Dear Sweet Filthy World

Dear Sweet Filthy World is a short story collection from Caitli’n R. Kiernan, who was born in Dublin, Ireland but now lives in the United States of America. She is also a paleontologist, and one gets a fair dose of the outdoors and sea in these sometimes dark tales. Kiernan does not consider herself to be a horror writer, but she is now a voice for weird fiction, whether she wants to be or not. She also pays tribute to this tradition. Kiernan is also an award-winning writer who has been very successful with the anthologists and award-givers, having won awards early in her career and been nominated many times.

Collected here are twenty-eight hard-to-find stories that some might consider experimental. The subject matter is usually dark and weird, but there is also sex and references to body parts. These stories sometimes have narrators who are going through hard things. The stories don’t have strong narratives; they also do not have a lyricism that will pull everyone in. Twenty-eight of these stories is a lot to read in a row, but she defies expectations, and it is interesting to get a dose of these unusual tales from an author who lives with the weird.