- (12/05) Listed as one of the "The 15 Most Anticipated Horror Books of 2019" by Max Booth III for Litreactor.com.
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Excerpt: "I read Breukelaar's novel Aletheia earlier this year, and she blew me away with a story that took unexpected turns and seduced me with its vivid prose and flawed, compelling characters. It's a book I still think about a lot. Since I love short fiction, I really can't wait to read this collection and see what dark and magical dreams she'll bring to life there"
Excerpt: "Each of these stories stylishly investigates an encounter between characters and forces of otherworldly, or in some cases off-world, hues. But Breukelaar accomplishes much more than that. She delves into how such contacts-which range from the merely glancing to the traumatically concussive-lead to altered perspectives and transformations of the mind, a literary feat of the first order."
Excerpt: "Armless pianists who play in bands, corpse mothers who defend their daughters, talking dogs who maim children, and many more make appearances in Breukelaar's (Aletheia, 2017) terrifying collection. All 12 stories hit the same surreal nerve despite their sometimes vastly different plots, making the transition from one story to another feel like entering an entirely new world. The only predictable element is the collection's overall strangeness, which is something that never gets old. In the titular story, runaway siblings try to reach each other as their world collides with another in the multiverse. In "War Wounds," two boys create the myth of a violent monster in their small farming town, only to be haunted by the creature after it escapes their imaginations. Breukelaar notes that she let go of self-imposed constraints when plotting the particularly unnerving story "Lion Man"-it shows, in a good way. That total abandonment of conventional storytelling is what makes Collision such a simultaneously entertaining and uncomfortable read. Give this to readers who revel in absurdity or enjoy probing the darker side of humanity."
Excerpt:
"J.S. Breukelaar's Collision
transce
nds the borders of horror writing by creating fantastical and near real-life world with simple twists that keep them tangible but still impossible to predict. In this short story collection, Breukelaar explores the innate cruelty of man, the uncanny elements of things that sometimes seem unknown, and the things that divide us as a race."
