The Dead Inside

Edited by Laurel Hightower and Sandra Rutten

I have had such good fortune lately with the anthologies I’ve been able to read, and The Dead Inside is an excellent addition to my growing list. I’ve been excited to read this one for a while, and I have to say, it did not disappoint.

The Dead Inside is all about identity–what it is, what it means, how we perceive ourselves and other people, and how we are, in turn, perceived. It’s about how we are all puzzles, some of us more incomplete than others, and the struggle to find and reshape ourselves for better or worse. It explores the experiences and intersections of race, gender, sexual orientation, parenthood, memory, mental health, and death and grief–for ourselves as well as our loved ones. 

Donyae Coles opens the anthology with one of the loveliest introductions I’ve read in a long time, inviting us to take a journey within each story and poem for a glimpse into someone else’s. We may not know all the steps by heart. It may be our first time there. But Coles assures us that we’ll find our way soon enough and that in each story, we will see what can happen when we deny ourselves the right to understand, appreciate, and celebrate our own identities. What happens when the parts of ourselves we are forced to try and eliminate for the sake of other people’s comfort and convenience claw their way back out of us?

As is the case with any anthology, there are stories and poems in here that didn’t quite hit the spot for me. That said, given the overall theme, I would be extremely surprised–and a little concerned, to be honest–if they had. And despite the fact I didn’t necessarily see myself in all of them, every single piece felt, in some way, recognizable to me. As lengthy as this anthology is and as many different entries as there are, the fact that each of them offered a thread of kinship to me as a reader that burrowed its way into my heart upon reading, without exception, is remarkable.

This is another anthology that is extremely difficult to build a list of personal favorites from, but among others, mine include: S.H. Cooper’s “From Within,” Paul Michael Anderson’s “Detritus (Ten Pieces),” Eric Raglin’s “A Most Bulbous Congregation,” Sarah Jackson’s “Subsidence,” Sam Kyung Yoo’s “End of the Line,” and Scott J. Moses’s “An Evaluation.” 

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Rating: A

Review by Kayla Martin-Gant

Twitter: @poultryofperil 

Instagram: @kmartingant 

I received a PDF copy of this book from the publisher for review consideration.