Synopsis:
DANGLING is a collection of twenty-eight stories about people on the precipice. It straddles absurdism, literary realism, and horror, some of it with mild speculative elements.
Praise for Dangling:
“Yzmore’s Dangling is a visceral collection of stories told so uniquely and so powerfully it will be a long time before we see a debut voice with more promise.” — Sheldon Lee Compton, author of Oblivion Angels
“Dangling dwells in the liminal space between the sacred and the profane, that uncanny threshold between craving and transcendence. Yzmore deftly captures pivotal moments of transgression, by turns quiet and frenzied, through lived-in characters who are primal, flawed, and profoundly human.” — Josh Goller, editor of The Molotov Cocktail
“Dangling from Maura Yzmore is occasionally shocking, utterly compelling, but above all, it showcases her absolute mastery of flash fiction. She wields stories under a thousand words with scalpel-like precision, and each tale of the surreal, the strange, and the speculative cuts clean to the bone.” — Aeryn Rudel, author of Effectively Wild and Night Walk and Other Dark Paths
“In these razor-edge tales of strange hunger, characters chase what they crave most—only to find it’s never quite what they imagined. These bite-size stories pull readers into moments of unsettling clarity—when desire meets its object and everything shifts. Dangling explores the inner demons and angels that drive us, the things we’re willing to become, and the precise instant when we understand what we’ve really been searching for all along. Tight, immersive, and gloriously weird—flash fiction that burrows under your skin and stays there.” — Myna Chang, author of The Potential of Radio and Rain
Shop The Book: Dangling
Shop My Stack: 2026 Books Read
I knew going into Dangling that it would be dark, with some graphic horror and a healthy dose of absurdity. I genuinely did not know what I was in for.
Let me say up front that this content wasn’t quite for me. But I was absolutely entertained by it, and it got me talking in a way few books do. I ended up sharing it with a friend and with my husband, purely because of how shocking and absurd it truly was.
Let me explain. Think short stories. Extremely short. Now think of all those intrusive thoughts you never actually say out loud. Imagine an author putting pen to paper and turning every one of those wild, absurd, unspoken thoughts into a collection of stories. Even that doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of the insanity waiting on these pages.
And I say that with so much love and affection for the author and her work. While this isn’t my particular flavor, I found it hilarious how bold, in-your-face, and shocking her stories were. I love that she wasn’t afraid to just say the things and write the stories, no matter how completely out of this world they got.
Final Thoughts
More than once I finished a story thinking, what on earth did I just read? Then I’d run to my husband to share it, and he’d look up at me with the same shocked face, like, what are you making me experience right now? It made for a very interesting evening of reading, talking, laughing, gasping, cringing, and turning pages together.
Not something I would normally reach for, but extremely entertaining, and an experience I won’t forget anytime soon.
Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this virtual book tour Rachel’s Random Resources .
Maura Yzmore is a short-fiction author, often writing dark speculative tales. Her work has appeared in Factor Four Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, trampset, Bending Genres, and elsewhere. Maura lives with her family in the American Midwest and is gainfully employed as a math nerd. She also writes under the pen name Fiona Embers.
Find Maura at https://maurayzmore.com or @maurayzmore.bsky.social on Bluesky.
Social Media Links:
https://maurayzmore.com
https://bsky.app/profile/maurayzmore.bsky.social
https://www.instagram.com/maurayzmore_fionaembers
https://www.instagram.com/maurayzmore_fionaembers
Leave a comment