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The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future Paperback – February 21, 2023
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"Without a doubt, Christi Nogle is one of my favorite new voices in horror. Her fiction is by turns devastating, horrifying, and beyond beautiful. With her collection, The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, she's created something truly remarkable, the kind of horror that's filled with grit and heart. Don't miss this book; it's sure to be one of the very best collections of 2023."- Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens and Reluctant Immortals
The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future collects Christi Nogle’s finest psychological and supernatural horror stories. Their rural and small-town characters confront difficult pasts and look toward promising but often terrifying futures. The pieces range in genre from psychological horror through science fiction and ghost stories, but they all share fundamental qualities: feminist themes, an emphasis on voice, a focus on characters’ psychologies and a sense of the gothic in contemporary life. Stories here may recall Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Shirley Jackson’s “The Renegade,” or Kelly Link’s “Stone Animals.”
- Print length224 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFlame Tree Press
- Publication dateFebruary 21, 2023
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-101787588033
- ISBN-13978-1787588035
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Christi Nogle takes readers on a dark yet wondrous journey through perils, horror, and thrills in this extraordinary debut collection. Behold the timelessness of these lives, these tales!" -- Eric J. Guignard, award-winning author and editor, including That Which Grows Wild and Doorways to the Deadeye
Just as you think you have a handle on what a Christi Nogle story might be, you turn a page and are surprised anew. Enigmatic, surreal yet shockingly visceral, often rooted in a deceptively familiar domesticity turned nightmarish, these strange and unsettling tales unfold in lyrical prose that belies their savagery. 'The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future' is a haunting and memorable debut. -- Lynda E. Rucker, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of The Moon Will Look Strange and You'll Know When You Get There
"Christi Nogle's The Best of Our Past, The Worst of Our Future is unsettling and terrific short fiction in the vein of Shirley Jackson." -- Kelly Link, author of GET IN TROUBLE
"Without a doubt, Christi Nogle is one of my favorite new voices in horror. Her fiction is by turns devastating, horrifying, and beyond beautiful. With her collection, The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, she's created something truly remarkable, the kind of horror that's filled with grit and heart. Don't miss this book; it's sure to be one of the very best collections of 2023." -- Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens and Reluctant Immortals
"Sophisticated, psychological horror that enfolds the reader in a shroud of fear. The Best of Our Past, The Worst of Our Future transported me into unfamiliar and terrifying worlds where the usual laws of nature don’t apply. Suspenseful, scary, addictive." -- Catherine Cavendish, author of Dark Observation
"Christi Nogle uses lush, inventive descriptions with surreal touches to create stories which both haunt and surprise. Her voice is distinctive, her characters richly and deeply portrayed. I was swept away." -- Steve Rasnic Tem
"THE BEST OF OUR PAST, THE WORST OF OUR FUTURE brings to mind Big and Little Edie from Grey Gardens, but toss in some paranormal, tons of creepiness, and a Brian Evenson-esque descent through thick dread. Each story is gloriously laced with it." -- Stephanie Nelson, author of The Vein
"[Nogle] makes everything she writes look easy and effortlessly ingenious [...] Nogle has all the goods, a singularly weird imagination, a tremendous sense of pacing and voice, and a mastery of clarity and control on the sentence level." -- Jon Padgett, author of The Secret of Ventriloquism
"In this stunning collection, the familiar takes on strange and unsettling proportions. Christi Nogle’s stories are crisp, uncanny, haunting, and utterly captivating, with echoes of Shirley Jackson resonating through Nogle’s sharp and distinctive voice." -- Jo Kaplan, author of When the Night Bells Ring
About the Author
Christi loves learning and has studied visual arts as well as writing and literature. After twenty years teaching academic writing and occasional literature classes at a university, Christi moved on to spend more time focusing on her own fiction and supporting other writers in the horror and speculative writing communities. She enjoys sharing stories and critiques in various writing groups, mentoring and volunteering for writers’ organizations, teaching creative writing workshops, and learning more about editing and promotion. She is also an Associate Editor at the popular horror podcast PseudoPod.
She continues to write short fiction and is working on a new novel, All My Really Good Friends. She also hopes to someday return to painting, which was an obsession for many years.
Christi is an active member of the Horror Writers Association, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, and Codex Writers’ Group. She lives in Boise, Idaho with her partner Jim and their gorgeous dogs. Follow her at christinogle.com or on Twitter @christinogle
Product details
- Publisher : Flame Tree Press (February 21, 2023)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1787588033
- ISBN-13 : 978-1787588035
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,592,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #25,429 in Dark Fantasy
- #55,963 in Short Stories (Books)
- #150,269 in American Literature (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Christi Nogle is the author of the novel Beulah (Cemetery Gates Media, 2022) and the forthcoming collections The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, Promise, and One Eye Opened in That Other Place (Flame Tree Press, 2023 and 2024). Her short stories have appeared in over fifty publications including PseudoPod, Escape Pod, and Dark Matter Magazine. Follow her at http://christinogle.com and on Twitter @christinogle
Praise for The Best of Our Past, The Worst of Our Future:
“Just as you think you have a handle on what a Christi Nogle story might be, you turn a page and are surprised anew. Enigmatic, surreal yet shockingly visceral, often rooted in a deceptively familiar domesticity turned nightmarish, these strange and unsettling tales unfold in lyrical prose that belies their savagery. The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future is a haunting and memorable debut.”
--Lynda E. Rucker, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of The Moon Will Look Strange and You'll Know When You Get There
"An astonishingly original collection of dark tales - mysterious, haunting, challenging and disturbing, written in crystalline prose as compressed as poetry. Read and then reread and be doubly rewarded!"
-- Ramsey Campbell, author of Fellstones
"Without a doubt, Christi Nogle is one of my favorite new voices in horror. Her fiction is by turns devastating, horrifying, and beyond beautiful. With her collection, The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future, she's created something truly remarkable, the kind of horror that's filled with grit and heart. Don't miss this book; it's sure to be one of the very best collections of 2023."
-- Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens and Reluctant Immortals
"Christi Nogle uses lush, inventive descriptions with surreal touches to create stories which both haunt and surprise. Her voice is distinctive, her characters richly and deeply portrayed. I was swept away."
-- Steve Rasnic Tem
"In this stunning collection, the familiar takes on strange and unsettling proportions. Christi Nogle’s stories are crisp, uncanny, haunting, and utterly captivating, with echoes of Shirley Jackson resonating through Nogle’s sharp and distinctive voice. Though I wanted to devour them, these are stories that deserve to be savored. The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future is truly weird fiction at its finest."
—Jo Kaplan, author of When the Night Bells Ring
"Christi Nogle takes readers on a dark yet wondrous journey through perils, horror, and thrills in this extraordinary debut collection. Behold the timelessness of these lives, these tales!"
-- Eric J. Guignard, award-winning author and editor, including That Which Grows Wild and Doorways to the Deadeye
"THE BEST OF OUR PAST, THE WORST OF OUR FUTURE brings to mind Big and Little Edie from Grey Gardens, but toss in some paranormal, tons of creepiness, and a Brian Evenson-esque descent through thick dread. Each story is gloriously laced with it."
-- Stephanie Nelson, author of The Vein
"Sophisticated, psychological horror that enfolds the reader in a shroud of fear. The Best of Our Past, The Worst of Our Future transported me into unfamiliar and terrifying worlds where the usual laws of nature don’t apply. Suspenseful, scary, addictive."
-- Catherine Cavendish, author of Dark Observation
Praise for Beulah:
“Nogle, like all writers with a rare knack coupled with incredible skill and imagination, makes everything she writes look easy and effortlessly ingenious. Even the Table of Contents of her latest novel, Beulah, reflects that sense of effortless ingenuity (The beginning chapter is called “When you talk to the dead”, followed by 12 month named titles, followed by the last chapter, “When you walk with the dead”). I’ve been lucky enough to publish Nogle’s short stories twice now, and I hope to publish her work many more times in the future. My initial reaction to reading this debut novel is simply this: how in the hell could this be anyone’s first novel? It’s so assured, so masterful, so in control at every level. This is not the typical mess of even the most talented writer’s first attempt at that tricky long form. This is the work of a top tier author in top form. Anyone writing a book blurb is tempted to summarize the plot and shower the book (and writer) with hyperbolic praise. I won’t do the former, and I promise you I’m not doing the latter. Nogle has all the goods, a singularly weird imagination, a tremendous sense of pacing and voice, and a mastery of clarity and control on the sentence level. Beulah will easily prove to be one of the best horror novels (never mind debut novels) of 2022. Read it. “
-Jon Padgett, author of The Secret of Ventriloquism
With a skilled and unflinching hand, Nogle guides us through layers of time and experience in Beulah. Through the eyes of reluctantly “gifted” Georgie, we see what is usually hidden—the heartbreaking and terrifying—every rich and textured detail leading to a truly satisfying payoff. I will never forget this walk with the dead.
— J.A.W. McCarthy, author of SOMETIMES WE’RE CRUEL AND OTHER STORIES
Customer reviews
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- Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2023*I received a free DRC of this book, with thanks to the author, Flame Tree Press and Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
There are seventeen stories in this collection, and each contain a kind of insidious, subtle horror – dreamlike in its distorted intensity.
Yes, there are zombies and werewolves and other horror tropes within these pages, but they are presented in ways I haven’t come across before. There is no shock horror here, no gore or overt psychological terror. Instead this is a horror of the real world, the familiar, made somehow imperceptibly wrong, word by word, line by line, so that it creeps up on you and takes you by surprise.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that some of these images – the least gory, apparently innocuous images of mirrored houses, tiny grandmas and sleeping pups – are definitely going to stay with me for a while and I expect to see some of them recurring in future dreams… and nightmares!
The writing feels literary in tone and style and the ideas are complex and nuanced, needing time to digest and ponder what the writer is presenting, what exactly you are reading. Nothing is fully explained or neatly tied with a bow. These are almost vignettes – glimpses into a twisted version of our own reality – enough to unsettle without fully understanding.
This isn’t horror for those looking to be thrilled with shocks and scares, viscera and violence. This is the subtly surreal and vaguely disturbing, aimed at those who appreciate a refined, dignified step through the darker mirror.
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
- Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2024Gorgeous tales from a talented writer! Beautiful prose and lovely storytelling. You’ll adore these weird little worlds Nogle creates! Can’t wait to read more of her work.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2023[Blurb goes here]
Beautifully written, great characters, poor story telling.
At times, when I come across a book I don't like, I avoid writing a review on it, but in this particular case, I had to.
Most stories in here, are seemingly pointless. Nothing of value happens. But...the author pours her soul in each character, and you'll feel for them. This are well rounded people imprinted on the pages of the book. You'll root for some, you'll dislike others. You'll feel the need to protect a few of them. It amazes me to find such wonderful characters in such poorly developed stories.
It comes to mind one tale in particular, one of a person suddenly getting super powers, only to meet an ill fated end...so investing on this character was all for nothing.
This happens more often than not: the author holds your hand and takes you on a journey, just to let go as soon as things start to get interesting.
Just, please: don't take my earlier words to heart. I'm just a person who reviews books, and as such, I will love some of them, and dislike others.
A lot of passion went into the writing of this anthology, and for that reason alone, I think you should give it a try.
Thank you for the advanced copy!
- Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2023Rating - 4.5 stars
The Best of Our Past, The Worst of Our Future, bu Christi Nogle, is an incredibly chilling collection of compelling supernatural tales. Nogle has created a variety of weird worlds, where I was delighted to spend some time.
The opening story, Unschooled, sets the tone for the collection wonderfully, where a young girl is cast out of her home. Strangely beautiful and absolutely heartbreaking.
Nogle does a fantastic job of disorienting the reader, especially in stories In the Country, and Cinnamon to Taste. The world in these stories is recognizable, but ever-so-slightly off somehow.
Resilience, a story of a young girl whose family is killed in a tragic accident, unfolds as well as one of Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected. The seeds Nogle plants throughout the story are beautiful in their subtlety.
Packet C is one of the best works of flash fiction I’ve read in a while. A family finds a weird doll kit in a store, and spends all night putting it together, with high expectations.
A Children's Treasury of Windows and Doors is just magnificent. A weird, lift-the-flap book, a strangely silent father.
My favorite in the whole collection is the beautiful The Porches of our Ears, about a world in which when you die, a tiny version of yourself continues to live on. Great imagery in this one, and a rich story about family.
This is an incredibly strong collection. Recommended for fans of Kelly Link, Karin Tidbeck, and Samanta Schweblin . Yay for weird fiction!
- Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2023This was a collection of odd and weird short stories. I found myself really into the first story about a girl who is pregnant. Let’s just say things aren’t exactly normal. The rest of the stories I had trouble connecting with, but I know there’s an audience that would love this book. It wasn’t for me, and that’s okay.
Top reviews from other countries
- C BrittainReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 25, 2023
2.0 out of 5 stars Not for me
This book had very good reviews - It’s the genre I usually enjoy and I also like compilations of short storiesI did t enjoy any of the stories with the mild exception of one and couldn’t even finish the last two.
Endings were abrupt and vague and I found some of the stories boring and weird . Inventive, yes but a bit meh for me.
Unfortunately my expectations of this book were not met but that doesn’t mean someone else would not enjoy it.