Amy leBlanc

Homebodies

What people are saying:

“Unsettling and creepy.” — Joanne Kelly raves about Homebodies on CBC Radio’s Weekend Morning Show.

“I think the core of dread is uncanny experience.” An interview with Amy LeBlanc by Olivia Van Guinn.

“LeBlanc surprises and disturbs, to the reader’s intense anguish — in this collection’s case, a good thing.” – Rory Runnels, Winnipeg Free Press

“Original, inherently fascinating, and with a narrative storytelling style that is ideal for Gothic fiction and the short story format… a highly recommended pick.” – Midwest Book Review

“The best word to describe each story in this collection is: unnerving.” — Anne Logan, I’ve Read This

“LeBlanc’s short fiction is refreshingly resistant to closure or […] authorial intrusion or hand holding. The reader is left alone to interpret the uncanny goings on and to excavate meaning from pieces that are frequently presented as fragments or subtle reverberations. These are stories that demand concentration and close reading: open them carefully.” — Steven Beattie, The Shakespearean Rag

“Surfaces deceive. LeBlanc’s deliciously creepy stories revel in pushing past the limitations of the body, of the domestic, and of the known even when this means guts are going to spill. In the tradition of writers such as Shirley Jackson, Daphne du Maurier, and Lisa Tuttle, these stories disorient and slide from the familiar and dreamy and into the nightmarish in the most thrilling of ways. LeBlanc kidnaps the reader and takes them on an unforgettable, screamingly great ride.” – Suzette Mayr, winner of the Giller Prize

“Amy LeBlanc’s Homebodies is like a slow, sliding kaleidoscope of dreams. A series of glimpses into strained, disjointed families and communities, the book follows a network of disquieting characters with wounds—both figurative and very literal—that fester and pulse. The stories feel like admissions, like muffled secrets passed behind closed doors. They are fragmented but nonetheless full—dense and swollen with the characters’ blunted fears, their stark needs. LeBlanc’s writing is a shudder running through the body: a sensation that is visceral, reflexive, and inescapable. Like a boa snake constricting, like peristalsis, these stories will swallow you whole.” – Erica McKeen, author of Tear

“Amy LeBlanc’s uncanny, open-ended stories perfectly capture the ambiguous anxieties of our pandemic times. This is an engrossing, contemporary, well-arranged collection with novelistic immersiveness.” – Seyward Goodhand, author of Even That Wildest Hope

“In Homebodies, Amy LeBlanc moves time forward and backward, and mostly–underneath–families, lovers, cats and friends. In these stories, growing up doesn’t lighten the dark, understanding doesn’t sweeten the lot, sadness and despair compete with spirit for space. It’s LeBlanc who makes darkness palatable with her poignancy and poetic touch. Don’t plan on putting Homebodies down after you pick it up. ” – Susie Moloney, author The Thirteen and The Dwelling