Helen McClory - Whether telling of a boy cyclops or a pretty dead girl, drowned sailors or the devil himself, each story draws the reader towards not bleakness but a tale half–told, a truth half–true: that the monster is human, and only wants to reach out and take you by the hand

Helen McClory, On the Edges of Vision,  Queen's Ferry Press, 2015.


In On the Edges of Vision, unease sounds itself in the language of legend. Images call on memory, on the monstrous self. In Helen McClory’s daring debut collection, the skin prickles against sweeps of light or darkness, the fantastic or the frightful; deep water, dark woods, or scattered flesh in desert sand. Whether telling of a boy cyclops or a pretty dead girl, drowned sailors or the devil himself, each story draws the reader towards not bleakness but a tale half–told, a truth half–true: that the monster is human, and only wants to reach out and take you by the hand.                          

---

"Helen McClory knows the mysterious boulder standing in the middle of the field isn’t as perplexing as what hides in the long–lived darkness beneath it. Her new book of stories, On the Edges of Vision, squirms as you read it, forbidding the tight grasp of expectation and rewarding the bloodshot–eyed attention of the curious. Old monsters eat here. New and strange monsters, too. Monsters with no names, and monsters with many names. You won’t be able to leave this book, or its marvels, where you found them. Read and be eroded into fresh soil. These monsters will thrive in you." - Casey Hannan

"In On the Edges of Vision, Helen McClory masterfully explores the slow–burning terror that exists in the space between the darkness and the light. McClory paints her scenes with carefully cropped viewpoints, subtle movements, and a strange, breathtaking stillness. This author’s brilliance lies in her patience and empathy, her sure knowledge of the monsters we all fear, and, most disturbing of all, the monsters that live within us. A stunning collection." - Kathy Fish

"Dark, unflinching, and utterly glorious. Every page is a surreal world compressed, every sentence breathless and bruising. From the whip–smart opening story, McClory never lets up, delivering punch after punch of gleeful fantasy shot through with the blackest humor." - Kirsty Logan