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We are Happy, We are Doomed


Author:
Kurt Fawver

Cover and color illustrations: Harry 0. Morris
Publication Date: December 15th, 2021
Published by: Grimscribe Press
230 pp.
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Synopsis

We are Happy, We are Doomed collects fifteen stories of the strange and the terrifying and weaves them into a dark tapestry that magnifies and explores the collective madness of our world. In these pages you’ll enter into cosmic blob-worshipping cults and “utopian” communities with dark secrets. You’ll experience extradimensional coming-of-age rites and the disturbingly colorful end of the world. You’ll stumble upon factories that manufacture living emptiness, comedy shows for the dying, and small towns where bizarre and menacing dogmas hold sway. And, all along the way, you’ll hear the decaying heart of our civilization hammering out its violent pulse.

We are Happy, We are Doomed presents its readers with stories for a world on the precipice of annihilation. They are a warning for change. They are an illumination of the insanities of our age. They are, perhaps, glimpses into our always already doomed future.


About the Author

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Kurt Fawver is a writer of horror, weird fiction, and literature that oozes between the cracks of genre. His stories have won or been nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award and the Bram Stoker Award. He’s the author of two previous collections, The Dissolution of Small Worlds (Lethe Press) and Forever, in Pieces (Villipede Publications), as well as a novella and several chapbooks. He lives in the rustlands of northeastern Ohio where he teaches writing and literature at a community college. He’s currently at work on a follow-up collection, another novella, and a book about the social, philosophical, and aesthetic value of the horror genre. You can find him online on Facebook or at kurtfawver.com.


Praise for We are Happy, We are Doomed
and Kurt Fawver

“Fawver’s latest collection is unsettling not only for the strangeness of his imagination but for the way in which he can move deeply into odd and uncanny territories that are still deeply haunted by the politics of our current moment. At the heart of We are Happy, We are Doomed are fractured and confused communities, struggling to pursue a way forward while still not entirely sure what has traumatized them. A powerful and resonant collection by a nimble writer and thinker.”
— Brian Evenson, author of Last Days

“Kurt Fawver is one of the most innovative and unique voices to emerge in weird fiction in the last decade, and his collection, We are Happy, We are Doomed, is proof why. These dark and strange tales contain foreboding landscapes, unusual formats, and a pervading sense of dread that creeps up on you and never quite lets you go. Highly recommended.”
Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens and Reluctant Immortals

“Delightfully acerbic, poetically strange, We are Happy, We are Doomed builds upon bedrock weird fiction influences to rise as its own dark island. If we’re talking about Thomas Ligotti and Michael Cisco, we need to be talking about Kurt Fawver.”
— Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase

“In these brilliantly atmospheric stories human nature crashes against the unknown, with catastrophic results. Some of the characters try to understand or alter their fate by closely and repeatedly examining physical clues, to no avail. Maybe because knowing the truth wouldn’t really change the outcome, or because our natural adaptability undermines our will to escape. This is the most disturbing part of Kurt Fawver’s expertly drawn, densely detailed, and philosophical stories—the ineffectuality of humans, individually or collectively, in the face of a great cosmic mystery. No matter how intelligent we are, no matter how lofty or how mundane our intentions, we are no match for the universe.”
— S. P. Miskowski, author of I Wish I Was Like You

“We are Happy, We are Doomed demonstrates Fawver’s continued transformation into one of the most interesting writers in modern weird fiction. His singular vision crosses back and forth across the thin boundary separating the absurd from the horrific, creating amalgamations that are as bizarre as they are unnerving. Kurt Fawver has staked a claim in the genre that’s all his own.”
— Simon Strantzas, author of Nothing is Everything

“These stories are reminiscent of ethnographies, oral histories exploring the darkest regions of existence, and the remarkably diverse manifestations alternate worlds may take. Here Fawver proves once more that he’s capable of evoking not only mordant terror, but profound humanity coupled with scathing socio-political awareness, accentuated by profound philosophical insight—often in the same story. There’s nothing quite like it out there; Fawver’s creations are unique. I’ve no idea how he does it, but finishing this collection made me feel as if I were sinking into the molasses-thick dark matter that permeates the universe. Like some Fortean academic of dread, We are Happy, We are Doomed reads as a hortative colloquy building deliriously until the lecture theater dims and you’re no longer certain what constitutes reality, much less what it means to be human. Fawver is an absolute master of the strange fable.”
— Christopher Slatsky, author of The Immeasurable Corpse of Nature

“Kurt Fawver traffics in dark allegories, deeply strange fables, and the boldly outré. He’s a true original, a treasure, and We are Happy, We are Doomed is a showcase for some of his finest work to date.”
— Matthew M. Bartlett, author of Gateways to Abomination

“Fawver takes the traditional motifs of Lovecraft country and makes them scream again with both fear and wonder.”
— Publisher’s Weekly

“Fawver stands in the tradition of Harlan Ellison and Theodore Sturgeon. He employs the tools of science fiction, horror, and dark fantasy to tell a darkly hypothetical tale, to talk about aspects of culture and existence that most may not be comfortable with bringing to light.”
— Scott Dwyer, The Plutonian

“it is obvious from the first page of The Dissolution of Small Worlds that if you are looking for a rehash of horror that has been successful before, keep looking. If you are like me, constantly on the hunt for works that don’t just change the backdrop, but really do take us in new directions and to uncharted corners of the vast landscape of what horror can be, The Dissolution of Small Worlds is a must have addition to your bookshelf or Kindle library.”
— Mike Denham, Signal Horizon

“The Dissolution of Small Worlds is a volume that finds the middle ground between the strange, the weird, and the philosophically perverse, and peels back those layers to examine what beats at its centre. In this era where the world grows more fascinated daily by all nature of horrors, Fawver’s book acts as a flagpole, signalling his intent to plunge forward into that breach and take us all with him.”
— Simon Strantzas, Author of Burnt Black Suns

“Kurt Fawver’s stories are nasty little shockers that dare to dream big. And he isn’t afraid to follow those big and totally mad ideas through to their horrific conclusions. Yeah, Kurt is a little messed up, and Forever, in Pieces is a promising debut.”
— Paul Tremblay, Author of Survivor Song

“Forever, in Pieces is aptly titled, for this book offers readers unnerving glimpses into our eternal fears, both staggeringly cosmic and painfully intimate. Kurt Fawver’s tales are gruesome and poignant. An impressive debut.”
— Richard Gavin, Author of grotesquerie

“Fawver has an original, and at times twisted, imagination. He is also a great stylist, and has that rare ability of layering his fiction with philosophical and symbolic meaning which blends effortlessly with the visceral text.”
— C.M. Muller, CthonicMatter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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