Available in paperback from Whiskey Tit. $18. ISBN 978-1-952600-55-5
- BUY IT Whiskey Tit (Publisher) Asterism Bookshop Amazon Barnes & Noble
- RATE IT GoodReads
After God created the Prison of the World, he threw away the key. In this collection of uncanny and disconcerting stories, a few unfortunate but charismatic innocents seek to find it. Any luck? Read Divine In Essence to find out!
- Ten tales of the Strange to unchain you from the Real:
- —a young boy captive in his stepmother’s glass eye,
- —the engrossing diary of a sassy and intrepid girl-ghost,
- —an “impudent” woman consigned to a passive life in a mirror,
- —a mutilated Fury ransacking the dream world,
- —Icarus mired in Brigitte Bardot,
- —and more!
The stories of Divine In Essence exemplify a sui generis slipstream style that deftly weaves a psychedelic literary fabric from elements of Fabulism, Occult Horror, Oneiric Fiction, Irrealism, and the Weird. Attune your mind and be transformed. Escape!
(Nota bene for trigger-sensitive peeps: contains disturbing scenes, harm to children, and ontological dysphoria—sometimes even all at once.)
- “Yarrow Paisley dictates dreams onto paper. His work is like nothing else I’ve read—enchanting, touching, terrifying, absurd.”
—E. Catherine Tobler, author of The Necessity of Stars
- “With his trademark sly humor, Paisley has created a world in a glass eye, a tour de force guaranteed to give readers delightful nightmares.”
—Mickey J. Corrigan, author of What I Did for Love
Relevant Publicity
Critical Acclaim
- “Paisley crafts ten nightmarish short stories sure to lodge—if not fester—in the minds of readers. With subjects ranging from the supernatural to the shockingly commonplace, Paisley’s horrors are stomach-turning and grotesque, perfect for reading during a storm or under the covers by flashlight. […] While it doesn’t guarantee happy endings, there’s joy in these grim stories that echo, in tone, the early greats of cosmic horror. Paisley seems to dance with them, the playfulness keeping readers on edge—it’s never safe to get comfortable. This hard-to-forget collection offers many dark rewards.”
—BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly
- “Yarrow Paisley’s spellbinding short story collection Divine In Essence concerns ghosts, possession, violence, sex, and death—topics handled with generous amounts of the weird and monstrous.”
—Marjorie Jensen, Foreword Clarion Reviews, ★★★★
- “Paisley’s ornate, baroque prose—dense with inventive imagery and wordplay, by turns luminous and tenebrous—evokes comparisons to literary horror writers such as Thomas Ligotti and Caitlin R. Kiernan.”
—Edward Sung, IndieReader, ~★★★★
- “The author paints in broad, violent strokes that may turn the stomachs of even the most seasoned readers of the horror genre. Paisley’s tales shine when they take a sensitive approach to psychological horror, but readers may find that some scenes feel excessive.”
—Kirkus Reviews (✓ GET IT)
- “An irreverent and boundary-pushing collection of short stories, Divine In Essence is a burst of radical creativity with a heavy dose of darkness. Readers will find their stomach in knots, or their mind twisted by the kaleidoscoping puzzles in the prose, which is a testament to the original power of this writing. From the supernatural and hypersexual to the deeply divine and philosophical, this aggressively unique read expands the scope of the horror genre, asserting Paisley as an exemplary writer of dark fiction.”
—SPR Review, ★★★★★
- “A psychedelic reimagining of reality, where the ordinary brims with magic and unease, and traditional storytelling conventions dissolve. Paisley’s prose is hypnotic, weaving lyrical beauty with sinister undertones. The characters, grotesque yet achingly human, grapple with metaphysical forces in landscapes where transformation is inevitable and often horrifying. Gothic in its sensibility but modern in its execution, the stories oscillate between visceral horror and reflective musing, creating an unnerving rhythm that enthrals and unsettles in equal measure. Not for the faint-hearted, the book is graphic, provocative, and deeply layered.”
—The Prairies Book Review
- “Darkly imaginative tales that dissect human nature with unflinching precision. […] A must-read for fans of finely-constructed, thought-provoking fiction.”
—BookView Review, Recommended Book
- “Yarrow excels at setting ostensibly innocent scenes, using charming protagonists as bait, then trapping readers in a room with all their most deep-seated terrors, particularly those tied to the intricate challenges of being human. […] This trailblazing collection will profoundly impact any who engage with it deeply.”
—R.C. Gibson, Indies Today, ★★★★★
- “A challenging but rewarding collection that pushes the boundaries of what weird fiction can achieve. Readers willing to engage with its complexity will find themselves drawn into a series of dark but compelling stories where identity is fluid, reality is malleable, and transformation is both terrible and transcendent.”
—Maria Ashford, BookShelfie, ★★★★★