made the maybe rookie mistake of reading a much more recent book by bridges first, and in comparison this one seems less tightly edited. "foetus" and "in cars" were the two standouts of this collection for me. bridges' prose is lurid and spares no detail, which really worked for me in those stories. in others it's not quite enough buoy the story, i guess. i think the biggest issue is bridges is a character-focused writer, and the short story form makes character writing harder to do well. while not really a horror story, i thought "huge lumps of flame" was a fun romp as well. the theme of supernatural communication between fiction writer and subject appears at several points during the collection and is an interesting concept to see different variations on. i guess this one wasn't really for me but it was still time well spent. even when the stories were falling short the passion for them in the voice of the collection was heartfelt.