The Hair Wreath and Other Stories
by Halli Villegas
Girls and boys disappear; couples caught in the heat and suppressed rage of urban life are haunted by the ghosts of their own making; neighbourhoods drift in the murky atmosphere of buried emotions, where the echoes of distrust and dissonance prove that something just isn't . . . right.
These strange stories gather and weave themselves together into a wreath of memories, rife with an atmospheric and ominous creep redolent of Shirley Jackson. This eerie collection illustrates the disconnect amongst people and the places they inhabit—the gap that allows the supernatural to flourish.
Reviews - What's Being Said About Halli Villegas & The Hair Wreath and Other Stories
A touch of magical realism, a whiff of the dark. Great emotional intensity is wrought in only a few pages. Domestic skirmishes, open ended mysteries and always—in the midst of life—the delicate scent of corruption. Villegas's fresh voice promises a great future in speculative literature.
–Ellen Datlow
Fans of creepy, nongory horror will appreciate this collection.
–Publishers Weekly
Slippery, evocative, tasty. Elegantly and eloquently unsettling.
–Ursula Pflug, author of After the Fires and Green Music
(T)hese stories are very finely thought through; their language is precise. And, on the whole, the emotional effects are successful. It's a strong debut collection, marking a writer worth watching.
–Matthew Surridge on Rover
