“Once upon a time there was a monster. This is how they tell you the story starts. This is a lie.” 

Sometimes things are not what they appear to be. DNA doesn’t define us, gravity doesn’t hold us, a home doesn’t mean we belong. From circus tents to space stations, Damien Angelica Walters creates stories that are both achingly familiar and chillingly surreal. Within her second short story collection, she questions who the real monsters are, rips families apart and stitches them back together, and turns a cell phone into the sharpest of weapons. 

Cry Your Way Home brings together seventeen stories that delve deep into human sorrow and loss, weaving pain, fear, and ultimately resilience into beautiful tales that are sure to haunt you long after you finish the collection. 

“Once upon a time there was a girl…”

Available on Amazon.

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My Review

I chose to read this book after receiving a free copy. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.

This is a variety of stories that have one thing in common: they’re all dark and mostly about women. They represent suffering, loss, pain, and fear. I was surprised at how well the author was able to make me feel connected to the characters so quickly. Short stories often can have a good story but without the connection with the characters, so that was impressive.

Cry Your Way Home is seventeen short stories over different genres. I didn’t read them in one sitting. I could have because each story was pretty short but they’re so dark I didn’t want to read too many at one time! I definitely recommend Cry Your Way Home if you like dark fiction.

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About the Author

Damien Angelica Walters is the author of Cry Your Way Home, Paper Tigers, and Sing Me Your Scars, winner of the 2015 This is Horror Award for Short Story Collection of the Year. Her short fiction has been nominated twice for a Bram Stoker Award, reprinted in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror and The Year’s Best Weird Fiction, and published in various anthologies and magazines, including the Shirley Jackson Award Finalists Autumn Cthulhu and The Madness of Dr. Caligari, World Fantasy Award Finalist Cassilda’s Song, Nightmare Magazine, Black Static, and Apex Magazine. Until the magazine’s closing in 2013, she was an Associate Editor of the Hugo Award-winning Electric Velocipede, and she lives in Maryland with her husband and two rescued pit bulls.