"This whole collection is obsessed with death."
Josh Rountree makes no bones about the mood in Death Aesthetic, his third collection of short fiction. Rountree explores the boundaries set by grief and guilt. He cracks open all manner of skeletons to peer inside the chest cavity, wondering what remains after everything else has left. He sniffs the night air, leaps and transforms into something both more human and not human at all. He knows all the words to the songs that bring us back from the edge.
We are never ready for that final transition. Rountree offers no assurances with Death Aesthetic, no promises about what lies beyond that black veil. But, as a compassionate psychopomp, he will be at your side for this journey.
This collection contains the following stories:
- "See That my Grave is Kept Clean"
- "The Cure for Boyhood"
- "Sounds Like Forever"
- "Their Blood Smells of Love and Terror"
- "A Red Promise in the Palm of Your Hand"
- "We Share Our Rage with the River"
- "Love Kills"
- "Constellation Burn"
- "The Green Realm"
- "Till the Greenteeth Draw Us Down"
"The Green Realm" is original to this collection.
PRAISE FOR JOSH ROUNTREE
"Rountree blends genres like he's freestyling a casserole." -San Antonio Current
"Rountree's debut novel serves as an ode to Texas storytellers such as Joe Lansdale and dark-fantasy spinners such as Guillermo del Toro." -Library Journal
"Lean, clean prose that reads like Raymond Chandler whittled down by a Texas wind." -FanFiAddict