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Human Pieces
James Cooper has rapidly become one of the country’s finest exponents of dark fiction. His tales defy categorisation, exploring the uneasy space between mainstream literature and visionary horror, tapping into the conflict between what is known and what is not, always moving closer to the truth...
In Human Pieces, James Cooper’s most breathtaking collection of short stories yet, that search goes on, unveiling a world both real and imagined: a world so close to the one in which you live, you’ll experience the cold terror of seeing your own face smiling back at you in the dark...
Welcome to a world of Human Pieces...where the revelations are always profound, always urgent, always original.
In Human Pieces, James Cooper’s most breathtaking collection of short stories yet, that search goes on, unveiling a world both real and imagined: a world so close to the one in which you live, you’ll experience the cold terror of seeing your own face smiling back at you in the dark...
Welcome to a world of Human Pieces...where the revelations are always profound, always urgent, always original.
334 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 2015
About the author
James Cooper
335 books20 followersLibrarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 19, 2018
This book was a solid 4/5 even before I got to the final story. But the last story is a gem, so I am going all the way up to a 4.5/5.
James Cooper goes places few writers are brave or talented enough to go. He handles narrative with effortless dexterity, and creates compelling characters who find themselves laboring in highly unfavorable, often tragic circumstances.
If there is one over-arching theme in these stories, it is how people attempt to deal with hands of fate which have been set against them. How they react is by turns tragic, surprising and occasionally even cathartic.
You will come across unique takes on Peter Cushing, Stephen King, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other cultural touchstones, but the way these are incorporated is not what you might expect.
This is not generally blood and guts horror, though the stories certainly don't shy away from the brutal and violent. These are hand-crafted slices of what goes on behind the doors of the house down the street, in the night when no one is there to witness the ghastly events.
I also own a copy of Mr. Cooper's novel, "Dark Father," which I will soon be reading.
If you can locate a copy of "Human Pieces," you should seek it out and put it on your list of future reads. It is definitely worth it.
James Cooper goes places few writers are brave or talented enough to go. He handles narrative with effortless dexterity, and creates compelling characters who find themselves laboring in highly unfavorable, often tragic circumstances.
If there is one over-arching theme in these stories, it is how people attempt to deal with hands of fate which have been set against them. How they react is by turns tragic, surprising and occasionally even cathartic.
You will come across unique takes on Peter Cushing, Stephen King, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other cultural touchstones, but the way these are incorporated is not what you might expect.
This is not generally blood and guts horror, though the stories certainly don't shy away from the brutal and violent. These are hand-crafted slices of what goes on behind the doors of the house down the street, in the night when no one is there to witness the ghastly events.
I also own a copy of Mr. Cooper's novel, "Dark Father," which I will soon be reading.
If you can locate a copy of "Human Pieces," you should seek it out and put it on your list of future reads. It is definitely worth it.
July 3, 2019
A solid collection of dark stories, with some nice invention and strong characterisation, though few of the stories build to a climax, rather finally reaching a conclusion; one or two such stories are fine, but this book is overfull of them. The prose style tends towards the overwritten and is prone to hyperbole, with extreme verbs and adjectives marring the tone; Cooper has a strong imagination and a grasp of tone, and I'd like to read these stories written without the Horror Story 101 style.
There are also too many horror 'credentials' on display (4 stories out of 13) - entire stories built around a set of letters written to Stephen King, a quasi-sequel to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, an homage to Peter Cushing, and one more based around the opening line and central theme of Peter Straub's Ghost Story - I'd rather read stories of Cooper's own invention, not be reminded of other (inevitably better) works.
There are also too many horror 'credentials' on display (4 stories out of 13) - entire stories built around a set of letters written to Stephen King, a quasi-sequel to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, an homage to Peter Cushing, and one more based around the opening line and central theme of Peter Straub's Ghost Story - I'd rather read stories of Cooper's own invention, not be reminded of other (inevitably better) works.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews