Silk

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Despite its title, there's nothing smooth or sexy about this skin-crawling debut from Kiernan, an author with one helluvan imagination and a startling lack of inhibition. At the center of this modern gothic horror story is Spyder Baxter, a deeply troubled young woman haunted by terrifying memories of childhood and her insane, abusive father. But his transgressions were so heinous that the demons aren't just in her head anymore; they've taken on a life of their own and are taking over Spyder's house, crawling out of the basement and into everything and everyone she cares about. Caught in Spyder's web of bad karma are a motley crew of disenfranchised Gen Xers all living on the edge and trying to heal various psychic wounds of their own. They've each got plenty of reasons to be hallucinating, and the author does a good job of blurring the lines between their bad acid trips and spectral sightings. But reading Kiernan is rather like deciphering entrails, filled with the violence of raw, edgy words: "The angry screech of denied retribution, raging shadows and nightshade teeth." Her rambling metaphors "Dull smack of her shoulder against the wall, again and again, meat-thud tattoo" hint at inexperience, but her naked energy will appeal to grungers weaned on The Hunger. June

Paula Guran

For horror to thrive and evolve we constantly need new voices possessing originality and the power to confront us with their dark visions. They must have a genuine passion for writing, and an ability to entrance us with language. Such writers usually do not endear themselves to the staid and conventional, nor should they be expected to do so -- vitality is found on the edge.

Caitlin R. Kiernan, with Silk, shows that she possesses originality, power, passion, and magic far beyond what one could expect from a first novelist. Her voice is one of extraordinary resonance, deep sensitivity, and disturbing intensity.

The first one hundred pages of Silk introduce its characters: alienated young people -- musicians and freaks -- living on the ragged border of society. Urban punks and Goths, junkies and queers -- they are not charming bohemians who will appeal to those blithely comfortable with society. But for readers with an understanding of the misfit and sympathy for the outsider they are fascinating creations one quickly regards with acceptance and even affection.

The plot -- although intricately structured and clearly defined as the spiders' webs integral to it -- is as indescribable as music by Philip Glass, as impossible to synopsize as a Frank Zappa guitar riff. Music, in fact, is not only a metaphor, but an authentic and important part of the novel. Three of the main characters comprise the punk band Stiff Kitten. Mentions of an assortment of music from Tom Waits to Dead Can Dance become a soundtrack running through the novel. Set in Birmingham, Alabama, Silk pivots around Spyder Baxter, her companions and those who become ensnared in the web of her existence. Spyder is an enigma -- charismatic, spooky, psychotic -- haunted and powerful at the same time.

Spyder's home is a funky substitute for a decaying ancestral home full of family secrets. Since Kiernan's rich descriptive style often verges on the poetic, there is a sense of the literary Gothic pervading Silk -- although it's romanticism is replaced with Modernist perception and style.

As the story develops, the reader is never quite sure if its source is supernatural or madness. In this realm of the unknown Kiernan does not so much build suspense as evoke an atmosphere of fear, a miasma of uncertainty and dread. As Lovecraft knew, it is that atmosphere that most effectively creates the sensation we call "horror."

Inevitable parallels will be drawn with Poppy Z. Brite's Lost Souls, but just as apt are comparisons with the work Peter Straub. Like Straub and Brite, Kiernan is a vastly intelligent and superlatively imaginative. If Silk is the beginning of Kiernan's journey, we can anticipate a magnificent trip into the new millennium.
— darkecho.com