My god, what a delight this book is. Ms Lanagan presents us with glimpses into other worlds, in some ways similar to our own but in other ways very different indeed. These are not short stories but fragments of lives, windows through which we experience fully formed worlds and characters for a brief moment before the window is closed on us. These stories are beautifully written, delicate and intimate, with delightful, hypnotic similies and metaphors painting a picture of such outlandish realness that you are compelled to read on. Although some of the stories have elements of fantasy, sci-fi and horror, in truth they are much more then these genres. They are tales of heart and experience, of sorrow and silence. Each story, for all its brevity, has a weight, a depth of history keeping it anchored in a sense of reality.
It is now months since I last read Black Juice and I can still recall the worlds that Ms Lanagan let me visit. Some haunt me more vividly than others, but I remember quite keenly the joy, the pain and the wonder of each.