You don't need to be Jewish or Christian to appreciate She Nailed a Stake Through His Head: Tales of Biblical Terror. Still, you may find yourself groping for a religious icon for protection given the unholy places these weird tales will take you. The anthology opens with Gerri Leen's eerie reversal of the tale of Ruth and Naomi, wherein Ruth's devotion to her mother-in-law is not a blessing but a monstrous curse. Not all of these stories are set in the ancient Middle East, though, as Daniel Kaysen's "Babylon's Burning" proves. Meandering between desert sands and skyscrapers, between past, present and alternate timelines, She Nailed a Stake Through His Head is a gallery of horrors inspired by the most nightmarish images of Near Eastern cultures. There are wild-eyed, drug-crazed prophets, witches drawing the dead from the depths of the Underworld, sacred prostitutes with one soul in two bodies, an English Delilah trapped in a house falling down around her, epic beheadings, and a living tomb in the foul and slimy body of a whale driving the prophet deeper into insanity. The collection is bookended with a tale inspired by the New Testament: a vampire's take on the body and blood of the Christian savior. Regardless of religion (or lack thereof), lovers of speculative fiction will swallow up these provocative stories. -- Erin O'Riordan, Author of Beltane and Midsummer Night Pagan Spirits =======================================================================----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This book takes the Bible back from those right-wing fascists who want to rewrite it as a tedious book of loving and caring. These are stories as bawdy and lustful and horrifying as the original Good Book -- wild sex, savage violence, horrific curses...and, of course, vampires. -- Matthue Roth, author. performance poet. torah badass
She Nailed a Stake Through His Head
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This darkly fascinating anthology of nine stories shows humans trembling in the presence of mighty, unknowable powers and their predatory servants. In Gerri Leen's "Whither Thou Goest," Ruth is revealed to be a psychic leech, giving freshly disturbing meaning to her touching vow never to leave her aged mother-in-law. Jesus' exhortation to drink His blood is taken literally by a congregation of vampires in D.K. Thompson's "Last Respects." A modern Daniel finds that his gift of prophecy can serve the greedy gods of a multinational security corporation in Daniel Kayson's "Babylon's Burning," and Stephen M. Wilson's "Swallowed!" puts a Lovecraftian spin on the tale of Jonah and the whale. Brief but potent, these stories are recommended for readers with very strong nerves. (Nov.) (c)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was concerned about coming to this collection of biblical retellings as a secular reader, knowing too little, but I found quickly that knowing the original tales in their various versions isn't a prerequisite for enjoying this collection. From start to finish, the stories in She Nailed a Stake Through His Head (Dybbuk Press) are well-crafted, beautifully written, and freshly conceived, tearing into the sanitized versions of these biblical tales to get to some disturbing hidden horrors, and definitely stirring up new considerations for stories that have lasted hundreds of years.
"Whither Thou Goest," by Gerri Leen, begins with a confident narrator telling a history that wants vengeance: Lot's daughters, the narrator says, "learned to turn the words of servitude into words of angry potency after their father raped them." But power and vengeance works on itself, and what we steal might also be stolen from us. This story is haunting and resonates with the feel of legends and what's hidden beneath old tales.
Daniel Kaysen's "Babylon's Burning" shifts us to modern times at a flashy corporate party, that shifts from a casual lack of ethics to talk of losing the human soul. The tale twists and turns so that the reader never stops trying to guess the protagonist's fate, feeling more and more horror at what this company--that worships gold and silver and "the shock and awe of Iran"--will ask a person to do.
The third tale, "As If Favorites of Their God" by Christi King, is told in multiple voices, each as compelling as the next, as King Saul visits a witch to speak to the Prophet Samuel. As the story unfolds and the visions begin, the two find unexpectedly their fates intertwined. The language is remarkable, with striking images that keep the reader moving with the story.
Catherynne Valente's tale, "Psalm of the Second Body," insists on the reader's attention from the first line: "I am the first story ever told; the story of the harlot." Angrily the narrator relates that she is the story scratched from the stone to make room for Gilgamesh. Startling, fresh images leave the reader living the narrator's life and essence, and beautiful poetic repetitions hark back to the oral storytelling tradition, as we see the mother of creation relating what was lost.
"Judgment at Naioth," by Elissa Malcohn, begins with the image of a road that might have once been a river, evoking a sense of history and continuum immediately, but we're then thrown into this modern, industrial world as a leather-clad girl dismounts her motorcycle to enter "the navel of Yahweh," a seedy warehouse-turned-nightclub. Once in the club she meets with the "sallow-faced" Solomon, and we learn of the girl's rape, a prophesy for revenge, and talk of opening the slit between worlds. Strange and fascinating, the story blends the old and the new so well that I believe the old might have found that "slit" into the new.
Romie Stott's "Judith and Holfernes" is a short short tale of beheading as a "full-time job," revealing with almost humorous (though too gruesome to make me laugh) vividness all the positions in which a beheading can be accomplished as well as the care that should be taken in knowing which way the blood will flow. The tale is quick and rolls like the heads.
To see God in someone's eyes seems like a wonderful thing, but for the protagonist in Lyda Morehouse's "Jawbone of an Ass," the God in her husband's eyes hates her. What at first seems to be a tale of marital abuse shifts quickly as the narrator announces that she needs an answer to her husband's "riddle," and we find ourselves in an embattled Ireland facing a vengeful God.
"Swallowed!" by Stephen M. Wilson, opens in a surreal place, where the narrator first sees the whale, a "grotesque malignancy of fantastic nightmare." This nightmare vision spreads as he wanders the city, and death, it seems, is no relief. In death-like dreams we see the narrator's past, his shocking relationship with his mother and the horrifying relationship with his "in utero" brother. The story is charged with strong, disturbing images, evoking a hellish world of mutilation, told in an efficient and intriguing backward structure.
The final story, D.K. Thompson's "Last Respects," begins with a twist from the start, as we see a vampire sharpening his dentures and a vampire family frying up dinner. This oddly domestic tale is told in a fluid, easy manner, fitting naturally with the family problems and nostalgia, though all the while, we're traipsing along a cliff edge knowing what's to come is going to be gruesome.
I came to the collection with fairly meager knowledge of the original stories, but each piece is strong both in story and in style, leaving me wanting to delve deeper into the original biblical tales, to then come back and draw the parallels and expand my understanding. It's not necessary for enjoyment, but the stimulant to want to learn more, rather than toss the finished book aside, is welcome.
"Whither Thou Goest," by Gerri Leen, begins with a confident narrator telling a history that wants vengeance: Lot's daughters, the narrator says, "learned to turn the words of servitude into words of angry potency after their father raped them." But power and vengeance works on itself, and what we steal might also be stolen from us. This story is haunting and resonates with the feel of legends and what's hidden beneath old tales.
Daniel Kaysen's "Babylon's Burning" shifts us to modern times at a flashy corporate party, that shifts from a casual lack of ethics to talk of losing the human soul. The tale twists and turns so that the reader never stops trying to guess the protagonist's fate, feeling more and more horror at what this company--that worships gold and silver and "the shock and awe of Iran"--will ask a person to do.
The third tale, "As If Favorites of Their God" by Christi King, is told in multiple voices, each as compelling as the next, as King Saul visits a witch to speak to the Prophet Samuel. As the story unfolds and the visions begin, the two find unexpectedly their fates intertwined. The language is remarkable, with striking images that keep the reader moving with the story.
Catherynne Valente's tale, "Psalm of the Second Body," insists on the reader's attention from the first line: "I am the first story ever told; the story of the harlot." Angrily the narrator relates that she is the story scratched from the stone to make room for Gilgamesh. Startling, fresh images leave the reader living the narrator's life and essence, and beautiful poetic repetitions hark back to the oral storytelling tradition, as we see the mother of creation relating what was lost.
"Judgment at Naioth," by Elissa Malcohn, begins with the image of a road that might have once been a river, evoking a sense of history and continuum immediately, but we're then thrown into this modern, industrial world as a leather-clad girl dismounts her motorcycle to enter "the navel of Yahweh," a seedy warehouse-turned-nightclub. Once in the club she meets with the "sallow-faced" Solomon, and we learn of the girl's rape, a prophesy for revenge, and talk of opening the slit between worlds. Strange and fascinating, the story blends the old and the new so well that I believe the old might have found that "slit" into the new.
Romie Stott's "Judith and Holfernes" is a short short tale of beheading as a "full-time job," revealing with almost humorous (though too gruesome to make me laugh) vividness all the positions in which a beheading can be accomplished as well as the care that should be taken in knowing which way the blood will flow. The tale is quick and rolls like the heads.
To see God in someone's eyes seems like a wonderful thing, but for the protagonist in Lyda Morehouse's "Jawbone of an Ass," the God in her husband's eyes hates her. What at first seems to be a tale of marital abuse shifts quickly as the narrator announces that she needs an answer to her husband's "riddle," and we find ourselves in an embattled Ireland facing a vengeful God.
"Swallowed!" by Stephen M. Wilson, opens in a surreal place, where the narrator first sees the whale, a "grotesque malignancy of fantastic nightmare." This nightmare vision spreads as he wanders the city, and death, it seems, is no relief. In death-like dreams we see the narrator's past, his shocking relationship with his mother and the horrifying relationship with his "in utero" brother. The story is charged with strong, disturbing images, evoking a hellish world of mutilation, told in an efficient and intriguing backward structure.
The final story, D.K. Thompson's "Last Respects," begins with a twist from the start, as we see a vampire sharpening his dentures and a vampire family frying up dinner. This oddly domestic tale is told in a fluid, easy manner, fitting naturally with the family problems and nostalgia, though all the while, we're traipsing along a cliff edge knowing what's to come is going to be gruesome.
I came to the collection with fairly meager knowledge of the original stories, but each piece is strong both in story and in style, leaving me wanting to delve deeper into the original biblical tales, to then come back and draw the parallels and expand my understanding. It's not necessary for enjoyment, but the stimulant to want to learn more, rather than toss the finished book aside, is welcome.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This collection of horror stories based on stories found in the Bible is as entertaining as it sounds. You don't need to know the stories on which they are based to enjoy these tales, but if you're someone like me who has read the Bible cover-to-cover it's even more fun to look at the original stories and in most cases see just how few modifications were required to make them fit soundly into the horror genre.
It begins with the story of Ruth told from the point of view of a vengeful demon and ends with a Jesus-as-vampire tale, an idea that I honestly thought had been completely done to death (so to speak) until I encountered the author's fresh and original take on it. In between you will find Daniel cast as a prophet for a modern multinational corporation, a retelling of the story of Jonah inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and much more.
All in all, this is a great anthology for those interested in the esoteric and horror fans alike.
It begins with the story of Ruth told from the point of view of a vengeful demon and ends with a Jesus-as-vampire tale, an idea that I honestly thought had been completely done to death (so to speak) until I encountered the author's fresh and original take on it. In between you will find Daniel cast as a prophet for a modern multinational corporation, a retelling of the story of Jonah inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and much more.
All in all, this is a great anthology for those interested in the esoteric and horror fans alike.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Bible isn't a G-rated affair. "She Nailed a Stake Through His Head" is a collection of stories inspired by the more debauch stories within the Bible, the stories of the things that incur God's wrath. The raving of questionable people of the cloth, violence of the spurned, the dark arts, and more, Tim Lieder brings readers stories with a dark tint on the Holy book, making for an intriguing read. "She Nailed a Stake Through His Head" is a choice pick for any unique fiction collection.
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