DELIRIUM CHAPBOOK #5
The six brand-new stories that constitute John Maclay's latest collection, Divagations, demonstrate not just his specialty, the short-short story, but also his depth of style and characterization in the longer form. As usual, he is dark and downbeat, but at the same time he holds out hope that by honestly engaging with horror, one can find a better end.
In "Messenger," he treats of a sudden presaging of doom.
In "The Book of Death," he exhibits the mordant style that has won him praise for such from Joe R. Lansdale and the immortal Ray Russell.
In "Journeys," he predicts that even after the most horrible of deaths, love and eternity will prevail.
In "Born," he controversially deals with a major issue of our time.
In "The Cat Lover," he draws a horrid but then heartwarming lesson for animal lovers everywhere.
And in "Widowed," he utilizes two of his further specialties, erotic horror and the terrors of middle age, to also venture into the occult for a dark but wanly fulfilling end.