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Glitter & Mayhem

(InCryptid #2.2 - Bad Dream Girl)

John Klima (Editor),

Lynne M. Thomas (Goodreads Author) (Editor)

Michael Damian Thomas (Goodreads Author) (Editor)

Amber Benson (Goodreads Author) (Introduction)

Christopher Barzak (Goodreads Author) (Contributor)

Kat Howard (Goodreads Author) (Contributor)

Jennifer Pelland (Contributor)

Cat Rambo (Goodreads Author) (Contributor)

, more…

3.76 · Rating details · 582 ratings · 101 reviews

Welcome to Glitter & Mayhem, the most glamorous party in the multiverse.

Step behind the velvet rope of these fabulous Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror tales of roller rinks, nightclubs, glam aliens, party monsters, drugs, sex, glitter, and debauchery.

Dance through nightclubs, roller derby with cryptids and aliens, be seduced by otherworldly creatures, and ingest ...more

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Kindle Edition, 348 pages

Published August 21st 2013 by Apex Publications (first published August 1st 2013)

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May 12, 2013 Bob rated it liked it · review of another edition

I have read a lot of strange, weird, and bizarre fiction over the years, but I do believe Glitter & Mayhem may just be the oddest collection of stories I have ever come across. I'm not talking avant-garde or surreal, as is so often the case with Bizarro fiction, just plain old . . . well, odd. As you may have guessed from the cover, if not the title itself, this is sex-crazed, drug-fueled, glitter-drenched science fiction and fantasy that is firmly embedded in the disco-esque party scene.

I have read a lot of strange, weird, and bizarre fiction over the years, but I do believe Glitter & Mayhem may just be the oddest collection of stories I have ever come across. I'm not talking avant-garde or surreal, as is so often the case with Bizarro fiction, just plain old . . . well, odd. As you may have guessed from the cover, if not the title itself, this is sex-crazed, drug-fueled, glitter-drenched science fiction and fantasy that is firmly embedded in the disco-esque party scene.

While seeing three editors attached to a project is sometimes a red flag, suggesting a sense of desperation or disagreement in attempting to fill the pages, here it's a sign of confidence. In reading through the stories, it's clear that John Klima, Lynne M. Thomas, and Michael Damian Thomas were all huge fans of the concept, with their collective efforts producing a surprisingly diverse collection of stories for such a specific 'niche' sort of theme.

'Sister Twelve: Confessions of a Party Monster' by Christopher Barzak really sets the theme, with a fairy tale band of 12 sisters who escape their needlepoint drudgery through a magic portal in the floor, emerging in a world of disco and dance, and returning home each morning with their slippers in tatters. The clash of genres, settings, and characters is almost ridiculously strange at first, but it all comes together in the end, leaving the reader primed for whatever madness might come next.

The next story, "Apex Jump" from David J Schwartz, goes about as far away from the first as possible, taking us to an alien roller derby in a galaxy far from Earth. 'With Her Hundred Miles to Hell' from Kat Howard takes us hurtling back to Earth - or, rather, below it - for a mythology infused historical adventure into Hades, while 'Star Dancer' from Jennifer Pelland catapults us into the hedonistic 80s with alien punks, bellydancers, and the music of Siouxsie Sioux, The Cure, and Madonna.

That much diversity and we're only 4 stories in. I think you get the picture.

The collection ends with "All That Fairy Tale Crap," a genre-bending tale from Rachel Swirsky that deliberately undoes the effort Barzak put into priming us for the party, taking us out of the scene with a Cinderella who deconstructs the traditional fairy tale and demands of us her own brand of happy ending.

Most surprisingly of all, the stories here never wear out their welcome. I honestly wondered how long I could go before becoming bored with the roller derby, night club, party scene excesses of fairies, monsters, and aliens, but that's just a theme, a common thread to bind the stories together, and not a plot device. The diversity here is surprising, and while there are always stories that don't work for me, I found the quality to be remarkably stellar.

Oh, and if you're looking for a suitable reading soundtrack, I suggest a mix of David Bowie, Sisters of Mercy, and Skinny Puppy . . . preferably on cassette, if you still have them. :)

Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins ...more

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Jan 01, 2017 Angela rated it liked it

Shelves: anthology, sci-fi, kindle, fantasy, urban-fantasy, 2017-read

Bad Dream Girl by Seanan McGuire

I only read Antimony's short in this anthology so the rating is only for that. I plan to come back and check out the other stories over time.

Antimony is a character that I'm intrigued with. I admit that I'm not in love with all the roller derby stuff but I do like how there's enough there to give me the picture on what is going on and not quite too much there to make me overly bored.

As I already love the other two Price children (in this generation), I was glad to ...more

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Sep 28, 2013 Amal El-Mohtar rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Requisite Humble-Is-For-Pies disclaimer: I have a story in this.

Further disclaimer: I was having a very, very, very bad day when I decided to immerse myself in this book, and reading it went a long way towards making me feel like something more than a smear on the pavement.

Furthest disclaimer: I know and love several of the people involved in the making of this book.

So! I loved it. I did not love every single story, but I liked almost all of them, really liked a significant number, and outright Requisite Humble-Is-For-Pies disclaimer: I have a story in this.

Further disclaimer: I was having a very, very, very bad day when I decided to immerse myself in this book, and reading it went a long way towards making me feel like something more than a smear on the pavement.

Furthest disclaimer: I know and love several of the people involved in the making of this book.

So! I loved it. I did not love every single story, but I liked almost all of them, really liked a significant number, and outright passionately adored about five. I read a fair number of anthologies and this high a hit rate is pretty unusual for me. The last time I liked an anthology this much was probably when reading Mike Allen's Clockwork Phoenix books.

My absolute favourites were David Schwartz' "Apex Jump," Cat Rambo's "Of Selkies, Disco Balls, and Anna Plane," Tim Pratt's "Revels in the Land of Ice," Maria Dahvana Headley's "Such & Such Said to So & So," and Sofia Samatar's "Bess, the Landlord's Daughter, Goes for Drinks with the Green Girl," so I want to talk about them at some length.

Schwartz' story is like when a cocktail manages to be so perfectly balanced between fruity sweetness and boozy bitterness that it transcends mere mixing to become more than the sum of its parts. There's a pain at the core of it that's sublimated into this ecstatic, triumphant loveliness that left me happy, and given the aforementioned very very very bad day, it was welcome and refreshing and lovely, to the point where even just thinking about it makes me smile.

Both Rambo's and Pratt's had such finely sketched characters, relationships, realizations, and dexterity in putting those elements into play with each other that I was left completely satisfied. They rock the 6K word short story form in ways that just delight me. The last line of Pratt's in particular was wonderful, and I say this as someone who spent the first half of the last decade overindulging in fairy-inspired-artist narratives.

I loved Headley and Samatar's best because in an anthology that had a large number of urban fantasy / mythic fiction offerings (including my own), theirs did things with form and voice that were very different, very textured, and more experiential than narrative in ways I adored.

I thought it was also overall a very well-curated anthology, and one that hit all my synaesthetic buttons in the right way. I've seen reviews where people describe feeling the partying to be a bit same-y, but my experience was that the anthology's stories are more light-through-prism than light reflecting off a disco-ball: the authors take the theme and direct their stories through it such that the result is a riot of colour. And also sound -- I want very much to see or make a playlist that includes every song mentioned or alluded to in the collection, because it is thick with music. ...more

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Sep 05, 2013 Indigo rated it liked it

Shelves: girl-power

Anthologies are like eating mystery cake. Yummy chocolate with random add ins like caramel, butterscotch, raspberry, shrimp, feet, durian, pate, caviar, or okra. Some go well, some don't, and some just don't work in this combination.

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Nov 26, 2013 Sunil rated it really liked it

Shelves: own, 2013

Glitter and Mayhem may only exist as an excuse to throw a glow-in-the-dark roller skating book release party at Worldcon—I am not exaggerating; that is literally how this anthology came about—but it does present a diverse collection of short stories about parties, roller derby, debauchery, glam aliens, sex, drugs, and so on. What's impressive is that the general "party" theme, however prevalent, doesn't feel repetitive, thanks to the authors' different takes and levels of adherence. Some stories Glitter and Mayhem may only exist as an excuse to throw a glow-in-the-dark roller skating book release party at Worldcon—I am not exaggerating; that is literally how this anthology came about—but it does present a diverse collection of short stories about parties, roller derby, debauchery, glam aliens, sex, drugs, and so on. What's impressive is that the general "party" theme, however prevalent, doesn't feel repetitive, thanks to the authors' different takes and levels of adherence. Some stories revolve entirely around a thematic element, and others have one party scene and call it a day.

Favorite stories include David J. Schwartz's "Apex Jump" (alien roller derby), Jennifer Pelland's "Star Dancer" (alien belly dancer, very amusing), Cory Skerry's "Sooner Than Gold" (a thief following instructions from a magic book, very interesting concept), William Shunn & Laura Chavoen's "Subterraneans" (two women become hooked on some unusual pills), Tansy Rayner Roberts's "The Minotaur Girls" (evil roller skating club), Alan DeNiro's "Unable to Reach You" (fantastic hook, though resolution is a bit weird), Tim Pratt's "Revels in the Land of Ice" (interdimensional breach), Diana Rowland's "Blood and Sequins" (cops at a costume party get more than they bargained for), Seanan McGuire's "Bad Dream Girl" (reason I bought the anthology, fairly straightforward roller derby story that introduces Antimony Price), Amal El-Mohtar's "A Hollow Play" (Glaswegian cabaret, lovely tale of friendship and loss), and Rachel Swirsky's "All That Fairy Tale Crap" (no-holds-barred metafictional assault on princesses). Some of the others were either okay or too esoteric for me, requiring a bit more work than I was willing to give them.

Overall, though, I admired every story's sensory detail, the vibrant language that evoked colors and sounds of revelry. I also appreciated the number of queer and trans characters. The anthology may have been created on a whim, but it inspired many stories worth reading. ...more

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Apr 27, 2014 Anita rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy, anthologies, e-books-i-own

A fantasy anthology with a lot of references to parties and roller skating.

Sister Twelve: Confessions of a Party Monster - Christopher Barzak
I liked this one. It's about 12 princes that escape through the floor of their castle to a hub realm from which they can go to dance parties in every imaginable time and dimension. One of them stays.

Apex Jump - David Schwartz
A very entertaining story about a roller derby team that gets recruited to an intergalactic bout many light years away.

With Her ...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Anna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, urban-fantasy, short-fiction

This novella is going to be published this summer in the anthology Glitter and Mayhem - I got an early copy of it as my thank you swag for helping back the anthology on Kickstarter, and I think it's the nicest Kickstarter perk I've had yet! Set in the same InCryptid universe as Discount Armageddon this story stars Verity's little sister Antimony, she of the pit trap fame, as she investigates mysterious goings on in her roller derby league. I've only been to roller derby once, and I spent my ...more

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Aug 29, 2013 Isabel (kittiwake) rated it really liked it

Shelves: lt-er

I received a free copy of this book in return for a review, via the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

Little cinder girls, we're raised in fire.
Either you melt and become the simpering thing you're supposed to.
Or else you temper into something calloused and unbreakable.

The book started off well, as the first couple of stories are two of my favourites. "Apex Jump" is a science fiction story about a roller derby team that gets invited to play a very unusual away match, while "Sister Twelve: ...more

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Oct 25, 2016 Faye rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, uf-anthology, short-story-collection

I only bought this for Seanan Mcguire's contribution but I read it all and for the most part I loved it! It has introduced me to some new authors whose work I will be checking out in the future.

Individual ratings are as follows:

Sister Twelve... by Christopher Barzak -5/5 stars FAVOURITE
Apex Jump by David J. Schwartz - 4/5 stars
With her hundred miles to hell by Kat Howard - 2/5 stars
Star Dancer by Jennifer Pelland - 3.5/5 stars
Of Selkies, Disco Balls, and Anna Plane by Cat Rambo - 4/5 stars
Sooner ...more

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Feb 24, 2018 Audrey rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: chicago, oregon, minnesota, eldritch-horrors, indiana, glasgow

Skates on. Ante up.

Myths, legends, 90s industrial music and roller derby. This book has a lot going on all at once. And so much of it makes you ruminate on the clubs of your own misspent youth*. At the same time, this anthology is what you always wished those clubs would be: secret fantastic portals where you really were the hero of a dark fantasy epic that made all that time spent picking out your outfit suddenly worth it.

All anthologies are mixed bags, but what impressed me here was that the ...more

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May 16, 2013 David Ledeboer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I can’t really top Amber Benson’s introduction to the anthology, Glitter & Mayhem, edited by John Klima, Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas. She’s pretty much got all the eye-popping, funkadelic, trippy feel to each and every one of these stories down to the very bones. All I can really do is give you a repeat. These stories bend, twist, break just about every stereotype there is – gender bending, race bending, species bending, mind bending. It’s all in here. Between roller derby, ...more

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Sep 28, 2013 Marta rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Before I start this review, I should make one thing clear: I'm the least club-going, disco-loving person I know. I think I was in a club once in my whole life, but it was too loud, and the lights were too bright, and I left as soon as it was polite. I also can't dance, don't do drugs, and consider "a great party" to be one in which the cylons manage to destroy humanity during a game of Battlestar:Galactica. All these things should probably make me hate "Glitter and Mayhem" - an anthology of ...more

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Jan 05, 2017 Jessica ❁ ➳ Silverbow ➳ ❁ Rabid Reads-no-more added it

Shelves: hey-shorty, not-your-ordinary-creatures, urban-fantasy, anthologies

Reviewed by: Rabid Reads

Bad Dream Girl, InCryptid 2.2

2 stars

As much as I love roller derby, I did not love this story.

BAD DREAM GIRL felt like it was written to fill a anthology slot, and while it kind of was, McGuire writes for anthologies all the time, and it's always been meaningful to whatever world she's adding to.

Not this time. It was all, "I don't wanna bore you with details,"--seriously, that was said at least three times--Antimony trying to figure out what kind of cryptid she was ...more

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Aug 07, 2013 Mely rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy, sff, short-stories

The stories aren't bad, but the only stand-out entry is Sofia Samatar's "Bess, the Landlord's Daughter, Goes Out for Drinks with the Green Girl," which covers some of the same territory as Helen Oyeyemi's Mr. Fox, but in a whirl of bars and flirtations and dancing and friendships and escapes that come too late. We are fascinated by beautiful dead girls; they take their revenge.

I also liked:

Tansy Rayner Robert's "The Minotaur Girls," where a girl needs to free her friends from the labyrinth of a ...more

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Jun 03, 2013 Glennis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: single-story-from-previous-antholog

Up front I supported the Kickstarter for this book and I also happened to win a review copy off of Goodreads. I was sold on this anthology mostly because of Seanan McGuire was in it and I enjoy her stuff. What I got was a great story by her and several other stories that were great and at least one I know will be on my Hugo ballot for short story next year. There were a few stories that didn't kick with me but that seems to happen in every theme anthology that read. As much as I thought all the ...more

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Jun 13, 2013 Tabitha marked it as to-be-reviewed · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-or-futuristic, anthology-or-short-or-novella, monsters, for-review-received-from-publisher

Who doesn't love roller derby, robots, fantasy and sex? Really though I'm hoping for all the oddball, and WTF the introduction promises because sometimes the weirder the better. Bring it.

*review to be updated with individual ratings and brief story descriptions as I move through the collection*

SISTER TWELVE: CONFESSIONS OF A PARTY MONSTER by Christopher Barzak
3.5 / 5
A retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale. The castle they go to dance in is actually some sort of nexus in time and ...more

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Aug 07, 2013 Purcell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Simply an amazing anthology. Get off your ass today and buy an ebook or paper copy today. So much fun queer spec fic and general fun.

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Aug 07, 2013 Cathy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal, read-in-2014, science-fiction, fantasy, urban, satire, anthology, short-stories, people-of-color

I've wanted to read this for over a year, ever since I saw the table of contents on SF Signal. I didn't even know if I'd be able to get it, it was Kickstarted and I didn't know if it was something my library would end up getting, but I kept checking for a long time. I wasn't that into short stories at that point, I just wanted to read the stories by Seanan McGuire and Diana Rowland. In the last year I got hooked on short stories enough to be really excited about seven more of the authors, which ...more

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Jan 13, 2018 Alysa H. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: cutthroat-book-club-2018

This collection is so on-point, it's awesome. It's like being inside a Bowie song. Or, ALL the Bowie songs. Sometimes almost literally, what with all the Bowie references that pepper the stories.

Some of the authors date themselves, e.g., tons of '80s references, but that is fine with me, as a child of the '80s myself. And for better or worse, the feelings and experiences captured and/or desired here are indeed kind of becoming relics of a past age.

I didn't love all the stories, but I did love ...more

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Jul 07, 2016 Shayla Gibson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

As with most short story collections, there were some stories here that I liked more than others. Nobody who knows me will be surprised that Seanan McGuire's story ranked at the favored end of the scale :)

Sister Twelve: Confessions of a Party Monster by Christopher Barzak - 4/5, fun and interesting take on 12 Dancing Princesses

Apex Jump by David J. Schwartz - 5/5, holy crap I liked this story. It was fun, and funny, and had a couple hard pokes in the feels. Good characters and engaging writing.

...more

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Nov 07, 2013 K.H. Vaughan rated it liked it · review of another edition

“Glitter and Mayhem is a speculative fiction anthology of Roller Derby, nightclubs, glam aliens, (literal) party monsters, drugs, sex, glitter, debauchery, and more.” Yes. Yes, it is. The call for stories was wide open, and there are a number of dark fantasy and horror stories packed into this particular night club. Like any great party, there’s an interesting mix. Within are tales of ghosts on the party circuit, interstellar roller derby leagues, and nightclubs filled with demons and Fae. These “Glitter and Mayhem is a speculative fiction anthology of Roller Derby, nightclubs, glam aliens, (literal) party monsters, drugs, sex, glitter, debauchery, and more.” Yes. Yes, it is. The call for stories was wide open, and there are a number of dark fantasy and horror stories packed into this particular night club. Like any great party, there’s an interesting mix. Within are tales of ghosts on the party circuit, interstellar roller derby leagues, and nightclubs filled with demons and Fae. These are the dreamlands, populated with the weird and the fabulous. It is an adventurous and rebellious collection pervaded with a sense that boundaries and limitations are arbitrary. Space, time, gender, consciousness: none of it is real, everything is just a matter of perspective. And if you don’t like the perspective you have, there’s a pharmaceutical solution for that. The call pulled for retro visions, but inspiration could just as easily been drawn from Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night, Lady Gaga’s Just Dance, and Pink’s Raise Your Glass. Scenes come and go, but the hunger for them remains and the beat goes on.

The challenge of this anthology is that it mixes genres so freely. Although there are thematic elements in common, the type and tone of stories varies more wildly than a lot of anthologies with clearer genre boundaries. The shifts can be a little disorienting, but then that may be part of the point, right? This effect is amplified by a couple of stories that are more tenuously connected to the central theme, but, on the whole, the glitter wins out. The individual pieces are uneven, but some are wonderful and most at least good. The editors have made good on the thematic promise and produced an entertaining and unusual collection. There were a few typos and formatting issues in the advanced review MOBI file (e.g., widows and orphans), but these may have been corrected by release.

In various ways, these stories are often about escape. Characters are trapped by supernatural curses, prejudice and societal expectations, unsatisfying relationships, shitty jobs, and the awful mundane grayness of it all. They long for a little magic in a cold and ordinary world. For acceptance. For freedom. To get past the velvet ropes to the VIP lounge, or down the rabbit hole. Something permanent would be great, but even a little taste will do if that’s the best we can hope for. We can find or lose ourselves in identity games and sensual abandon.

With the retro flavor comes a sense of nostalgia for innocent party days without consequence, when people believed cocaine was not addictive and HIV was, at most, a rumor. The anthology reminds me of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, and not just because of the roller skates. Midway through it starts to turn, moving from pure good times to the seamier side that exists in every Scene. Eventually you find out that the VIP Lounge at Studio 54 was a filthy basement storage with lawn furniture and bare mattresses on a concrete floor, and Edie Sedgwick doesn’t wake up in the morning. Structurally, the editors then choose to pull away from the uglier reality and return to happier fantasies, but even then there are stories about people trying to hold onto things after they are gone, or to the idea of things that never were. The final piece may be a recognition of the illusion and desperation of it all in the end.

Does it cohere? Not entirely. But this is about chaos, so that’s o.k. If one story is not your kind of party, turn the acid-soaked page. Take the red pill, board the Mothership, and skate beneath the mirror balls. Just for tonight, the Thin White Duke is on the stage, and tomorrow can’t come unless we let it.

[Originally published on Hellnotes.com] ...more

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Aug 01, 2017 Carolyn F. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library-book, anthology-omnibus-essays

Anthology. As I was reading this book there seemed to be a theme of rollerskating lesbians but then I found out there were some other stories interspersed. I wonder if that was initially what the publisher were going for but then needed extra stories to fill it out.

The average rating is 3.33 stars. More than I thought actually.

1. Sister Twelve: Confessions of a Party Monster by Christopher Barzak. 12 sisters travel through time dancing at famous and infamous clubs. One wants to stay. Good ...more

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Aug 03, 2013 Victoria Hooper rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, short-stories, magic, away-with-the-fairies, aliens, paranormal, urban-fantasy, surreal-or-weird, fairytale

Glitter and Mayhem is a short story anthology with the theme of glamour, parties, nightclubs, drugs, sex and rollerskating, all with a science fiction or fantasy element. The stories are all odd, some more so than others, and there’s a wonderful mix of fun, tongue-in-cheek, scary, thoughtful and sad. An anthology with this kind of theme could have suffered from stories that are all too similar in style and feel, but here this is not the case at all; the editors have managed to collect a really ...more

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Dec 19, 2013 Lauren rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: anthology, lgbt

This collection was really a 2 star read for me but I am bumping it up because it hosts an entire cast full of lesbian, transgender, bisexual and queer characters (no gay, intersex, asexual that I recall). There needs to be a lot more of this showing up as "normal" in fiction. Unfortunately, despite a variably diverse character list the stories themselves left me wanting.

This collection just tries too hard. It wants you to be able to taste glitter and it falls short and floats in that nebulous This collection was really a 2 star read for me but I am bumping it up because it hosts an entire cast full of lesbian, transgender, bisexual and queer characters (no gay, intersex, asexual that I recall). There needs to be a lot more of this showing up as "normal" in fiction. Unfortunately, despite a variably diverse character list the stories themselves left me wanting.

This collection just tries too hard. It wants you to be able to taste glitter and it falls short and floats in that nebulous range of "too much" and "not enough" all at once. Most of the stories needed a toning down because they were just silly and not particularly "fun" silly, just eye rolling. At the same time most also needed a sharp spurring in the ribs. They needed to look deeper at raves and roller derby and find what makes them tick and what draws people in. The stories started to run together: superficial, short skirts, making out with random people, drug use, attempting to use language choices to make the characters sound "cool" based on the author's television research. Even the roller derby stories were silly. No camraderie, just more drug use, making out, etc. I gave up hope at the halfway mark. Thankfully there were two stories in the latter half that helped me limp to the end.

If you bought this for Seanan's story (guilty) you will be pleased. I think this story will appeal to non-Seanan fans (by which I mean, people who haven't read Seanan yet - what other kind is there?) as well. It is one of the only stories that lurks a little deeper, looking at derby as an actual sport and the relationships of people in and out of derby. A fun, light read. Well worth it. I really enjoyed getting to see more of Antimony and Artie and it made me excited for the next InCryptid novels.

The second story I found well worth the read was "Bess, the Landlord's Daughter, Goes Out for Drinks with the Green Girl". This story actually outclassed Seanan's and I adored it and wished it would never end. Whereas other stories lagged this story's timing is brilliant and has real depth. I will be adding some Sofia Samatar books to my tbr list immediately.

A few other stories were good additions, but I can't even recall their names. Unfortunately the rest ran the gamut from "almost there!" to "meh" to unreadable (only 1 thankfully). If you can't get enough raves or roller derby no matter how well written - read on. If you would like to read an anthology with lgbtqia representation - read on. Beyond that. Proceed with caution.
...more

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Mar 30, 2016 Jorge Villarruel rated it liked it · review of another edition

Fantasy, science fiction, horror, even cyberfunk... yes, I said funk. It's all here. Glitter & Mayhem is a collection of short stories about glamour, skates, nightclubs, and weird and queer people, not all of them human. It promises a fun party full of drugs and great music, mainly David Bowie, which is not that great, really (Gene Loves Jezebel is far better, as William Shunn & Laura Chavoen can tell you), and that is what we get. Specially skates.

There's a problem with anthologies like Fantasy, science fiction, horror, even cyberfunk... yes, I said funk. It's all here. Glitter & Mayhem is a collection of short stories about glamour, skates, nightclubs, and weird and queer people, not all of them human. It promises a fun party full of drugs and great music, mainly David Bowie, which is not that great, really (Gene Loves Jezebel is far better, as William Shunn & Laura Chavoen can tell you), and that is what we get. Specially skates.

There's a problem with anthologies like this, based on tropes, adjusted to a type of thematic ("Roller Derby, nightclubs, glam aliens, [literal] party monsters, drugs, sex, glitter, debauchery, etc." was the prompt): Most characters are not full developed, but that doesn't mean the stories are bad. They are not. With only one exception: Bad Dream Girl by Seanan McGuire.

Bad Dream Girl is an unbearable story about a bunch of freaks pretending to be normal people, the Munsters syndrome I'd say, a family of monsters that try too hard to fit normal society, to be the ideal mid-class american family. Boring as hell! But one story doesn't make the book. There are some really good stories here. My favorite were:

A Hollow Play by Amal El-Mohtar. A touching epistolary tale about longing, friendship and learning to move on. It's the best characerization in the entire book.
Blood and Sequins by Diana Rowland. A detective story about tu cosplayer cops who almost get to have sex with a beautiful butterfly-body-painted woman. Full of action, strong characterization and absorbing story.
Revels in the Land of Ice by Tim Pratt. Good characterizations and well rounded relationships between them, to tell a story about an ill-fated romances turned into strong friendship. A really poignant story.
Unable to Reach You by Alan DeNiro. Sad and frightening story about a good man who tries to do good (reporting telephone stalkers), then become reluctant hero in his own story full of monsters and conspiracies.
Star Dancer by Jennifer Pelland. A story about men in black and alien conspiracies. Fun, emotional, some characters are better written than others, but that's not a problem here. Oh, and Iggy Pop was an alien.

This five stories are worth the price of admission, but there are more. You must find your favorite flavors. This is a party you want to be part of. ...more

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Sep 14, 2013 Shane rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, humour, short-stories

This was produced via kickstarter apparently. I didn't know that until I happened across a review, I think it was Tor.com I initially read about it. It's an Anthology that asked for submissions with a prompt of,

 "Roller Derby, nightclubs, glam aliens, (literal) party monsters, drugs, sex, glitter, debauchery, etc."

...which sounded like heaven to me. So I bought it for next to nothing on 'smashwords', about $3.95 or something I think, which was a steal considering one or two of the stories are This was produced via kickstarter apparently. I didn't know that until I happened across a review, I think it was Tor.com I initially read about it. It's an Anthology that asked for submissions with a prompt of,

 "Roller Derby, nightclubs, glam aliens, (literal) party monsters, drugs, sex, glitter, debauchery, etc."

...which sounded like heaven to me. So I bought it for next to nothing on 'smashwords', about $3.95 or something I think, which was a steal considering one or two of the stories are worth more than that on their own.

I won't go through each story individually due to them all being well written and wonderful in their own way, but of course in every Anthology their are always the stories that you love more than others. For me I particularly enjoyed the ones that dived right into the whole 'Roller Derby' scene complete with various aliens and other strange goings on. It sent me right back to the '80s when we'd go daily to the hall in our local sports centre and stumble around the large wooden-floored hall there in an attempt not to go arse-upwards in time to the music that blasted out. I remember one lad that gained one hell of a reputation for being the best skater that ever lived. He was there all the time, whenever we arrived he would already be whizzing around, jumping over the fallen with unnatural ease and generally being a god of the rink.

I've never seen a real, proper Roller Derby but some of these stories really make me feel as though I have, while at the same time hoping I'll get the chance for real one day.

There are a few stories that didn't hit the spot with me at the time, the more serious ones usually, or those few that only very subtly hint at the whole 'Roller Derby, nightclubs, glam aliens...' prompt given to those submitting. However, I would jump at the chance to see a 'Glitter & Mayhem 2' enter the fray and will be keeping an eye out on their website just in case another kickstarter appears. If it does, do yourself a huge favour and jump right on it ASAP. I certainly will be. In the meantime, do yourself another favour and head on over to smashwords(or any number of other sites) and download the best time you'll have since those dim and distant memories of the '80s.

Fantastic Anthology. Highly recommended. Buy it now...!

...more

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Aug 14, 2013 Rhonda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I was a little bit dubious about this book when I first learned about it through its kickstarter. I mean, I wasn't into disco, I didn't roller skate... I liked glitter as much as the next girl but... meh. I decided it wasn't going to be for me and carried on with my life.

Then one of my favourite short story writers, Damien Walters Grintalis, announced that she was going to have a story in Glitter and Mayhem. That made me pay more attention. I put it on my mental 'To Be Read' list and carried on I was a little bit dubious about this book when I first learned about it through its kickstarter. I mean, I wasn't into disco, I didn't roller skate... I liked glitter as much as the next girl but... meh. I decided it wasn't going to be for me and carried on with my life.

Then one of my favourite short story writers, Damien Walters Grintalis, announced that she was going to have a story in Glitter and Mayhem. That made me pay more attention. I put it on my mental 'To Be Read' list and carried on with my life.

A while later an email appeared in my inbox from LibraryThing telling me that the month's giveaways were up so I went to take a look. Wouldn't you know it, there was Glitter and Mayhem, so I entered to win a review copy and carried on with my life.

When I won a copy I was pleased, I added it to my EReader and, you guessed it...

And then I started reading.

I started reading and I couldn't stop.

Collections are tricky, I often like only a small percentage of the stories in any given anthology, and I love even less. In this anthology I liked all but one and loved most of them. It's an exciting, eclectic collection of stories that kept me up reading way past my bedtime and completely enthralled.

Some of my personal favourites from Glitter and Mayhem are Star Dancer by Jennifer Pelland, Subterraneans by William Shunn & Laura Chavoen, All That Fairy Tale Crap by Rachel Swirsky, Sister Twelve: Confessions of a Party Monster by Christopher Barzak and, of course, Damien's story Inside Hides the Monster. To tell you the truth, I adored so many stories in this book I had to stop listing favourites before I had the whole table of contents written out.

This is a fabulous collection that I recommend to anyone who likes speculative fiction. There are re-told fairy tales, science fiction flavoured derby stories, funny stories, pretty stories... The prose in many of these is so fantastic that, as an envious writer, I desperately wanted to hate the authors, but I couldn't because I was too enamored with their work.

A phenomenal collection which I highly recommend. ...more

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Dec 13, 2016 Jessica rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, short-stories, 2016-challenge

First, I figure I should point out that most of these stories were fantasy and only a handful were science fiction. If you like fantasy more, great. If you're like me and figured it'd be more science fiction based on the cover (or at least half science fiction), just know that it's not. Also, the stories were considerably less queer than I was expecting based on the title/cover. As in, I figured all of them would be, and not all of them were. So my expectations were a little off going into this. ...more

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Aug 18, 2013 Coyora Dokusho rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is part of the Glitter and Mayhem anthology. I hope the book ends up being for sale! I didn't know about the kickstarter T_T Also the Apex publisher's site says it'll be out in September, not August...

8/25/2013 6:01 PM

It was amazing!!!! I love cryptids... I love the family!!! Yayayayyayayay!!!

Also if you buy it from Apex Publishing you get a .mobi, a .pdf, and an .epub for the same price as amazon, and you don't have to keep it in the cloud like my kindle makes me...

3/4/14 Read the second ...more

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Oct 30, 2016 Sarah marked it as to-read

Shelves: books-i-own-kindle

I'm not marking this anthology as read or giving it a star rating yet because I've only read one novella so far. I do intend to come back to it at some point though so I'll update this review as I read any further stories.

Bad Dream Girl by Seanan McGuire
Read 29th October 2016 - Rating 3 stars

We saw Antimony's tryouts for roller derby in the previous short story but in this one she's a full member of the team and she loves every minute of it. She joined the Slasher Chicks as a way to keep fit and ...more

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