Parallel hells

"The thirteen audacious stories in PARALLEL HELLS take in the worlds of night hags, golems, vampires, warrior women, fairies and corpse brides; living in contemporary London, 18th century Poland and Viking-era Iceland. Threaded throughout are timely and political metaphors about queerness, gender fluidity, kink, otherness and womanhood. Written with precision and brio they are both incredibly playful and readable gothic and folkloric stories, but simultaneously, vital literary anecdotes for modern times. We meet a golem, made of clay, learning what is expected of her in the world, who witnesses a murder and must contend with its meaning; Asta, an ancient being who feasts on the shame of contemporary Londoners, who now, beyond anything, wishes only to fit in with a group of friends she will long outlive; an historian in bitter competition with the rest of her faculty members, who discovers the secret to invisibility in an ancient tome and uses it to torment her rivals."--Provided by publisher.