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Blood Kiss
Signed by Author on title page - signature only - Book in Mylar cover. No remainder marks, no ink markings. NOT priced clipped. First edition, First Printing Thirteen Stories of horror and Dark Fantasy.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1988
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About the author
Dennis Etchison
180 books116 followersaka Jack Martin.
Dennis William Etchison was an American writer and editor of fantasy and horror fiction. He is a multi-award winner, having won the British Fantasy Award three times for fiction, and the World Fantasy Award for anthologies he edited.
Dennis William Etchison was an American writer and editor of fantasy and horror fiction. He is a multi-award winner, having won the British Fantasy Award three times for fiction, and the World Fantasy Award for anthologies he edited.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 12, 2021
This is a good collection of horror stories that span the majority of Etchison's career, from the 1960's through the year of publication, 1988. His writing is very atmospheric and moody, and you have to pay attention to the details. A couple of the stories left me with the feeling that I'd missed something until I went back and gave them more time, and I'm still not sure I got the first one, Call 666. I particularly recommend A Nice, Shady Place about family relationships and trying to make connections, Home Call about a child welfare case worker on her first day, and The Olympic Runner, a -really- chilling story. The book is nicely illustrated by J.K. Potter. The book ends with the title story, about making movies, complete with script excerpts, and is a nice complement to his novel California Gothic.
January 3, 2018
“A Nice, Shady Place”
A woman visits her younger brother in a camp where he’s not allowed to write home. This had some tense moments, though I was confused by the last scene. 4/5
“The Woman in Black”
A boy loses his mother and moves in with his grandmother and aunts and uncles. I could sense Etchison drawing on some personal emotions with the character’s loneliness and desire for love in the form of a ghostly woman in black. 5/5
“A Walk in the Wet”
A man tries to remember what happened to him on a night at a bar while his peers forget. There was a bit of sci-fi element to this one, though it felt grounded enough in exploring loss and memories for a snap of an ending. 4/5
“The Night of the Eye”
A driver gets into an accident on the highway caused by a mysterious figure in a car. I liked the atmosphere and mystery in this piece, especially as the protagonist and his wife try to reconstruct the accident though fragmented dialogue. 4/5
“The Spot”
Two aspiring actors working as cleaning people end up visiting the homes of aging and retiring actors. This piece had more of a literary feel to it despite it having Etchison’s usual bleak atmosphere. 3/5
“The Soft Wall”
A story about the a breakup and past traumas, where the wife feels misunderstood and the husband tries to reach her, only to kill what was left of their relationship. I loved how Etchison conveyed the horror through being lost in the dark only guided by the touch we crave for human contact. 5/5
“Somebody Like You”
Inspired by Etchison’s significant other at the time, a woman speaks aloud while dreaming while her partner tries to make sense of it. As a reader, this felt even more vague and abstract, and like any dream there’s not often an answer. 3/5
“Bloodgame”
A director’s game show goes awry when the contestants get replaced. Based on Etchison’s experience on a gameshow, he explores what would happen if people deviated from the script. While explained rather than ambiguous, found the ending a bit awkward with no hints dropped earlier in the story about the backstory. 3/5
“Deadspace”
A producer waits for his lead actor to answer his calls, and meanwhile he meets a young woman at the hotel. I wasn’t sure what was going on with this one. 3/5
“Home Call”
A social worker gets her first case in the field to help an abused foster child. From my background in a helping profession, the protagonist’s insecurities felt genuine, and the situation made for a fitting horror situation, though a bit more predictable than Etchison’s other pieces. 4/5
“The Olympic Runner”
A mother reaches her breaking point in trying to keep her family together when she takes one of her younger daughter on a road trip to find her runaway oldest daughter. Exploring the common theme of a broken family, Etchison taps into feelings of existential loneliness and frustration in trying to connect with love ones. 4/5
“Call 666”
Inspired by one of Etchison’s breakups, a man keeps receiving calls from his ex, and later answers a mysterious call from a pay phone. I liked the nightmarishness of this one, though the ending was confusing. 4/5
“Time Killer”
A killer obsessed with time enacts his plan. I wish Etchison fleshed out the characters a bit more, since I wasn’t clear on the killer’s motivations, let alone cared about what happened to those he harmed. 2/5
“The Blood Kiss”
A script editor tries to take credit for someone else’s script, and sets up a meeting with the original writer. I read this in a previous anthology several years ago, and this time around enjoyed it more; particularly the structure of the screenplay (a meta zombie story) alternating with the narrative. 5/5
I’ve always been fascinated with Etchison’s writing, with both his stylish yet accessible prose, explorations of loneliness and alienation, and the quietness (and ambiguity) of his horror. The Blood Kiss presents another collection of stories from a master of the short story, and ones to savor for fans of dark fiction. 3.8/5 stars
A woman visits her younger brother in a camp where he’s not allowed to write home. This had some tense moments, though I was confused by the last scene. 4/5
“The Woman in Black”
A boy loses his mother and moves in with his grandmother and aunts and uncles. I could sense Etchison drawing on some personal emotions with the character’s loneliness and desire for love in the form of a ghostly woman in black. 5/5
“A Walk in the Wet”
A man tries to remember what happened to him on a night at a bar while his peers forget. There was a bit of sci-fi element to this one, though it felt grounded enough in exploring loss and memories for a snap of an ending. 4/5
“The Night of the Eye”
A driver gets into an accident on the highway caused by a mysterious figure in a car. I liked the atmosphere and mystery in this piece, especially as the protagonist and his wife try to reconstruct the accident though fragmented dialogue. 4/5
“The Spot”
Two aspiring actors working as cleaning people end up visiting the homes of aging and retiring actors. This piece had more of a literary feel to it despite it having Etchison’s usual bleak atmosphere. 3/5
“The Soft Wall”
A story about the a breakup and past traumas, where the wife feels misunderstood and the husband tries to reach her, only to kill what was left of their relationship. I loved how Etchison conveyed the horror through being lost in the dark only guided by the touch we crave for human contact. 5/5
“Somebody Like You”
Inspired by Etchison’s significant other at the time, a woman speaks aloud while dreaming while her partner tries to make sense of it. As a reader, this felt even more vague and abstract, and like any dream there’s not often an answer. 3/5
“Bloodgame”
A director’s game show goes awry when the contestants get replaced. Based on Etchison’s experience on a gameshow, he explores what would happen if people deviated from the script. While explained rather than ambiguous, found the ending a bit awkward with no hints dropped earlier in the story about the backstory. 3/5
“Deadspace”
A producer waits for his lead actor to answer his calls, and meanwhile he meets a young woman at the hotel. I wasn’t sure what was going on with this one. 3/5
“Home Call”
A social worker gets her first case in the field to help an abused foster child. From my background in a helping profession, the protagonist’s insecurities felt genuine, and the situation made for a fitting horror situation, though a bit more predictable than Etchison’s other pieces. 4/5
“The Olympic Runner”
A mother reaches her breaking point in trying to keep her family together when she takes one of her younger daughter on a road trip to find her runaway oldest daughter. Exploring the common theme of a broken family, Etchison taps into feelings of existential loneliness and frustration in trying to connect with love ones. 4/5
“Call 666”
Inspired by one of Etchison’s breakups, a man keeps receiving calls from his ex, and later answers a mysterious call from a pay phone. I liked the nightmarishness of this one, though the ending was confusing. 4/5
“Time Killer”
A killer obsessed with time enacts his plan. I wish Etchison fleshed out the characters a bit more, since I wasn’t clear on the killer’s motivations, let alone cared about what happened to those he harmed. 2/5
“The Blood Kiss”
A script editor tries to take credit for someone else’s script, and sets up a meeting with the original writer. I read this in a previous anthology several years ago, and this time around enjoyed it more; particularly the structure of the screenplay (a meta zombie story) alternating with the narrative. 5/5
I’ve always been fascinated with Etchison’s writing, with both his stylish yet accessible prose, explorations of loneliness and alienation, and the quietness (and ambiguity) of his horror. The Blood Kiss presents another collection of stories from a master of the short story, and ones to savor for fans of dark fiction. 3.8/5 stars
July 22, 2022
Now that Etchison has joined other twentieth century horror luminaries such as Charles L. Grant and Karl Edward Wagner in that "greater darkness" of which they so lucidly wrote, it is prime time to add to the unjustifiably meager number of reviews here. In his bibliography, I'd say this collection stands as a strong entry point somewhere between his celebrated debut and his uncharacteristically weak, mid-career release, The Death Artist.
This collection, according to my reading experience, certainly grows stronger in its second half; the first half being mired by the predictably vengeful "Call 666" and a pair of obliquely sci-fi stories, "A Nice, Shady Place" and "A Walk in the Wet"; which are, respectively, about interspecies mutation and the psychological effects of space-travel. Of the successes within the first hundred pages are "The Spot"--a brilliantly poignant portrait of post-celebrity depression--and "The Soft Wall" whose powerfully dark, psychosexual themes are excellently illustrated by J.K. Potter on the books front and end pages.
Two consecutive stories in the book's latter half demonstrate the more sociological side of Etchison's horror. "Home Call" tells of a social worker who attempts to expiate herself of childhood guilt in a perilous atmosphere of urban decay. "The Olympic Runner", which is arguably closer to psychological\social realism than anything else, reveals the violent depths contained within the overstressed mother of a missing child. This story can easily stand next to the deceptively complex yet mundane perversities found in Flannery O'Connor's best works.
Of course, a couple of stories--"The Night of the Eye" and "Deadspace"--display Etchison's distinctive ability to create and sustain a phantasmagorical sequence of events which, for all of their oppressive strangeness, amount to little more than puzzling ambiguities; both, however, showcase more of Potter's photographic mutations and truly augment the stories' more hallucinatory moments.
Though Etchison was a writer specifically relevant to the eighties and nineties given his attentiveness to the immediate social concerns of those times, I believe that the deeply felt--and deeply contemplative--existential despair present throughout his oeuvre will be what keeps his fiction fresh for decades to come.
This collection, according to my reading experience, certainly grows stronger in its second half; the first half being mired by the predictably vengeful "Call 666" and a pair of obliquely sci-fi stories, "A Nice, Shady Place" and "A Walk in the Wet"; which are, respectively, about interspecies mutation and the psychological effects of space-travel. Of the successes within the first hundred pages are "The Spot"--a brilliantly poignant portrait of post-celebrity depression--and "The Soft Wall" whose powerfully dark, psychosexual themes are excellently illustrated by J.K. Potter on the books front and end pages.
Two consecutive stories in the book's latter half demonstrate the more sociological side of Etchison's horror. "Home Call" tells of a social worker who attempts to expiate herself of childhood guilt in a perilous atmosphere of urban decay. "The Olympic Runner", which is arguably closer to psychological\social realism than anything else, reveals the violent depths contained within the overstressed mother of a missing child. This story can easily stand next to the deceptively complex yet mundane perversities found in Flannery O'Connor's best works.
Of course, a couple of stories--"The Night of the Eye" and "Deadspace"--display Etchison's distinctive ability to create and sustain a phantasmagorical sequence of events which, for all of their oppressive strangeness, amount to little more than puzzling ambiguities; both, however, showcase more of Potter's photographic mutations and truly augment the stories' more hallucinatory moments.
Though Etchison was a writer specifically relevant to the eighties and nineties given his attentiveness to the immediate social concerns of those times, I believe that the deeply felt--and deeply contemplative--existential despair present throughout his oeuvre will be what keeps his fiction fresh for decades to come.
July 30, 2019
A Nice Shady Place - 4
The Woman in Black - 8
A Walk in the Wet - 8
The Night of the Eye - 8
The Spot - 5
The Soft Wall - 7
Somebody Like You - 6
The Bloodgame - 7
Dead Space - 3
Home Call - 6
The Olympic Runner - 7
Call 666 - 5
Time Killer - 4
The Blood Kiss - 8
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews