"Night presses in upon us,
moonless, dark and deep,
like the pressing silent terrors
of a thought-tormented sleep."

Brewer presents an intriguing compilation of speculative poetry and eleven spellbinding short stories. He explores various topics, both simple and grand, even paying homage to classic poets who inspire his work here. For Brewer, the world is both freeing and imprisoning, and it requires little for him to speak volumes on his equally menacing and awe-inspiring contemplations of it. Many of his pieces conjure up dread and fascination at the mysteries of the earth and our interactions with it. There is a beauty and oddity to his weirdly hypnotic tales, which include witches, demons, strange birds, fearsome orbs, and seductive sirens.

The concise and surreal poetry takes up the first two volumes, which are folkloric and metaphorical. They are often frightening, evoking a wonderment of what lurks in the shadows at night. The poem "Sleep" recalls a terrifying nightmare. "The Sea of Solitude" considers the loneliness among the seas through the lens of a castaway on an unknown island. "Billy the Black" playfully inspects the life of a terrifying pirate through a child's imagination.

As with his poetry, there's also an underlying sense of regret and loss that permeates his short stories found in the third volume, where Brewer explores love and heartache, or solitude and obsession. In "Ride to Perdition," a woman births a wolf in the desert. In "Surviving the Zombie Invasion," a man navigates heartbreaking cruelty among the living dead. And in the title story, a determined prostitute laments the loss of her child as the pandemic bears down on society. Throughout, Brewer demonstrates a mastery of the short form, filling his collection with uncanny reveries. It's a captivating read, and Brewer's writing undoubtedly will linger in the minds of readers long after the last page is turned.

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