Women in Horror month has just passed us by and I’m incredibly lazy/busy. I thought I’d make an effort and actively read a female writer.
I’ve known Kayleigh since I first started writing in 2010, so we’ve followed one another’s successes from our time on the forums of Spinetinglers to the present day. Even then, I knew she had a quirky voice, a true horror fan that writes for herself first.
Corpsing is her first collection of previously published short stories and gives the reader an eclectic mix of murder and mayhem with a tongue firmly in cheek. From killer trees, to bad mushroom trips, monsters under the bed and the chaos as the zombie apocalypse unfolds at a secure mental facility.
There’s a dark vein of humour that runs throughout; a mischievous glint that twinkles in the corner of each page, which when done right in horror, provides the reader with a comic relief tilts the story and adds to the chaos. There’s an eclectic mix of tales here, which shows her range as she sweeps from bizarro, to comedy, then back to weird, with a brief detour to gruesomeness.
Kayleigh is definitively a voice to listen out for in the future, and I can’t wait to read something longer from her. Funny AND scary is a rare combination.