Review: Peritoneum

Oh, what a tangled, horrific web L. Andrew Cooper weaves.  Ick.

I haven’t read any horror for a LONG time.  Not because I don’t like it.  But because for a while, I only read horror.  I had a literary love affair with Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King.  That was a dark – and awesome – time for me.  And I still often drink my coffee out of my Poe mug.  Except for when my husband does.. because it’s the biggest mug we have…

When I heard about L. Andrew Cooper’s blog tour for Peritoneum and Leaping at Thorns (which I have yet to read – but I will soon!), I jumped on board right way.  I’ve been spending a lot of time in outer space lately with Ender Wiggin and Miles Vorkosigan, so I was excited to get a breath of fresh, dead air.

17-year-old, anatomy student me would have been in love with this cover. 26-year-old me loves it, too.

And believe me: I did.  Peritoneum is a collection of short stories that each bothered me, chilled me, and made me squirm in different ways.  While many stories had certain details in common, such as setting, theme, or characters, each story was unique and fascinating in it’s own way.  Cooper explores hallucinations, psychological experiments, monsters, abuse, and more while leaving you will a lot of questions (Wait, what just happened?  Who did what?  Was that real?  That CAN’T be how it ends, right?).

L. Andrew Cooper offers a very balanced horror story: it’s mysterious and slightly confusing; gory but not too explicit; out there but uncomfortably believable; rare and well-done.  I also loved – LOVED – that there were recurring places and characters.  I was very in favor of seeing the same people (in different bodies of course) and places over time, spanning hundreds of years.  Very clever, and a great way to make the anthology more cohesive, which is just want I want in an anthology.

I also appreciated Peritoneum‘s touch on different social issues, too, even if they were brief at times: parenting, mental illness, abuse, abortion, etc.

L. Andrew Cooper, you have a new fan.

Favorite stories: “Blood and Feathers”, “Patrick’s Luck”, “David Langley and the Burglar”, “The Long Flight of Charlotte Radcliffe”, “The Road Thief”, “Rudy Haskill’s Plan”, and “Eternal Recurrence of Suburban Abortion”.

So if you like horror, if you like unique imagination, if you like things that disturb you but (probably) won’t keep you up at night, if you’re looking for something to pique your interest and make you wonder what you just read – check out Peritoneum.

It’s not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach.

 

 

If you want to know more about L. Andrew Cooper, check this out:

About the author:    L. Andrew Cooper scribbles horror: novels Burning the Middle Ground and Descending Lines as well as anthologies of experimental shorts Leaping at Thorns (2014 /2016) and Peritoneum (2016). He also co-edited the anthology Imagination Reimagined (2014). His book Dario Argento (2012) examines the maestro’s movies from the 70s to the present. Cooper’s other works on horror include his non-fiction study Gothic Realities (2010), a co-edited textbook, Monsters (2012), and recent essays that discuss 2012’s Cabin in the Woods (2014) and 2010’s A Serbian Film (2015). His B.A. is from Harvard, Ph.D. from Princeton. Louisville locals might recognize him from his year-long stint as WDRB-TV’s “movie guy.” Find him at amazon.com/author/landrewcooper, facebook.com/landrewcooper, and landrewcooper.com.

Website: landrewcooper.com.

Twitter: @Landrew42

Facebook: facebook.com/landrewcooper

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/landrewcooper

 

You can buy Peritoneum from Amazon or Barnes and Noble by following the links.

 

Tour Schedule and Activities

8/8            MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape   Interview

8/8            SpecMusicMuse  Guest Post

8/8            Darkling Delights   Guest Post

8/8            Beauty in Ruins Guest Post

8/9            Jordan Hirsch Review (Hey, that’s me!)

8/10            The Seventh Star   Interview

8/10            Vampires, Witches, Me Oh My Top Ten List

8/10            The Sinister Scribblings of Sarah E. Glenn Guest Post

8/11            EricJude.com  Guest Post

8/12            Reviews Coming at YA Guest Post

8/13            I Smell Sheep   Top Ten List

8/13            Bee’s Knees Reviews  Review

8/14            Sheila’s Guests and Reviews Guest Post

 

**This eBook was provided to me in exchange for an honest review; no compensation was provided.