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We Live Inside You

Jeremy Robert Johnson (Goodreads Author)

4.08 · Rating details · 683 ratings · 68 reviews

We are within you, and we are growing. Watching. Waiting for your empires to fall. It won't be long now. We are the fear of death that drives you and the terrible hunger that reshapes you in its name. We are the vengeance born from senseless slaughter and the pulsing reptile desire that negates your consciousness. We are the lie on your lips, the collapsing star in your he ...more

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Paperback, 188 pages

Published October 17th 2011 by Swallowdown Press

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Average rating 4.08 ·

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· 683 ratings · 68 reviews

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Mar 14, 2012 Jakob J. rated it really liked it

Shelves: pub-2010s, horror, top-notch-terror, own, own-read, 2012, fiction, short-stories, halloween-horror-binge-2012

The Conflict Defines Us…

Have you indulged in this sub-sub-genre phenomenon of sub-literary lunacy known as bizarro fiction and thought to yourself, what on earth…?. Have you read stories about mythic dildos, midget revolutions, fetuses with superpowers, or literal Nazi assholes and thought I’m all for honest titles but give me a fucking break! Initiating yourself in bizarro is a little like a tickle in the back of the throat that demands a nice thorough clearing, except all of a sudden and witho ...more

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Dec 20, 2013 Bill rated it it was amazing

"The line between art and madness is vapor-thin, and the worms are always hungry…"

One of these days I am going to get motivated to review a collection story by story. It ain’t gonna be today though. I wish I would have for this one because even though some of the stories are very short, JRJ packs a punch into all of them. Dude has some serious writing chops and it shows here. An excellent collection. 4.5 Stars and Highly Recommended.
...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Gordon rated it it was amazing

We meaning these stories—yes, they do. It's a compliment when I say I wouldn't want any of these characters' lives, however vicariously I may've enjoyed them for 15 minutes a pop. JRJ's one of my favorite writers, losing nothing since his previous collection, with a language focus that elevates his work above most of his peers. These tales are bodily, conspiratorial, darkly comic, and often experimental. They'll find you squirming while at the same time looking around to see if anyone suspects t ...more

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Nov 22, 2011 David Agranoff rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bizarro, surreal-horror, modern-horror, portland-authors

Thanks to an insanely cool book cover and equally intriguing title Jeremy Robert Johnson's book "Angeldust Apocalypse" became a cult hit. The blurb from Fight Club scribe Chuck Palahniuk calling him a dazzling writer didn't hurt either. Perhaps the best marketing accident came when very few people who bought it realized that it was short story collection and not a novel. Ok, that might not have been an accident because the reality is collections never sell close to the units that novels do.

That' Thanks to an insanely cool book cover and equally intriguing title Jeremy Robert Johnson's book "Angeldust Apocalypse" became a cult hit. The blurb from Fight Club scribe Chuck Palahniuk calling him a dazzling writer didn't hurt either. Perhaps the best marketing accident came when very few people who bought it realized that it was short story collection and not a novel. Ok, that might not have been an accident because the reality is collections never sell close to the units that novels do.

That's OK because once people ripped open the package from amazon they were treated with one of the most insane over the top dark bizarro collections all time. If you have not yet read that collection I'll give you hint you'll want both these books up on your shelf keeping each other company.

Johnson is the Bram Stoker award nominated co-author (With artist Alan
Clark) of the amazingly dark illustrated anti-drug novel Siren Promised. He is also know for having written a short story about a dude that makes a suit of cockroaches to survive a nuclear war which was spun off into a separate novella called Extinction Journals. After a hypernation period where Johnson hung out with his human spawn and complied a list of germs and parasites Many of us wondered if JRJ would write again.

He came out of hiding first to publish a collection and novel by bizarro horror berserker Cody Goodfellow and rumors of a new collection by Johnson himself were rumored. I saw a few of the stories here and there in magazines like Dark Discoveries and Cemetery Dance but it was not until I had We live Inside you in my hands that I was totally sure.

I am so glad he did. Angeldust was a strong collection but the growth in the writing between the first and his second collection is like a out of control virus. The best horror writers chase their fears and in this collection Johnson rolls around in his worst fears. It is no surprise that Johnson has a list parasites and viruses on his
wall. If I have sold you and are worried about spoilers, click off this page go to Amazon and buy it.

The collection is separated into to two sections, the second being short pieces Johnson wrote with co-authors and a extended version of a story that appeared earlier. It's funny two of my favorite pieces are one page flash fiction type stories that pack amazing punch into bare number of words used. My favorite being “Cortical Reorganization,” which was a super powerful one and half pager about a spare changer. Other favorites include a dark Sci-fi piece called “The Oarsmen,” a Portland crime piece called “Persistence hunting,” but my favorite is a horrific tale I first read in Cemetery Dance magazine called “ A flood of Harriers.”

Flood of harriers, created a stir when it was first published, despite being semi-autobiographical and based on real events Johnson was accused of being borderline racist. Frankly I laugh at that, the story which happens to include a a few native American thugs is far from racist, and leads me to believe the people who were upset didn't read the entire fantastic story. It is my favorite in the collection because it starts off as a realistic and effective suspense tale before shifting seamlessly into a surreal body horror Karmic revenge direction. Well done.

We Live Inside you is dark bizarro horror literature at it's sharpest point, sharpened enough enter through the temple and worm deep into your brain. JRJ comes from the same scene but doesn't rely on dildo jokes or B-movie tropes like a lot of bizarro writers do. The insane ideas are still there, but it's like crème filling in a fancy donut. At the same time it's hard for me to advise anyone to take a bite of a book written by a guy who keeps a list of parasites above his desk, but this book is a must for lovers of all literiture that is weird and dark. ...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Sam McCanna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books, small-press-bizarro-horror-etc, signed

I've JUST finished this book and am still reeling from the effects.

The stories in here are intense, and make up the first new book from Johnson in years. The debt of the wait was definitely paid off by this demanding and rewarding group of tales.

This is a short story collection that follows a parasitic theme, but is not restricted to creepy crawlies (though they are definitely here)... It carries the idea on to parasitic relationships and parasitic thought processes and emotions.

Being a collecti ...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Emory rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bizarro-fiction

Parasites. Disgusting and at times horrifying things that find a way to violate you. Through the mouth, genitalia, breathing, eating; there are innumerable vectors and variations that can allow unwanted hitchhikers to get a lift. Jeremy Robert Johnson is apparently very familiar with many of them, as evidenced in his latest collection, “We Live Inside You.”

Presented are fifteen stories (and a handful of B-sides) that will quickly prove that Johnson is no stranger to the horrors of things that ...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Donald Armfield rated it really liked it

Shelves: own, horror, short-stories, bizarro

I bought a copy of "We live Inside You" being a fan after reading JRJ's cult bizarro classic "Angel Dust Apocalypse"

This short story collection peels your eyelids back and drags them across the page. Great stuff!

When Susurrus Stirs
Persistence Hunting
The Gravity of Benham Falls
A Flood of Harriers
The Musty Cow's Teat of Death

Those are some the titles you can look forward to, when sitting down to read this. Guarantee to cling to the back of your brain like an unknown parasite. ...more

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Feb 22, 2012 David Barbee rated it it was amazing

Fantastic stories to disturb. Favorites include: A Flood of Harriers, Persistence Hunting, When Susurrus Stirs, and Laws of Virulence.

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Oct 14, 2013 Hatchet Mouth rated it it was amazing

Jeremy Robert Johnson has some serious skills on display here. All throughout this expansive tome are examples of otherness intruding on private lives.

In "Cathedral Mother", the titular character is a conspiracy theorist/ecoterrorist/survivalist type who will do anything to save the Redwoods from deforestation. When an internet presence known as 'Myco' (from a type of mushroom that exudes a single drop of a blood-like substance when punctured) offers her a way to save said forest if she can gain Jeremy Robert Johnson has some serious skills on display here. All throughout this expansive tome are examples of otherness intruding on private lives.

In "Cathedral Mother", the titular character is a conspiracy theorist/ecoterrorist/survivalist type who will do anything to save the Redwoods from deforestation. When an internet presence known as 'Myco' (from a type of mushroom that exudes a single drop of a blood-like substance when punctured) offers her a way to save said forest if she can gain entry without being seen and collect samples of the environment. What she brings back with her from these samples ties her entire biochemistry in knots as well as her son's.

"Persistence Hunting" sees JRJ get down with his socialite, clubby, jogging side as a guy with a trust fund and a penchant for home invasion falls head over heels for a stripper he thinks he can save, proving some cliches never tire.

In "Trigger Variety", a man feels so compelled to erase his father's alcoholic genes, he shoots growth hormone intramuscularly and joins a gang with quite the agenda for the night as it unfolds.

"A Flood of Harriers" sees a guy with the love of his life and that love subsequently break apart when a bathroom emergency on his wife's part forces him to pull over in a very, very bad neighborhood on their way to Burning Man Festival. This one was the heartest to read, but not for the same reasons as those who made this story's original printing so controversial (the portrayal of Native Americans, but anyone can be dangerous, skin color or culture doesn't change that, people). It was the dissolution of their entire relationship that disturbed me more than the racial content (read: not racist). My heart broke for the extremely likely protagonist of this piece as he is forced to stop off in a place he knows neither he and his wife are safe in, then suffers as his worst fears come true just from one innocent pit stop as a handful of deviants threaten him with a box cutter and his wife with rape (while she's in the toilet). All this is bad enough, but when she sees him emasculated and no longer feels safe with him... I could see in my mind's eye just how devastating that could be to a man to lose everything in less than twenty four hours to circumstances so totally out of his realm to effect. It was an incredibly sad read, sadder than even Cathedral Mother, and if this piece really is reflective of a real life event in JRJ's life, I hope it didn't end quite as stark as it did for the main character.

All these gems of fiction were enough, but perhaps what fascinated me most was JRJ putting on his music journalist face and tackling esoteric subject matter: The making of The Mars Volta's indie rock occult concept album "The Bedlam in Goliath." I marveled at his ability to boil such a complex topic down to its essence, to reveal every nook and cranny of the hell a simple witch board from Jerusalem had unleashed on this art rock band from El Paso. ...more

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Sep 17, 2013 James Kittredge rated it liked it

There's some creepy stuff here. I remember the first time I read "The Stand." I was 12 years old, and I came down with an awful cold sometime during the book's back-9. After I got over the silliness of the endgame deus ex machina, I remember sitting in my room, stunned, sniffling, breathing with great labor into a tissue. I wasn't terrified. I knew the book was fiction. I did, however imagine my cold progressing from being a petty annoyance to being the microbe that laid me out, petrified in my There's some creepy stuff here. I remember the first time I read "The Stand." I was 12 years old, and I came down with an awful cold sometime during the book's back-9. After I got over the silliness of the endgame deus ex machina, I remember sitting in my room, stunned, sniffling, breathing with great labor into a tissue. I wasn't terrified. I knew the book was fiction. I did, however imagine my cold progressing from being a petty annoyance to being the microbe that laid me out, petrified in my kitchen as I struggled to reach the cupboard for a glass of water. I imagined the sadness my parents would experience when they found my desiccated corpse, and then thought of them falling ill themselves. I considered the emptiness and desperation of a world emptied by plague. Snapping out of my reverie, I looked around my room and saw all the familiar comforts - a Red Hot Chili Peppers cd, the poster from the play I was in last summer, my red chrome bunkbed, and I knew I was safe. I knew Randall Flagg wasn't coming for me. I knew the Boulder Free-zone and Captain Tripps were just products of an obsidian-black imagination. I still couldn't shake the inertia that comes with contemplative dread.

"We Live Inside You" is not "The Stand," but it shares some of its emotional guideposts. There were times when I would finish one of the stories and sit in stunned silence, quietly imagining a world in which such things were possible. Its short tales range from catalogues of grotesque horrors (When Susurrus Stirs) to chronicles of aching loss (States of Glass). At their worst, the tone is inconsistent and the exposition ham-handed. Also, the so-called B-sides where probably better left where they laid. Some of the main selections didn't make much of an impact (see the self-important 'Cortical Reorganization'). At their best, however, the chill in the air is palpable and the environment is immersive.

Johnson's horror is not always of the supernatural, gross-out, reach-out-and-grab-you variety (although that is there, too). Sometimes his characters grapple with the horror of their own poor ethical decisions, the horror of losing a loved one, or the horror of being an other. Sure, it doesn't always work, and there were a few times that I sped through stories where the word choice was less than precise and the characters less than 3-dimensional. Still, the majority of the stories in the slim volume have emotional impact, and I'll eagerly snap up the author's other books. I'd love to see what he can do with room to develop character and tell a story that doesn't require exposition. I didn't think the book was the life-changing fiction event of the century that many of the other reviewers seem to have undergone, but it was definitely an enjoyable (and pleasurably jarring) experience. ...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Hakim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: weird, splendicity

Before the internet, I used to have a very hard time finding good books to read. The city I live in harbors only 4 book shops, all of which are shrines to lousy mainstream authors.
But now, thanks to Goodreads, Amazon and a few literary blogs (like Electric Literature), I can finally discover new (or relatively new) and exciting authors that I would have never heard of otherwise.

Jeremy Robert Johnson is a fantastic storyteller, who deserves a wider audience. He is very innovative, and unafraid t ...more

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Sep 08, 2012 Jamie Grefe rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bizarro-fiction

This is a solid collection, so good. Johnson knows how to tell a story, how to keep you second guessing, and how to pull you into scenes bizarre, yet believable and strongly rendered, that you'll wish you weren't able to understand them for you know you'll be haunted by them for the rest of your days. And you keep reading. They feel like memories. I particularly liked that Johnson includes two versions of his wonderful "Persistence Hunting." One version, the first one, clocks in at around 6,000 ...more

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Sep 17, 2016 Charles rated it it was amazing

This is one of the best collections of short fiction I've read in a long time. Each story kicks ass in terms of character development, escalating weirdness and writing so vivid and evocative and succinct that I often stopped to reread a phrase or section just to admire it. There is also laugh-out-loud wit right alongside biological horrors that made me cringe knowing they are based in nature. What many of the characters go through throughout this book made me wish at times that I had a tad less ...more

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Nov 26, 2011 Alan Clark rated it it was amazing

For WE LIVE INSIDE YOU, Jeremy Robert Jonson has cooked up a feast of weirdness with great variety. Okay, so maybe for a collection with a theme of parasites, my food metaphor is not the greatest, but I don't care. Sometimes when you're eating a meal in a foreign land, you don't ask about the ingredients. Jeremy Robert Johnson's imagination is definitely a foreign land, one with color, history and a culture all its own. Each of the 19 incredibly tasty stories has its own flavor. Taken together i ...more

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Dec 20, 2015 Michael Depriez rated it liked it

A solid 3,5/5

My first contact with the deranged mind of Jeremy Robert Johnson happened some months ago when i read, and loved, Skullcrack City, a crazy ride featuring the most important turtle this side of Pratchett's Discworld.

"We Live Inside You" was an enjoyable short story collection but a minor disappointment at the same time. It confirmed that i should read more of this author but rarely reached, in my eyes, the level of mad genius present in "Skullcrack City"

...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Caroline Gerardo rated it it was amazing

My children know, never try and gross out or scare Mom with stories because my twisted mind can spin a random verbal diatribe. I think Jeremy Robert Johnson can beat me at the story game we play.

We Live Inside You is a collection of blazing creations. Dark and terrifying but somehow lovely in his observations.

A combination of imagined world, childhood fears and real ice crystal fragments that can cut to bone.

His pen is a diamond tipped weapon.

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Nov 27, 2011 Marzi Margo rated it it was amazing

Shelves: five-star, bizarro, horror, short-stories, fiction, nonfiction, sci-fi, surrealism

Not as strong as Johnson's first collection, but still fun and impressive. ...more

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Jan 24, 2012 Jason Stevens rated it really liked it

Not quite as bizarre as one would expect (although some of the stories were), but all were enjoyable reads.

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May 02, 2018 cheese rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-read-2018

JRJ keeps getting better with every book of his that I’ve read. These stories are another window into the template of a burgeoning master of weird horror.

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Oct 06, 2019 Horror DNA rated it it was amazing

Shelves: gabino-iglesias

You know what a reviewer's worst nightmare is? Coming across a book that makes him doubt his reviewing skills. Jeremy Robert Johnson's We Live Inside You is one of those dreaded books. While reading it, my confidence in being able to write a review that would do it justice dwindled in direct proportion to the number of pages I read. Yes, I could say the collection is pretty unique, that the author's voice is original and eloquent or that the book is a genre-bending mix of stories akin to a liter ...more

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Apr 29, 2020 Sammy Gravis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genre-blending

Love this collection of short stories. The descriptive writing is beyond pronounced! There are a few stories, that if squeamish, might not sit well with some readers. If you are among those who get uncomfortable with certain stories, I highly encourage you to get over it and read all of the damn stories. Because while you may feel discomfort with one sentence the next will provoke you, spark emotion, or even positively stun you.

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Dec 23, 2017 Tyler Tracey rated it really liked it

Brilliant story-telling, unsettling horror of unknown experiences beyond our reality. When Johnson does narrate us something that may be true in likeliness to our world with little he describes depths core to primary drivers of our character and depicts faults in man that we find quick justification.

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Mar 22, 2019 Jessica S. rated it it was amazing

I only just a few months ago learned about the bizarro fiction genre and the second I did I saw this book and wanted it. I searched desperately for this book until I found it and thankfully i was not dissapointed with it. A short story collection that ranges from off-the-wall bizarre to Stephen King creepy/scary. I loved it all.

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Jul 27, 2020 April rated it it was amazing

Shelves: poetry-stories-essays, own, horror, nanowrimo19

Dark and disturbing- unique voices in every story.

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Nov 08, 2020 Vincent Rey rated it liked it

6 out of 10.
wtf

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Jan 21, 2012 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: horror, bizarro, short-stories

From the cover it would be easy to dismiss We Live Inside You as a collection of parasitic body horror. But that would be a big mistake. Yes, there are three stories in which parasites appear but only in one of them, "When Susurrus Stirs", is it the focus of the story. In the other two, "Cathedral Mother" and "Laws of Virulence", the parasite's presence is secondary, a means to an end. The former is the story of how a young woman went from free love hippie to hardened anti-human ecoterrorist. Th ...more

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Mar 31, 2014 Sean Leonard rated it it was amazing

Shelves: owned

This year alone, I have come across two of the best short story collections that I've ever read. One of them is Fish Bites Cop! Stories To Bash Authorities by David James Keaton. The other is this sick and twisted and amazingly intelligent and perfectly written book you're currently thinking about buying. Just do it. You won't be sorry.

I had previously read the story "Extinction Journals" in The Bizarro Starter Kit (Orange) and loved it, then heard an interview with the author on the Books and B ...more

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Apr 18, 2014 Tyler Spragg rated it it was amazing

I'm ashamed I don't have much cred on here book review wise. This short story collection earns a solid five for several reasons.

Many of these stories are so fun, and over the top that you will without a doubt be re reading them shortly after your first go. Persistence Hunting and the Gravity of Benham Falls are my two favorites, having read them before in a sampler, and a few times now that they are housed in this book.

You may be asking, "what genre is it?!"

Weeeelll, this is my favorite part abo ...more

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Apr 19, 2015 Collin Henderson rated it it was amazing

This is one of the best short story collections I have ever read. It was my first exposure to JRJ and I'd recommend it to anyone looking to experience him.

What's staggering is the variety at play here. Some stories are pretty straightforward, like "The Gravity of Benham Falls," which is a ghost story in every sense. Others are darkly hilarious, like "Consumerism" which is a one sided conversation a man has with his young son shortly after a car accident (and is a sequel to the equally hilarious ...more

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Aug 27, 2012 R.A. Harris rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bizarro-fiction, paperback

This book is one of those story collections that everybody should read. In turns fascinating, poignant, scary and all too human, Jeremy Robert Johnson taps into the nightmare psyche that threatens to eat you every moment of your life. Each story highlights another gremlin that snacks on your nerves, tells you things you don't want to hear.

This books is so good it has been nominated as one of the best bizarro story collections of the year. That's right, everybody who has read it has loved it, and ...more

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