Black Butterflies: A Flock on the Dark Side

Black Butterflies: A Flock on the Dark Side, John Shirley, Mark Ziesing Books, 1998

Here is a group of very dark and very weird edgy horror stories that start in the present-day world, but don't always stay there.

One story is about a man who kidnaps famous people, brings them to his remote house, and turns them into living gargoyles. Also included is a story about people who have died from drug abuse rising from the dead. Another tale is about sex, and drugs, and a device called a head iron, which is supposed to give a person the ultimate high. A San Francisco subway train derails, and a couple of bike messengers have to crawl their way over and under dead bodies. A religious confrontation of a sort, including human spontaneous combustion, occurs in the middle of a speed metal nightclub. Other stories involve things like growing body parts in unique places, and very different types of sex.

"Strange" doesn't even begin to describe these stories. John Shirley travels to places that few, if any, other writers are willing to visit. This book is very much Not for the faint of heart, but it is also very much recommended.