Slights
Encyclopedia
Slights is a 2009 horror novel
by Australian writer Kaaron Warren
. It is her debut novel
and is about a woman who withdraws from society and has near death experience
s in which she enters a dark room where she is tormented by people she had previously slighted. It was first published as a paperback original
in the United Kingdom
and Australia
in July 2009 by Angry Robot, an offshoot of HarperCollins
, and in the United States
by Angry Robot in September 2010.
In general Slights was well received by critics, and went on to win the 2009 Australian Shadows Award
for Best Long Fiction, and the 2010 Australian Ditmar Award
for Best Novel.
by a troubled woman, Stevie, who lost her father when she was nine, and her mother when she was 18. Her father, a police officer, was killed during a mysterious shooting incident on the job, and her mother died when Stevie crashed their car while driving recklessly. The accident left Stevie badly injured and she had a near death experience
in which she found herself in a dark room filled with angry people threatening her. Usually nothing frightened Stevie, but that room terrified her, and she was relieved when she was revived in hospital.
From an early age Stevie was anti-social and soon earned herself a bad reputation. After her mother's death she had the house to herself and began digging in the backyard, an activity her father had often indulged in. She stopped cleaning the house, and herself, and berated and abused most people she encountered. Her indifference to herself and others led to a suicide attempt when she was 21. She returned to that dark room filled with angry people clawing and tearing at her, and she was very grateful when someone found her unconscious and took her to hospital. While the room frightened her, she was intrigued by it and realised that the people in it were those she had slighted at some point in her life. She wanted to find out what other people's rooms were like and took a job at a local hospice
to be close to people near death, but was frustrated when she could not get the information she wanted. Then she resorted to picking up strangers and bringing them home. She would get them drunk or drug them, and start killing them, but revive them as they lost consciousness so she could interrogate them. She never got much out of them and they all died. She buried the bodies in the backyard amongst her father's secrets. Stevie's backyard excavations had uncovered toys and trinkets from her childhood, but also objects she had never seen before, and bones.
Indifferent to life and her fascination with death led to several more suicide attempts and trips to her dark room. Each time Stevie was discovered and revived. But when she was 35 she hung herself and no one found her in time to save her. She had learnt that her father had been under investigation for the deaths of several people, and with the reported disappearances of those she had murdered, it was only a matter of time before the police arrived at her house. For a very long time she lay in her dark room and endured the biting and scratching of those she had slighted. Then suddenly her tormentors were finished with her and left the room, and after a while Stevie heard her mother and father's voices and she began to rise along a "golden path".
is an Australian born author currently living in Fiji
. She began her literary career writing short stories
, and won several awards, including the Australian Ditmar
and Aurealis Award
s. Her short story collection, The Grinding House
won the 2006 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards
. Her first published story, "White Bed" was later dramatised for the stage, and the short film, Patience was based on her story, "A Positive
".
Warren began Slights as a short story, but as the main character Stevie developed, she found herself writing a "far deeper story" than she had intended, and it grew into her first novel. Stevie was originally male (Steve) but Warren made him female when she realised she could make the character more believable as a woman. Warren said that she wanted to convey the possibility that each person creates their "own version of hell". As a child she had seen pictures of different hells, depending on your sin, in a Hare Krishna
text book, and these images had remained with her ever since. While working on Slights, she also wrote "The Speaker of Heaven", a short story about different versions of heaven.
of the Australian Horror Writers Association
wrote in his Long Fiction Report for the 2009 Australian Shadows Award
that Slights is "an extraordinary achievement". He described the book as "an intimate portrait of an awful person", who after a broken childhood, never grows up and is unable to have meaningful relationships with others. Livings said it is "a punch in the face, a kick in the testicles" and will remain with you for a "long, long time".
Publishers Weekly
selected Slights as its "Pick of the Week" in August 2009, and said that Warren "manipulates Stevie’s voice to create a portrait of horror that in no way reads like a first novel". Ariel Berg wrote in the San Francisco Book Review that while Stevie is an "antisocial ... sociopath" who is "virtually impossible to like", Warren does instil some sympathy for her protagonist by suggesting that Stevie cannot control or understand her actions. Berg felt that the book's plot is a little thin and that Stevie’s misfortunes tend to become repetitive, but added her ramblings do "crawl under your skin".
Slights won the 2009 Australian Shadows Award
for Best Long Fiction, and the 2010 Australian Ditmar Award
for Best Novel.
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
by Australian writer Kaaron Warren
Kaaron Warren
Kaaron Warren is an Australian author of horror, science fiction, and fantasy short stories and novels.She is the author of the short story collections The Grinding House, which won the 2006 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards and Dead Sea Fruit...
. It is her debut novel
Debut novel
A debut novel is the first novel an author publishes. Debut novels are the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future...
and is about a woman who withdraws from society and has near death experience
Near death experience
A near-death experience refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the experience of absolute dissolution;...
s in which she enters a dark room where she is tormented by people she had previously slighted. It was first published as a paperback original
Paperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in July 2009 by Angry Robot, an offshoot of HarperCollins
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
, and in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by Angry Robot in September 2010.
In general Slights was well received by critics, and went on to win the 2009 Australian Shadows Award
Australian Shadows Award
The Australian Shadows Award is an annual literary award established by the Australian Horror Writers Association in 2005 to honour the best published work of horror fiction written or edited by an Australian...
for Best Long Fiction, and the 2010 Australian Ditmar Award
Ditmar Award
The Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom...
for Best Novel.
Plot
Slights is a first-person narrativeFirst-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
by a troubled woman, Stevie, who lost her father when she was nine, and her mother when she was 18. Her father, a police officer, was killed during a mysterious shooting incident on the job, and her mother died when Stevie crashed their car while driving recklessly. The accident left Stevie badly injured and she had a near death experience
Near death experience
A near-death experience refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the experience of absolute dissolution;...
in which she found herself in a dark room filled with angry people threatening her. Usually nothing frightened Stevie, but that room terrified her, and she was relieved when she was revived in hospital.
From an early age Stevie was anti-social and soon earned herself a bad reputation. After her mother's death she had the house to herself and began digging in the backyard, an activity her father had often indulged in. She stopped cleaning the house, and herself, and berated and abused most people she encountered. Her indifference to herself and others led to a suicide attempt when she was 21. She returned to that dark room filled with angry people clawing and tearing at her, and she was very grateful when someone found her unconscious and took her to hospital. While the room frightened her, she was intrigued by it and realised that the people in it were those she had slighted at some point in her life. She wanted to find out what other people's rooms were like and took a job at a local hospice
Hospice
Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.In the United States and Canada:*Gentiva Health Services, national provider of hospice and home health services...
to be close to people near death, but was frustrated when she could not get the information she wanted. Then she resorted to picking up strangers and bringing them home. She would get them drunk or drug them, and start killing them, but revive them as they lost consciousness so she could interrogate them. She never got much out of them and they all died. She buried the bodies in the backyard amongst her father's secrets. Stevie's backyard excavations had uncovered toys and trinkets from her childhood, but also objects she had never seen before, and bones.
Indifferent to life and her fascination with death led to several more suicide attempts and trips to her dark room. Each time Stevie was discovered and revived. But when she was 35 she hung herself and no one found her in time to save her. She had learnt that her father had been under investigation for the deaths of several people, and with the reported disappearances of those she had murdered, it was only a matter of time before the police arrived at her house. For a very long time she lay in her dark room and endured the biting and scratching of those she had slighted. Then suddenly her tormentors were finished with her and left the room, and after a while Stevie heard her mother and father's voices and she began to rise along a "golden path".
Background
Kaaron WarrenKaaron Warren
Kaaron Warren is an Australian author of horror, science fiction, and fantasy short stories and novels.She is the author of the short story collections The Grinding House, which won the 2006 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards and Dead Sea Fruit...
is an Australian born author currently living in Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
. She began her literary career writing short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
, and won several awards, including the Australian Ditmar
Ditmar Award
The Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom...
and Aurealis Award
Aurealis Award
Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction is an annual literary award for Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. Only Australians are eligible for the award.-History:...
s. Her short story collection, The Grinding House
The Grinding House
The Grinding House is a short story collection published by the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild. Printed in 2005 and edited by Donna Maree Hanson, it contains stories by Kaaron Warren...
won the 2006 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards
ACT Writing and Publishing Awards
The ACT Writing and Publishing Awards are an Australian literary award presented by the ACT Writers Centre for the best books in the categories of non-fiction, fiction, poetry and children's literature written in the Canberra region. They have been awarded since 2004...
. Her first published story, "White Bed" was later dramatised for the stage, and the short film, Patience was based on her story, "A Positive
A Positive
-Background:"A Positive" was first published in Australia in 1998 in issue #10 of the horror magazine Bloodsongs. The issue was edited by Steve Proposch and David G. Barnett and published by Implosion Publishing and was the last issue of Bloodsongs to be published...
".
Warren began Slights as a short story, but as the main character Stevie developed, she found herself writing a "far deeper story" than she had intended, and it grew into her first novel. Stevie was originally male (Steve) but Warren made him female when she realised she could make the character more believable as a woman. Warren said that she wanted to convey the possibility that each person creates their "own version of hell". As a child she had seen pictures of different hells, depending on your sin, in a Hare Krishna
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness , known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organization. It was founded in 1966 in New York City by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada...
text book, and these images had remained with her ever since. While working on Slights, she also wrote "The Speaker of Heaven", a short story about different versions of heaven.
Reception
Martin LivingsMartin Livings
Martin Livings is an Australian author of horror, fantasy and science fiction. He has been writing short stories since 1990 and has been nominated for both the Ditmar Award and Aurealis Award...
of the Australian Horror Writers Association
Australian Horror Writers Association
The Australian Horror Writers Association is a non-profit organisation that commenced in 2003 with the goal of providing a unified voice and sense of community for Australian writers of dark fiction and to further the development of dark fiction in Australia.-History:The AHWA built to some extent...
wrote in his Long Fiction Report for the 2009 Australian Shadows Award
Australian Shadows Award
The Australian Shadows Award is an annual literary award established by the Australian Horror Writers Association in 2005 to honour the best published work of horror fiction written or edited by an Australian...
that Slights is "an extraordinary achievement". He described the book as "an intimate portrait of an awful person", who after a broken childhood, never grows up and is unable to have meaningful relationships with others. Livings said it is "a punch in the face, a kick in the testicles" and will remain with you for a "long, long time".
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
selected Slights as its "Pick of the Week" in August 2009, and said that Warren "manipulates Stevie’s voice to create a portrait of horror that in no way reads like a first novel". Ariel Berg wrote in the San Francisco Book Review that while Stevie is an "antisocial ... sociopath" who is "virtually impossible to like", Warren does instil some sympathy for her protagonist by suggesting that Stevie cannot control or understand her actions. Berg felt that the book's plot is a little thin and that Stevie’s misfortunes tend to become repetitive, but added her ramblings do "crawl under your skin".
Slights won the 2009 Australian Shadows Award
Australian Shadows Award
The Australian Shadows Award is an annual literary award established by the Australian Horror Writers Association in 2005 to honour the best published work of horror fiction written or edited by an Australian...
for Best Long Fiction, and the 2010 Australian Ditmar Award
Ditmar Award
The Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom...
for Best Novel.