
The Worm in Every Heart
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By:
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Gemma Files
About this listen
In the shadows of war and history, the mirror between man and monster breaks …
From the haunted hills of Roman Britain to the sewers of occupied Warsaw … in the bloodied streets of Revolutionary Paris, and the anarchy World War II Shanghai … out of the wilds of America, India, Africa and Europe … down the long savage darkness of the centuries, monsters have fed upon us. They are shapeshifters, vampires, sorcerers and spirits—things named only in myth, and things for which we have no name. They are our demons, our reflections, our desires and our nightmares. And all too often, they are … only human.
In this second collection from Gemma Files—featuring the award-winning ‘The Emperor’s Old Bones’ (winner of the 1999 International Horror Guild Award for Best Short Fiction), and five never-before-published stories—we tour the overlooked intersections between wilderness and civilization where secret dances of fear and pain are performed and hunters and hunted change roles.
Full List of narrators: Stefan Rudnicki, Heath Miller, Jo Anna Perrin, Paul Woodson, Tim Lounibos, Anne Flosnik, Natasha Soudek, Alana Kerr Collins, Emily Lawrence, Nancy Wu, Deepti Gupta, Rasha Zamamiri, Gabrielle de Cuir, Jean Brassard, Helen Lloyd, Carlotta Brentan, Joel Froomkin.
©2004. 2015 Gemma Files. Introduction © 2003 by Nancy Kilpatrick. Afterword © 2015 by Michael Rowe (P)2023 Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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These seventeen tales take listeners into the uniquely twisted mind of “one of Canada’s most promising new horror writers” (Publishers Weekly). From a live necrophilia show starring reanimated corpses to a confrontation between a security guard and inhuman squatters, from who can be found at an all-night laundromat to what lies in wait at the bottom of the sea, from undead addictions to all-consuming obsessions, Kissing Carrion is “a journey through some of the most beautifully rendered visions of darkness and death to be published this past year."
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Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief takes many forms: for instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai’po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear—and even follow you home. These shiver-inducing tales introduce listeners to ghosts, curses, hauntings, monstrous creatures, complex family legacies, desperate deeds, and chilling acts of revenge.
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In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box. But when the Eastwood sisters - James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna - join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement.
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Almost. Not quite there.
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Prepare to meet the wicked progeny of the master of modern horror. In Lovecraft's Monsters, H. P. Lovecraft's most famous creations--Cthulhu, Shoggoths, Deep Ones, Elder Things, Yog-Sothoth, and more--appear in all their terrifying glory. Each story is a gripping new take on a classic Lovecraftian creature. Contributors include such literary luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Karl Edward Wagner, Elizabeth Bear, and Nick Mamatas.
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PURPLE WARMTH
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What listeners say about The Worm in Every Heart
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ski Bear
- 01-22-24
Solid Cosmic & Gothic Horror anthology. (Sexually Explicit!)
“The Worm in Every Heart” horror anthology is an excellent and much braver follow up to Gemma Files first release of short stories entirely comprised of her own work- “Kissing Carrion”. Gemma Files work has become most relevant, highly respected and regarded as one of the “Gold Standard” authors in the Horror genre; especially her Cosmic & Gothic Horror- much of which tapping deep into the “Lovecraftian Mythos” vein; not leaning entirely on “Cthulhu” or otherworldly hideous monsters- the “Elder Gods”, but delves more into the daily life of the people and lifestyles of the Inmamouth and Dunnwich influenced society. Much like Caitlin R Kiernan, Files is not bashful or the least bit hesitant to explore the mysterious sexual relationships between humans and “the tainted” or “deep ones” and aliens as a whole that knowingly or unknowingly engage in highly charged sexually explicit exploitation; exploration and copulation. This of course is not the case in all of her work; not at all, that said- this second collection of horror is definitely in theme with matters of the heart and passion just like the title suggests: “Kissing Carrion” or with this release: “Worms of the Heart”. What’s important with this excellent collection of stories like all of her stories is her exceptional writing style and flow; she is not the splatterpunk author using foul language, graphically horrific scenes of gore and violence with over the top impossible story plots, not even close. Rather she writes intelligent, congruent, very interesting and most intriguing tales of terror that cross all terrain of the horror genre, some SiFi, fantasy, adventure, crime, and Macabre Gothic classical noir. Like Laird Barron, Chuck Palahniuk & Windig, Ligotti and Caitlin Kieran- when there is gore or sexually explicit material if not both, it’s done with the artistic creativity eased with some light if not down right hilarious humor to keep us engaged in the story and not throwing the book across the room due to complete disbelief and disgust of the unnecessary tripe and pure gutter level imagination of the depraved deviant that must of written the trash! No, nothing like that at all, however, if sensitive to sexually explicit or descriptive content or graphic violence; gore, I would advise staring in small doses or another one of Gemma Files novels or anthologies. The narration is outstanding with an epic cast of narrators including Rudniky and Xe Sands.
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- DP
- 02-11-24
Unexpected disappointment
I've enjoyed Files' writing before and I was looking forward to this one, but I was unexpectedly disappointed in how little it grabbed me. I did enjoy some of it, and the moment-to-moment writing style was solid, but most of the stories just didn't hold my interest. I was either thinking about or actually skipping ahead far too many times than I'd prefer for an anthology, sadly, enough to outweigh what I liked about it.
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Performance
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- Unequivocal
- 11-18-24
Terrible narration
While the stories are good, the narration ranges from "fine" to "execrable." This may be the first audiobook I've listened to where I had to skip a story ("Ring of Fire") because the narration was so bad - I don't know if the issue was specific to the narrator (Deepti Gupta) or the recording quality, but every other sibilant in the story was so high pitched that it was like having a needle shoved in my ear.
While the other narration wasn't physically painful, a lot of it was very bad. Perrin (for example) has so little concept of pacing or emphasis that it was like listening to an alien trying to piece together human speech with no frame of reference other than a dictionary.
Just impressively awful. This collection should be re-recorded with competent narrators or better audio engineers - it would absolutely rate a 4 or 5.
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