This next set of Kiernan‘s books is somewhat different from the previous set. Three of them are constructed as though they were written by their in-universe characters (unreliable narrators all) while the last is a short-story compilation in graphic novel form.
The Red Tree is the literary equivalent of a ‘found footage’ movie. It is also brilliant. Beyond brilliant. Written in the form of a 1st-person diary as told from the point of view of a not particularly successful author on a summer retreat, it ends up eminently realistic and shockingly engrossing.
The follow-up to the above is The Drowning Girl. It’s quite a bit more fantastical and abstract than The Red Tree is as a result of being written from the perspective of a schizophrenic. It also has an extremely nonlinear narrative which can end up somewhat confusing at times. It’s still a remarkably intriguing read, just not exactly immersive and better appreciated as a fictional work than a potential reality.
Slightly changing gears from the previous two books, Blood Oranges‘ in-universe author’s lack of reliability does not come from mental distortions. Rather, it comes from her being a junky and prone to lies. Thematically speaking this is quite a bit different from the previous novels in that it’s conventional cut-and-dry urban fantasy rather than theoretical urban fantasy (i.e. fantasy that may just all be hallucinations/delusions instead of ‘real’). Presumably this is why it was written under the name of Kathleen Tierney… then again it says right on the cover: “Caitlín R. Kiernan Writing as“. So… who knows what the point of using a secondary name was. Anyway, it’s fairly amusing in a cynical fashion and quite entertaining. Somewhat busy though with lots of different supernaturals all crammed in together.
Finally we come to Alabaster: Wolves. This is a graphic novel compilation of short stories focused on the albino girl who appears in Threshold. Curiously, her personality seems quite a bit different here than it does there. Different bad rather than different good; the conversations are atrocious. The stories also seem especially simplistic and are frankly not particularly enjoyable in any respect. On the bright side, this contains some fairly fantastic pieces of full-page artwork.
