Vs. Death Noises

Fiction. "Marcus Pactor's debut collection of stories is nothing short of dazzling. The stories are fierce, funny, insightful and often lyrical without ever sacrificing the raw power of a character's voice. VS. DEATH NOISES takes us on a dark, bizarre journey where the ponderings of William Blake and John Locke become bedfellows with group sex and bondage, tears of grief are cried into a discarded thong, an infected toe is the catalyst for a discussion on intimacy and love. The characters in these stories are burdened with loss, uneasy love, mourning and an unceasing hunger to find some kind of meaning in their lives. This search for hints of meaning in the shape of a strand of hair on a bathroom counter, in an ice cooler full of caught fish, in the unsolved disappearance of a loved one forms the heart wrenching soul of this collection. In reading these stories, I blushed, I laughed, I found myself wonderfully uncomfortable and consistently awed by the originality of Marcus Pactor's style and voice. A brilliant collection!"—Owen Egerton