This is an excellent book. Great if you are looking for horror with some literary merit. The stories are intriguing and well written. The theme of love (in some form or another) appears throughout the book, hence the title. Some of my favorites are "The Sloan Men" and "Other People's Kids." "The Inevitability of Earth" continues to haunt me. I really loved "The Mayor Will Make A Brief Statement and then Take Questions." It's only a page and a half, but really creepy. When I got to the end, I said 'OH NO!' aloud. It seems to epitomize the way these stories start out seeming mundane, but soon take a disturbing twist that is in many ways a surprise, but in the back of your mind you sensed that something unwholesome was looming just below the surface. Very, very cool.
The overall creepiness of this book is certainly enhanced by the cover.I don't know who designed it, but damn, that cover is grotesque. Part of you wants to stare, and part of you wants to bury it in the yard. You can't properly appreciate it online. You've got to get the book and look that thing in the face. For better or for worse, it gets a reaction. It's been sitting on my coffee table, and I've noticed my boyfriend keeps covering it with magazines.
All in all, this is a rare book that you need to own. Get it while you can. The publisher is a very small but excellent new press, so I assume the print-run was limited. This book has been getting a lot of attention, and it's already sold out on Amazon. As of December 2009, copies can still be had on the publisher's website. [...]
