Overview

""Far better to choose an absence than to have an absence forced upon you."" These stories by award-winning author Steve Rasnic Tem drag from the darkness ghosts that haunt us all. Between these covers lurk the spectres of grief, loss, and loneliness: a man discovers he is far from alone in his empty home, a forlorn wife is gifted with an unusual child, a contractor contemplates the sad message left by a grieving father, a blind woman discovers a spiritual manifestation at the edge of a forest, a spectral presence appears in a lonesome Colorado wheat field . . . Here with the Shadows is a volume of supernatural impressions and quiet vacancies, and in each story Tem reminds us that sometimes only a whisper separates us from the eternal.

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9781783807734

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Reviews

"""The lyrical quality of Tem's prose and his skill at finding the perfect metaphor for expressing the emotional states of his characters make these perfect gems of storytelling whose impact is like that of poetry."" - Locus ""One of the best collections of 2014 and highly recommended."" - Black Static ""Taken together, these stories demonstrate why a neglected, uncommercial literary discipline is important. As many have observed, all novels are flawed to some extent, but it is possibly to produce a perfect short story. Some of those perfect stories are here."" - Supernatural Tales ""Here with the Shadows, a collection of fifteen short stories, is a tour de force, not necessarily as a result of Tem's singular writing style, but because the volume plays beautifully-and hauntingly-with the theme of the ghost through the tropes of memory, physical space, and, quite literally, shadow."" - Dead Reckonings ""Steve Tem is a very prolific author of 'quiet' horror in its various shades, probing the secrets hidden in the human heart, which is the very source of any real horror . . . Among the fifteen tales assembled in the book, most are really outstanding examples of how good Tem is at his best."" - Thirteen O'Clock ""Tem's storytelling is most powerful when he dramatizes loss . . . Loneliness is next to ghostliness, and the isolation and sorrow of the bereaved play a role in luring revenants to the door."" - Totally Dublin ""Here With the Shadows presents us with a number of exquisite ghost stories and supernatural tales that leave liminal impressions and a faint, queer unease. Ghostly residues, as it were. These little literary soupcons are must-reads."" - Weird Fiction Review ""[Tem is] a stalwart of the genre, whose weird and ghostly tales have been among the most consistently best for several decades, showing that the horror tale, well-done, can purvey most sensitive reflections of the human condition."" - A Ghostly Company ""This book is all good. But a number of stories are special, more than just good. Those stories as well as the whole book's gestalt itself represent a matchless literary experience to cherish for watchers of man's 'endless fall'."" - Real-Time Reviews ""The evocation of empty hope, amidst the cold and the damp, is chillingly, cloyingly wrought . . . the writer's job is surely achieved."" - The Pan Review"

""The lyrical quality of Tem's prose and his skill at finding the perfect metaphor for expressing the emotional states of his characters make these perfect gems of storytelling whose impact is like that of poetry."" - Locus ""One of the best collections of 2014 and highly recommended."" - Black Static ""Taken together, these stories demonstrate why a neglected, uncommercial literary discipline is important. As many have observed, all novels are flawed to some extent, but it is possibly to produce a perfect short story. Some of those perfect stories are here."" - Supernatural Tales ""Here with the Shadows, a collection of fifteen short stories, is a tour de force, not necessarily as a result of Tem's singular writing style, but because the volume plays beautifully-and hauntingly-with the theme of the ghost through the tropes of memory, physical space, and, quite literally, shadow."" - Dead Reckonings ""Steve Tem is a very prolific author of 'quiet' horror in its various shades, probing the secrets hidden in the human heart, which is the very source of any real horror . . . Among the fifteen tales assembled in the book, most are really outstanding examples of how good Tem is at his best."" - Thirteen O'Clock ""Tem's storytelling is most powerful when he dramatizes loss . . . Loneliness is next to ghostliness, and the isolation and sorrow of the bereaved play a role in luring revenants to the door."" - Totally Dublin ""Here With the Shadows presents us with a number of exquisite ghost stories and supernatural tales that leave liminal impressions and a faint, queer unease. Ghostly residues, as it were. These little literary soupcons are must-reads."" - Weird Fiction Review ""[Tem is] a stalwart of the genre, whose weird and ghostly tales have been among the most consistently best for several decades, showing that the horror tale, well-done, can purvey most sensitive reflections of the human condition."" - A Ghostly Company ""This book is all good. But a number of stories are special, more than just good. Those stories as well as the whole book's gestalt itself represent a matchless literary experience to cherish for watchers of man's 'endless fall'."" - Real-Time Reviews ""The evocation of empty hope, amidst the cold and the damp, is chillingly, cloyingly wrought . . . the writer's job is surely achieved."" - The Pan Review

Author Information

Steve Rasnic Tem's writing career spans over forty-five years, including more than 500 published short stories, seventeen collections, eight novels, and miscellaneous poetry and plays. His collaborative novella with his late wife Melanie, The Man On The Ceiling, won the World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and International Horror Guild awards in 2001. He has also won the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, and British Fantasy Awards for his solo work, including Blood Kin, winner of 2014's Bram Stoker for novel. In 2024 he received the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

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