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In this debut story collection, Gianni Washington opens portals bridging the strange and the lonely to the gruesome and the intimate.
Thirteen dark tales are told through the lenses of Black, female, and queer narrators, among others, which burrow deep into the heart of the gothic to challenge the conventional nightmare. Flowers from the Void unburies a haunted labyrinth of chilling alternate realities eerily similar to our own.
A high school freshman is lured into a sinister pact with a classmate that will cost him more than he could ever imagine. A grieving African witch prepares for initiation into a 17th century Salem coven of white women. A girl with no shadow befriends one.
Empathy and horrors collide to create a grimy discomfort that will never quite wash off. Otherworldly creatures, malevolent acts, and devastation consume these pages as Gianni Washington resurrects the skeletons in our closets and commands them to run amuck with a new zest for the macabre.
"The beauty of Flowers from the Void is that it presents no artifice about the darkness humanity can wreak on other humans. It also makes no assumptions that this darkness is all that can, or should, exist." —Southwest Review
“The creep factor is off the charts… Flowers from the Void doesn’t revel in jump scares—no, it raises the horror genre up to a whole new level of unease by exploring genuine feeling.” —Electric Literature
"Gianni Washington's debut collection gathers thirteen splendid tales rendered with the deft prose of a horror master. Deeply imagined speculative elements blend with mystery, suspense, ethereal settings, and haunting characters in a text both engrossing and powerful. With thought-provoking stories that make you feel, Flowers from the Void is a breathtaking and exquisitely penned descent into hell." —Tamika Thompson, author of Unshod, Cackling, and Naked
"Gianni Washington's debut collection Flowers From the Void demonstrates the skill and confidence of a seasoned storyteller. Her characters and their motivations are complex, her plots never predictable. We're lucky to have a new voice in the horror scene imbued with such potent mastery." —Joe Koch, author of The Wingspan of Severed Hands and Invaginies
"Flowers from the Void is a collection whose range is as impressive as its precision. These thirteen tales will make you feel at home in their reality, but home is never what it should be." —Charlene Elsby, author of Violent Faculties