A Pretty Mouth
Praise forA Pretty Mouth:"All too infrequently do I encounter a new voice as delightful, compelling, and intelligent as that of Molly Tanzer. Or, for that matter, an author with such a range. But here, in A Pretty Mouth, is that shining gem that keeps me sorting through the rubble. If this is only the beginning of her work, I can hardly wait to see where she's headed!" --CAITLIN R. KIERNAN, author of The Drowning Girl: A Memoir"A Pretty Mouthis a fine and stylish collection that pays homage to the tradition of the weird while blazing its own sinister mark. Tanzer's debut is as sharp and polished as any I've seen." --LAIRD BARRON, author ofThe Croning"If Hieronymus Bosch and William Hogarth had together designed a Fabergé egg, the final result could not be more beautifully and deliciously perverse than what awaits the readers of A Pretty Mouth. Molly Tanzer's first novel is a witty history of the centuries-long exploits of one joyfully corrupt Calipash dynasty, a family both cursed and elevated by darkness of the most squamous sort. This is a sly and sparkling jewel of a book, and I can't recommend it enough--getA Pretty Mouthin your hands or tentacles, post-haste, and prepare to be shocked, charmed, and (somewhat moistly) entertained!" --LIVIA LLEWELLYN, author ofEngines of Desire"Molly Tanzer is a prose Edward Gorey, decadent, delicious, and ever so slightly mad." --NATHAN LONG, author ofJane Carver of Waar"This is form and content and diction and tone and imagination all looking up at the exact same moment: When Molly Tanzer claps once at the front of the classroom." --STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES, author ofThe Last Final Girl"Had the nineteenth century really been like this--with the flounces and corsets and blood and tentacles and whatnot--we'd all be dead by now. Un- lucky us, but lucky you, Dear Reader, as you are alive to read this book." --NICK MAMATAS, author ofBullettime"The stories and short novel in Molly Tanzer's impressive debut collection move steadily backwards through English history, from an Edwardian resort to a Roman encampment, stopping on the way for the nineteenth, eighteenth, and seventeenth centuries, all in the interest of tracing the main trunk of the notorious Calipash family tree all the way to its roots. It's a family linemarked by its excesses of sensuality, cruelty, and sorcery, and in excerpting the exploits of its storied members, Tanzer demonstrates her facility with a variety of voices and styles, from Wodehousian farce to Victorian erotica to Restoration class comedy. Each of the narratives collected here stands and succeeds on its own terms, but taken together, they add to a whole greater than the sum of its parts, in which the recurrence of key motifs in a diversity of settings creates the sense of a family living out its doom generation after generation. Tanzer is an ambitious writer, and she is talented enough for her ambition to matter." --JOHN LANGAN, author ofThe Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies"A Pretty Mouthis many things; erudite, hilarious, profane, moving, learned, engaging, horrific, terrifying, and profound. Molly moves through the multi-forms of prose like a shark in wine-dark seas, rife with allusion, deep in emotion, and sometimes giving you a little salty-mouth. A fantastic collection and not one to be missed." --JOHN HORNOR JACOBS, author ofThis Dark Earth"Molly Tanzer'sA Pretty Mouthis a spectacular book, rad and weird and fun. With winks to P. G. Wodehouse, Robert E. Howard and the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft, it showcases the work of a woman who delights in writing. She writes very well indeed! This is a book I will return to, for to read it is such a naughty pleasure." --W. H. PUGMIRE, author ofThe Twisted Muse"I am a bit bashful about being titillated by Molly Tanzer's naughty debut,A Pretty Mouth, but I must admit it in order to write this blurb. While having segments that are hot and sexy, it is also a dark and disturbing tale with a wicked sense of humor and compelling chracaters. I blush just thinking about it and might have to go read it again!" --ALAN M. CLARK, author ofA Parliament of CrowsandOf Thimble and Threat: The Life of a Ripper Victim"It's been repeatedly said we're enjoying in a new golden age of weird and fantastic fiction. We are, and this lady is one the gifted magicians whose literary creations are keeping the bonfire burning brightly!" --JOSEPH S. PULVER, SR., author ofThe Orphan Palace"Tanzer lifts the skirts of Victorian hypocrisy for a full Monty view of perverted hijinks and fun." --MARIO ACEVEDO, author ofWerewolf Smackdown