Gore, Lust & Kin:
Stories of Women on the Brink
The NEW Short Story Collection
by Suzanne Mattaboni
Sell Sheet
Bookstores/Libraries:
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Barnes & Noble, Madville Publishing, Kobo
Release date 10/20/26
ISBN: 978-1-963695-80-9 paperback $22.95
ISBN: 978-1-963695-81-6 ebook $9.99
GORE, LUST & KIN is a genre-crossing collection blending horror, dysfunctional romance, and familial obligations. Its 24 stories feature agonized women (and a couple of guys) on the cusp of finding themselves or destroying themselves. Meet murderous Charlene, who goes to explosive lengths to drum-up business for her family’s funeral home. And struggling researcher Jackie, forced to make a heartbreaking decision between her relationship and her own body. Or Aphrodite, reanimated Goddess on a bloody rampage. And dramatic pixie dream girl Marena, who finally gets to tell a story from the pixie’s POV. These girls will thrill you or kill you.'
With no shortage of literary flourishes, Gore, Lust, and Kin is a short fiction collection with big themes, exploring a world where women have achieved professional and independent progress, but still find themselves in a world dominated by men, in business, in family, in interpersonal relationships. And how do women gain love and power under such conditions? … The heart of this collection seems to be how through the experience of our deep alienation from each other we actually find an absurd connection.
Interesting and gut-wrenching … it channels other popular literary writers on the market like Karen Russell while also maintaining the author’s own unique voice.
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Reviews
Booklife Editor's Choice
Lightning Review
Mattaboni shocks, dazzles, moves, and illuminates shadowy depths.
Haunting amorphous creatures, five a.m. booty calls, and deceased loved ones visiting in dreams—so it goes in Mattaboni’s wicked, eclectic collection of short stories, which both lives up to its title and takes “Gore,” “Lust,” and “Kin” as organizing principles. The first section, “Gore,” focuses on body horror, with sharp, surprising premises that it’s best to know nothing about. Let Mattaboni’s squirmily witty descriptions entice: “I could see my suited half-self below, slumped and impossible against the cement, pants full of melting black cherry jam that painted the sidewalk” and “she was a smoldering pile of melted muscle, slinking up the stairs.”
A second section, “Lust,” features stories that focus on the intimacies of relationships, new and old, and sexuality. The messy anxieties of the characters—Jackie, who moved to Queens after college, vows to find her way to being a normal person again and catches herself saying to a lover, “I bled for you for weeks”—are matched by the brisk confidence of the storytelling. “Kin,” the tenderest section, explores familial ties and childhood. Within these themes, Mattaboni plumbs the minds and bodies—corporeal and otherwise—of characters who struggle with all it means to be human. In “Change for Domenik,” protagonist Gina’s mother is said to have “this near-psychic ability to pinpoint a person’s character down to the bone within two minutes of meeting them”; in eerie detail, she foretells what her daughter could expect from a guy named Domenick.
The stories are singular but also overlap in striking imagery and hard truths. Rena in “Dragonflies” says “acting, I was good at. Living, not so much” after the death of her partner leaves her in the limbo of loving a memory, while Genevieve in “The Last Ember” faces the pain of living with the ghost of her mother due to a brain disorder; the moments of clarity might “only last a few moments before she falls back into obscurity.” Mattaboni shocks, dazzles, moves, and illuminates shadowy depths.
Kirkus Reviews
An "entertaining collection that oscillates between light and dark, realism and feminist fable...the collection unfolds breathlessly."
Empower
Growth
Women’s lives are at the center of Mattaboni’s genre-bending story collection that features everything from a Greek myth come to life to navigating dysfunctional romances.
Divided into the three categories with eight stories apiece, Mattaboni’s collection of 24 stories resists easy categorization. “Gore” leans toward horror and makes for a striking beginning. “The World is Lava” finds Lilly, a trainee for Charlene’s family funeral home, discovering how far her boss—and her “smirk [that] spread like a garter snake”—will go to fill cemetery plots. “The Stain in the Ceiling” sees a series of roommates haunted by a specter that “watched from the stain” with the haunting history revealed gradually. “The Trouble with AI Mailboxes” is a dark imagining of a disturbing technological future in which a son tries to continue his father’s legend.
In “Lust,” the stories focus on reflection and dysfunctional interpersonal relationships. The vibrant Renata is a recurring character across “Dawning” and “The Secret Lives of Chippendales” as the reason her straitlaced colleague feels “the only thing that seems to occur in real time is partying.” “Dragonflies” sees Marena, a manic pixie dream girl, reflect on her inner world behind the “gorgeous little muse” trope.
Family dynamics are explored in “Kin,” while “The Last Ember” proves to be an uncharacteristically tender tale: As an imaginative parent struggles to distinguish between the “illusion” of “miniature sprites” and the real world, her adult daughter Genevieve finds magic in her responsibilities as a carer for her mom.
The collection unfolds breathlessly, and the first half of the book is the strongest showcase of Mattaboni’s wide-ranging ideas. The tonal shifts in “Lust” and “Kin” feel as if the author has run out of steam and can’t seem to rekindle the spark that initially propels the book, going on to favor softer stories grounded in reflective realism. Yet, the meta “Entering Jane,” challenges lazy female character writing, and “Reunions” finds a poignant moment shared between three female relatives with a touch of the supernatural.
Author Blurbs
Suzanne Mattaboni spins real magic with this collection of feminist tales. Daring, insightful, heartfelt, and unflinching. Highlyrecommended… but buckle up!
—Jonathan Maberry, NY Times bestselling author of NecroTek and Ink, 2025 Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award winner
This absolutely fascinating collection of stories held me on the edge of my seat from thevery start! Gore, Lust, & Kin provides a deep dive into the human condition while racinginto the otherworldly like a runaway train full of desire, terror, and tales that stick with you long after you turn off the lights. Mattaboni has a devilish way of bleeding one story directly into the next that barely let me stop to catch my breath.
—Misty Simon, author of The Charmed Inn Mysteries and The Sunny Side Up Mysteries
With no shortage of literary flourishes, Gore, Lust & Kin is a short fiction collection with big themes, exploring a world where women have achieved professional and independent progress, but still find themselves dominated by men—in business, in family, ininterpersonal relationships. And how do women gain love and power under such conditions? … The heart of this collection is howthrough the experience of our deep alienation from each other we actually find an absurd connection. Interesting and gut-wrenching, it channels other popular literary writers on the market like Karen Russell while also maintainingthe author’s own unique voice.
—Mike Hilbig, author of Judgement Day & Other White Lies
A riveting collection of shape-shifting stories that take us into dark hearts and bloodied trauma,all told with a lightness of touch and an insouciant literary flair.
—Simon Petherick, author of Jack and Barry and Like Fire Unbound
Empower
Growth
Suzanne Mattaboni
suzanne@mattaboni.com
onceinalifetimenovel.com
https://linktr.ee/suzannemattaboni
