A grieving man travels through time via car crash. A family of matriarchs collects recipes for the dead. A woman gains an unexpected child in the midst of a bunny apocalypse. An outcast finds work in a magical slaughterhouse. Julie C. Day’s debut collection is rife with dark and twisted tales made beautiful by her gorgeous prose and wonderfully idiosyncratic imagination. Melding aspects of Southern Gothic and fabulism, and utilizing the author’s own scientific background, Day’s carefully rendered settings are both delightful and unexpected. Whether set in a uniquely altered version of Florida’s Space Coast or a haunted island off the coast of Maine, each story in this collection carries its own brand of meticulous and captivating weirdness.
What Others Are Saying
—Locus Magazine, Collection Review
“If Julie C. Day was a singer she’d have a five-octave range. This is a collection of astonishing variety and power. She is one of those alchemists of the short story who offers uncomplicated engagement, while provoking knotty thoughts and mutable responses. This is not merely a promising debut, it is simply astonishing.”
—Interzone Collection Review
“Julie C. Day’s new collection, Uncommon Miracles, relates stories about what happens when strangeness, dream-like and nightmarish, infiltrates the lives of everyday people. A unique new voice in short fiction – sharp writing and a wonderfully idiosyncratic imagination.”
—Jeffrey Ford, author of The Girl in the Glass, The Physiognomy, The Drowned Life, A Natural History of Hell, and many others.
World Fantasy Award winner, Nebula Award winner, Shirley Jackson Award winner, Edgar Allan Poe Award winner.
“Day has quietly but steadily built a small oeuvre of intelligent, quietly rebellious, and inclusive short fiction wholly deserving of a place on next year’s World Fantasy Award ballot, not to mention the shelves of discerning genre readers…From the pitch-perfect cover, through the minimalist prose that etches meaning in incisive fashion, to the intellectual and emotional meaning nested inside every story (like a jade green deer lying down for the evening in the forest?), this collection is a real winner. “
–Speculiction Collection Review
“Julie C. Day makes a bold debut with this genre-bending collection of stories. At times whimsical, at times heartbreaking, but always clear-eyed and honest, Uncommon Miracles proves that Day has joined the front ranks of the writers carrying American fantasy into a new golden age.”
—Nathan Ballingrud, author of North American Lake Monsters and The Visible Filth.
Shirley Jackson Award winner. Shortlisted for the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards.
“In many of her stories, Day lulls readers into a false sense of familiarity with people, places and events before hitting a literary switch that snatches all certainties away…Day’s prose is spare but vivid and she has an impressive facility with a range of forms and voices.”
—Morning Star Best of 2018: Fiction
“A collection of stories to unsettle your dreams and make the world a stranger and more delightful place.”
—Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble, Stranger Things Happen, and Magic for Beginners.
Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Hugo Award winner, Nebula Award winner, World Fantasy Award winner.
“Julie C. Day’s stories are strongly strange, whether happening in a sort of now in this country or in a weirdly altered past. These stories seem to be what the term American Gothic was meant for.”
—John Crowley, author of Little, Big and the Ægypt tetralogy.
World Fantasy Award winner for Best Novel, World Fantasy award winner for Life Achievement, & recipient of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Literature.
Even More Reviews
Speculiction Best Reads of 2018 | WeekendNotes | Maria Haskins | Taste of Sherri | Necessary Fiction | Goodreads | Amazon.