Guises

Charlee Jacob

Charlee Jacob went from publishing obscure short stores in small-press and online magazines to the toast of the horror community virtually overnight with the 2002 mass-market publication of her 1998 debut novel, This Symbiotic Fascination. Haunter, which appeared the next year, has solidified Jacob's rightful position at the top of the horror heap. While much of the shorter work she has published (over six hundred pieces, to date) remains uncollected, fans will definitely want to head out and pick up the two currently-available small-press collections of her shorter work. Of the two, Guises is the easier to find (though not by much). (Note to clarify: other collections of her short work have seen print; however, you'll pay collector's prices to get them. These two you can still find for cover price.)

Which is kind of depressing, because Dread in the Beast (released in 1999 by Necro Publications) is the better book. Slightly, I grant you. If you pick up Guises, and you know Jacob's work, you are likely to not be disappointed. Like Dread in the Beast, Guises contains an eclectic mix of stories, some of them the drenched-in-gore work fans of the novels have come to expect, and some (which are usually the more compelling stories) lighter on the gore and heavier on the atmosphere. The title story in "Guises" is one of the latter variety, and of the short work of Jacob's I've read, it may be the finest piece. It alone is worth the price of admission here. A few of the other stories also stand out ("A Window for Anon" and "The Vanishing Point" worked especially well for me).

After the story collection is finished is a poetry collection. Which, I should note, is large enough on its own to have been a single-author collection of poetry (sixty-five pages). And really, there's some decent stuff here at times; Jacob obviously knows how to stick to image, and occasionally does let image get a word in edgewise. Unfortunately, "some" is the key word. Unlike her short stories, her poetry here varies widely in consistency, craft, and talent, and I found myself skimming more than once. Which shouldn't put you off the book, for the bulk of it is quite wonderful. Just be prepared for the quality to slip a notch here and there.