Alabaster: Pale Horse

I assumed this was going to be a graphic novel of her stories but this is more of short story collection with some illustrations. Dancy Flammarion is a young albino girl hitchhiking in the South following an angel's instructions to kill monsters. The stories are interconnected but clues within the stories make you wonder is this real or a fantasy. Dark and full of symbolism the writing is lush and expects the reader to keep up with it and doesn't dumb down anything. Not my usual read but I think I will be looking for more in this series of stories.


Digital copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

The twist at the end of "Threshold", the novel in which Kiernan introduced Dancy Flammarion, made it almost impossible for stories about the albino girl to be set after that novel. But the novel hinted of a lot of stories worth telling before we met Dancy and even if we heard some of them, a lot of them remained unexplored. So when Kiernan decided to revisit her heroine (who was supposed to be just a one-novel character), she delved into her past and went to tell stories of monsters - both supernatural and human. The first edition of this collection was published in 2006. Its limited edition was accompanied by a chapbook containing an extra story (as Subterranean Press often occasionally do). When the book was reissued in 2020, it added that extra story into the book properly so the second edition gained an extra story. Kiernan provides an introduction (spoiler-free so safe to read before the book) and two separate tables of contents - one which orders the stories in their publication order (the book is ordered that way) and one which orders them in chronological order inside of the stories themselves (except for that extra story which should be elsewhere in that later order but I suspect that they missed that when they were adding it for the second edition...). The 6 stories are connected not just by Darcy being there but also by characters knowing what happened in earlier events. If you prefer not to get spoiled, you should probably read the book in the alternative order - the publishing order is almost the opposite of the internal chronological one. On the other hand we know that Dancy makes it to Birmingham, Alabama for "Threshold" so we know she would live through all these prequel stories. But that is a problem for any writer writing prequels. And even if you know she must survive, most of the stories manage to keep the tension high enough.Kiernan's style is a lot more straight forward here than it was in "Threshold". While some of the stories jump around in time, the different sections are actually marked and dated - which is very different from the novel's way of story telling. But let's talk about the stories:"Les Fleurs Empoisonnées" (originally published in 2002 as "In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers" because the publisher requested a title which sounded less French) opens the collection but is the last of the stories chronologically and it mentions the events of the rest of the stories. Dancy, having earned quite of a reputation as the monster killing albino girl by now, is sent by her angel to a house where a group of women who perform monstrous acts. So how does our teenager get to the house? She hitchhikes of course. Add a dead girl, a talking bear and an actual evil hiding in the house (and a bottle you really don't want to open) and you have a pretty solid horror story. The fact that a lot of people seem to have additional motives for their actions adds to the story quite nicely. "The Well of Stars and Shadows" is the earliest story chronologically, set almost a decade earlier when Dancy is still a girl, living in the swamps of Florida with her mother and grandmother. She visits an old man - the same way she had done it numerous times before. But this time she is about to see her first monster. In a way, this is the origin story of Dancy although it needs to be combined with Julia's story for all in Dancy's character to make sense. "Waycross" is set before "Les Fleurs Empoisonnées"(the earlier story in the collection even mentions the end of this one) and after all the other stories in the collection. For the first time we see something that may hint at the monsters not being real - but just as in "Threshold", the reader is almost sure to consider the mundane psychiatric clinic as the nightmare. Dancy is sent after another evil (if you see a pattern, it is because the pattern is indeed there) and ends up having to deal with her own internal demons after the bad guy opens a box (unnamed but clearly designed after Pandora's box and similar myths). "Alabaster" takes us again back in time, before "Waycross" and just days after the Bainbridge incident and we finally learn what all references about a gas station were about. There is a real evil, there is a wicked old man and there is fire. By now, pretty standard for the stories about Dancy. According to the introduction, the original story was written in 2003 but the one published here is actually an expanded version from 2004. "Bainbridge" finally fills the gaps in the story of that incident. Her first monster after she burns the cabin she grew up in (the story of that incident is in "Threshold"), it is told in alternating chapters with the story of the near drawing of Julia, Dancy's mother, in 1982. The story manages to complete and tie together all the dangling threads and stories which had been hinted at through the collection and the novel - adding even more to Dancy's backstory."Highway 97" is the original opening of "Bainbridge" which for some reason got ejected from the story and then published separately (even Kiernan does not remember why). It is a lot milder than the rest of the stories and has a talking dog which tries to convince Dancy not to go to Bainbridge.The afterword, titled "Afterword: On the Road to Jefferson" discussed how she got the idea for "In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers". Because it was printed initially when the story was called that way, the afterword keeps referring to it this way even if it named "Les Fleurs Empoisonnées" in the collection. It was mildly interesting but ultimately skippable.Despite the repetitiousness of the main plots, the details and the language actually make this collection work and not be as tedious as it could have become under other circumstances. Not perfect by any means but pretty readable (although some of the scenes are grotesque and can cause nightmares if one is so inclined. The illustrations by Ted Naifeh fit the tone of the book perfectly and add to atmosphere.

I got a copy of this book to review through Netgalley. Thanks to Netgalley and Dark Horse for a chance to read this book. I have a number of Keirnan books on my bookshelf waiting to be read, but this is the first thing I have read by her. I thought this would be a graphic novel like Alabaster: Wolves...it is not it is a collection of short stories featuring Dancy Flammarion. Many of these stories have appeared other places, so if you are a huge fan of Keirnan you may have already read a lot of these.This is a collection of short stories featuring Dancy Flammarion. There are a couple illustrations done by Ted Naifeh in each story. There are six stories total, they vary in length and content. I have summarized each of them below. There are two prefaces which explain the origin of the below short stories and the history behind the stories written about Dancy Flammarion. My favorite two stories of the whole bunch were Alabaster and Bainbridge.As mentioned above, I have a couple of Kiernan's novels on my bookshelf at home, but this is my first time actually reading something written by her. These are dark urban fantasy/horror short stories about a teenage girl named Dancy who is commanded by an angel to go from place to place fighting evil and dealing out justice.The stories are very dark. I think someone who has read the novels featuring Dancy would probably get more from reading these short stories. However, I did enjoy piecing together Dancy's background by pulling out bits and pieces through these stories.Overall I enjoyed this book, it made me want to read more of Kiernan's books. She has a very beautiful, strange, and at times slightly ambiguous style to her story telling. It was very unique and made for an excellent read. I would recommend to those who enjoy dark fantasy and unique writing styles.See below for more detail on the stories included.- Les Fleurs Emposionness: (4/5 stars)Dancy hitches a ride to a house where a bunch of truly ghoulish women reside. It seems to take place when Dancy is older.- The well of Stars and Shadows (4/5 stars))This story is about Dancy in her youth. She journeys through the swamp to visit an old man. He has a visitor that is something creepy and devilish- Waycross (4/5 stars)Dancy goes to take care of a problem involving a old monster that’s lived ages and ends up on some sort of soul journey to prove herself and escape. This seems to take place some time between Well of Stars and Shadows and Les Fleurs Empoisoness.- Alabaster (5/5 stars)Takes place 5 days after a fire at Bainbridge, this is an event that is referenced throughout the short stories. Dancy follows her angel to a gas station where she confronts a man and a monster and takes care of both. This is by far the most cohesive and fluid story of the bunch and I felt like it helped me understand Dancy the best. I really enjoyed it.- Bainbridge (5/5 stars)This story switches between Dancy going into a church to fight evil things and a story set in the 80’S about a woman name Julia Flammarion. This was a again a very cohesive story and provided excellent background on Dancy, I really enjoyed it. It was beautifully written.- Highway 97 (4/5 stars)Very short story about Dancy on the road to Bainbridge. She’s followed by a strange talking dog on the road. This story was more of a fragment than a full length story.- Afterward (4/5 stars)The afterward is an explanation of where Kiernan got the idea for In the Garden of Poisonous Flowers. It is well written and an interesting read.