We Live Inside You [Paperback]

Jeremy Robert Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2011

WINNER OF THE 2011 WONDERLAND AWARD FOR BEST COLLECTION!

"WE LIVE INSIDE YOU is fucking terrific. Jeremy Robert Johnson is dancing to a way different drummer. He loves language, he loves the edge, and he loves us people. These stories have range and style and wit. This is entertainment... and literature."--JACK KETCHUM, author of Off Season, The Girl Next Door, and The Woman (w/Lucky McKee)

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 heart, and the still-warm gun in your shaking hands. The illusion of control is all we'll allow you, and no matter what you do...

WE LIVE INSIDE YOU

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"What makes JRJ's work stand out from his contemporaries' is the strange sense of empathy--in that regard he is not unlike David Foster Wallace's wicked and perhaps deranged younger brother. Sometimes the horror is so devastatingly understated that it's almost deadly.  JRJ has the ability to balance sheer humanity with sheer grotesquerie."--21C MAGAZINE

"A haunting collection from a wildly talented author, WE LIVE INSIDE YOU is composed of nineteen perfectly-wrought nightmares, every one of which will stay with you long after you've finished reading."--PETER CRAIG, author of Hot Plastic and Blood Father, co-screenwriter of The Town

"The people populating these stories are real and vital and you WILL care, deeply, about what becomes of them... and in JRJ's harsh universe, baaaaad things happen. Often. Prepare thyself."--CRAIG DAVIDSON, author of Rust and Bone, The Fighter, and Sarah Court

"Favorite collection for 2011: WE LIVE INSIDE YOU."--STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES, author of The Ones That Got Away and It Came From Del Rio

"The guy's a genius. Reminds me of William Gibson--the dark interest in altered states of consciousness, the unrelentingly furious forward movement, and the same kind of unlimited imagination."--BEN LOORY, author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day

"Tongue-replacing isopods, brain-raping copepods and body-warping worms are far from the most insidious parasites that infest Jeremy Robert Johnson's hapless literary victims. Though the squirmy bits elegantly pioneer new frontiers of sickness, WE LIVE INSIDE YOU is at its most twisted and mordantly revelatory when it drops the body-horror metaphors and digs into the real horror of all the parasitic drives that ride us--tapeworms of greed, lust like plagues of crab lice, and the lethal heartworms of true love. So tightly written and so fluidly brutal you'll want to consume this psychosexual demolition derby in one sitting, but you'll spend the rest of the night checking yourself under a microscope."--CODY GOODFELLOW, author of Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars and Radiant Dawn/Ravenous Dusk

"Waaaay out at the deep end of the collective unconscious--where even the bravest of brain cells fear to tread--Jeremy Robert Johnson performs stand-up comedy for the gods.  And their laughter is a marvelous, terrible thing.  He's the kind of post-Lovecraftian genius berserker who makes the Great Old Ones new again.  As with Clive Barker, there is no glorious mutational eruption that Johnson can't nail directly through your gawping mind's eye."--JOHN SKIPP, NY Times Bestselling author of Spore (w/Cody Goodfellow) and The Bridge (w/Craig Spector)

"A dazzling writer."--CHUCK PALAHNIUK, NY Times Bestselling author of Fight Club

"Four stars."--BOOKED

"WE LIVE INSIDE YOU continues to showcase the author's staggering ability to craft stories as poignant as they are strange. The gamut of emotion conjured between the first and last page provides a workout for practically every muscle in a reader's mind. In its most twisted moments, Johnson's writing is too gleeful to pigeon-hole as strictly horror, and when he steps outside the gross-out game he transcends most other straight literary writers."--VERBICIDE

"WE LIVE INSIDE YOU is a genre-bending mix of stories akin to a literary blitzkrieg and 'Persistence Hunting' is one of the best noir stories you'll ever read. Johnson can write horror, science fiction, crime, and Bizarro. Sometimes he does all of the above within the same story. He's at once brutal and elegant, innovative and an immediate classic, ridiculously talented and an obvious perfectionist."--HORROR TALK
 
"Johnson weaves vivid and fascinatingly grotesque tales."--BOOKGASM

"I don't know if Mr. Johnson sold his soul to the devil to give him this gift for nightmare imagery, but by god, this guy can write. Johnson excels at pathology and perversity. A confirmed weirdo and authentic writer of uncommon emotional depth who deserves to be watched."--CEMETERY DANCE
 
"Johnson is probably a few books away from doing for horror what Jonathan Lethem did for science fiction. Plain and simple? Forget horror; this is good fiction."--GIRL ON DEMAND

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Swallowdown Press; paperback / softback edition (October 17, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933929065
• ISBN-13: 978-1933929064
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeremy Robert Johnson is the Wonderland Award Winning author of WE LIVE INSIDE YOU, the cult hit ANGEL DUST APOCALYPSE, the Stoker Nominated novel SIREN PROMISED (w/Alan M. Clark), and the end-of-the-world freak-out EXTINCTION JOURNALS. His fiction has been acclaimed by authors like Chuck Palahniuk and Jack Ketchum and has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. In 2008 he worked with The Mars Volta to tell the story behind their Grammy Winning album The Bedlam in Goliath. He also runs indie publishing house Swallowdown Press and is at work on a host of new books. For more information you can access his techno-web presence at the cleverly-named www.jeremyrobertjohnson.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Passion so Evident, it's Almost Savage January 12, 2012

By Lee Widener

Format:Paperback

Jeremy Robert Johnson's "We Live Inside You" blew me away. I don't know how else to say it. I have only read one other book by Mr. Johnson before this- "The Extinction Journals." I enjoyed that book very much, but this latest release finds Johnson at the very top of his craft. His writing has improved since the earlier book, and that's how it should be. His voice is more self-assured, his plots tight and focused, his passion so evident it's almost savage.

This is a collection of stories mostly written since 2005. The subject matter varies considerably. The first two tales are straight-up science fiction, and they led me to believe I knew what to expect from this book. The next two stories spun me around and told me to stop thinking I knew so much, as they veered into gritty present day territory that knocked me up side the head. They keep hitting me in the head, opening my eyes and mind to new attitudes, new ideas, until about a third of the way through, almost as if he just wanted to show he could, he gives us a fairly traditional ghost story- and that turns out to be my favorite story in the entire book.

There's violence here, there's savagery, but it's never gratuitous. It's all for the sake of the yarn. This is a master storyteller spinning his tales for us, entertaining, enlightening and educating us along the way. There's also tenderness. "States of Glass" brought me to tears- and it takes a lot to do that to this cynical old geezer. He even manages to set one story during World War Two, and tell the tale convincingly. He just keeps amazing me.

Johnson even presents us with the same story twice- first with the previously published version, and later with the "extended director's cut" - the story as he first wrote it, before he edited it down for publication. Both are good reads. It's not gimmicky at all to do this. The second version has a different feel, and, in my opinion, a stronger ending.

Listen- just buy this book. Read these stories. The vitality of the prose will make you smile, and the sheer force of the ideas will widen your perception. Keep an eye out, because after you ead this book, you're going to want more from this important author.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is Bizarro for Grown-Ups May 19, 2012

By Michael C. Smith

Format:Paperback

One could accuse me of having been bribed for this review. Jeremy Robert Johnson asked on his FaceBook page whether he should pay for a book review on some website; I offered to write a book review for a copy of the book. Mr. Johnson agreed, and dropped off a copy of the book at my doorstep, complete with a personal note on the inside cover and a Garbage Pail Kid card. That's valuable stuff! But in spite of this, I read We Live Inside You with a critical eye. My verdict is that this book kicks ass.

We Live Inside You is a collection of short stories, with an appendix containing some of his early material. The more current stories are brilliant, human, and disturbing. Some highlights:

Consumerism: This is fitting follow-up to his short Priapism from Angel Dust Apocalypse. This time, the family has been in a horrible car accident, and the father tells his son, boldly, stridently, unflinchingly, to man up, stop whining about his mother's mangled corpse, and do what is needed to survive. One might think of the dad as the Ultimate Objectivist, his son his pupil, and this lecture the ultimate objectivist lesson.

When Susurrus Stirs is a great horror tale, Lovecraftian in the tradition of Lumley's The Big C. Our host has a parasite, and we follow the host as the parasite slowly becomes him, and then unleashes itself on others. This is the kind of story where Johnson shines. It is humorous, weird, and wonderful at conveying to the reader just how not okay the situation is.

Probably the best story in the collection is States of Glass. Our protagonist is a young wife who soon finds herself a young widow; and in her panic and fear, she finds herself insanely horny. It is bizarro literature for sure, but touching, deep, and human in a way that most bizarro literature is not. People experience death in unpredictable ways, and it's certainly not unrealistic that someone would react to the sudden death of a lover with powerful sexual urges. Our protagonist deals with her situation in a manner that strikes me as dignified and sweet.

What I really appreciate about Johnson is that he doesn't treat his characters as props and bit players, as many bizarro authors do. His stories are, in fact, character-centric, and he develops them wonderfully. Bizarro is fun, but a lot of it is popcorn and beer - empty calories. Johnson is steak and grilled asparagus - bizarro for grown-ups.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Simple Stars Cannot Convey The Awesomeness February 10, 2013

By Jason Wayne Allen

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I honestly feel intimidated, unsure if I can give Jeremy Robert Johnson's classic the amount of praise this collection of the best modern short stories in genre fiction written in years, and in my opinion only rivaled by Stephen King's Night Shift, the book deserves, but here goes...

We Live Inside You does not fire off blanks. Every story! Every. Single. Story is a jarring, shotgun-kick blast upon ending, echoes for days after the reader comes to a different revelation, and leaves the scent of cordite in the air...if I could think of more gun metaphors I would, as cliche' as it sounds, these stories explode! We Live Inside You is terrifying, and cross into realm of speculative fiction that should leave fans of the genre on the edge of their seats wondering what Mr. Johnson's going to say next. Much like Jack Ketchum, Jeremy Robert Johnson not only scares us and makes us think, but these stories are as equally emotionally involving. Like Chuck Palahniuk also, some of Johnson's characters are subversive and despicably criminal, but you have to know what happens to them. There are some bad people here but very interesting.

The storytelling is experimental--ever have an English Comp. instructor drill into your head not to narrate in the second person? I have. Anyway, the story Persistence Hunting is a smirk in the face of that teacher and anyone else who's opposed to the second person narrative. It can be executed without sounding rude, contrary to what some of us have been told, and apparently told brilliantly in a fast-paced, clipped noir tone. I'm not going to give too much away, but stories like Persistence Hunting, and also stories like Consumerism told from an eerie perspective that leaves you feeling kind of dirty and spine chilled--read it, you'll see what I mean-- This willingness to experiment breaks up the simple first and third person, good guys and bad guys archetype in storytelling, and throws a different kind of parasite into the waters of genre fiction.

This Kindle version comes with B-sides and rarities like a longer version of Persistence Hunting and more experimental and collaborative stories with legend Alan M. Clark.

As a writer I found myself rereading stories and passages to see how exactly Mr. Johnson had done some of this, and as a fan I found myself doing the same just cause this book is awesome!

Next on my reading list: Angel Dust Apocalypse and considering I haven't been disappointed with a Swallowdown Press title yet more from them too.