A surreal folk horror novella by Ivy Grimes inspired by the Russian fairy tale "Vasilisa the Beautiful" and the mythology around Frau Perchta.

The Cellar Below the Cellar

BY IVY GRIMES

“Grimes conjures a world that is simultaneously vast, mysterious, and fully lived in, replete with idiosyncratic folk horror elements. . . . Kelly Link fans won’t want to miss this.” — Publishers Weekly Starred Review

“Ivy Grimes has a one-of-a-kind voice and is at her best here! A wonderfully strange surreal coming-of-age story of an already-grown woman who still needs to come into her own.”
— Christi Nogle, author of the Bram Stoker Award® winning novel, Beulah

“The Cellar Below the Cellar, with its poetic turns of narrative to its easily imaginable characters . . . really is spectacular, and idiosyncratic in all the ways masterful works of fiction are.”
— RSL, author and reviewer at The Fantasy Hive

“The Cellar Below the Cellar possesses a wild sense of wonder married to a sense of menace—one juxtaposed against the other in a frame that keeps disappearing when you stare too long at the overlap of the two.”
— TJ Price, author of The Disappearance of Tom Nero

“Grimes’s prose is impactful and poetic, pulling you in as the world ends around the characters within. Written like a vintage, delicate, and beautiful fairy tale, this novella is comforting and hopeful, even in its darkness. . . . Definitely on my favorites list.”
— P.L. McMillan, author of Sisters of the Crimson Vine, host of the PLM Talks YouTube channel and cohost of the Dead Languages Podcast

“Grimes does an amazing job of showcasing natural and supernatural horror. . . . A unique twist on a post-apocalyptic story.”
— Joseph Pietris, editor and reviewer at The Horror Tree

“The eponymous subcellar inspires a potent atmosphere of creeping dread. . . . Grimes’ penchant for the morbid and strange perfectly suits the tone of the original, darker versions of fairy tales, and left me enraptured with every page.”
— Magdalena Nitchi, ImaginAtlas

Description

A playfully dark folk horror inspired by the fairy tale “Vasilisa the Beautiful” and the mythology around Frau Perchta, set under the blazing sky of endless auroras.

When a wild solar storm wipes out all electronics and traps Jane at her grandmother’s house in the woods, she is forced to start a new life off-grid as part of a small, isolated community.

However, there is something very strange about her new neighbors, and the longer she lives under the eerie glow of the auroras, the more she feels her grandmother may be hiding unsettling secrets.

To have any hope in her new world, Jane must find the courage to step into her power and claim her identity, but that would mean facing whatever hides in the cellar below the cellar—a place that seems to be waiting for her.

Full of delightfully weird surprises and off-kilter characters, this adult coming-of-age story explores themes of female empowerment, spirituality, identity, and community. For fans of Kelly Link, Karen Russell, Otessa Moshfegh, and Leonora Carrington.

About the Author

Ivy Grimes is originally from Birmingham, Alabama and currently lives in Virginia. She has an MFA from the University of Alabama. Her stories have appeared in The Baffler, Vastarien, hex, Maudlin House, ergot., Potomac Review, and elsewhere. She is the author of the collection Glass Stories (Grimscribe Press) and The Ghosts of Blaubart Mansion (Cemetery Gates). To learn more, please visit www.ivyivyivyivy.com.

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