| Stories in this book trace, fictively, the response to fear in our times, which range from the comic to the tragic, to those deeply mixed reactions that characterize so much of contemporary life.
"Beguiling ... Mayo, in his third book, demonstrates that 'horror' can mean something as simple as fear and apprehension, and in patient, sharp prose, he pushes his characters into small psychic duels, where people come close to understanding each other but can't--or won't--get there ... There's no need for standard B movie tropes--Roger Corman's buckets of blood, Ed Wood's bad lighting--to shock the reader here. In Mayo's world, each character already wears a cheap, unconvincing mask; that these disguises hew so close to reality is terrifying enough."
- The New York Times Book Review
"Mayo's gnomic parables showcase his facility for reading deeper meanings in the banal moments of ordinary life and the disposable artifacts of popular culture ... [They] shine with the professional polish of subtly wrought revelation."
- Publishers Weekly
"This is grand writing conveyed in the simplest words without the faintest hint of pulp fiction, although much of the subject matter comes from popular culture ... [D]o not pass this by."
- Kirkus Reviews |
