tinejdž-buntovni stav "ti-i-ja-spram-sveta-dok-ne-sagorimo"* po većini priča uspeva da protegne i servira tako da se unapred primi. Spreda il' pozadi, na kolenima il' ležeći, kako kome drago. Stav je uzet svim čulima (olfaktornim, gustatornim i taktilnim osobito) kao prirodna, sobom prihvatljiva datost. Otprilike kao kad Sofronije, igrajući se žmurke, mora da prihvati to što ga je sin Nebojša iskopao na mestu gde se nije sakrio. Po sistemu: nije mi jasno kako, ali ti je uspelo. [Dobro de, malčice sam sada preterao!]
  
  A ne gasnu samo srodne a izgubljene duše po gradovima, već izumiru čitavi kvartovi i gradovi - ko brže, ko sporije - pa mi preče opet i to što Brajtova uspeva da vekovečni zapah umiranja izmesti iz Venecije s kojom je srođen. Da se razumemo, nema ovde Venecije nigde, više je po sredi čitalački utisak u srodnosti po propadanju. Izmamljujući, dakle, mijazmu drugde - najčešće u Nju Orleans kao sasvim podesan topografski korelativ - Popi pooštrava zapah smeđe sladunjavim notama, čineći ga autohtonim.
  
  [Utoliko bi pijačno-mijazmični uvod Ognjanovićevog "Naživo" mogao biti pritajeni omaž prozi Popi Z. Brajt. Naravno, ukoliko nije puka senzibilitetsko-koincidentna analogija. A kad sam već u digresiji: kod Dejana gotik ima implikacije južnjačkog, samo se radi o jugu jedne druge geografije. Moglo bi se, štaviše, govoriti i o kvir komponenti u vezi s njegovim junakom, imajući u vidu šire značenje termina dato u pogovoru "Ukusa pelina".]
  
  *Odakle li mi "Propovednik" u glavi? Mislim na strip, naravno.
• 
  Amorfna

  4.5
  Kakva šteta što mi ovo nije dopalo ruku 15ak godina unazad. Mini gotičarka ja bi ishajpovala ovo do statusa kulta i izludela sve oko sebe.
  Ni matora ja nije ostala ravnodušna na ovu kakofoniju queer vampira, groteski i macabre estetike.
  Iako na momente repetativna tematika, čitanje je bilo osveženje nakon suve Džejmsove viktorijanske proze.
  
  
• 
  Nancy

  Gorgeous prose, unforgettable images. These stories are very dark, heartbreaking and visceral.
• 
  Ravenskya

  Every once in a while you stumble across an artist who is in the wrong time… Poppy is one of those authors, and artist who seems as if she was born too late to be happy. From reading her stories you can envision her walking with the likes of Lovecraft and Poe. I assume they would discuss language, the beauty of the written word and the terrors of their hearts. Brite has a style that harkens back to the 1800’s when flowing language and beauty could be found in even the darkest of tales. This collection of short stories is dark, gothic, beautiful, flowing, engaging and sad. Though she is labeled as horror, I wouldn’t quite put her in that category, at least in this book. True there are vampires, murderers, and the undead… but they are never frightening… Brite looks at them all as a beautiful and necessary addition to a dark and morose world.
  
  Although her writing is beautiful, and her stories thrilling to read, this book will not be for everyone. Her characters are sexually ambiguous, often leaning closer to the homosexual side, and although she never becomes overly graphic, I don’t know that I would advise my husband read this. Also her characters tend to be very thin, fine boned almost androgynous males with questionable morals, and a penchant for eye shadow and lace. The closest mainstream author I can think of to compare her with would be Anne Rice with a darker view of the world.
  
  Personally, I really enjoyed reading these stories, I loved her use of language, her sense of atmosphere and the brooding nature of her characters. The theme that seems to run through the book is one of both love and death, though the love is darker and more horrifying and the death is beautiful and erotic. If you read this book be sure to read the introduction by Dan Simmons, one of my favorite authors. It is both hysterically funny, and also does a good job of setting your mind in the right mood to proceed into the stories.
  
• 
  Will Errickson

  In Poppy Z. Brite's first stories, collected here in WORMWOOD (pub’d in hardcover as Swamp Foetus), there is no real sense of good or evil, just the aesthete's pose of worldliness and boredom. She was concerned not with morality but with sensuality and brought a sort of fin de siecle decadence to the genre just as its paperback popularity seemed to be fizzling out. This approach was something horror mostly lacked in the era, concerned as it was with middle American families, or children and teenagers.
  
  A teenager herself when her stories were being published in The Horror Show magazine in the mid 1980s, Brite's characters were the misfit kids, part of subcultural movements that I was familiar with and sympathetic to—punk and goth and whatever the mixture of the two beget. They hung out in filthy, ill-lit clubs, wore black rags and had messy hair and crashed in abandoned houses and churches, sleeping on stained mattresses and consorting intimately with a variety of partners, smoking clove cigarettes and drinking cheap rotgut liquor, usually all in a New Orleans of perfume and rot. Certainly to an audience used to the familiar comforts of Koontz, King, or Saul this wasn't going to go over well at all.
  
  But stories like “His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood” (an ingenious update of Lovecraft’s “The Hound”), “The Sixth Sentinel,” and “Calcutta, Lord of Nerves” are some of the finest of their era. Nothing else like this book, it is a must-have collection!
• 
  Adam Light

  This was my first Poppy Z. Brite read.
  There were some excellent stories here, my favorites being Calcutta, Lord of Nerves and The Sixth Sentinel.
  Great collection, and I'm glad I finally gave this author a read.
• 
  Elizabeth Bedlam

  Once again how can any one person write like this? It has to be witchcraft or a pact with the devil or something going on...
• 
  Tom A.

  Plague Review 29: Swamp Foetus by Poppy Z. Brite
  
  Poppy Z. Brite (Now living as Billy Martin) was one of the authors in the much-touted Dell Abyss Line. The following elements characterize his writing: 90s nihilistic angst, graphic sexuality and violence, quirky and damaged characters, and the haunting presence of his native New Orleans. I can say that I enjoy his writing style; it is artful in its descriptions while still finding a way to move the story forward. There might be some disappointing tales in this collection, but the ones that work are absolute masterpieces. (see "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood," "The Sixth Sentinel," "Calcutta, Lord of Nerves," "The Elder," and "The Ash of Memory, The Dust of Desire")
  
  Not bad for a first collection!
  
  1. Angels
  
  Ghost and Steve are looking for someone to fix their car. They eventually come across a house and a possible troubleshooter. Their prolonged stay, however, means that they have to deal with the twins, two deformed brothers with a penchant for biting people. Ghost knows they want something, but can he offer that, and what is the prize for such generosity?
  
  For the appetizer, Brite presents this tale of empathy and shared pain. Brite posits that sometimes monsters are created by primal needs that can't be understood and therefore remain unfulfilled. (Ghost, in the story, is the bridge to that need) Is this successful? Maybe not as a creepy horror story but one where horror elements accentuate a fact of life. And that ending is poignant and bleak.
  
  2. A Georgia Story
  
  While driving to Georgia, Unnamed Narrator (#1) reminisces about his tragic and sordid past as part of a subversive New Orleans band. They spent their days hiding in a church and their nights playing music in "decaying little clubs with runes and cryptic names spray-painted on the walls." Unfortunately, Gene, their lead singer, is prone to irrational behavior and eventually does a permanent act that breaks the band apart. Back to the present, UN(#1) stops by a carnival show for a quick ice cream fix, and he discovers the newest addition to the freak show, somebody he might know.
  
  This story is depressing and includes a gruesome twist. There might be little concerning supernatural occurrences, but this story still haunts with its message: being different won't save you from the scorn of your fellow man. It might not be as memorable as the other tales, but it is compelling.
  
  Appears in:
  Sex Macabre
  
  3. His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood
  
  Unnamed Narrator (#2) and his friend/occasional lover Louis are looking for the ultimate thrill. Jaded by the pleasures of sex, music, and drink, they eventually turn to a more morbid hobby: grave robbing. Their latest conquest is a trinket from a voodoo sorcerer's. Later, their enjoyment is complete as they attract the attention of a thin and dark-haired boy. And he has a more than passing interest in the amulet they stole.
  
  An absolute masterpiece. Brite recreates Lovecraft's "The Hound" in his own New Orleans, giving the old story vibrant and dangerous life. The narration captures the decadence and danger of the underworld culture of New Orleans, depicted as a place where all the weird and disaffected act out their rabid fantasies. I also love the inclusion of voodoo elements; it feels right and appropriate considering the lack of (for me) credible real-life mythology in the original Lovecraft tale. This tale is truly immortal.
  
  Appears in:
  Borderlands 1
  
  4. Optional Music for Voice and Piano
  
  A surprise attack on a deserted alleyway gives our unnamed character a unique trait: his voice is capable of bringing out profound emotions from the listener. Those who hear his voice are overcome with strange emotions, bringing out hidden feelings and (mostly negative) reactions. He joins a band when he grows up, and he sees for himself the effects of his voice: deaths, suicides, etc. But what can he do to stop this?
  
  The end should not be a surprise to anyone. This story is your standard music/signal-drives-people-bonkers, albeit with an unspecified reason behind the phenomenon. At least the writing moves forward, and we get a few moments of unease and fear.
  
  Appears in:
  The Definitive Best of the Horror Show
  
  5. Xenophobia
  
  Unnamed Narrator (#3) and his xenophobic friend Robert are touring New Orleans' (?) Chinatown for a night of unplanned revelry. After stopping for some Ice Cream in a sweet shop, they are made an offer by a man who was listening to their ramblings: watch over his funeral parlor for the night while he goes drinking with his other undertaker friend. Robert and UN(#3) agree in exchange for a bottle of Cognac. The dead body they look after turns out to be a woman, and Robert is particularly curious about a racist sexual tidbit he heard once. What surprise is in store for our drunk "protagonists"?
  
  This story is fun, freaky, and unpredictable. The strength of this tale is you don't have any idea where Brite is heading to: is it a ghost tale, or is it-like its source anthology indicates- a blood-soaked affair? I think it is neither, as this story has elements of both while not fully committing to either subgenre. The ending nevertheless delivers on the promise of delivering weird imagery. And you even get a valuable lesson in cultural sensitivity.
  
  Appears in:
  Splatterpunks II: Over the Edge
  
  6. The Sixth Sentinel
  
  Jean is in love with stripper Rosalie Smith. The catch is Jean is a 200-year old ghost haunting the grounds of New Orleans. Jean, because of their special friendship, wants to free her from her unsavory and degrading lifestyle. He plans on making her dig his riches in a bayou somewhere. But Rosalie has an unnatural fear of graves and of digging them out. Curious, Jean visits her mind and learns of her disturbing and tragic past; he also learns of the disgusting event that cemented that fear in her heart.
  
  This story is one of Brite's most famous tales, and there is a good reason for that: it is one of the best horror short stories of the 90s. Once again, we are back in the phantasmagoric side of New Orleans, a place Brite depicts as filled with death-obsessed youth and the literal ghosts of its past. The progression of the tale from a goth romance to a lurid and gruesome southern gothic/horror tale is well-done and commendable; who had the aptitude and vision to combine these two but Brite?
  
  Appears in:
  Borderlands 3
  
  7. Missing
  
  Andrew and Lucian are lifelong friends (lovers?) who are inseparable: they play music, hang out, and complement each other's weirdness. But now they both can't get rid of a nasty smell, a foul odor that doesn't seem to have a source. It can't be the preserved skeleton of the landlady's child. By morning both of them (or maybe just one) will know the answer.
  
  Just like 'Optional Music", this tale feels predictable and is a bit underwhelming. Perhaps it is successful when viewed as a "mood piece," evoking the unbearable sadness one goes through when someone is "missing" from your life. At least the story doesn't overstay its welcome.
  
  8. Footsteps in the Water
  
  Dru Frixton is a gifted human being: he can move objects and manipulate matter at will. As he grows older, his power grows, too. He is also more aware of the brutality he can inflict on other living beings. Enter Nineveh, still mourning the death/drowning of his twin brother Dylan. Nineveh believes that Dru can bring Dylan back to life. Dru agrees, but can he face the consequences of his actions?
  
  This story has a shocking end, but it still feels like it needed more "oomph." But the writing is compelling and, again, it doesn't overstay its welcome, so no harm!
  
  Appears in:
  100 Tiny Tales of Terror
  
  9. How to Get Ahead in New York
  
  Steve and Ghost (same characters from "Angels" and Brite's "Lost Souls") have a scheduled performance in New York's East Village. The problem is in going there, as they encounter a series of increasingly bizarre and dangerous groups of people on their way. From violent hobos to peddlers selling human heads, Steve and Ghost meet and greet the best New York has to offer. All of this to play some tunes!
  
  I initially decried the inclusion of this story in the BEST NEW HORROR anthology because I felt this was more of a surreal and Lynchian journey to wherever rather than something to rattle the bones. But after a re-read, I realized that the cumulative effect of all the encounters and experiences must have been one of horror for the main characters. This story made me think of all the journeys we take in unknown urban environments; if one element (say muggers) had you anxious during your travel, how much more three or four after that?
  
  Appears in:
  Best New Horror 4
  
  10. Calcutta, Lord of Nerves
  
  "Calcutta, you will say. What a place to have been when the dead began to walk.
  
  And I reply what better place to be? What better place than a city where five million people look as if they are already dead - might as well be dead - and another five million wish they were?"
  
  An Indian-American man (Unnamed Narrator #4) returns to his birthplace of Calcutta, which is slowly turning into a hellhole of the living dead. But as our UN(#4) is keen to tell us, there seems to be little to no difference at all, as the squalor and misery of Calcutta are at par with the zombie epidemic. But can there be far worse things not seen yet?
  
  This story is a gruesome, shocking, and unforgettable account of a man, his city, and their connection with Death. The Calcutta descriptions remind me of Simmons's "
  Song of Kali," but with the added juxtaposition to the zombie apocalypse at hand. Compelling writing and vivid and visceral descriptions of carnage writing elevate this zombie piece to horror-heaven. Again, who has the imagination to combine the real-life squalor of Calcutta with a zombie apocalypse that would make Romero proud? Only Brite.
  
  Appears in:
  The Century's Best Horror Fiction Volume Two
  
  11. The Elder
  
  Paul and Jen's are celebrating their new life with their baby, Bobby. This bliss seems short-lived as problems arise: Jen is suddenly disinterested in the baby, and Paul is left to care for Bobby alone. But this is just the start of the hell to come.
  
  This story grows more disturbing as the pages turn. Brite, when he wants to disturb, is unstoppable as he is merciless; he shows the gradual progression of events from blissful to hellish. And that ending will tear you apart.
  
  Appears in:
  The Definitive Best of the Horror Show
  
  12. The Ash of Memory, The Dust of Desire
  
  Jonny, a head chef for an elite restaurant, is so in love with his girlfriend Leah; he is even willing to accompany her to get an abortion borne out of her affair with Jonny's best friend (!) Cleve. Once they get the address (ominously named Payne street), they traverse the run-down neighborhood filled with dirty and empty buildings. Amidst all the miserable background, Jonny loses sight of Leah. He looks for her and eventually discovers the location of the supposed clinic amidst all the urban decay. But what is waiting for both of them?
  
  A great combination of a sexually-charged love story with a unique and frightening idea: what if something was feeding off our universal hopelessness (and other negative emotions) to survive? To tell more would spoil the tale, but I recommend a "double-bill" read: Gary A. Braunbeck's "Union Dues" from
  Borderlands 4.
  
  Appears in:
  The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifth Annual Collection
• 
  Liquid Thinker

  Popi mi je otkriće ne godine nego života. Sjajne ideje sprovedene u delo kako treba; kliše tematike poput priča o duhovima, vampirima ili zombijima pretvara u pravo osveženje i čitaocima otvara nove dimenzije kroz nesvakidašnje opise likova, mesta i radnji. Kroz par priča se provlače homoseksualnost i biseksualnost ali nenametljivo i nimalo forsirano i savršeno pašu atmosferi. Negde sam pročitala da je dark comedy jedan od žanrova kojima pripada i to se oseti kroz priču o dva momka koji drogirani proveravaju kako ženi koja leži na stolu u mrtvačnici izgleda međunožje. Da ne spojlujem previše, ovo je samo jedna od mnogih opičenih priča na koje ćete naleteti u ovoj zbirci; kažem opičenih jer nema boljeg opisa, zapravo nijedan nije dovoljno dobar.
  I za kraj moram da dodam da su u veliki deo priča utisnute godine bunta, samopronalaženja, ljubavi prema određenim vrstama muzike i raznoraznim supstancama. U par navrata sam imala osećaj kao da čitam dnevnik pisca i da su likovi i događaji služili kao ukrasni papir za misli i lična iskustva.
• 
  Joshua Gross

  Some of these stories I really enjoyed and some of them were just ok and some of just didn't do anything for me. On the other hand, I found the prologue by Dan Simmons highly entertaining. Dan Simmons showed that he was arrogant old kook, and I'm exceptionally curious as to why he has/had such a boner for Poppy Z. Brite...
• 
  Timothy Urgest

  Good imagery, but not the best Brite.
• 
  Michael Tkach (Horror Gardener)

  If you still haven't ready any PZB, what are you waiting for? It's raw sex, ultra violence, painful loneliness and an exquisite array of sights sounds and odours all wrapped into one.
  
  This collection of their earliest short stories is above and beyond a lot of the stuff you read today from ANY author. PZB is the master. This is likely the last book I read for 2021 and I can't think of a better way to top the year! PURE FIRE.
• 
  ComicNerdSam

  Usually when I rate a short story collection five stars it's an average. It can't be possible to hit the mark with every single story. There are always stories that I'm lukewarm to, stories that while interesting just don't appeal to me. They are outweighed by the especially great stories, and so I give the entire collection a five star rating.
  
  With Wormwood it isn't an average. Every single story in this collection is worthy of a five star rating.
  
  I've always been interested in this feeling of decay that some stories invoke in me. A feeling of the story itself rotting away before my eyes, the only remnants the memory of reading it in my head. Brite's stories bring this feeling to the forefront of my mind. Not only does his work describe a physical and moral rot, but also something I would describe as a cosmic rot. A sense that the world is breaking down and we are all forced to live in the ruins. His stories have an infinite kind of sorrow to them. These feelings have come to me before, in short spurts, but never full force like they have when reading this collection.
  
  I will treasure this book. I will keep it forever and return to it, trying to really figure out the washed out terror it instills in me. I love it.
• 
  Konstantine

  a really impressive introduction to Poppy Z Brite-some stories here have become instant favorites for me namely “A Georgia Story” “His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood” and “The Sixth Sentinel”-while unfortunately a few others do fall a bit short, i think the strengths really outweigh the weaker works here, and I can’t wait to dig into another one of his books soon
• 
  Raven

  Gross, indecent, obscene. I loved it.
• 
  Nikola

  2,5
• 
  Daniel Russell

  This was a tricky one to rate, as it earned another star in the last hour. I'll try and be as honest as possible here.
  
  First off, clearly, Brite can write the hell out of anything. I feel a shot of reader's adrenaline when something's a bit more nuanced than the mainstream, not in content/plot, but delivery. Barker had it. I love that thrill when it hits, and recall in the last 10 years feeling it with writers such as Matthew Tait and Autumn Christian (both of whom I cannot recommend enough).
  
  Here's the honest bit, and this is just my personal experience. I'm coming to Brite very late in the game. I was frequently recommended Brite in my 20s, but I felt that her work wouldn't be my thing. Why? Because of the people recommending her. Brite felt very 'faux goth' at the time (around 2000 when nu metal peaked in popularity). Reading Brite was like a more extreme piercing, or a larger tattoo. Rice was for your trendy goth, Brite was only appreciated by the real deal. Apparently. Of course, no one could tell me what made Brite special, only that you simply had to read it. To me, it felt like a fashion accessory. Of course, once times moved on, people generally stopped recommending Brite. Okay, history lesson over.
  
  I wish I had challenged my own dismissive ideals and given her a go. I think I would have had more of that special feeling when these stories were fresh and contemporary. While I can see why work of this nature attracted the fashionably alternative boundary pushers late in the last century, there's significantly more at play here.
  
  So I started this collection, written between the mid-80s to early 90s. Initially, I was going to rate this with three stars. I've been in this situation before, in that while the author has phenomenal skill, its the book itself that is its weakness. How? Well...the sum is not greater than its parts. Hear me out.
  
  Firstly, as I say, this is an older collection. In all the years between, we may read the same plots to the point they're now tropes, but back then, they were genuinely remarkable. With this book, and especially perhaps the introduction over-hyping, I didn't find anything too challenging or unsettling. Splatterpunk was thrown around, and I feel that the meaning of the team has changed over the 30 years represented here. Additionally, we generally would not have been reading about characters with varying sexualities and desires when these stories were released, not in the main stream, so I feel that this is another factor that made Brite stand out from the pack. Again, not such a controversial topic now. Without igniting any kind of political debate, if I read about a male character in a same sex relationship wherein they do the usual loving relationship things: holding hands, kissing, sleeping together, vacuuming out the car on a Sunday...its just people going about their lives. Back in the late 80s, this aspect may have raised a few eyebrows with readers not exposed to what was considered an 'alternative lifestyle'. Therefore, while this shows change in society but is to the detriment of the book, some of the stories lose a little of their...challenge?
  
  Secondly, while I have nothing against pale, sensitive, darkly thoughtful, artistic young male musicians in bohemian sexual lifestyles with each other...grouping several stories that feature these characters types became tedious very quickly. With the start of each story, I had a mental bingo card of character traits and was disappointed as they rolled out one by one. This is further exacerbated with each story being quiet in its horror, with our now somewhat cookie cut characters experiencing some slight supernatural or personal tragedy. All the stories tended to blur together. Around the halfway mark, a story features a pair of musicians for the second time, and I didn't realise straight away. I even wondered if these two had been the same two characters in the other stories, but no.
  
  The book earned a further star with the last two stories that knock it out of the park. Perhaps it was because Brite mixed it up with the characters, or that they're a bit more down to earth and thus relatable. I really connected with the thoughts around loss, the contemplation of choices made, the regrets, the intrusive images. Wonderful. The heart-breaking penultimate story, The Elder, sits nicely in my top five short stories. Ever.
  
  The fact I wrote all this shows that there's more going on than usual, and I applaud a book that makes you think about, well, what you think about it!
• 
  Chantelle

  I enjoyed this collection of short stories and was interested to see that Steve and Ghost from
  Lost Souls were in some of them. I need to re-read Lost Souls and Drawing Blood to see if I like them as much as I did when I was younger.
  
  
• 
  Dion Smith

  I really enjoyed this book, which has it's own unique feel to it, which I liked.
  I also found the characters Steve and Ghost interesting and thought at the time I'd like to hear more from them, as it turns out they are from Lost Souls, which I have not read as yet, so I will have to track it down.
  
• 
  Sean Chick

  Poppy Z. Brite is the only published fiction author I have read that I have actually met. She came to Holy Cross High School because one of her fans (David Leonard, class of 1999, where are you?) invited her. She was nice, open, weird, unpretentious, and seemed uncomfortable. This now seems obvious after reading Wormwood. I too would feel weird speaking with a bunch of horny teenage boys. If the administrators had paid attention they certainly would not have allowed her in, so it was quite a coup Mr. Leonard.
  
  Brite's work is a constant flow between desire and death. While not pornographic about sex in the way of a romance novel, she is very open about it and it is the main ingredient of the horror. To this end, her best stories are those that are intimate, a tale of death and desire between two people. At her worst, she is aimless. As such, stories here are either duds or effective works of horror. The influence of Lovecraft is strong, including a direct reference to him as a "master of purple prose." The same is true of Brite's lush wordings. She reads like a sexualized goth retelling of Lovecraft and Keats. However, whereas Lovecraft portrayed scholarly men who encounter the abyss, Brite's character's are libertine outcasts who encounter the abyss inside of vaginas (or the mouths of other men). The last is telling, for Brite's point of view characters are men. Is there any surprise she now goes by the name Billy Martin?
  
  For a person of a historical bent, Wormwood is an artifact of New Orleans' goth period of the 1990s, that awkward phase between when the city sold itself as a Cajun outpost and the post-Katrnia obsession with all things African-American. This is when the French Quarter was still dangerous, Trent Reznor lived in the Garden District, and ghost tours were first popping up. Brite was part of that world, indeed she did much to build it. It is gone now, and by the 21st century Brite had left behind horror, making Wormwood's cover hilarious. Harlan Ellison proclaimed that Brite was a "voice we're going to be hearing for a long time." It was not to be and I could see it in her back in 1997 (or was it 1998?). She seemed tired of it all, but kind enough to talk with some high school boys wondering what their future would be. As it turns out, the future was a lot like Wormwood: sex, death, and romanticism giving way to melancholy. Hence the eternal draw of horror stories.
• 
  Robert Beveridge

  Poppy Z. Brite, Wormwood (Dell, 1994)
  
  This relatively early collection of stories (her first collection, and third published work, previously known as Swamp Foetus), collects stories written between 1986 and 1992. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the book is watching the progression between the earlier and the later stories; you can tell before getting to the end (each is dated) which are which, after an example or two of each.
  
  This isn't to say the earlier stories are bad, they're just raw. And raw is not a bad thing. In fact, it can be quite charming, especially when one encounters another two Steve and Ghost stories ("Angels" and "How to Get Ahead in New York"), which also happen to be two of the longest in the book. It's rather odd to have watched an author create her own shared world and remain its sole inhabitant.
  
  Steve and Ghost aside, there's a lot of fun stuff here for the discriminating fan of viscerally atmospheric (if that makes sense) horror. Brite's tales are not for the squeamish, but she never treads into the realms of Robert Deveraux (or, for that matter, her own novel Exquisite Corpse). Even the zombie story, which is a genre that basically invites excess gore (especially since Peter Jackson's wonderful film Dead Alive), has more of a quiet, dignified air about it (albeit one with some language that may make some neophytes squirm a bit in a different way).
  
  Very good stuff. It's easy to say in hindsight this is the beginning work of a very gifted author, so imagine I'm saying it in 1994 and have amazing powers of presentiment. *** ½
• 
  Juushika

  Twelve stories of artists cursed with dangerous talents and intimacies shared even after death and further tales of Lost Souls's Steve and Ghost. In an otherwise useless introduction, Dan Simmons writes that Brite's "work may be described--perhaps even by her--as 'splatterpunk,' but it is not" (xxiv). Brite's (early) fiction is as lush as it is repulsive, often entrenched in the humid South, at its best taking the guts and gore of what might be splatterpunk to a level which is resonant and haunting. Wormwood has glimpses of that, but it's a particularly hit and miss collection.
  
  "Angels" and "How to Get Ahead in New York" are indulgent, canonical Lost Souls fanfiction and among the best of the collection; "Calcutta, Lord of Nerves" is the only selection which truly stands out, and it is remarkable--Wormwood's boldest and most vibrant, it's a unique take on zombies (and I say this as someone with no interest in them) with an intense sense of place. The rest of the collection is passable but immemorable. Stories too often feel like slaves to an idea or, worse, to a twist ending; those concepts can be ingenious, but the stories don't exceed them and the effect is limiting and exploitative. This isn't the best of Brite's early work, and it isn't as accessible or reliably good as Brite's long fiction; casual readers needn't seek it out. But as a fan and a collector it wasn't a waste of my time, and "Calcutta" alone makes the volume worthwhile.
• 
  NADIA

  Well to be honest, I have read all of the Poppy Z Brite Gothic horror novels and short stories. The Forward states that this is one of her first pieces of work..or something to that effect.
  
  Ms Brite is one of my favorite writers - there are no boundaries with this woman, however I found these stories a little too cliche with the whole skinny, pale, thin, goth thing. It feels like she just started out when she wrote these stories and because I have read everything else by Poppy, it fell a little short for me. The stories lacked emotion but included incredible descriptions of the taste and smell of Calcutta zombies, death, suicide, lust etc etc
  
  I would urge those who are disappointed with this book to buy her novels. I'm still searching for a Horror Novelist like her and haven't managed to find one.
• 
  Clare

  For some reason, even though baby bat me read a lot of
  Anne Rice and a lot of other weird vampire nonsense, I never got around to checking out the other big name in disturbing and sexually explicit New Orleans-based horror with vampires in,
  Poppy Z. Brite. Possibly Anne Rice was just Enough and I didn’t need any more of that very specific brand of wacky at the time. Possibly there are just too many vampires books for me to read them all.
  
  Anyway, I more recently picked up a copy of Brite’s short story collection
  Wormwood, and figured this October would be a good time to read it, even though it is not technically a vampire novel and I am running out of time to read my annual October vampire novel. But Brite is most famous for his vampire novels, so I feel like it sort of counts.
  
  Wormwood does not actually have any vampire stories in it at all, which surprised me a little, but it does have plenty of ghosts and zombies and other monsters and some general unexplained supernatural shenanigans, plus at least one instance of what appears to just be very bad drugs and not anything supernatural at all.
  
  Another thing the book does not really have any of is female characters; there are a number of vessels for assorted horror-y happenings concerning the female reproductive system, but none of them have anything I would consider characterization, and half of them are already corpses or statues or whatnot by the time they appear on the page. The closest thing to a female character is probably Rosalie from The Sixth Sentinel, which for a brief shining moment I thought was going to be a story about an asexual goth, but which is instead, structurally, an abstinence-only story (albeit much better than any of the horror stories that actual evangelicals can cook up)--don’t have teen sex or your daddy will shoot your boyfriend and go to jail, and you’ll get pregnant, be forced to have an abortion, run away to an abusive relationship, and wind up an alcoholic stripper in a shabby one-bedroom in New Orleans until you’re murdered by a horny ghost! It’s actually a very good story; I found it quite funny. Anyway, while a lack of female characters defined in any way outside of sexual body horror is a longstanding problem in the horror genre, I’m not one of those people who finds that type of horror inherently misogynistic, because reproduction actually is terrifying! It’s just the character writing that sucks. The horror bits are fantastic.
  
  The character writing is very good for all of the gay dudes that populate most of the stories and is, uh, deeply obnoxious for the straight dudes who are the viewpoint characters in a handful of them, which I cannot necessarily say is bad character writing. Short story characters aren’t always the most deeply drawn and it can be tough to both get a sense of the characters themselves and have whoever is viewpoint-ing remain cipher-y enough to make a nice easy vehicle for the story in just a couple of pages. Some of the stories take the easy route, where the narrator is the most normal person in this particular band of junkie goth musicians or whatever and is largely observing everyone, such as in A Georgia Story; in other, more impressive stories--the ones that have become more famous, I gather--the narrator is also completely batshit, like Howard in His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood (although I do relate to the feeling of doing something that is supposed to be terribly exciting and being like “That’s it? We’re having fun now?” and this is why I rarely go to concerts), or The Sixth Sentinel’s aforementioned horny ghost.
  
  Most of these stories were written in the late eighties or the nineties and there is often something very nineties about them, which in some cases makes them more creepy, although in other cases the language is a bit dated. They have a bit of that late-twentieth-century ennui about them sometimes, with characters who have fallen through the cracks of the end-of-history prosperity but who still seem to have plenty of time to wander aimlessly around the ungentrified squalor of cheap, rundown cities. Most of them take place in New Orleans but there is one very memorable story that takes place in New York city, which opens with a viscerally terrifying account of getting lost in the Port Authority, which is simultaneously actually hilarious given the overwrought, otherworldly language used. Like, damn, someone really fucking hates the Port Authority, and I do not blame them at all. (On the other hand, the story that takes place in Calcutta mostly just highlights the fact that we did not have sensitivity readers in 1991.) There’s also a lot of stuff that’s a bit cliche for early Goth media--lots of humorously unimpressed references to Goths, lots of characters who are struggling artists and musicians with substance abuse issues, lots of extremely gross-sounding cocktails--but it’s fun, the Classic Goth Author vibes come through real strong.
  
  Anyway, do you like fucked-up gross shit and think it is extremely funny? Do you want to be both disturbed and amused at the same time this Halloween? Then I have got a short story collection for you!
  
  Originally posted at
  Don't they call us snappy antique dressers Goths now, Quinn?
• 
  Cindy (BKind2Books)

  This wasn't the worst collection of short stories I've read, but they just did not appeal to me. I don't mind that they're dark and rather disturbing. No, it's more that they just did not seem to get to the point - the author's prose was descriptive and very apt to the subject matter. The anthology was published in the 90s but that does not hamper its style. There were a few bright spots - times when flashes of brilliance peeked through - I thought that 'Optional Music for Voice and Piano' was so tragic and 'The Sixth Sentinel' had a great ending. But overall it was just okay.
• 
  Tom

  A Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics of Poppy (Intro by Dan Simmons)
  
  • Angels ⭐⭐⭐
  • A Georgia Story ⭐⭐⭐
  • His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  • Optional Music for Voice and Piano ⭐⭐
  • Xenophobia ⭐⭐
  • The Sixth Sentinel ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  • Missing ⭐⭐⭐
  • Footprints in the Water ⭐⭐⭐
  • How to Get Ahead in New York ⭐⭐⭐
  • Calcutta, Lord of Nerves ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  • The Elder ⭐⭐
  • The Ash of Memory, the Dust of Desire ⭐⭐⭐