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Les Femmes Grotesques
Life is hard, strange, beautiful, and terrible in the world of Victoria Dalpe's debut collection Les Femmes Grotesques.
In each of these XX stories, the reader is lured into a sinister shadow space, one both familiar and uncanny. The characters encountered there run the gamut from nosy neighbors to boomtown prostitutes, from sentient moss to ghouls with a taste for the flesh of artists. They contain chance encounters with mystics, haunted reality show renovations, and cat people roaming the western plains. In Dalpe's writing, horror mixes with humor, and the ordinary with the macabre. Les Femmes Grotesques is a unique and lush reading experience. Tragic and transformative.
In each of these XX stories, the reader is lured into a sinister shadow space, one both familiar and uncanny. The characters encountered there run the gamut from nosy neighbors to boomtown prostitutes, from sentient moss to ghouls with a taste for the flesh of artists. They contain chance encounters with mystics, haunted reality show renovations, and cat people roaming the western plains. In Dalpe's writing, horror mixes with humor, and the ordinary with the macabre. Les Femmes Grotesques is a unique and lush reading experience. Tragic and transformative.
260 pages, Paperback
First published October 11, 2022
7 people are currently reading
2,296 people want to read
About the author
Victoria Dalpe
28 books75 followersVictoria Dalpe is a writer and visual artist based out of Providence, RI where she lives with her husband, writer and film maker, Philip Gelatt and their son. From the attic window they can see the spot where HP Lovecraft's ancestral home once stood... alas, it's now a Starbucks. Victoria loves horror movies, reads too much, and has a soft spot for painting animal skulls.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 8, 2022
“If any of them took the time to actually understand me, they would know to keep their distance, they would know to let a lady read her damn book.” -Unravelling
I can not express how much I adore the women in these stories. Smart, strong, fierce, and independent but also vulnerable, scared, and tired but mostly, they are not going to put up with anyone’s shit.
The writing is to die for, Victoria Dalpe brings absolutely everything to the table. I savored every emotion brought forth, whether I was melancholy or excited, the settings were real, the characters were ones that you rooted for and you couldn’t help but be absorbed into each story. When I mean absorbed into the story, I mean I could taste the salty minerals of the ocean, smell the dusty dry rot of the haunted house, hear the creaky floor of the old mill, and feel the exhaustion of being worshipped and being kept alive.
There are many favorites in this book but I need to talk about the last story, The No Places. It was special and really got to me emotionally. It just hit home. It’s a long quote but I love it.
“Everyone is always looking for the big moments, the big scares, the big joys, but they are wrong. It is here, the in-between spaces, it’s the movement at the corner of the eyes. The moments that can be overlooked. That’s where magic and wonder live.” -The No Places
I can not express how much I adore the women in these stories. Smart, strong, fierce, and independent but also vulnerable, scared, and tired but mostly, they are not going to put up with anyone’s shit.
The writing is to die for, Victoria Dalpe brings absolutely everything to the table. I savored every emotion brought forth, whether I was melancholy or excited, the settings were real, the characters were ones that you rooted for and you couldn’t help but be absorbed into each story. When I mean absorbed into the story, I mean I could taste the salty minerals of the ocean, smell the dusty dry rot of the haunted house, hear the creaky floor of the old mill, and feel the exhaustion of being worshipped and being kept alive.
There are many favorites in this book but I need to talk about the last story, The No Places. It was special and really got to me emotionally. It just hit home. It’s a long quote but I love it.
“Everyone is always looking for the big moments, the big scares, the big joys, but they are wrong. It is here, the in-between spaces, it’s the movement at the corner of the eyes. The moments that can be overlooked. That’s where magic and wonder live.” -The No Places
August 7, 2023
The stories in Les Femmes Grotesques are as unique, biting, and fantastic as everything I've read from Victoria Dalpe to date. Victoria's prose is like a splinter that wedges beneath your skin, demanding your attention and testing your ability to handle a constant thrum of discomfort. Her stories challenge you, threaten you, frighten you, unnerve you. They make you wonder what you would do in a similar situation. Make you wonder about the state of your humanity. The best kind of horror fiction poses questions and lets you ponder the answers, while giving away nothing too concrete. I'm still pondering this unparalleled collection months later, and I imagine I'll still be pondering it in the future... when traveling down a long corridor under the light of a single bare bulb...and suddenly, that bulb goes out.
February 7, 2023
Les Femmes Grotesques was the feminist gothic thrill ride I didn't know I desperately needed. Each story contained within this slim volume is both absolutely engrossing and deeply unsettling as Dalpe sweeps you up into her velvety prose to peer into the shadows of the feminine experience. If you can imagine Shirley Jackson collaborating with Margaret Killjoy to write a short story collection that was then edited by Richard Thomas, you’d have a pretty good idea of the scope and superior macabre quality of these gorgeous tales of horror. From generational curses to captured supernatural brides, the homicidal dangers of first love, and suburban lycanthropy; each story surrounds the reader in a dream-like atmosphere of gothic enchantment. Some of the themes are quite heavy while still residing in the fantastical, but Dalpe is a true master of her craft and she relays the heady and often complicated subject matter with such a flair for the fantastic and otherworldly that it's easy to imagine your favorite Goth Auntie reading these stories to you over a steaming cup of (possibly poisoned) tea.
February 10, 2023
This was an awesome horror collection!!! I don't often vibe with humor in my horror, but this tongue-in-cheek writing style was so much fun. Every single character had a unique voice, and while there was a theme to this collection each story felt independent and fresh. The Unraveling was my favorite of the bunch! It unfolded - unraveled? - in such a way that had me both gasping and laughing.
My single gripe isn't with the writing or storytelling at all but rather the formatting of the collection. There is no story index and the stories are laid out like chapters. When anthologies like this one have stories that vary in length - some being as short as 5 pages and as long as 25 - I really appreciate an index with page numbers. Like... I need to see how many pages a story is so that I can find a groove with the pacing. Idk if that's a me thing, but that really affected my reading experience during this one.
Overall an awesome horror anthology!!!
My single gripe isn't with the writing or storytelling at all but rather the formatting of the collection. There is no story index and the stories are laid out like chapters. When anthologies like this one have stories that vary in length - some being as short as 5 pages and as long as 25 - I really appreciate an index with page numbers. Like... I need to see how many pages a story is so that I can find a groove with the pacing. Idk if that's a me thing, but that really affected my reading experience during this one.
Overall an awesome horror anthology!!!
December 19, 2022
"Les Femmes Grotesques" by Victoria Dalpe
Available from CLASH books
This modern, Gothic horror, feminist short fiction collection will bring you out in goosebumps!
A CREAK IN THE FLOOR, A SLANT OF LIGHT - There were some quirky details (e.g. the patio set with an umbrella outside one apartment door) that put us in mind of Holly Black's work. This tale has a delightfully gory legend within it about three girls trapped in a lift with something... something that bites, and a motley bunch of interesting characters sharing (often bizarre) accommodation in an industrial warehouse. In our opinion, the story ended too soon.
THE RIDER - The story begins with a few paragraphs talking about a female character, but doesn't mention her name until the fourth paragraph. We liked the idea of the story with its reverse ghosts and the strange support group, but there wasn't much detail about the main character's past life.
THE GROVE - An interesting vignette on the nature of sickness, death, and the afterlife. Its tone made it almost like an old Japanese folktale. We particularly liked the poetry of the part where the mother tells the daughter what will happen when she goes to "sleep" in the ground and what she would dream of.
FOLDED INTO SHADOWS - This is one of our favourites. Agnes decides to renovate an old Victorian house where her brother vanished when she was a child, a house that was a "scourge and siren" to the neighbourhood children, infamous for making most of its visitors disappear. We liked this one for its juxtaposition of the past and the present, and of the mundane / kitsch with the cosmically horrible and inexplicable, the atmosphere, and mounting eeriness. This story preserves its weirdness and mystery even to the end, and is all the better for doing so.
UNRAVELLING - This one is told in the first person by an ironic and world-weary character forced to reincarnate again and again. It has a YA thriller vibe. This is another one of our favourites.
THE GUEST - We liked this one for the well-written Gothic tropes and the relatable main character, as well as the unique sci-fi angle it had. Something odd about moss...
THE GIRL IN THE STAIRWELL - A strange little story about a compulsive liar and a woman falling down some stairs to her death. This was another one we particularly liked.
RIG RASH - Another favourite. This Western-themed cosmic horror tale about the town of Sanctuary gave us goosebumps in all the right places. There's rumours of a huge, strange creature and a deadly infection. It gave us H. P. Lovecraft vibes.
DARK INHERITANCE - You've heard about buildings and places being haunted, but this story is about a haunted person. We liked this one as it introduced us to the concept of The Mara (or Mare, that rides on people's chests as they sleep and gives them nightmares) and took that concept to a new and grisly level. We won't look at Sleep Paralysis phenomenon the same way ever again.
THE DROWNED SIREN - This was an interesting tale that fused a drowned ghost with the myth of the rusalka. The story would have been better if there was an explanation as to why the ghost chose the main character as her next victim.
THE HORROR ON SYCAMORE LANE - This story was unusual in the sense that although it was about a certain family, it was told through the third-person experiences of the small-town locals living around the family. This narrative method added an air of mystery that we liked.
THE RANCH - A longer, Western-set and horror-sci-fi tale concerning a traveller in the desert and a cattle rancher running unsettling experiments.
THE WIFE - A charming and bloodthirsty tale about a woman who isn't a woman, but isn't exactly a Selki either...
MATER ANNELIDA - This is a bizarre and primal vignette of an unnamed witch (we assume) undertaking a private ritual and the birth of something that could change the world... literally.
THE WOMAN OF THE WOODS - A lonely witch who can bring the dead back to life approaches a romantic relationship with a stranger... in a preying-mantis fashion.
THE DARE - An excellent vampire horror story that brings together contemporary teenagers and a monster that used to be a bon vivant from the 1920s. There is a different explanation for the nature of vampirism within the tale -- read it to find out!
THOSE BENEATH, DEVOUR - This tale begins right in the middle of the action, shortly after someone is consumed by something scorching through a university library basement floor.
THE NO PLACES - This began with the atmosphere and whimsy of a Neil Gaiman road-trip story, then turned sinister. A sacrifice has to be made, and a woman learns she is more than herself.
The writing in this short fiction collection has a lot of run-on sentences and could use another round of proofreading, for example there were some mis-used words e.g. "clamored" when "clambered" was meant.
Other than that, the narrative voice of these stories has a tone of private collusion with the reader, which we liked very much, and Victoria Dalpe's descriptions engage all of the reader's senses. She uses realistic dialogue and unusual ideas and details throughout.
Available from CLASH books
This modern, Gothic horror, feminist short fiction collection will bring you out in goosebumps!
A CREAK IN THE FLOOR, A SLANT OF LIGHT - There were some quirky details (e.g. the patio set with an umbrella outside one apartment door) that put us in mind of Holly Black's work. This tale has a delightfully gory legend within it about three girls trapped in a lift with something... something that bites, and a motley bunch of interesting characters sharing (often bizarre) accommodation in an industrial warehouse. In our opinion, the story ended too soon.
THE RIDER - The story begins with a few paragraphs talking about a female character, but doesn't mention her name until the fourth paragraph. We liked the idea of the story with its reverse ghosts and the strange support group, but there wasn't much detail about the main character's past life.
THE GROVE - An interesting vignette on the nature of sickness, death, and the afterlife. Its tone made it almost like an old Japanese folktale. We particularly liked the poetry of the part where the mother tells the daughter what will happen when she goes to "sleep" in the ground and what she would dream of.
FOLDED INTO SHADOWS - This is one of our favourites. Agnes decides to renovate an old Victorian house where her brother vanished when she was a child, a house that was a "scourge and siren" to the neighbourhood children, infamous for making most of its visitors disappear. We liked this one for its juxtaposition of the past and the present, and of the mundane / kitsch with the cosmically horrible and inexplicable, the atmosphere, and mounting eeriness. This story preserves its weirdness and mystery even to the end, and is all the better for doing so.
UNRAVELLING - This one is told in the first person by an ironic and world-weary character forced to reincarnate again and again. It has a YA thriller vibe. This is another one of our favourites.
THE GUEST - We liked this one for the well-written Gothic tropes and the relatable main character, as well as the unique sci-fi angle it had. Something odd about moss...
THE GIRL IN THE STAIRWELL - A strange little story about a compulsive liar and a woman falling down some stairs to her death. This was another one we particularly liked.
RIG RASH - Another favourite. This Western-themed cosmic horror tale about the town of Sanctuary gave us goosebumps in all the right places. There's rumours of a huge, strange creature and a deadly infection. It gave us H. P. Lovecraft vibes.
DARK INHERITANCE - You've heard about buildings and places being haunted, but this story is about a haunted person. We liked this one as it introduced us to the concept of The Mara (or Mare, that rides on people's chests as they sleep and gives them nightmares) and took that concept to a new and grisly level. We won't look at Sleep Paralysis phenomenon the same way ever again.
THE DROWNED SIREN - This was an interesting tale that fused a drowned ghost with the myth of the rusalka. The story would have been better if there was an explanation as to why the ghost chose the main character as her next victim.
THE HORROR ON SYCAMORE LANE - This story was unusual in the sense that although it was about a certain family, it was told through the third-person experiences of the small-town locals living around the family. This narrative method added an air of mystery that we liked.
THE RANCH - A longer, Western-set and horror-sci-fi tale concerning a traveller in the desert and a cattle rancher running unsettling experiments.
THE WIFE - A charming and bloodthirsty tale about a woman who isn't a woman, but isn't exactly a Selki either...
MATER ANNELIDA - This is a bizarre and primal vignette of an unnamed witch (we assume) undertaking a private ritual and the birth of something that could change the world... literally.
THE WOMAN OF THE WOODS - A lonely witch who can bring the dead back to life approaches a romantic relationship with a stranger... in a preying-mantis fashion.
THE DARE - An excellent vampire horror story that brings together contemporary teenagers and a monster that used to be a bon vivant from the 1920s. There is a different explanation for the nature of vampirism within the tale -- read it to find out!
THOSE BENEATH, DEVOUR - This tale begins right in the middle of the action, shortly after someone is consumed by something scorching through a university library basement floor.
THE NO PLACES - This began with the atmosphere and whimsy of a Neil Gaiman road-trip story, then turned sinister. A sacrifice has to be made, and a woman learns she is more than herself.
The writing in this short fiction collection has a lot of run-on sentences and could use another round of proofreading, for example there were some mis-used words e.g. "clamored" when "clambered" was meant.
Other than that, the narrative voice of these stories has a tone of private collusion with the reader, which we liked very much, and Victoria Dalpe's descriptions engage all of the reader's senses. She uses realistic dialogue and unusual ideas and details throughout.
February 24, 2023
My review for Les Femmes Grotesques, by Victoria Dalpe, first appeared in The Horror Zine. Please go there to see more reviews by me and other staff book reviewers as well as fiction, poetry, and art by many of today's established and up and coming horror-creatives. This review is reposted with permission.
Emptiness is the keystone of horror. From it are built all the monsters and victims in both cinema and literature, old and new to come. Any reviewer of horror stories, whether short stories or novels or collections of tales, looks to see how an author embraces that void. When the grotesque is involved, the challenge becomes where that emptiness begins and how it intrudes into the commonplace, or presumed commonplace. Is the person really grotesque or the environment or both? Victoria Dalpe, in Les Femmes Grotesques, an assortment of tales to bother you in the wee darker hours of the day, gives her victims a solid balancing pole on their hi-wire act between the grotesque and the emptiness with aplomb.
While I could prattle on about the eighteen stories unfolded within, the long and short of it can be explored in a careful sampling of just a few, beginning with Folded into Shadows.
I often look for the stories in an author’s collection that would make for good novels or screenplays. Folded into Shadows gets my top vote. There are many haunted house tales to keep you busy until doomsday, but only a bunch will give you the chilly embrace of the otherness, the alien landscape hinted at, the mystery of what’s it? that makes the little hairs on your arms stand up.
From real-life spooky places like Borley Rectory and Waverly Hills Sanatorium to the fictional Hill House, the Tremaine House in Folded into Shadows fits the bill perfectly. Its notoriety: people seem to either die outright or disappear inside with unusual regularity. Agnes’s brother died in the house and she returns, with a production crew, to film the renovation of the house. The grotesque situation for her is that the house appears to not like being renovated and is not cheerful with the workmen knocking about its walls. She bought it, “a house where it seems always dusk,” but has her doubts. Her emptiness of knowing exactly what happened to her brother, and the numerous others, warps her life. Either she will solve the mystery or become part of it. If you like classic haunted house tales, this one is for you.
If you are a reader who knows who Arthur Machen was, well, The Guest is best read with a nice cup of tea. I cannot say for sure that Dalpe is up on her classic (and mostly forgotten) authors, but I will say that an infatuation with moss leads Angeline, at age seventeen and already missing something in her life, to meet Mr. Lich, a strange house guest. Both become inseparable, and therein begins the grotesque relationship that ends beautifully. For some. Here, the paragraphs are longer, the narrative in first-person, and the pacing quite mindful of an earlier time for storytelling.
The first-person narrator in Big Rash is a working woman who works truck stops: “not old, but I’m no spring chicken.” Looking for greener pastures, she happens on the town of Sanctuary. A trucker warns her that there’s something not quite right with the place, but she smells money as thick as the oil the town has tapped into. She rents a hotel room and sets up shop. The men smell of oil and something else, but the payout is too good to pass up. Until people start showing up with odd rashes, that also start appearing on her. Something is not quite right in the town of Sanctuary, but her emptiness—the need to make a living—and the grotesqueness of what is happening to her and the town may not be enough to make her leave. But will it be too late even if she does?
Mabel Gray drowned and wanted company in The Drowned Siren. Unfortunately for the narrator of this tale, which moves between classic ghost story and Japanese yokai-styled horror, she keeps hearing a voice that would gladly lead her to doom in the water. There’s even a commemorative plaque on the bench by the sea where Mabel drowned. Terry, a local expert on the tragedy of Mabel Gray, gives our targeted victim some sage advice. It will either save her or make her look awfully foolish as she drowns in Mabel’s wet embrace. I’ll give you one hint: rusalka. When her waking and sleeping hours are filled with that inviting, yet sinister, voice, will she follow that advice?
The old mill building, a grotesque structure in itself, is not empty. Within A Creak in the Floor, A Slant of Light, people live in their divvied-up spaces within its walls and floors. Mostly keeping to themselves, they do not seem to mind that some of their neighbors have gone missing. Charlie Chan (not the fictional detective by Earl Derr Biggers) arrives at the old mill to find his friend Pete is missing too. Chan soon meets the various oddballs living there and also learns about the weird happenings going on, like unseen things biting people in the elevator that barely works. A whole Goth band, the PitRats, went missing too, so you know the situation is serious. There’s a bit of Lovecraftian devilment going on through the sewer drains and the basement, but exactly what, Charlie is not sure. Me, I would stay out of the basement if I were him. While most of the action takes place through dialog and hearsay, it builds to a definite conclusion for Charlie.
I breezed through only five stories in a collection of eighteen. My favorites may vary from yours, but here is the skinny. Dalpe does not dabble in sub-genres, she excels at them, delivering deft performances of terror ranging from the ghostly to the pit-dwelling terrors to the monsters, demons, and gods dressed in ordinary surroundings. Her feminine grotesques are either a little different or a lot, a little bad or a lot, lost or, unfortunately, found. Their emptinesses will either keep the darkness away or let it in, but it is their call (more or less). You can take these stories at face value or dig a little deeper to find the hidden bodies of meaning. Whichever way you choose, go for it.
Emptiness is the keystone of horror. From it are built all the monsters and victims in both cinema and literature, old and new to come. Any reviewer of horror stories, whether short stories or novels or collections of tales, looks to see how an author embraces that void. When the grotesque is involved, the challenge becomes where that emptiness begins and how it intrudes into the commonplace, or presumed commonplace. Is the person really grotesque or the environment or both? Victoria Dalpe, in Les Femmes Grotesques, an assortment of tales to bother you in the wee darker hours of the day, gives her victims a solid balancing pole on their hi-wire act between the grotesque and the emptiness with aplomb.
While I could prattle on about the eighteen stories unfolded within, the long and short of it can be explored in a careful sampling of just a few, beginning with Folded into Shadows.
I often look for the stories in an author’s collection that would make for good novels or screenplays. Folded into Shadows gets my top vote. There are many haunted house tales to keep you busy until doomsday, but only a bunch will give you the chilly embrace of the otherness, the alien landscape hinted at, the mystery of what’s it? that makes the little hairs on your arms stand up.
From real-life spooky places like Borley Rectory and Waverly Hills Sanatorium to the fictional Hill House, the Tremaine House in Folded into Shadows fits the bill perfectly. Its notoriety: people seem to either die outright or disappear inside with unusual regularity. Agnes’s brother died in the house and she returns, with a production crew, to film the renovation of the house. The grotesque situation for her is that the house appears to not like being renovated and is not cheerful with the workmen knocking about its walls. She bought it, “a house where it seems always dusk,” but has her doubts. Her emptiness of knowing exactly what happened to her brother, and the numerous others, warps her life. Either she will solve the mystery or become part of it. If you like classic haunted house tales, this one is for you.
If you are a reader who knows who Arthur Machen was, well, The Guest is best read with a nice cup of tea. I cannot say for sure that Dalpe is up on her classic (and mostly forgotten) authors, but I will say that an infatuation with moss leads Angeline, at age seventeen and already missing something in her life, to meet Mr. Lich, a strange house guest. Both become inseparable, and therein begins the grotesque relationship that ends beautifully. For some. Here, the paragraphs are longer, the narrative in first-person, and the pacing quite mindful of an earlier time for storytelling.
The first-person narrator in Big Rash is a working woman who works truck stops: “not old, but I’m no spring chicken.” Looking for greener pastures, she happens on the town of Sanctuary. A trucker warns her that there’s something not quite right with the place, but she smells money as thick as the oil the town has tapped into. She rents a hotel room and sets up shop. The men smell of oil and something else, but the payout is too good to pass up. Until people start showing up with odd rashes, that also start appearing on her. Something is not quite right in the town of Sanctuary, but her emptiness—the need to make a living—and the grotesqueness of what is happening to her and the town may not be enough to make her leave. But will it be too late even if she does?
Mabel Gray drowned and wanted company in The Drowned Siren. Unfortunately for the narrator of this tale, which moves between classic ghost story and Japanese yokai-styled horror, she keeps hearing a voice that would gladly lead her to doom in the water. There’s even a commemorative plaque on the bench by the sea where Mabel drowned. Terry, a local expert on the tragedy of Mabel Gray, gives our targeted victim some sage advice. It will either save her or make her look awfully foolish as she drowns in Mabel’s wet embrace. I’ll give you one hint: rusalka. When her waking and sleeping hours are filled with that inviting, yet sinister, voice, will she follow that advice?
The old mill building, a grotesque structure in itself, is not empty. Within A Creak in the Floor, A Slant of Light, people live in their divvied-up spaces within its walls and floors. Mostly keeping to themselves, they do not seem to mind that some of their neighbors have gone missing. Charlie Chan (not the fictional detective by Earl Derr Biggers) arrives at the old mill to find his friend Pete is missing too. Chan soon meets the various oddballs living there and also learns about the weird happenings going on, like unseen things biting people in the elevator that barely works. A whole Goth band, the PitRats, went missing too, so you know the situation is serious. There’s a bit of Lovecraftian devilment going on through the sewer drains and the basement, but exactly what, Charlie is not sure. Me, I would stay out of the basement if I were him. While most of the action takes place through dialog and hearsay, it builds to a definite conclusion for Charlie.
I breezed through only five stories in a collection of eighteen. My favorites may vary from yours, but here is the skinny. Dalpe does not dabble in sub-genres, she excels at them, delivering deft performances of terror ranging from the ghostly to the pit-dwelling terrors to the monsters, demons, and gods dressed in ordinary surroundings. Her feminine grotesques are either a little different or a lot, a little bad or a lot, lost or, unfortunately, found. Their emptinesses will either keep the darkness away or let it in, but it is their call (more or less). You can take these stories at face value or dig a little deeper to find the hidden bodies of meaning. Whichever way you choose, go for it.
April 24, 2023
Yes- I am in fact the lil bro of the author- but don’t get it twisted- I am both an actual reader and most importantly, especially for this review, a true FAN). Les Femmes Grotestques was everything I wanted and more from a collection of dark, weird, and tragic shorts.
Vampires, witches, haunted homes, mad scientists, shapeshifters, and demons (+ some lesser-known monsters) run amok throughout her stories but truly in a way that feels new, reimagined… and despite her nostalgic monsters- the stories are anything but comforting.
Vicki’s storytelling is a blistering rash, lice under the skin, and a festering hot wound filled with your own hair… Her work continually asks the reader ‘What is JUST beneath the surface of the cracking ice? What’s just beyond that door, in that quiet home, in that mysterious girl?' This question is asked again and again throughout each story- “what is just beyond the veil?” Some find liberation, freedom but never without a cost. Others find what most find: curiosity killed the cat. Politeness killed the cat. Mermaids killed the cat. That the cat was already dead and possessed by demons. That the cat can’t die and would just be reborn. Or surprise... the cat kills you!
These are the stories of tiny insects caught in terrible mind-breaking webs. But also about the spiders weaving them.
As a friend and brother it’s actually stellar to see so much of what I know she loves woven intricately into each creepy tale- victorian gothic, words like 'cravat' and men’s fashion, names like 'Isolde' and body horror, softcore furry porn, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Lovecraft’s Miskatonic University & HGTV renovations… and best of all her humor! Only Victoria Dalpe could refer to a character as “The Stinky Man” and still manage to frighten you at the same time.
I loved each story- each voice, character, and world Vicki put in this collection but The Rider has continued to stand out as one of my favorites. Not only does it give a much-needed facelift to BOTH zombie and possession tropes- but there’s a tender and heartbreaking thread inextricably woven about depression and loneliness that I think will speak to many many readers.
Sidebar: Ya know how Eye-Popping/Gouging is like a quintessential kill in Italian Horror/ Giallo? Vicki has a thing like that but it’s weird gross mouth stuff- hot breathed invisible sucking demons, ghost mouths on the verge of possession, vamp mouths on necks, being kissed by your terrible/abusive husband/captor… so many gross wet monster kisses.
I digress. If you’re already here… and you read this far. You should read this collection. xo
Vampires, witches, haunted homes, mad scientists, shapeshifters, and demons (+ some lesser-known monsters) run amok throughout her stories but truly in a way that feels new, reimagined… and despite her nostalgic monsters- the stories are anything but comforting.
Vicki’s storytelling is a blistering rash, lice under the skin, and a festering hot wound filled with your own hair… Her work continually asks the reader ‘What is JUST beneath the surface of the cracking ice? What’s just beyond that door, in that quiet home, in that mysterious girl?' This question is asked again and again throughout each story- “what is just beyond the veil?” Some find liberation, freedom but never without a cost. Others find what most find: curiosity killed the cat. Politeness killed the cat. Mermaids killed the cat. That the cat was already dead and possessed by demons. That the cat can’t die and would just be reborn. Or surprise... the cat kills you!
These are the stories of tiny insects caught in terrible mind-breaking webs. But also about the spiders weaving them.
As a friend and brother it’s actually stellar to see so much of what I know she loves woven intricately into each creepy tale- victorian gothic, words like 'cravat' and men’s fashion, names like 'Isolde' and body horror, softcore furry porn, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Lovecraft’s Miskatonic University & HGTV renovations… and best of all her humor! Only Victoria Dalpe could refer to a character as “The Stinky Man” and still manage to frighten you at the same time.
I loved each story- each voice, character, and world Vicki put in this collection but The Rider has continued to stand out as one of my favorites. Not only does it give a much-needed facelift to BOTH zombie and possession tropes- but there’s a tender and heartbreaking thread inextricably woven about depression and loneliness that I think will speak to many many readers.
Sidebar: Ya know how Eye-Popping/Gouging is like a quintessential kill in Italian Horror/ Giallo? Vicki has a thing like that but it’s weird gross mouth stuff- hot breathed invisible sucking demons, ghost mouths on the verge of possession, vamp mouths on necks, being kissed by your terrible/abusive husband/captor… so many gross wet monster kisses.
I digress. If you’re already here… and you read this far. You should read this collection. xo
January 7, 2023
This collection of short stories were a delight to read. Dalpe's writing is engaging and I found myself quickly invested in each story as I read it.
It also avoids one of the pitfalls I've seen with short stories: when they end too abruptly. I found that while short, these stories were still well developed and got me interested in the characters and their fate. Like perfect bite sized entertainment for when you need a quick but satisfying read. None of these felt rushed either which I really appreciated.
I can't say that I disliked any of the 18 stories included in this collection though I did end up with a few favourites (The Rider and Folded Into Shadows). I definitely recommend reading this!
It also avoids one of the pitfalls I've seen with short stories: when they end too abruptly. I found that while short, these stories were still well developed and got me interested in the characters and their fate. Like perfect bite sized entertainment for when you need a quick but satisfying read. None of these felt rushed either which I really appreciated.
I can't say that I disliked any of the 18 stories included in this collection though I did end up with a few favourites (The Rider and Folded Into Shadows). I definitely recommend reading this!
January 12, 2023
To me, the mark of a really great short story collection is: do the stories leave me wanting more? In the case of Les Femmes Grotesques, the answer is a resounding yes! Almost all of these stories could be expanded to novella or novel length and I still would have devoured them. It's hard to pick favorites, but the standout stories for me are The Guest, The Horror on Sycamore Lane, The Ranch, and The Dare.
January 11, 2023
Terrific, twisted and terrifying .
May 9, 2023
A fun, engaging, and original read. I found myself inspired by almost every story in there. I'm keeping an eye out for future releases from Victoria Dalpe.
December 3, 2023
A great collection of stories. You want weird tales but female lead you have it here. Strong women in strange situations that make you think about the uncanny.
August 4, 2023
original review: https://horrortree.com/epeolatry-book...
It’s been more than a decade since I’d discovered the wonderful world of Weird fiction, and for a while I hadn’t come across a voice that whispered dark truths like those of my original forays into this New Weird. Victoria Dalpe’s Les Femmes Grotesques is exactly what I’ve been looking for. It’s proof of the many great authors out there that I strive to find. It’s a wonderful feeling.
In Les Femmes Grotesques Dalpe gives us a survey of the current landscape of weird horror fiction. Daple serves up a healthy serving of feisty femmes in a smattering of situations. There are haunted houses, liminal spaces, urban cults, forbidden lovers, and so much more.
These stories deal with loss, jealousy, isolation, and general existential dread with deft aplomb. The characters within are all relatable in a way, even those who lean toward darker morality. Such phantastic material. After each story, readers are left wanting more, not due to the story feeling incomplete, but because the story is engrossing and immersive.
I’m beyond thrilled to see the works of Dalpe and others still driving the Weird fiction genre. She is now among the names I will look for in the wild alongside Laird Barron, John Langan, Nathan Ballingrud, and Livia Llewellyn. While flipping through the original publication sources, I discovered a wonderful resource of interesting venues and names to watch for.
It’s been more than a decade since I’d discovered the wonderful world of Weird fiction, and for a while I hadn’t come across a voice that whispered dark truths like those of my original forays into this New Weird. Victoria Dalpe’s Les Femmes Grotesques is exactly what I’ve been looking for. It’s proof of the many great authors out there that I strive to find. It’s a wonderful feeling.
In Les Femmes Grotesques Dalpe gives us a survey of the current landscape of weird horror fiction. Daple serves up a healthy serving of feisty femmes in a smattering of situations. There are haunted houses, liminal spaces, urban cults, forbidden lovers, and so much more.
These stories deal with loss, jealousy, isolation, and general existential dread with deft aplomb. The characters within are all relatable in a way, even those who lean toward darker morality. Such phantastic material. After each story, readers are left wanting more, not due to the story feeling incomplete, but because the story is engrossing and immersive.
I’m beyond thrilled to see the works of Dalpe and others still driving the Weird fiction genre. She is now among the names I will look for in the wild alongside Laird Barron, John Langan, Nathan Ballingrud, and Livia Llewellyn. While flipping through the original publication sources, I discovered a wonderful resource of interesting venues and names to watch for.
June 4, 2023
2.5/5 rounded up because there’s very few reviews for this book and I don’t want to tank it because it’s not a BAD book.
It’s fine?
Some good stories in here (Rig Rash and Folded Into Shadows are standouts), but mostly just “that was fine I guess.” One or two where the quality in writing was stark. I wonder whether the inconsistency is due to a lot of these being reprints over various years, and Dalpe has no doubt improved? I’ve not checked the dates of each so just a theory.
Unfortunately, I was really sold on the concept, but the writing just wasn’t doing it for me. Took far too long to read this due to a lack of enthusiasm to keep reading — you never knew what quality the next short story would be.
It’s fine?
Some good stories in here (Rig Rash and Folded Into Shadows are standouts), but mostly just “that was fine I guess.” One or two where the quality in writing was stark. I wonder whether the inconsistency is due to a lot of these being reprints over various years, and Dalpe has no doubt improved? I’ve not checked the dates of each so just a theory.
Unfortunately, I was really sold on the concept, but the writing just wasn’t doing it for me. Took far too long to read this due to a lack of enthusiasm to keep reading — you never knew what quality the next short story would be.
November 4, 2022
Rich and deadly with a touch of cheek. A superb collection for horror fans who want all the extras!
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