Ive never read anything quite like Charlene Elsbys Violent Faculties and I suspect I never will again. Part tenure application, part manifesto of sadistic feminism, Elsbys story of a professor pushed to rational excess by administrative powers-that-be reads like an overview of Western philosophy as written by your brilliant and bloodthirsty best friend who happens to be a malignant narcissist. Elsbys voice is daring, original, and wholly uncompromising. Violent Faculties is a work of true transgressive transcendence. Paula Ashe, Shirley Jackson award-winning author of We Are Here to Hurt Each Other
One of my favorite contemporary writers Elsbys voice winds its way into your head and smashes about like a trapped heron.B.R. Yeager, author ofNegative SpaceandBurn You the Fuck Alive
Elsby is a dark magician with words.Samantha Krewulak, author ofHorror Bound
Charlene Elsby is in a class of her own inventiona voice to follow all the way into the dark.Mila Jaroniec, author ofPlastic Vodka Bottle Sleepover
Elsby engulfs the reader in an oppressive interiority, draping her characters damaged psyches over our heads and slowly, diabolically, cinching them round our necks, until all we can see is just how snugly they might fit us. Even if you think its you whos getting inside these characters minds, rest assured, by the time youre finished with them, youll never get them out of yours again.David Fitzgerald, author ofTroll
"Fusing philosophy and horror, with a sinister dose of torture porn, Charlene Elsby's Violent Faculties is a masterful tale of human misery and the macabre, a story that transcends its innermost psychosocial experiments and becomes a cautionary tale by way of academic study. Elsby is at the peak of her powers, and this book is her calling card. I can't wait to see what sadistic experiments she has in store for us next."Michael J. Seidlinger, author The Body Harvest and Anybody Home?
Elsbys commentary is razor-sharp, her brutality, unflinching. Violent Faculties has earned a place in my top reads of the year.Rae Knowles, author of Merciless Waters
"A disturbing dissertation on humanity that lures you into its extreme experiment in philosophical flagellation and doesn't dismiss you until the final footnote."BrianMcAuley, author of Curse of the Reaper and Candy Cain Kills
"Fierce, clever, and wholly unapologetic, Charlene Elsby's Violent Faculties will mash your brain into mush."Ronald Malfi, author of Shamrock Alley and Floating Staircase
"An absorbing, twisted tale of psychosis, murder, and grief."Kirkus Reviews
