{"id":304,"date":"2025-07-31T13:13:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T12:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leoncraigwriter.com\/?page_id=304"},"modified":"2025-07-31T13:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T12:52:11","slug":"parallel-hells-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.leoncraigwriter.com\/?page_id=304","title":{"rendered":"Parallel Hells"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This deliciously strange debut collection draws on folklore and gothic horror in refreshingly inventive ways to explore queer identity, love, power and the complicated nature of being human.<\/strong> Some say that hell is other people and some say hell is loneliness . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the thirteen darkly audacious stories of Parallel Hells<\/em> we meet a golem, made of clay, learning that its powers far exceed its Creator’s expectations; a ruined mansion which grants the secret wishes of a group of revellers and a notorious murderer who discovers her Viking husband is not what he seems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asta is an ancient being who feasts on the shame of contemporary Londoners, who now, beyond anything, wishes only to fit in with a group of friends they will long outlive. An Oxford historian, in bitter competition with the rest of her faculty members, discovers an ancient tome whose sinister contents might solve her problems. Livia orchestrates a Satanic mass to distract herself from a recently remembered trauma and two lovers must resolve their differences in order to defy a lethal curse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy from Waterstones<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy from Bookshop.org<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also available as an audiobook on Audible.co.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or find Parallel Hells<\/em> in your local bookshop<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRAISE FOR PARALLEL HELLS<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Trust me: you want to read this. It\u2019s the queer horror book of your dreams.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirsty Logan, author of No & Other Love Stories<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Unsettling, funny and fiercely intelligent … A queer carnival of monsters and masks. These stories penetrate the surface of their characters\u2019 assumed identities to reveal the glittering realities beneath.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Armfield, author of Private Rites<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Craig\u2019s collection dances with horror \u2013 the monster is not always who you expect. A book for anyone who likes to play in the dark.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, author of The Sleepwatcher<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Both vibrantly contemporary and decadently gothic, the stories in Parallel Hells<\/em> shimmer with queer
power and wicked humour. At times I was reminded of the darkly wondrous work of Ramona
Ausubel, Kelly Link, Patrick McGrath or Patrick S\u00fcskind \u2013 but Leon Craig has a distinctively Dionysian
literary sensibility that is all her own, and I can’t wait to read everything she writes.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018By turns dark, sharp, witty and tender. I\u2019m a huge fan of Leon Craig\u2019s writing, and the way she
reveals the complex dance of beauty and brutality in our innermost, most vulnerable selves.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naomi Ishiguro, author of Common Ground<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Richly and nastily wonderful, a glorious gothic mansion with something frightening waiting for you in each room …. glimmering writing’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikaella Clements, co-author of Feast While You Can<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Surreal, mesmeric and playful … Unheimlich, mysterious, perverted’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sally Oliver, author of The Weight of Loss<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Horrifying majesty…brilliant’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alice Ash, author of Paradise Block<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Leon Craig’s spitting, sparkling short stories make me feel like I have a lovely girlfriend, and she has a room I’m not allowed in, and sometimes her eyelids go black from edge to edge, and she whispers in arcane tongues in my ear when I’m trying to sleep’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaliane Bradley, author of The Ministry of Time<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Arresting and provocative, this strange and dark collection grabbed me by the throat.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Megan Bradbury, author of Everyone is Watching<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Glorious and twisted\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tor.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Anyone searching for an adventure into the literary underworld need look no further than this queer and compelling collection.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lily Kuenzler, Review 31<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018This decadent and distorted collection of queer gothic short stories didn\u2019t disappoint.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brixton Review of Books<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018As in the very best gothic literature, Craig\u2019s worlds are primarily not far removed from our own . . .
Craig, a deft hand at this most difficult of forms, the short story, writes crisp prose redolent of
Angela Carter\u2019s, particularly in its visceral, sometimes horrifying physicality. . . Parallel Hell<\/em>s will not
disappoint any connoisseur of the gothic in its most fulsome and unapologetic sense.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Literary Review<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A glorious collection of short stories that reads as if Edgar Allan Poe and Shirley Jackson had a little
queer baby . . . It is such a fresh and playful approach to storytelling that you cannot help but be totally enamoured with Craig’s abilities.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big Issue<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Through this blend of folklore and legend, repurposed to capture modern anxieties, the reader will come across cursed bracelets, severed hands, vampires and femme fatales … lingers in the mind like a fragrance, packing very<\/em> human anxieties into the silver scales of a supernatural consciousness.’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

London Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Read Parallel Hells<\/em> for a different take on vampires, demons and monsters you never knew existed\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mslexia<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Angela Carter with a LGBTQI+ filter\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial Times<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Leon Craig confidently navigates real places and imaginary spaces most of us shy away from . . .
What really impresses are the virtuoso changes of tone and tempo, and the way narratives flicker
between registers \u2013 gothic to comedy, folk horror to social embarrassment \u2013 with easy confidence and grace\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daily Mail<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Craig manages to recall the decadence of Carter whilst ensuring their stories never feel like re-treading old ground … Craig manages to create a staggering array of different atmospheres, settings, and tones in the thirteen stories, drawing on myriad tales, cultures and tropes in quick succession, but never losing the specificity of each tale.’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Horrified magazine<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘This book is one to be enjoyed by those who savour the squirm-inducing, and who enjoy a narrative with multiple layers to pick through …  the discordance the reader is made to feel gets under the skin, which is something any horror writer should be proud to achieve’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Folklore Podcast website review<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This deliciously strange debut collection draws on folklore and gothic horror in refreshingly inventive ways to explore queer identity, love, power and the complicated nature of being human. Some say that hell is other people and some say hell is loneliness . . . In the thirteen darkly audacious stories of Parallel Hells we meet…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-304","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","5":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leoncraigwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leoncraigwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leoncraigwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leoncraigwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leoncraigwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.leoncraigwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333,"href":"https:\/\/www.leoncraigwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/304\/revisions\/333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leoncraigwriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}