This work is so dark and dreamy, a wonderful collection to feel like you were floating through a surreal landscape for the majority of them. I enjoyed how connected you felt to the characters and how they traversed through each of these uneasy settings where something doesn't feel quiet right even if they're simply riding a train in a tunnel or walking through an art gallery.

The author's notes after each story are nice to have the insight, like a small bit of commentary for her to add a little to her work. Also remembering her introduction on the use of drumbeats, the recurring patterns that she used to compile these stories for her collection, almost give that vague feeling of deja vu as you recognize the symbols and motifs that connect these stories and ground them in a vague familiarity that build on the surrealist themes and motifs introduced with each story.

Thank you NetGalley and Subterranean Press for allowing me to read this ARC!

I can confirm that I was not the target audience for this collection. That is not to say that this is a bad read, but I think it is targeted towards a more specific type of reader.

The stories themselves do not always read as horror. In fact, many of them come across as fever dream slice of life vignettes. I did not <I>not</I> enjoy the read, I did, however, struggle to understand a lot of what was happening. A lot of that struggle was due to the prose itself. If you enjoy purple prose and a meandering feel to atmospheric horror, then this a great a collection for you. If you struggle at all with either of those aspects, you will probably struggle to read this.

For what it is as a whole, the collection is a good read. There were a few stories in there that left me feeling like they were unfinished and they didn't feel like they fit right within the collection. But with any short story collection, I think it depends more on the reader for the enjoyment aspect.

Thank you to Netgalley and Subterranean Press for an ARC.

3.5 / 5 (rounded up to 4)

I've been thinking a lot about this one! A collection of short fiction is always hard to rate. How much weight should be given to individual entries? To what extent should the collection be judged as a whole?

There are stories in this collection that have real staying power. Some of my favorites were the dreamlike sequences that I'm told are Kiernan's hallmark. While many of the stories are about dreams, the handful that feel like dreams are real standouts. These were characteristically immersive and haunting. Kiernan's prose renders powerful and sometimes horrifying images evoking grief, death, anxiety, compulsion, and a number of other darker shades of the human experience. Disjointed narratives are used to great effect here, helping to build a sense of otherworldliness.

Several tales lean more toward traditional horror or sci-fi. Some of these were captivating in their own right, appealing to a more grounded sense of mystery or wonder.

But there was a smattering of stories that didn't work for me. Stories that felt provocative without meaningful payoff. The occasional vignette that failed to land anywhere interesting. I struggled to engage with these beyond the aesthetic. They lacked a central question, emotion, or conflict to hold my attention. For whatever reason, I found the densest grouping of these to be towards the beginning of the collection. (If you are struggling early in the book, it may be worth maintaining course!)

On the whole, there is a lot of repetition in this book—what Kiernan calls "drumbeats" in the forward: recurring images, symbols, phrases, plot elements, etc. that echo throughout the collection. The repetition almost builds a sense that things are bleeding from one story to the next, as they might in a series of dreams. Given the ubiquity of dreams in these works, I think this is a cool concept. In practice, I found it distracting. The repetition was not always subtle, and noticing it would often break the immersion that Kiernan otherwise builds so aptly. One example that stuck with me: two different stories described a scent as a combination of sewage and sex. Even once, that description was hard to shake.

I also found that many of the characters, despite the wildly different circumstances they inhabit, felt oddly interchangeable. Their voices blurred together in a way that diminished their individuality. For a collection with so much imagination, the lack of varied perspectives was a letdown. Having characters talk about dinosaurs, fossils, or minerals wears thin over 25 stories. (For the record, I later found out that Kiernan is both a writer and a paleontologist.)

While Bright Dead Star is uneven at times, it contains some truly powerful works. I’d recommend it to readers looking for something that’s equal parts literary, trippy, and dark. Fans of Kiernan will certainly know what they're getting into. I, myself, will definitely read more from Kiernan in the future.

Thanks to Subterranean Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

These stories were extremely dreamlike and confusing and not really my preference in storytelling. I can tell that Kiernan is a great writer and very smart, but in terms of enjoyability, these were just too difficult to get through and my mind was constantly drifting as I tried to read. Based off the intro to the book, this was also a very personal story collection to the author.

I would recommend only if you like very literary stories with a dream-like quality and are okay with being confused vs getting answers or actual endings.

Thank you to Subterranean Press and Netgalley for an eARC.

This book was gothic, slightly freaky, but all around something you just have to keep reading. I am a huge fan of this authors writing now and am thankful for the chance to have read it!

This was my first work of Kiernan’s that I had read, I enjoyed it for what it was in its entirety. However in that as well, I enjoyed a large number of the stories that were featured within the collection. The dream-like state of some of the stories was quite enjoyable while others lacked for me. I will definitely check out other works by Kiernan but would also recommend this to other readers.

I suspect I wasn't the ideal reader for this collection. Although I'm somewhat familiar with Kiernan's work -- I've read one novel, one novella, and a handful of their short stories -- I'm not a devoted fan. This particular collection has a deeply personal feel. Each of its twenty-five stories offers an afterword, explanatory or autobiographical or both. The vast majority first appeared in Sirenia Digest, a subscription-only ezine Kiernan produces.

Kiernan's brand of weird fiction is nearly impossible to describe. It's decidedly literary, atmosphere-forward, and influenced by their work in paleontology. There's a subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) vein of Lovecraft running through it, though it never approaches pastiche. This collection included a handful of what I would consider Lovecraftian stories, including one set in his Dreamlands. Quite a few others read more like SF, embracing themes of first contact or the discovery of alien artifacts. One or two were solidly climate fiction.

Although disturbing and well-crafted, however, many of the stories in this collection didn't seem to end in any conventional sense. I counted ten of the twenty-five as having distinct (often horrific) conclusions. The others read more like vignettes, either from the start or fluctuating between structured fiction and vignette throughout the reading experience. As someone accustomed to more conventional genre fiction, I found this frustrating -- even though I kept right on reading, pulled along by the disquieting effect of Kiernan's prose.

A few of Kiernan's themes also became somewhat repetitive. Dreams and dream retellings, visits to psychiatrists, and the miseries of freelance journalism all came in for possibly more than their share of attention. The deep ocean was also a frequent theme, but this is a bit more common in Lovecraft-influenced writing.

In the end, I wound up elevating my three-star rating to four stars solely on the strength of the writing itself, and on its eerily immersive quality. I suspect that Kiernan's more dedicated fans will find this collection a solid five star experience. My thanks to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for providing me with an ARC.
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This was my first time reading anything from Kiernan and I am smitten! Wonderful dreamlike prose, often deeply unsettling. What an imaginative author. I also appreciated the extra insights on their process and reflections that accompanied each story.

This was a great collection of stories, it had that element that I was hoping for from Caitlín R. Kiernan and the genre. Each one worked well with the concept and was able to make a unique and engaging story and characters. I enjoyed that it wasn't the same and was glad it was so well written.

With 25 short stories, I knew going into it that not all of them would be for me. There were some I thoroughly enjoyed reading, while others fell a bit short. I think the main disconnect for me was that many of the stories included the reader as a character, being narrated to a mysterious “you” who was often part of the story.

The description made me think I was going to be reading horror stories, and while there were elements, what I found myself in the middle of were dream-like (or literal dreams in some cases) scenarios that had me more confused than anything else.

an evocative and haunting collection that highlights Caitlín R. Kiernan’s mastery of the weird and unsettling. With twenty-five stories that span bizarre violence, psychological disarray, and otherworldly terrors, this book firmly plants itself in the realm of the uncanny. Stories like "Strandling," with its melancholic meditation on death and the sea, and "Crotalus," which vividly recalls the eerie sensation of childhood, are standouts that linger long after reading.

Kiernan excels at creating atmospheres that are both rich and oppressive, pulling readers into worlds that feel strange and unnerving. While some tales may challenge the reader's patience with their cryptic nature and complex imagery, they are rewarding for those willing to engage with them. There’s a depth to Kiernan’s writing that demands your attention and rewards it with a haunting sense of unease.
I believe readers will appreciate this collection, which showcases the authors skill at blending horror, fantasy, and psychological tension. It's a powerful and immersive set of stories, one that will resonate deeply with those who enjoy dark, cerebral fiction. Bright Dead Star is a must-read for lovers of the weird, though it may not be for the faint of heart.

The description for this book had me totally excited to dive in. Unfortunately, I just don’t think this was for me. The pace was a little on the slower side. I’ll probably give this another try later on but for right now reading a three star as I did enjoy parts of it, but it didn’t really stand out too much for me.

Each story has this almost dream-like quality, groping in the dark to find morsels of the end-game story. Sometimes deeply unsettling, sometimes lyrically astounding, altogether refreshing in its slow, intentional execution. Not every story was for me, but that is the nature of indulging in stories!

This one sadly wasn’t for me! I was so excited for it too, maybe I’ll give it another try later. Unfortunately it wasn’t super exciting when I started I felt like I was forcing my way through it, so I think I’m either resuming or it’s just not the story for me

"Bright Dead Star" is collection of stories each one more haunting than the last. This compilation brings together fantasy and eerie atmospheres, weaving together stories that explore the darkest corners of human imagination and beyond. Each story is meticulously crafted to evoke unease and a sense of wonder. What sets "Bright Dead Star" apart is its ability to cater to a wide range of tastes; there are tales of horror that delve into the human psyche and haunted stories that send shivers down your spine.

"Bright Dead Star" is perfect for those who relish late-night reading sessions under the glow of a single lamp, where every creak and whisper in the dark feels like an extension of the stories' eerie worlds. It's a collection that makes you wonder, shiver, contemplate, and when you close this book, you will be thinking of the next time you pick it up and how the stories will shift with the knowledge you now have.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for allowing me an ARC!

I have been curious about Kiernan's works since I heard of them, so I've dived into a number of their books and have never been disappointed. The thing that makes their works so fascinating is a blend of imagination and their lack of fear in taking on and absolutely delivering with weird lit.

My introduction to them was their Tinfoil Dossier series, a series that blends eldritch horror with the apocalypse, and I was instantly enamored. The way Kiernan seems to have studied Lovecraftian horrors and put their own spin on them is admirable. So when I saw they had an upcoming collection with Subterranean Press, I had to request it.

And they once again lived up to expectations. This collection is an amalgamation of everything the reader has come to know Kiernan for: the weird, the eldritch, and Kiernan's author note at the beginning explains why what was picked was picked and the running themes for these stories. Their author notes after each also provide the reader with a glimpse into their thought process, the place they were where they were writing (in the physical and mental sense).

If you're at all familiar with Kiernan, you know that they are an author to be experienced. I'm sure I can describe these stories until I'm blue in the face, but until you go and read them and glean from them and, I keep coming back to it but, just EXPERIENCE Kiernan doing what they do best. So many of these stories, little scenes, little twists of phrases, will stay with me for so long.

Thank goodness Kiernan still has such a back catalog for me to read through!