Kiernan is becoming my favorite horror author. These stories bring the dread that I originally found with Clive Barker but in a way that makes me hold my breath and scramble for the next page, paragraph, sentence, word...
Each story has its own rabbit hole of various types of horror.
Highly recommend.

Publisher's blurb:
Caitlín R. Kiernan's seventeenth short fiction collection, the boundaries of desire, fascination, passion, and dread collide. That which is beautiful may easily be profane. Those who love us may devour us alive. A shadow may shine like a supernova. The eye of the beholder is God.

This is the first of Caitlin Kiernan's work I have read and I was greatly moved by her command of the written word that not only brings intimacy, strangeness, eroticism, and horror, it is also as lyrical as a poem or a song delivered by a lover.

The collection of stories here is linked in one way or another. Either by theme or emotion. You will find the familiar such as Vampires, nightmares, hopelessness, and strangeness but each has that little extra feeling of anxiety perhaps because these were written during the quarantine of 2020.

I won't describe each story here, you need to experience them yourself and decide what they are to you, not to me. But I will just say something about one of them where the underlining theme really made me stop and think for a while...

One of the stories deals with a woman newly changed into a vampire and is less than happy with the idea of immortality. It made me think of the irony and the frustration that an opportunity like this could give you when you were already so done with life that you were walking into the ocean to drown and end the pain of your existence, and then not only saved but made immortal. Now you have a life that is neverending when life itself was unwanted.

My favorite line, that made me giggle was thought by a vampire who was examining the reasons for changing a human because she was lonely. "Food makes poor company." Brilliant!

This is a gorgeous collection and worth your time. It was released in November of 2021 by Subterranean Press.

Thanks to @Netgalley, Subterranean Press, and Caitlin R. Kiernan for the opportunity to read the eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

I will never tire of Caitlin R. Kiernan's ability to weave eerie surrealism with lyrical beauty. Her stories captivate the imagination, and take the reader on a tour of the most fantastic microcosms.

This is a collection of recently work, much of which is linked (both thematically and overtly), from one of our most accomplished writers. It's not a great place to start for those new to Kiernan's work, but will be easy to recommend to those with some Kiernan experience under their belts. Lots of Kiernan's short stories have echoes of strangeness, and familiar themes (psychiatrists and vampires and nightmares), and this collection adds to that a generalized sense of upheaval. Perhaps not surprising, considering when they were written. This is recommended for all Kiernan fans.

I have read several of Caitlin R Kiernan's novels, but never any short stories. So this was a great introduction. I enjoyed these stories, and for anyone who hasn't read her yet, this would be a great introduction. Many of these would deserve to be made into novels. Will need to read more of her work, both novels and short stories. #VileAffections #NetGalley

In this collection, Kiernan strings together a disturbing mix of twenty-two dark stories.

These stories are about drowning and dark water, the end of the world, vampires and dreams and above all the telling of stories to one another. They are mostly vignettes without distinct beginnings or ends, and possess an unsettling ambiguity.

I enjoyed the dreamlike tone of the collection, the dwelling on dark places and fairytales, which reminded me of Angela Carter. The author has published many collections of short stories before, and you can tell that from her strong and assured prose. I also liked the etchings interspersed through the book, which add to the dark effect of the stories.

However, I wondered if the the collection would have been more effective if it were shorter. With twenty-two stories, they tended to blend into each other sometimes, especially as they isn't much variation in tone.

Overall, an enjoyable dark collection of stories. My favorite was Day After Tomorrow, the Flood..

Caitlin R. Kiernan has done it again and this time with Vile Affections, a collection of truly terrifying short stories. Curl up in the dark and consume this collection because once you start, you won't be able to stop.

Vile Affections is a short story collection by Caitlín R. Kiernan, featuring 22 stories of personal horrors. All of the stories are different, however they all feature a single character making their way through seemingly ordinary days, with some things being slightly off. A woman may be a werewolf, a woman has dreams of drowning that may be prophetic.

A good bit of these stories use the second person. Sometimes it works well and immerses me into the story, while other times I get lost. That, however, is my own issue with second person and not Kiernan’s writing.

Their writing is fluid, fantastical, and a lot of these stories feel like fairy tales in real life. A bit like magical realism.

As with all short story collections, I enjoyed some more than others, but this is indeed a solid collection. Some of my favorites are The Lady and the Tiger Redux, The Last Thing You Should Do, Iodine and Iron, Mercy Brown, and As Water Is In Water.

Thank you to Net Galley, Subterranean Press, and Caitlín R. Kiernan for the ability to read this advanced review copy. Vile Affections releases on November 30th as a collectible edition.

Caitlín R. Kiernan’s work is always lush and brimming with detail. She’s a true master of language, and her skill is on full display in Vile Affections. Her style has always reminded me of Angela Carter and, in fact, Kiernan mentions Carter as an inspiration in one of her asides.


Kiernan’s asides, short explanations at the end of each story, were a welcome addition. Usually, I’m wary when authors include notes on their stories because they often demystify unsettling pieces. However, Kiernan offers no answers; she merely provides context and inspiration, which works well. Through Kiernan’s introduction, I also learned that she’s a paleontologist as well as a writer, which explains the currents of deep time that run through her pieces, and her extensive knowledge of the fossil record and natural history, which I’ve always admired in her work.


Most of the stories in this collection are less fantastical than previous stories of hers I’ve read. There are monsters and unexplained phenomena lurking at the boundaries, but in most cases the focus is more on characters trying to come to terms with their pasts, with love, and with grief rather than a direct confrontation with the uncanny. Reading this collection felt like reading an account of someone else’s dreams: I could feel the unsettled alienation of the characters, and I could sink into lush images and descriptions, but clear resolutions eluded me. This is precisely the point, and it makes the collection quietly devastating.


Most of the stories are about stories, about characters (usually two characters in opposition or an unhealthy relationship) telling each other about unsettling experiences or traumatic events. The stories are meditative and spiraling, the verbal equivalent of walking a medieval labyrinth to try to find a deeper meaning to mundane events. As I read, I felt like I was sinking deeper and deeper toward some central truth that I could never quite reach because it was only ever visible in the periphery.


It’s hard to choose favorites, but a few of the stories I particularly liked were: “The Lady and the Tiger Redux,” “Day After Tomorrow, the Flood,” and “The Green Abyss.”


Overall, Vile Affections is gorgeous. I think that speculative fiction fans and those who prefer more general fiction will both enjoy these stories, though if you’re looking for more blatant horror or supernatural stories, this particular collection may not be for you.

Vile Affections has some of the most beautiful language I've read in a long time. Whether objects or scenery is vile or lovely, the descriptions are detailed and vivid.

When I first opened the book and saw that there were pages and pages of prose with no break, no white space, I thought reading it might be a slog. I was wrong though. The stories, even with the large amount of description, were interesting and reasonably quick to read.

Many of the stories had the same type of subject: dreams, a person telling a story to another, the fear of drowning, water, water, and more water in most, but they didn't seem to repeat themselves.

If you're a reader who skips long paragraphs this might not be for you. If you love gorgeous language you'll find much to enjoy in Vile Affections.

Just like every short story collection I have read by her, this one did not disappoint. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book. I will buy this one for sure and recommend it to others.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I’m becoming a real fan of Caitlín Kiernan's work. She seems to transpose the horrors of living with the beauty of terrific wordsmithing (it might not so much be a word, but you know what I’m saying here). Vile Affections is 100% something I’ll be recommending to customers!

Come for the excellent cover; stay for the meaningful stories.