Uncanny valley girls : essays on horror, survival, and love / Zefyr Lisowski.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lisowski, Zefyr, 1994- Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Lisowski, Zefyr, 1994-.

Lisowski, Zefyr.

Authors, American--Biography.

Authors, American.

Trans women--United States--Biography.

Trans women.

Horror films--History and criticism.

Horror films.

Sex role.

Social classes.

American essays.

Trans people--United States--Biography.

Trans people.

Horror films--United States--History and criticism.

social classes.

Genre:

LGBTQ+ autobiographies.

Essays.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

223 pages ; 21 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2025]

Summary:

From Lambda Award-winning poet Zefyr Lisowski, a sharply personal and expansive memoir-in-essays dedicated to the strange and absurd beauty of horror films, exploring the complications of gender, the insidiousness of class ascension, and the latent violence hidden in our own uncanny reflections. This is how it worked: first I loved them, and then I loved myself. At twenty-seven, poet Zefyr Lisowski found herself in the place she feared most: a locked psych ward. While inside, she turned to horror movies--her deepest, most constant comfort. Rather than disturb, scary movies have always provided solace and connection for Lisowski, as they do many others--offering a vision of a world filled equally with beauty and pain, and a reason to reach out to others and hold them tight. After all, as Lisowski argues, what terrifies us most about these movies is our own uncanny reflection--and at the root of that fear, a desperate desire to love and be loved. In these wide-ranging essays, Lisowski weaves theory and memoir into nuanced critiques of films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Saint Maud. From fears about sickness and disability, to trans narratives and the predator/victim complex, to the struggle to live in a world that wants you dead, she explores horror's reciprocal impact on our culture and--by extension--our lives. Through it all, Lisowski lays bare her own complex biography--spanning from a trans childhood in the South to the sweaty dancefloors of Brooklyn--and the family, friends, and lovers that have bloomed with her into the present. Deeply felt, blood-spattered, and brimming with care and wonder, Uncanny Valley Girls thrusts this seasoned poet to centerstage.

Contents:

The girl, the well, the ring

Your swan, my swan

Our oceans, ourselves

Ghost face

War on terror

Southern fried

Cutting in miniature

Preliminary materials for a theory of the werewolf girl

Devotion

Crazy in love

Uncanny Valley of the dolls.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Other Format:

Online version Lisowski, Zefyr, 1994- Uncanny valley girls

ISBN:

9780063413993

006341399X

OCLC:

1529953581