We’re all afraid of monsters. They coil in our subconscious, slither along the edges of thought. Still we creep to the crackling fire to whisper their stories.

Love Devours is a collection of new fables for queer women, extracted from the bones of the dark: ominous fairy tales, sinister myths, dystopias rife with nightmares. But in the midst of monsters, love still struggles to find the light.

A witch traps a beast of the sea; a corpse is reanimated out of love; a muse drains her supplicant; a priestess worships in a church of wolves. Six monster stories lurk within these pages. Six heroines, sometimes monsters themselves, unearth romance, rebuild worlds, shatter spells. Their courage unveils the secret faces of humankind’s greatest compulsions: fear and love.

Come into the dark and be devoured.

Since this is an anthology, I’m going to focus on each individual story and give them their own rating at the bottom.

Far: I probably would have liked this better if it wasn’t really, really similar to Twixt. As it is, it just felt like a repeat of that book, except without the good world-building or clarity of ideas. Not bad, but not a great opener either.

The Witch Sea: I really enjoyed the world-building, mythological aspect to this story. Especially Meriel and Nor’s relationship, and the deconstruction of a curse being held in place by one line of women. The writing was especially lovely at times.

Seek: This was a wonderfully creepy fairytale. It was especially interesting that the narrator ended up where she did. One of the stronger stories in the collection.

Our Lady of Wolves: One of the better stories, but I’m not entirely sure how well the ending sits with me. It fits in with the story, but something about it rubs me the wrong way.

We Grow Accustomed to the Dark: The best story in the collection. It was horrifyingly visceral, to the point where even when I wanted to put it down and take a step back, I kept reading because it was mesmerizing. I almost hope there’s a sequel to see what happens next, though the open ending does fit in with the theme of the story.

The Forever Star: A sweet closing to the collection. I like how Diemer can take a genre like science fiction and still infuse fairytales and mythology into it and make it seamless. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of that in the future.

Overall I enjoyed this collection, even the weaker stories in it. It’s definitely worth a look.