Although I found one or two of the stories somewhat opaque, I’m overall blown away by griffin’s sheer talent (plus opacity is part of the ride). Prepare to be baffled only to have your vision cleared by terror more than once. “dreaming awake in the tree of the world” is a good example of this as well as a story that will stick with me for a long time, which is what any author hopes for out of a short story. My fave, and what brought the read up to five stars had to be the final, “the black vein

An incredible collection that takes weird fiction to new, beautiful, unexpected heights. You can never predict how a Michael Griffin story will end; there's always a subversion of expectation, and it's wonderful to experience. A standout for me was "Diamond Dust", which has echoes of Ligotti but also happily treads its own ground, getting right under the skin and culminating with what, at this point, is clearly Griffin’s trademark heartbreaking, beautiful imagery. The collection’s final entry, t...

The Lure​ ​of​ ​Devouring​ ​Light​ ​is​ ​dark​ ​fiction​ ​that​ ​is​ ​unforgettably​ ​human,​ ​poetic​ ​and​ ​refined, passionately​ ​pushing​ ​into​ ​darkness.​ ​A​ ​striking​ ​and​ ​impressive​ ​debut​ ​collection​ ​that​ ​gets​ ​my highest​ ​recommendation. Favorites: Dreaming​ ​Awake​ ​in​ ​the​ ​Tree​ ​of​ ​the​ ​World The​ ​Book​ ​of​ ​Shattered​ ​Mornings No​ ​Mask​ ​to​ ​Conceal​ ​Her​ ​Voice The​ ​Black​ ​Vein​ ​Runs​ ​Deep The​ ​Jewel​ ​in​ ​the​ ​Eye

Worth purchasing just for the novella "The Black Vein Runs Deep." The title story, "Diamond Dust," and "No Mask to Conceal Her Voice" were also standouts. Overall, a very promising collection.

I was very impressed with this debut collection of dark and imaginative fiction.  The writing is lush and evocative, expanding the parameters of actuality.  Directions are skewed so that up and down are sideways and interchangeable.  Emotions and relationships are explored within these pages, while nature and humanly created substances are conjoined to form new environments.  Time slips away along new routes, and what is real and what can be imagined have no solid boundaries.  Confusion makes se...

This is an amazing collection. If you've ever wondered who would win a cage match between Clark Ashton Smith and Jonathan Carroll - with Thomas Ligotti and Laird Barron in the audience angrily tearing up their betting slips, then read this collection.Everyone wins! Especially you, the reader!Buy this book or I'll steal your lunch money.

The Lure of Devouring Light is a wonderful collection of stories, some that I had read previously, others were new to me, but even with the stories that I had read before I was struck by how well the tone of the stories fit together in the collection. Griffin’s prose are flawless and the stories are all well crafted, but what really astounds me is how relatable his characters are. I love the plots of these stories, but I think I could read these characters doing just about anything in their live...

One thing that struck me very clearly about The Lure of Devouring Light is that it's much more than just a great debut. Michael Griffin took his time carefully, confidently curating a wonderful selection of stories for his debut collection. It rewards close attention and shows that there’s a major new voice at the table. Other writers should use this as a training manual, even though it will take many authors a decade or two to gather a body of work this impressive. Fortunately for readers, you

I've heard about the collection with the amazing title for over a year now, and I can say after two readings that this is an essential volume of the contemporary weird.Michael Griffin specializes in the creation of believable and often painful relationships between complex characters. They (usually two) haunt each of the stories contained in THE LURE OF THE DEVOURING LIGHT and that haunting is reflected by the phenomenal evocation of the weird, at times malignant, natural world they inhabit. Cas...

Damn... that was brilliant! Full review to come.

It's weird to think that, aside from a few previews in related works, I didn't really know the contemporary weird horror short story community existed only a little over a year ago. Since I read The Children of Old Leech, I've been chasing this incestuous set of writers through tribute anthologies and introductions to each others' collections and mostly enjoying what I've found. And while that community has a ton of writers with unique voices and stylistic goals, there is a solid core preoccupie...

I was utterly disappointed and my expectations were not met. The genre of the weird is not merely a postmodern labyrinth of consciousness and unconsciousness and implications of unknown abysses. Perhaps Griffin does not favor abjection as much as I thought he would. I just didn't feel the tangible horror in almost none of the stories.

A writer doing something different with the cosmic in an impressive debut collection, and I was most reminded of Nathan Ballingrud, in that finely detailed relationships occupy a close focus in the foreground, while the horrors that exist beyond the bounds of time have an influence upon events, situations and feelings. Particularly liked the strange powers of the natural world that were conjured in many of the stories. Favourite tales: 'The Black Vein Runs Deep' and 'Far from Streets'.

I was unfamiliar with the term "quiet horror" but Michael Griffin's debut collection is a master class in this particular subgenre. There are elements of weird and cosmic horror to his stories, but they are so minimalistic in their use of supernatural that they allow to debate whether or not it actually is horror of incredibly dark psychodramas.My two favorite stories in the collections were FAR FROM STREETS and THE BLACK VEIN RUNS DEEP which were by far the longest in the book. They explore the...

With stories published in a diverse array of publications such as Apex and Black Static and anthologies like The Grimscribe’s Puppets and The Children of Old Leech, plus a cornucopia of work forthcoming, Michael Griffin has been garnering some impressive accolades from such high profile voices as S. P. Miskowski, Michael Cisco, and the reigning king of literary weird fiction, Laird Barron. So it’s no surprise to see that his debut collection, The Lure of Devouring Light serves as a showcase of s...

Michael Griffin crafts words in to beautiful landscapes of the surreal, complex characters on unexpected journeys in to dark abysses, and nightmares within reach of conscious minds that are not ready for the infinite darkness between the cracks of the world.This book transcends horror and weird fiction and becomes something else, these dreamlike stories are some of the best writing that I've ever read and it’s hard to believe that this is his debut collection.I was expecting this to be very good...

This book came with a book plate signed by Michael Griffin and a few other fine "Extra's".

All the praise Michael Griffen and his collection The Lure of Devouring Light is well deserved. These is literary-quality stories and novellas of disquieting transformation and of mankind's insignificant role in the overall scheme of the world. He has a gift for writing living, breathing characters, and at putting them through hell. I've rarely read descriptions of drug-induced visions and deprivation-induced hallucinations that drew me so fully into them that I questioned my own sobriety like h...

Michael Griffin’s debut is a resonant collection of seething, quiet horror, where the strange, in many disturbing guises, inhabits the natural features of the everyday. Characters matter. Relationships matter. Desire is destructive. Between theses covers, Griffin’s fascinating, poetic examinations are not afraid to open old wounds, or create new ones, nor are they afraid to let their nightmares fully blossom. This is mature work by a remarkable writer.

As other reviewers have pointed out, Michael Griffin excels at exploring human relationships and psychology against an artful backdrop of cosmic horror. He also paints vivid pictures of the Pacific Northwest, which serves as an ideal setting for many of the stories in this collection. The shorter stories here are gripping, but the novella-length "Far From Streets" and "The Black Vein Runs Deep" were the two that really sunk their teeth in, for me.