Love Devours: Tales of Monstrous Adoration (Lesbian Speculative Fiction) [Kindle Edition]

Sarah Diemer (Author)

Book Description

We're all afraid of monsters. They coil in our subconscious, slither along the edges of thought. Still we creep to the crackling fire to whisper their stories.

Love Devours is a collection of new fables for queer women, extracted from the bones of the dark: ominous fairy tales, sinister myths, dystopias rife with nightmares. But in the midst of monsters, love still struggles to find the light.

A witch traps a beast of the sea; a corpse is reanimated out of love; a muse drains her supplicant; a priestess worships in a church of wolves. Six monster stories lurk within these pages. Six heroines, sometimes monsters themselves, unearth romance, rebuild worlds, shatter spells. Their courage unveils the secret faces of humankind's greatest compulsions: fear and love.

Come into the dark and be devoured.

Love Devours: Tales of Monstrous Adoration is Sarah Diemer's first anthology, a collection of queer dark fantasy and science fiction stories.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sarah Diemer writes about courageous young ladies who love other ladies, makes jewelry out of words and wire and loves her wife more than anything, ever. She randomly sparkles. You can find out about her novels, novellas and short stories, take a peek at the jewelry she makes out of old fairy tales and generally see several sparkly and interesting things at her site, http://www.oceanid.org, or the blog she shares with her wife at, http://www.muserising.com She also writes magical lesbian love stories under the pen name “Elora Bishop”—you can find out more here: http://elorabishop.wordpress.com

Product Details

• File Size: 294 KB
• Print Length: 192 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00919XAGM
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #321,961 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fell in Love with Monsters All Over Again September 15, 2012

By Emily Joy

Format:Paperback

This was the first book of Sarah Diemer's writings that I have completed (I have recently begun "The Dark Wife" and it is incredibly promising!). I sat down to read just a few of the stories and ended up finishing the book in one sitting! This collection is entertaining, lovely, and unique. I recommend you read the introduction. It isn't long, but it provides what I think is an important perspective on why Diemer wrote these stories, and I found it endearing.

Here are my perspectives on each of the stories:

Far - This was a fantastic new perspective on bringing the dead back to life. The world built here seemed fully fleshed out, and yet I didn't feel that she spent too much time on cumbersome details. Her description of the city, the mentality of the people, and the way of life were vivid and compelling. I loved the dual perspectives and the twist on the love story. Very enjoyable!

The Witch Sea - I loved the characters in this one, as well as the creation story. I personally feel that Diemer's writing style is best suited for creating new myths or retelling old ones- she has beautiful prose and pacing that feels as though I am reading legends. I thought this was a bittersweet and lovely story, with an open ending that liked.

Seek - This is my favorite one of the bunch, and I think her strongest story. It combined traditional legend elements with new twists and I utterly loved the end. In a few of the stories I failed to see the "monster" theme (specifically Our Lady of Wolves & somewhat the Forever Star), but this one is delightfully monstrous. I was thoroughly satisfied at the end, and I'm sure you will be, too.

Our Lady of Wolves - I felt the fear and desperation of the people in this story. Although I found that overall it wasn't my favorite, it has a beautiful and strong ending.

We Grow Accustomed to the Dark - This one is gruesome and I loved that aspect! I think this one was probably the easiest to get into, because Sarah throws you into the chaos and fear of those left behind after the Rapture. However, I do think that this story should have become a full-length novel. I was left feeling as though it ended too soon (not just an open ending- I was literally surprised at the fact that it ended that quickly) and that very little was resolved. If she ever decided to revisit this and make it a full-length novel, I would gladly pick it up. As it is, I found it to be the weakest story.

The Forever Star - This is my other favorite (yes, I'm claiming two) story, for entirely different reasons. It is rich and slightly heartbreaking. The magic, the world building, the Garden... all of it was gorgeous. This story filled my mind with fantastic images that I fell in love with. The element of love is sweet and pure, without guile, and charming. I will want to read this story many more times!

I would strongly recommend this to anyone who enjoys dark or macabre stories. Don't be fooled- it may be about love, but there are parts that will make squeamish people uncomfortable. But I already loved many monsters, and now I have a few more to love.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great variety of stories from a great author! September 13, 2012

By Lisa

Format:Paperback

Of the six stories, I rated them as follows:
"FAR" - 3/5
"THE WITCH SEA" - 5/5
"SEEK" - 5/5
"OUR LADY OF WOLVES" - 3/5
"WE GROW ACCUSTOMED TO THE DARK" - 1/5
"THE FOREVER STAR" - 5/5

My favorite story of the anthology is probably "Seek"; it was very unique and fit the "monster" theme of the anthology the best, in my opinion. I really enjoyed it. A close second is "The Forever Star," an amazing sci-fi story with a magical, mythological twist and an ending that moved me to tears. "The Witch Sea" is also very moving (again, I had tears welling up at the end, and I'm usually not an emotional reader--the fact that this anthology had me in tears twice really says a lot). "Far" was a story that sucked me in right away, but the ending just left me confused; meanwhile, I had trouble getting into "Our Lady of Wolves" at first, but I LOVED the ending. "We Grow Accustomed to the Dark" is really the only story in the book I didn't enjoy, because I just found it to be too distressing/disturbing for my taste. That one is definitely not for the faint-hearted.

Altogether, this collection gets a solid 4/5 from me and I very highly recommend it!

5.0 out of 5 stars Love, love, loved this collection, but I really want more January 13, 2013

By Neva Davis

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I really hope the worlds created in some of these stories show up in Sarah's novels because in a few pages she made me fall in love with the characters, monstrous or not. Seek was incredibly strong, as was Our Lady of Wolves. I adored Forever Star and the Witch Sea as well. All were good but those stand out as just incredible to me.

More About the Author

Sarah Diemer is an award-winning author of lesbian young adult (YA), speculative fiction. She lives in a purple-doored cottage in Western New York with her beloved wife, several furred creatures and a few mischievous pixies. She enjoys covering things in glitter (and putting them on Etsy), and is a professional fairy. She is addicted to tea.

Her debut novel, The Dark Wife, the YA, lesbian retelling of the Persephone myth, won the 2012 Golden Crown Literary Award for Speculative Fiction, and was nominated for a Parsec Award (first two chapters of the audiobook). Sarah also had the honor of winning the Kissed by Venus "Fresh Voices" Short Story Competition.

She writes her lesbian adult fiction under the pen name Elora Bishop, including the Sappho's Fables: Lesbian Fairy Tales series, which she co-writes with her wife, author Jennifer Diemer.