Praise for We Are All Completely Fine
[STARRED REVIEW] "This complex novel—scathingly funny, horrific yet oddly inspiring—constructs a seductive puzzle from torn identities, focusing on both the value and peril of fear. When enigmatic Dr. Jan Sayer gathers survivors of supernatural violence for therapy, she unwittingly unlocks evil from the prison of consciousness. Harrison, a cynical monster-hunter, wallows in lethargy. Suicidal Barbara burns to read the secret messages inscribed on her bones. Cantankerous Stan is the lone survivor of a cannibal feast. After paranoid Martin sees slithery spirits lingering around volatile Greta, a powerful young woman decorated with mystically charged scars, ancient evils usher the rag-tag survivors to a battle with the Hidden Ones, exiled deities trapped in prisons of flesh. Gregory’s beautiful imagery and metaphors bring bittersweet intimacy and tenderness to the primal wonder of star-lit legends. Isolated people, both victims and victimizers, are ghosts in a waking world, blind to their encounters with living nightmares. Blending the stark realism of pain and isolation with the liberating force of the fantastic, Gregory (Afterparty) makes it easy to believe that the world is an illusion, behind which lurks an alternative truth—dark, degenerate, and sublime."
—Publishers Weekly
“. . . a clever and creepy horror tale . . .”
—Library Journal
“Clever, and filled with the creeping dread of what’s in the flickering shadow next to you and what’s just around the corner that suffuses the best horror. I loved it.”
—Ellen Datlow, Bram Stoker, World Fantasy, and International Horror Guild award-winning editor of The Best Horror of the Year series
Selected as the Horror After Dark Top Horror Read for 2014
“[Gregory’s] plotting, characterisations, and yes, the writing itself, is all that good. In short, this one completely blew me away....”
—Horror After Dark
“Charming and horrifying—you won't be able to stop reading it.”
—Tim Powers, award-winning author of Declare and The Stress of Her Regard
“Daryl Gregory's We Are All Completely Fine is bitchin' fun and as wicked and strange as a motorcycle leap through a ring of fire without your pants on. Loved it.”
—Joe R. Lansdale, author of Cold in July and the Hap and Leonard series
“Daryl Gregory is a writer I would happily follow into any dark place he wanted me to go. This is a labyrinth of a story, intricate as a spider’s web—and like a spider’s web, each piece informs the whole. Beautiful.”
—Seanan McGuire, author of the October Daye series and Half-Off Ragnarok
“A superb, haunting tale by one of our very best writers. Gregory’s characters are already in therapy; you may want to join them after reading this spicy, disturbing mélange.”
—Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Red Planet Blues
“. . . funny in that dark and sarcastic way only people faced with unstoppable horror can be funny, and when you’re finished you’ll wish there was more.”
—Daytona Beach News Journal
“Lovecraft meets Cabin in the Woods in this tale of survivors of various supernatural horrors who come together in a support group to try to heal....fascinating”
—Fantastic Reads
“Gregory (Pandemonium, The Devil’s Alphabet, et. al.) has done it again with yet another singularly unique, genre-blending masterwork about a support group of victims of paranormal violence who realize that their nightmarish traumas are all related. This creepy concoction of supernatural fiction, mystery, and horror is a dark little literary gem that readers will absolutely cherish.”
—Paul Goat Allen, Barnes & Noble.com
“[Gregory’s] most tightly constructed and compulsively readable novel to date, and a small gem of what we might call post-horror horror.”
—Locus
“I read this book in two hours on the plane home from Loncon and just holy shit. It is gripping from start to finish.”
—The Book Smugglers
“We Are All Completely Fine is something refreshing and unique—a short horror novel that is as much about relationships and people learning from one another as it is about the horrors that they are ultimately facing. . . .”
—LitReactor
“...a little horrific, quite deep, and plenty surprising.”
—Bookworm Blues
"We Are All Completely Fine is a remarkably seductive piece of supernatural horror, drawing the innocent reader into the web by dealing with a familiar situation. . . .fascinating and engrossing. . . "
—Thinking About Books
“This book is fast-paced, creepy, suspenseful, and yet surprisingly uplifting, with fleshed out characters I genuinely cared about. . . . This book is seriously awesome. Someone chain [Gregory] to a desk so he stops doing anything other than write.”
—SF Book Reviews
“What this all comes down to is that if you’re a fan of horror, or of anything Daryl Gregory has written elsewhere, or just of fantastic novellas that demonstrate exemplary storytelling, then you ought to read We Are All Completely Fine.”
—Bibliotropic
“Not for the faint of heart, We Are All Completely Fine is a great read!”
—Bibliophilic
“I’ve not encountered many authors in the horror genre who flex literary muscle as well as Gregory. His approach was perfect for the story vehicle.”
—Out of My Mind
“Gregory does a masterful storytelling job here....”
—MT Void
“A must read”
—Buzz Feed
“...brilliant, creepy....”
—Relentless Reading
“This novella is mindboggling in it’s scope, a too brief glimpse into a ‘mythos’ as staggering as Lovecraft’s. The seed from which a thousand nightmares can spring, an unexplored jungle of imagination that bodes well for stalwart explorers of horror! Highly recommended!”
—Horror After Dark
“Intriguing world building, characters tinged in tragedy, a history of darkness and things on the periphery.... this is an awesome novella....”
— Read or Dead
“This is a scary, funny, bittersweet, fantastic book, and Gregory’s imagination is twisted and wonderful.”
—My Bookish Ways
“...creepy paranormal elements and wonderful writing...”
—Not Yet Read
“We Are All Completely Fine is not your typical horror novella. Yes, it is dark and creeping with mysterious dread, but it is also charming, clever, and even hilarious at times. . . [It] is an intricate story that uses metafiction as a way to self-reflect on the horror genre tropes we have all come to love, while paralleling them with a stark realism.
“The premise of the novel is a fresh take on the horror genre and speaks to our society’s fascination with wanting to know, from a safe distance, what it is really like for survivors of such trauma as we empathize with their pain. The novella is a quick read that both casual horror fans and hardcore horror fans alike will enjoy.”
—The Shed
Praise for Daryl Gregory
“A bright new voice of the twenty-first century...”
—Library Journal
"Daryl Gregory has emerged as one of the most consistently interesting and yet least predictable writers of the last decade.... A writer of startling depth and sensitivity, whose understanding of the delicate machinations of the heart trumps his need for superheroes, or even for neurology."
-Locus
"More than many novelists, Gregory’s work not only withstands but grows richer with re-readings and sustained attention."
-SF Signal
“Wickedly clever entertainment.”
—San Francisco Chronicle on Pandemonium
“A quietly brilliant second novel.... A wide variety of believable characters, a well-developed sense of place and some fascinating scientific speculation.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review, on The Devil's Alphabet
“Richly textured settings and nuanced characters mark this introspective novel.”
—Publishers Weekly on Raising Stony Mayhall
“Compelling and creepy...evokes the best of Stephen King.”
—Kirkus on The Devil’s Alphabet
“Part superhero fiction, part zombie horror story, and part supernatural thriller, this luminous and compelling tale deserves a wide readership beyond genre fans.”
—Library Journal, starred review, on Raising Stony Mayhall
“Raising Stony Mayhall, like all of Daryl Gregory’s stories and novels… is so good that I grieved when I got to the last page.”
—Chris Roberson, New York Times bestselling author of iZombie
