Les Femmes Grotesques

Les Femmes Grotesques is Victoria Dalpe's debut collection of horror stories, and what a debut it is! There are a lot of stand out stories here. "Folded Into Shadows" has a great premise: the host of a house-flipping show is refurbishing the supposedly haunted house that her brother disappeared in when she was younger. "Rig Rash" delves into an oil boom town and the bodily degradation that follows when greed taps into something that was best left undisturbed. "The Ranch"? A Wild West riff on Doctor Moreau I didn't know I needed in my life. "The Horror on Sycamore Lane" and "The Wife" approach the hidden horrors of suburbia from different angles, but back to back they feel like the author working out a larger theme. If Les Femmes Grotesques is any indication, and I suspect it is, Dalpe is an author to watch.