Defilement and Other Stories

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley
This collection of short stories was exactly what I wanted from horror as a genre. Some of the aspects are predictable, but what's fascinating is not the ending of the stories, but the unexpected ways to get to the finale of them. Along with that, there was something almost comforting about the normalization of queerness in horror, and the knowledge that it is exactly the same for queer people to undergo terrifying atrocities as it is for cishet people.

Although this book only has six stories the author was definitely going for a quality over quantity and succeeded. When reviewing an anthology I always like to say which story was my favorite but between digger and Petting Zoo or Garage Doctor in any of the other three it would be a hard task to pick one. Every story represents someone from the LGBTQ community and I thought represented them nicely. I can’t say enough about this book if you love horror then you definitely need to read “defilement and other stories,“ by the author Jesse Nolan Bailey it truly is a terrifying and awesome breed. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Defilement and Other Stories is a collection of short horror stories all of which feature queer, gore characters (other than the last one) and poignant themes that relate to current events. I enjoyed this collection of stories, although it was not my favorite. Many of the stories spoke about queer community, love, and rage. Garage Doctor was my personal favorite, and I truly enjoyed the Deathshed theme running throughout the stories. I would personally be happy to read an entire book revolving around it. Most of the stories, however, I felt came up close to the point and didn't quite hit it. I'm not sure entirely how to articulate it, but I wish they could have gone just a little further. I did enjoy the stories and would recommend though to anyone who can handle the trigger warnings.

I was given an ARC of this book and I really enjoyed reading it, I made it though it in a single sitting, The stories do exactly what you want a horror story to do. They keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what is going to happen next. I love the subtle tie ins from one story to the next. I will definitely be buying a copy for my collection when it comes out.

Dark, disturbing, tense and a little bit disgusting. A great set of short stories, each left me wanting a little more in a good way. Enjoyed this!

A truly defiling, disturbing, bone-chilling (and fossilizing) collection of stories that will grip you and keep you burning that midnight oil.

This book has ben ready for spooky season! I really enjoyed Bailey's descriptive writing and extraordinary story telling skills. It's refreshing to see LGBTQ representation in the horror genre. 4/5.
Thank you so much to BooksGoSocial & NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

a haunting collection of short shories that was well written and fulfills the tick marks when it comes to mixing it up with occult and other gruesome themes. it had the exact effect of what i was after, it instills a sort of paranoia after you've read them, uncomfortable, but hyperaware of the littlest details around you.
my favourites would definitely be digging, deathshed and petting zoo. i enjoyed this book alot !
thank you netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

These are interesting and subtly scary short stories. They slowly build up to a terrifying ending. Great for reading out loud while camping.

This was a quick and easy horror short story collection that I really enjoyed. All were well written and all had an unexpected element to them.

This is a wonderful selection of new horror stories based on some classic themes. Fun, freaky and at times incredibly gross and gruesome. A very entertaining (and a bit disgusting) package.

My favorite tales in this collection were 'Digging' for its suspense and great ending, 'Garage Doctor' for its tantalizing mystery and chill factor, but most especially 'Defilement.'

The LGBTQ+ aspect of this collection was so refreshing. It added emotion, originality, and big twists to these tales. But fair warning, the the title story is liberal. I loved it for that very reason and I'd hate to see this collection get bad reviews because readers weren't forewarned. The writing is clever and flowing. Every character had personality and purpose. Plenty of chill and shock between these pages.

Defilement and Other Stories is a compilation of short horror stories by Jesse Nolan Bailey. Ranging from creepy magazines to an abandoned petting zoo to a horror of another parallel universe, this book covers all nightmare sequences in a new and interesting way. I love how the stories build up from the first to the story of Defilement which is in the title.

For readers that want a fresh take on horror and short stories, this is the perfect book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and experiencing these stories and recommend this book.

This was a fun collection of short horror stories, some better than others and some more horrific then others! I’m quite new when it comes to short story collections but this one has made me realise what I’ve been missing out on! If you’re looking for a good variation of scary tales, give this a go!

This horror anthology was a lot of fun to read! These six twisted stories feature queer characters in a wide range of horrifying situations - from finding strange animalistic bones in their backyard, to experimenting with new exercise equipment. They are all fairly short but definitely pack a punch with plenty of gore and interesting characters; the writing is engaging and creates a creepy atmosphere, though I will say that at times I had a hard time figuring out exactly what was happening in a scene.

Many thanks to Netgalley for my gifted ecopy in exchange for my honest review!

I do enjoy a horror anthology, particularly between larger books. A horror palate cleanser, if you will.

Defilement and Other Stories did not disappoint. What I really enjoyed was the elements threaded throughout that brought the genre into the modern day - but without making it too obvious. So subtle, in fact, were the LGBT references, that they just went under the radar. Like life (for those of us with open minds).

The six stories were varied in subject matter and length and all had a pretty satisfying conclusion (for me, not always a happy ending) and all had me intrigued from the outset in all of them.

I recommend it as a speedy read, and dip into the subgenre and generally for all horror short stories fans.

First time reading this author. Very interesting style.
This collection runs the gamut of emotions.
Very imaginative.
Warning, a couple are gruesome.

Wow! There are so many things that I loved about this book. Each of the stories are completely different, but they are all engaging, haunting, and memorable. The imagery was so vivid that I still have clear impressions in my mind—snippets from each story in the book.

Another thing I especially loved about the book were the LGBTQ+ representations throughout. Not only is this a socially relevant subject, but these character models elevated the stories by offering a distinct sense of modernity.

Dark, twisted, beautifully haunting stories that are sure to leave a lasting impression.

Defilement and Other Stories by Jesse Nolan Bailey.
A boy and his father find impossible fossilized bones in their backyard…The disturbing contents and origin of a mysterious magazine conjure paranoia… Neighbors welcome a new couple by bragging about a miracle doctor who works from his garage… Memories from childhood fail to reconcile an old photo featuring an unidentified cryptid…Archaic gym equipment proves treacherous… A teen boy is plunged into a nightmarish realm known as Eden… In these six stories, evil abounds, ready to defile.
A very good read. I loved the cover. 4*.

This is a short collection of stories by A Disaster of Dokojin and Amethyst author, Jesse Nolan Bailey. The book is a collection of six tales of that explore nightmares made real.

Before I start with the stories themselves, I would like to commend Jesse Nolan Bailey on providing a series of content warnings. Recently, I have seen various heated discussions about this topic, but me personally, I do appreciate it when they are present. It gives the reader an informed choice of the media that they consume.

So, lets talk about the first story, Digging.

Digging tells the story of Greg and his son Seth. In an effort to firstly give the boy some purpose and also to develop an interest, Greg sends Seth off to look for archaeological treasures in the wooded expanse that they live in as he recalls his own interest as a child when he did something similar.

Unexpectedly, Seth does indeed find something. The bones of a seemingly extinct creature that looks like nothing they have ever seen before.

Meanwhile, as a husband of a deployed soldier, Rob, Greg is finding his life increasingly lonely and isolative, and with Rob being away for nearly a year he has found some measure of solace with Billy. However, there is also some level of infidelity due to Greg’s loneliness.

Dealing with loneliness and guilt the story follows what happens. It’s not hard to guess and we know that there will be an inevitable conclusion. In this story, Nolan gives the repercussions of Greg’s guilt and infidelity a physical form that inevitably tears the family apart, and we quickly get to the tragic consequences of a family broken.

Throughout the story, Nolan gives a good story centring around the microcosm of family life, slowly injecting unease into the story. I liked this one!

The second story in the book is Deathshed. I liked the ambiguity of this tale. Nothing is as it seems, even the title! I mean is it Deaths Hed or is it Death shed? Either way it gives that feeling of uneasy ambiguity. The story tells the tale of Deja (vu?) and her partner Lisha.

Picking up the post, she comes across a magazine, starkly white, but with what looks like an Inkblot on it that reminds Deja of a Rorschach Test. The magazine assaults her with disturbing headlines that sicken and disgust her.

Thinking this a mistake, wind up or something to do with her partner, she attempts to get through to the publishing company to report the mistake and cancel the subscription that she did no t know she had made. When she finally gets through to the company she is assaulted by a bizarre test. This test leads to a series of bizarre events.

Mixing in elements of cosmic horror, we are never entirely sure what is happening in this tale. Dealing with unbidden information that assaults our senses on a daily basis through various forms of media. It also forces you to change your opinion of the narrator, particularly when we discover that she has experienced a period of psychosis and delusional behaviours previously. Leading you to question, is this real or some hallucinatory sequence of a larger mental health issue.

Well, let's get on to story three, Garage Doctor! I have got to say that I found this one to be quite, quite disturbing. The story revolves around Junaid and Hasan, a happily married couple who have moved to the sleepy suburb of Blightwood. Upon getting there they are constantly told of the miraculous Dr Drake who works wonders.

After accepting a dinner invitation, they are subsequently held against their will and treated for their perversions against God and violated with some form of supernatural entity that produces boils. The only way to escape their punishment is to denounce themselves as abominations.

I found this story very disturbing and it is like The Stepford Wives crossed with Lars Von Trier, with a dose of Brian Yuzna body horror in there. It's an ugly story that deals with conversion therapy and you can feel the palpable sense of anger coming off the page.

I have to say from the outset, Petting Zoo was one of my favourite stories in the book.

The story revolves around Adelaide, a young woman who experiences depression and has to go back to live with her mother. The move is a difficult one due to the fact that for some reason there was some kind of fractious split in the family. One of the things that we learn is that due to her medication, it has resulted in Adelaide gaining weight which also causes difficulties between her and her mother, who passively, and aggressively comments on this throughout the initial part of the story.

One evening whilst looking at photographs Adelaide comes across a photo that has an extreme reaction. Following this unsettling discovery it turns out that when she was a child she was taken to this place called Noah's Petting Zoo by her parents. Adelaide has no knowledge of the experience, but the image distils in her a feeling of utter revulsion. After putting it out to the collective knowledge of the internet she discovers it's name and location.

I loved this one, and like I said earlier I think this one was my favourite. It is a really good piece of weird/cosmic horror and bears a resemblance to Brian Hodge's brand of weirdness. Jesse Nolan Bailey, steadily piles on the tension with unease creeping in until it builds to its crescendo. Not only that, it lives in the same universe as Deathshed, death shed, whatever!

The penultimate story is a short sharp shock called Torture Device, about a man who sees his current boyfriend giving the eye to a local muscle bound bit of totty.

His insecurities and anxieties lead him to trying to beef himself up at a local gym. Not quite sure how he is to use the machines, he comes across an exercise machine that promises to tone his body in one go. However, he gets more than he bargained for when the device takes hold.

This is a shorter story than most in the collection and subsequently comes to its denouement in a short amount of pages.

It's not hard to spot the satire in this story and the wicked humour. I mean we have all felt insecure at one point or another haven't we?

The final story in the book is the title story, Defilement. Again this has elements of weird fiction reminiscent of some earlier mentioned authors. However, what this one does is completely take us out of this reality.

Now, I don't want to go into the plot too much as it will spoil the story.

The story revolves around Trev, his girlfriend Krissy, and her brother Caleb. When we start the story, Krissy is being railroaded by her mother to take her sibling along to get ice cream. Krissy doesn't want to and it seems that she is being rather peevish about it. However, we find out that there are more deep seated reasons for her dislike of her brother.

Trying to get to the truth of the matter, Trev has a chat with Caleb, who then starts to come out with racist, transphobic and any other kind of -obic, or -ist diatribe that you care to mention.

However, things soon take a sinister turn and Trev finds himself way out of his comfort zone!

So, this is the finale of the book and with this Jesse Nolan Bailey pulls out all the stops. There are elements of dark fantasy mixed in with the horror. He carefully builds the tension in this story until it reaches its climax. Mixing a claustrophobic sense of the unknown, with elements of dark fantasy and ultimately body horror, this story works well. You are never entirely what is happening and he carefully keeps that sense of disorientation going for quite a while until the reveal about midway through the story. This was such a good story to end the collection.

On the whole, I found this to be an excellent collection of short stories, that at times are creepy as hell, thinking of Petting Zoo here, to brooding horror. There is a good dose of the cosmic and weird running through the stories which always appeals to me, and I have to say. I really enjoyed this one!

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for a review

First and foremost I want to say a huge thank you for the list of triggers at the very beginning, broken down by story. This definitely helped, especially since a few of them were something that get to me so I was able to prepare myself.
I was a little put off because the first story wasn’t super scary. A little disturbing sure, but out of all the stories it’s the least scary. The other stories on the other hand get creepier and creepier. A few even had my stomach rolling a little bit, but in a good way because these aren’t feel good stories after all.
I do also like that these were queer stories. It made them even more terrifying for me, especially the ones that dealt with homophobia and transphobia. These hit different because of it and found myself reading more and more.
A really good read for spooky season.

I just finished defilement and other short stories by Jesse Nolan Bailey

6 stories of pure evil…a collection of short horror stories all of which feature a little more disturbing content with each bite.

OK, I am not one for short stories but these, holy heck! Worth the read. Cleverly done and has a little LGBTQ rep in them which was nice. Had me on the edge of my seat a lot and well worth the few hours I sat and read them all in one go. I usually like more meat to my bones hence why I don’t usually do the short stories thing but I had to. The synopsis had me curious and I am so glad I made the decision to take a read!
If you love short horror stories, this is it. The one you have been waiting for.

4 stars, I just needed a little more.
Thank you netgalley and booksgosocial for my review copy!

Defilement and Other Stories

This was a really cool compilation of new horror stories based on some classic, tried and true, horror themes. All in all, a quick read with some fairly gruesome, highly imaginative tales! In this collection there are detailed depictions of gore, profanity, and definitely death.

Please read the trigger/content warnings for each story directly following the preface.

From the author, “If such things are not to your liking, I suggest you close this book and go about your life. No one will judge you for it.” Challenge Accepted.

Loved it. Compulsively readable! This could easily be read in one-sitting.

The writing is fascinating and so descriptive! I loved this quote from the first story, Digging:

“Bones… so near the surface. Not deep, but shallow, like they’d clawed their way up in defiance to the caked layers of time, unwilling to stay sealed in the depths where others of its kind lay in death.”

If you enjoy horror, I recommend checking this one out!

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for access to this title for my honest opinions.

a great book with some interesting stories. I enjoyed some more then other but none were terrible and worth a read

Entertainingly chilling collection of shorts! It delivers what you want with great execution and buildup. The queer rep was much appreciated as well.

Disturbing and exactly what I wanted from an anthology of horror stories. It was unsettling and chilling and gave me what I was needing for a spooky read.

These stories made me feel unclean in the best way. I always appreciate an author who can write queer characters without making their sexuality the main plot point or the entirety of their identity, and Bailey did this in each of the stories. Each story was disturbing in a different way, so it was a fun journey overall. Also, ASEXUAL CHARACTER thank you!!!!!

Enjoyable collection of stories. Even better, most of these were rather unique- I can't recall reading anything quite like them before. I definitely would like to see more from this author.