Book Review: ‘Eyes Guts Throat Bones’ by Moïra Fowley (lesbian horror at the end of the world)

Moïra Fowley wrote (as Moïra Fowley-Doyle) what I consider to be one of the best YA novels of the last decade - ‘The Accident Season’ - and so the second I saw that she had an adult horror short story collection coming out and it has THAT COVER, I didn’t hesitate. I hit pre-order and ran to NetGalley to see if I could get my hands on it any quicker.

The NetGalley gods (and W&N, thank you, I love you) were shining on me that day and I got approved.

Then I started devouring this incredible collection.

What will the end of the world look like?

Will it be an old man slowly turned to gold, flowers raining from the sky, or a hole cut through the wire fencing that keeps the monsters out?
Is it someone you love wearing your face, or a good old fashioned inter-dimensional summoning?
Does it sound like a howl outside the window, or does it look like coming home?

This startling and irresistibly witty collection from the phenomenally talented Moïra Fowley is an exploration of all our darkest impulses and deepest fears.

I loved this collection so much that I don’t even really know where to start…

I guess we start at the end? The end of the world is central to each story in this collection. Sometimes it’s a catastrophic event, sometimes it’s a seemingly magic strangeness that slowly ends society, sometimes it’s a dystopic version of what comes after. But it’s all stark and beautiful and lyrical, because that’s exactly what Fowley’s writing excels at. The way she works horror into that style and environment is effortless. The stories feature a lot of body horror, particularly decay and transformation with a hint of the Grotesque. She weaves a spell around these events and these characters and I couldn’t look away.

This collection is also a celebration of sapphic love and the stories that sit in-between the lines. The stories of the girls and women may exist around the end of the world, but they’re about love and lust and the pains and joys that they cause. We have women having babies, falling in love, falling out of love, consumed with lust, discovering their sexuality, hiding it, and embracing it too. It was joyful, and also smoking in places!

I don’t think I’ve ever read a short story collection where I’ve liked every single story, but ‘Eyes Guts Throat Bones’ is the first. I didn’t love them all, but I did love most of them, and I liked all of them.

‘Eyes Guts Throat Bones’ is a triumph. Lesbian end of the world horror in all it’s traumatic, gory beauty.

Thank you to NetGalley and W&N for the review copy. All thoughts and opinions remain by own.

Written by Sophie