Horror novelette

 

And while we were on the topic, there was something wrong with Muttonbird. Rather than glazing over restfully her milky blue eyes goggled, surprised and angry. Her spine had wrenched sideways somehow and as a result she twisted restlessly in place as though caught in a nonexistent wind. Not literally. If we were talking literally then of course she was still. But as I cleaned up the Bitch's shit, in the corner of my eye Muttonbird writhed over me, twisting and swaying ...

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"I was the man at the beach. I have a name, and it is not God."

Simon is a narcissist and a very dangerous man. Enter his world, where reality and everyone in it serve his grim fantasies. But in the bushland lurks a woman who suspects lost vulnerability at his heart. And another, less beautiful, whose violent loathing for him will never be silenced.

Written as a youthful love-tribute to the city and its surrounds, horror novelette Only Skin includes disquieting (adult) themes. In it can be traced the author's early exploration and development of the obsessive inner world of the mind, a place where all others are excluded and the ego reigns supreme. This trend came to emerge in later novels such as Outermen and Something for Everything.

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