Review: 'Blood from the Air' by Gemma Files

I love me some horror, especially as the nights get darker and the weather grimmer. However, perhaps more than with any genre, I'm quite particular about my horror. It's not about the blood and guts for me, although I do kinda expect them to be a part of it, it's about something else. So often horror books are a bit of a hit and miss for me. In this case, Gemma Files has a hit on her hands. Thanks to BooksGoSocial, Grimscribe Press, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this short story collection in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 19/17/2023
Publisher: BooksGoSocial; Grimscribe Press

Angels and insects, holes in the known world’s fabric and what comes out of them, the love of death and the death of love. In award-winning horror author Gemma Files’s seventh collection of short fiction, the numinous and the awful tango together through a collapsing series of not-so-alternate realities, and everyone they touch emerges changed, whether or not they may have wanted to be.

This is fantasy of the darkest sort, horror-cured, marinating in its own transformative juices. So enter a fractured universe of creepy delights, one where the oldest tropes are turned inside out and wrung for their oddest components, as forgotten gods and monsters cavort beneath a storm of BLOOD FROM THE AIR.

As is the case with every single short story collection, some stories hit closer to home than others. While some stories in Blood from the Air did not work for me, most, definitely the majority, did. Amongst my favourites was the second story, 'The Harrow', which brings together the idea of something lurking below with my own obsession with earth. I don't just mean planet Earth, though I adore her too. I mean I have this sneaky feeling that perhaps nothing would be more comforting than digging a hole and climbing in, surrounded by soft, warm earth. This story also has a great undertone of feminist frustration to it, I feel. Another lovely story is 'Fin de Siècle', which felt slightly meta, as Files plays around with format. Between excerpts from (fake, as far as I'm aware) excerpts from art history books, we get an insight into a haunted painter and the cursed works he creates. 'Grave Goods' is a beautiful example of archaeological horror, while touching upon the way we Other eachother. 'Caligarism' is a stand-out story for me, in part because I love the film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, a German horror film from the Weimar Republic era between WWI and WWII. It was paradigm-shifting, that film, but what Files does with it in this story is just absolutely stunning. I don't want to spoil it in any way, but this story had its hooks in me. 'Hairwork' is a fascinating story which engages with America's history of slavery, with a stunning, rotten Gothic air. 'Coffle', the collection's final story, had me on the edge of my seat with its contemplation about survival, humanity, self-determination, and more, while also somehow reminding me of Mad Max: Fury Road.

This was my first time reading something by Gemma Files and I believe I have found myself a new go-to horror writer. Throughout this collection, Files engages deeply with religion and spiritualism, which often form either the core of a story or linger on the periphery, influencing the characters. In some stories we have angels interacting with humans, in others, demons. In these cases, the stories often engage with that fine edge between how faith can bolster you and how it can make you utterly blind. In other stories, these themes come through more in the sense of rituals, of how we make sense of life by telling stories, re-enacting certain things, or holding on to traditions. There is also a very strong emphasis on female characters in many of the stories, although not all, and each of these women felt like something new and revelatory to me. Files also engages with history and the trauma that lies there, which I believe is crucial to good horror. This is especially apparent in the stories which engage with slavery and the crimes committed against the First Peoples in America, but it also comes through in other ways. While Files does not shy away from the blood, gore, and guts, the true violence which echoes throughout her stories is largely the callous ways in which people are willing to engage with others, the disregard they may have for the wellbeing and happiness and safety of those around them. 

I give this collection...

3 Universes!

Blood from the Air is an excellent collection of short horror stories, full of blood yet also full of humanity. Some of these stories will definitely stick with me and I can't wait to read more by Gemma Files in the future.