Eley Williams

Oct 16, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | Eley Williams |Ange Mlinko

Where you have​ a girl and a looking-glass, or – in the case of one of Eley Williams’s short stories – a woman who sees her reflection in the automated glass doors of an office building that one morning won’t open for her, the ghost of Lewis Carroll is never far away. In her perplexed despair at being unable to enter her workplace, the narrator turns around and sees another woman through the window of a seafood restaurant, and this woman is waving.

Oct 10, 2024 | mondyboy.com | Eley Williams

Evenson’s latest collection gathers 19 stories—mostly horror, including several that take place in an undetermined future or a generation starship. If you have any interest in horror fiction, but more than that, if you have any interest in the craft of horror fiction, then you should be reading Brian Evenson. Evenson is a master at dislocation, at evoking a sense of existential dread.

Oct 9, 2024 | mondyboy.com | Eley Williams

You need to know as little as possible about a movie like this before watching it, so I’ll understand if you don’t want to read any further. Know then that I enjoyed the film. It has its issues, but if you liked Promising Young Woman, you’ll like this. If you do keep reading, I promise to limit the spoilers. Naomi Ackie (new to me, but she’s terrific) plays Frida, a waitress with a bit of a thing for tech billionaire (and very naughty boy) Slater King.

Oct 7, 2024 | mondyboy.com | Eley Williams

I love small presses: Galley Beggar Press, Coffee House Press, Two Dollar Radio, Open Letter Press, and Akashic Books. I could go on. All of these publishers have produced the sort of cutting-edge, experimental (sometimes in translation) work that mainstream publishers generally avoid (unless written by a “big name” author). Unfortunately, there simply aren’t the critics or the space to cover all these presses.* Take the Sante Fe Writer’s Project (or SFWP).

Oct 7, 2024 | mondyboy.com | Eley Williams

Beef was one of the big Netflix shows of 2023, generating all the buzz when it dropped on the streamer last April. I treated Beef like I treat most over-hyped shows (that aren’t explicitly genre), I avoided it. Having now watched all ten episodes, I don’t regret my decision. Beef is symptomatic of so much streaming TV—competent with flashes of brilliance. I loved the opening episode, found my attention drfiting around the middle, but was impressed with the final three episodes—especially the finale.