We Are All Completely Fine

By Daryl Gregory

World Fantasy Award Winner
Shirley Jackson Award Winner

Harrison was the Monster Detective, a storybook hero. Now he’s in his mid-thirties and spends most of his time popping pills and not sleeping. Stan became a minor celebrity after being partially eaten by cannibals. Barbara is haunted by unreadable messages carved upon her bones. Greta may or may not be a mass-murdering arsonist. Martin never takes off his sunglasses. Never.

No one believes the extent of their horrific tales, not until they are sought out by psychotherapist Dr. Jan Sayer. What happens when these seemingly-insane outcasts form a support group? Together they must discover which monsters they face are within?and which are lurking in plain sight.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tachyon Publications
• Release date: Jul 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781616961725

Daryl Gregory

Daryl Gregory won the IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award for his first novel, Pandemonium. His second novel, The Devil's Alphabet, was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award and was one of Publishers Weekly's best books of 2009. His novelette "Nine Last Days on Planet Earth" was a Hugo finalist. His short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and The Year’s Best SF. He has also written comics for BOOM! Studios and IDW. Daryl lives in Oakland, CA.

Book preview

Advance Praise for We Are All Completely Fine

"This complex novel—scathingly funny, horrific yet oddly inspiring—constructs a seductive puzzle from torn identities, focusing on both the value and peril of fear. . . . Gregory’s beautiful imagery and metaphors bring bittersweet intimacy and tenderness to the primal wonder of star-lit legends. Isolated people, both victims and victimizers, are ghosts in a waking world, blind to their encounters with living nightmares. Blending the stark realism of pain and isolation with the liberating force of the fantastic, Gregory (Afterparty) makes it easy to believe that the world is an illusion, behind which lurks an alternative truth—dark, degenerate, and sublime." 

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

A superb, haunting tale by one of our very best writers. Gregory’s characters are already in therapy; you may want to join them after reading this spicy, disturbing mélange.

—Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Red Planet Blues

Clever, and filled with the creeping dread of what’s in the flickering shadow next to you and what’s just around the corner that suffuses the best horror. I loved it.

—Ellen Datlow, World Fantasy and International Horror Guild award-winning editor of The Best Horror of the Year series

Charming and horrifying—you won’t be able to stop reading it.

—Tim Powers, award-winning author of Declare and The Stress of Her Regard

Daryl Gregory is a writer I would happily follow into any dark place he wanted me to go. This is a labyrinth of a story, intricate as a spider’s web—and like a spider’s web, each piece informs the whole. Beautiful.

—Seanan McGuire, author of the October Daye series and Half-Off Ragnarok

Praise for Daryl Gregory

A bright new voice of the twenty-first century. . . .

—Library Journal

Wickedly clever entertainment.

—San Francisco Chronicle (on Pandemonium)

A quietly brilliant second novel. . . . A wide variety of believable characters, a well-developed sense of place and some fascinating scientific speculation.

—Publishers Weekly starred review (on The Devil’s Alphabet)

Compelling and creepy . . . evokes the best of Stephen King.

—Kirkus (on The Devil’s Alphabet)

Part superhero fiction, part zombie horror story, and part supernatural thriller, this luminous and compelling tale deserves a wide readership beyond genre fans.

—Library Journal starred review (on Raising Stony Mayhall)

"Raising Stony Mayhall, like all of Daryl Gregory’s stories and novels I’ve read, is so good that I grieved when I got to the last page, because I wanted it to just go on and on."

—Chris Roberson, New York Times bestselling author of iZombie

. . . One of the most consistently interesting and yet least predictable writers of the last decade . . . Gregory can write so fluently and convincingly about relationships that he barely needs the machinery of the fantastic at all.

—Locus

Readers will delve deeply into Gregory’s highly original demon-infested reality . . .

—Publishers Weekly (on Pandemonium)

More than many novelists, Gregory’s work not only withstands but grows richer with re-readings and sustained attention.

—SF Signal

DARYL GREGORY

TACHYON | SAN FRANCISCO

We Are All Completely Fine

Copyright © 2014 by Daryl Gregory

This is a work of fiction. All events portrayed in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form without the express permission of the publisher.

Cover and interior design by Elizabeth Story

Tachyon Publications

1459 18th Street #139

San Francisco, CA 94107

[phone]

[e-mail]

www.tachyonpublications.com

saving the world . . . one good book at a time

Series Editor: Jacob Weisman

Project Editor: Jill Roberts

BOOK ISBN 13: 978-1-61696-171-8

Ebook ISBNS 978-1-61696-172-5 (epub)

978-1-61696-173-2 (kindle)

978-1-61696-174-9 (PDF)

Printed in the United States of America by Worzalla

First Edition: 2014

Acknowledgements

This story couldn’t have been written without Dr. Kathleen Bieschke, psychologist, expert therapist, and my beta reader since Day One. Did I also mention that she’s my lovely wife? Years ago Kath turned me on to the novels of Irvin Yalom, who in his day job is the world’s leading expert on small groups. He wrote the bible on the subject, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, which I read and reread while writing this novella. Anything here that makes Bieschke, Yalom, et al. (et al. to include the alarming number of shrinks I hang out with) cringe or shake their heads is no fault of theirs. They tried to educate me, but some patients are resistant to change.

Thanks as well to my own small group of fellow-sufferers, the writers who read and commented on this book: Gary Delafield, Jack Skillingstead, Nancy Kress, and Dave Justus. Some day we’ll kick this thing.

And to Jacob, Jill, and the fine folks at Tachyon: you’re the best enablers ever!

For Jill Morgan and Bob Slaney

Chapter 1

There were six of us in the beginning. Three men and two women, and Dr. Sayer. Jan, though some of us never learned to call her by her first name. She was the psychologist who found us, then persuaded us that a group experience could prove useful in ways that one-on-one counseling could not. After all, one of the issues we had in common was that we each thought we were unique. Not just survivors, but sole survivors. We wore our scars like badges.

Consider Harrison, one of the first of us to arrive at the building for that initial meeting. Once upon a time he’d been the Boy Hero of Dunnsmouth. The Monster Detective. Now he sat behind the wheel of his car, watching the windows of her office, trying to decide whether he would break his promise to her and skip out. The office was in a two-story, Craft-style house on the north side of the city, on a woodsy block that could look sinister or comforting depending on the light. A decade before, this family home had been rezoned and colonized by shrinks; they converted the bedrooms to offices, made the living room into a lobby, and planted a sign out front declaring its name to be The Elms. Maybe not the best name, Harrison thought. He would have suggested a species of tree that wasn’t constantly in danger of being wiped out.

Today, the street did not look sinister. It was a sunny spring day, one of the few tolerable days the city would get before the heat and humidity rolled in for the summer. So why ruin it with ninety minutes of self-pity and communal humiliation?

He was suspicious of the very premise of therapy. The idea that people could change themselves, he told Dr. Sayer in their pre-group interview, was a self-serving delusion. She believed that people were captains of their own destiny. He agreed, as long as it was understood that every captain was destined to go down with the ship, and there wasn’t a damned thing you could do about it. If you want to stand there with the wheel in your hand and pretend you were steering, he told her, knock yourself out.

She’d said, Yet you’re here.

He shrugged. I have trouble sleeping. My psychiatrist said he wouldn’t renew my prescriptions unless I tried therapy.

Is that all?

"Also, I might be entertaining the idea of tamping down my nihilism. Just a bit. Not because life is not meaningless—I think that’s inarguable. It’s just that the constant awareness of its pointlessness is exhausting. I wouldn’t mind being oblivious again. I’d love to feel the wind in my face and think, just for a minute, that I’m not going to crash into the rocks."

You’re saying you’d like to be happy.

Yeah. That.

She smiled. He liked that smile. Promise me you’ll try one meeting, she said. Just give me one.

Now he was having second thoughts. It wasn’t too late to drive away. He could always find a new psychiatrist to fork over the meds.

A blue and white transit van pulled into the handicap parking spot in front of the house. The driver hopped out. He was a hefty white kid, over six feet tall with a scruffy beard, dressed in the half-ass uniform of the retail class: colored polo over Gap khakis. He opened the rearmost door of the van to reveal an old man waiting in a wheelchair.

The driver thumbed a control box, and the lift lowered the chair and occupant to the ground with the robotic slow motion of a space shuttle arm. The old man was already half astronaut, with his breathing mask and plastic tubes and tanks of onboard oxygen. His hands seemed to be covered by mittens.

Was this geezer part of the group, Harrison wondered, or visiting some other shrink in the building? Just how damaged were the people that Dr. Sayer had recruited? He had no desire to spend hours with the last people voted off Victim Island.

The driver seemed to have no patience for his patient. Instead of going the long way around to the ramp, he pushed the old man to the curb, then roughly tilted him back—too far back—and bounced the front wheels down on the sidewalk. The old man pressed his mittened hands to his face, trying to keep the mask in place. Another series of heaves and jerks got the man up the short stairs and into the house.

Then Harrison noticed the girl. Eighteen, maybe nineteen years old, sitting on a bench across from the house, watching the old man and the driver intently. She wore a black, long-sleeved T-shirt, black jeans, black Chuck Taylors: the Standard Goth Burka. Her short white hair looked like it had been not so much styled as attacked. Her hands gripped the edge of the bench and she did not relax even after the pair had gone inside. She was like a feral cat: skinny, glint-eyed, shock-haired. Ready to bolt.

For the next few minutes he watched the girl as she watched the front of the house. A few people passed by on the sidewalk, and then a tall white woman stepped up to the door. Fortyish, with careful hair and a Hillary Clinton pantsuit. She moved with an air of concentration; when she climbed the steps, she placed each foot carefully, as if testing the solidity of each surface.

A black guy in flannels and thick work boots clumped up the stairs behind the woman. She stopped, turned. The guy looked up at the roof of the porch. An odd thing. He carried a backpack and wore thick black sunglasses, and Harrison couldn’t imagine what he saw up there. The white woman said something to him, holding open the door, and he nodded. They went inside together.

It was almost six o’clock, so Harrison assumed that everyone who’d gone in was part of the group. The girl, though, still hadn’t made a move toward the door.

Fuck it, Harrison said. He got out of the car before he could change his mind, and then walked toward the house. When he reached the front sidewalk he glanced behind him—casually, casually. The girl noticed him and looked away. He was certain that she’d been invited to the group too. He was willing to bet that she might be the craziest one of all.

The van driver was walking out as Harrison was walking in. Harrison nodded at him—or rather, gave him what he thought of as the bro nod, that upward tip of the chin that

Reviews for We Are All Completely Fine

[allison_s-802575 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ew.

Ew ew ew ew ew.

THE SCRIMSHANDER

[Robert Bender · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I wished this book would never end! Usually I can predict what’s coming, particularly the ending- but this book surprised me. I love Daryl Gregory’s books- (Harrison Squared, Spoonbenders, Afterparty), they are all great, each unique, different from the others. His characters are fully alive and three dimensional, humorous sometimes, annoying other times, never a false note. It is effortless to become absorbed, sucked into, the slightly skewed, yet somehow believable world his characters live in. Sometimes when I raise my head from reading one of his books, (this one included), my own world seems somehow flat and banal in comparison.
If you enjoy the writing of Neil Gaiman, check out Daryl Gregory.

[charrlygirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the hell out of this novella!

A small group of torture survivors are brought together by their doctor for experimental group therapy. These people have been through the most horrible things imaginable. Seriously, it's bad.

What begins as therapeutic meetings for this group eventually morphs into something else. Something otherworldly. Something that is not quite finished.

I loved how this tale was related, it wasn't a dreary recitation of each survivor and what happened to them. It flowed more naturally than that. The characters were well drawn and I couldn't help but feel for them and all they went through.

The only negative thing I can say is that I wish the story had been longer. I felt like I was just getting to the bottom of the mystery with Greta, (one of the survivors), and then it was over. However, I am happy to report that this tale ended in such a way that leaves it wide open for a sequel. I, for one, am hoping we get one.

Highly recommended for fans of dark fiction and psychological horror!

I received this novella free from Net Galley, in exchange for an honest review. This is it!

[datrappert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I quite enjoyed this gruesome but not repellant story of five victims of horrific crimes or events who are brought together into group therapy. The characters and their interactions are interesting, although the collective narrative is a bit confusing at times. Surprisingly for me, a person who tends to think every book is too long, the ending here seems a bit rushed. Perhaps 20 or so more pages could have fleshed things out a bit better. I guess I just had to get "flesh" into it somewhere, since it has so much to do with this highly unusual, well-written story. I will definitely investigate the author's other writing.

[being_b-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Characters brought together in a therapy group to process their encounters with the supernatural- it sounds cheesy, but the author obviously did their research on what group therapy is really like, and the characters are convincingly scarred and self-protective. I would read a sequel about these people.

[krazykiwi-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My note on this is that it was recommended to me via Bookaneer's Review. So that only took me two years to get around to reading it, and I'm kicking myself. Hard. I'd review it, but seriously, just go read what she said. My review would just be superfluous over hers anyway :)Suffice to say, I just went and grabbed another Daryl Gregory book (Pandemonium) immediately after finishing this novella, and I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with a couple or three more over the next few days.

[Robin Levine · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved it. From beginning to end it had me immersed in the characters and story line.

[tldegray-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Group therapy for survivors, all the Final Girls and Last Boys, and one last call to save the world. Friendship, healing, and the best night's sleep someone has had in decades.

So, so excellent.

[pwaites_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this novella, five survivors of horrific supernatural events gather together for a group therapy session lead by the enigmatic Dr. Jan Sayer. Harrison was considered a hero as a teen, but now he’s in his thirties and can’t sleep at night. Stan was partly eaten by cannibals. An unearthly killer carved mysterious messages onto Barbara’s bones. Greta is covered with strange scarring, and Martin refuses to take off his sunglasses.While there is a more traditional plot going on in the background, the heart of the novella is the characters. The novella doesn’t use flashbacks, but the characters do describe what happened to them. All have their scars, and none feel at home in the ordinary world anymore. All of them were reluctant to come to therapy, except possibly for Stan, who will talk over and over again about the trauma he went through. Yet, together, they find people who are able to understand something of what they’ve been through."He was suspicious of the very premise of therapy. The idea that people could change themselves, he told Dr. Sayer in their pre-group interview, was a self-serving delusion. She believed that people were captains of their own destiny. He agreed, as long as it was understood that every captain was destined to go down with the ship, and there wasn’t a damned thing you could do about it. If you want to stand there with the wheel in your hand and pretend you were steering, he told her, knock yourself out."We Are All Completely Fine is a complicated, dark story with a cast of damaged people at it’s core. I would highly recommend it, and I hope Gregory decides to write a sequel.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

[ron18-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'd give this 3.5 stars - it has a lot of fun elements, but ultimately it doesn't rise to the heights I'd hoped for when I learned it had won the Shirley Jackson award. The characters don't have much depth, and the plot is ultimately pretty weak and uninteresting. The ideas are good - - but they don't string together artfully. It reads like it would be a decent comic book. A mix between Doom Patrol and Hellblazer, maybe. I don't think I'd read a sequel, the author just doesn't have the skill to carry a strong story.

[myownwoman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was "completely fine," as the title may suggest, but I unfortunately found it to be only fine - and not something fabulously exceptional or mindblowingly awesome - just completely fine. Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it, because I did. I just wasn't as impressed or dazzled by it as I've been by my past few reads. (But seriously, though, 2015 has been packed with some pretty magnificent reads - and it's only January! But, I digress...]The "we" of the title make for unusual characters - members of a support/therapy group for victims of supernatural or unusually heinous crimes. For example, take Stan (my personal favorite) - a stump-armed, oxygen-strapped and wheelchair-bound septuagenarian who was held captive and (partially) eaten alive by a family of cannibals. Stan just can't shut up about his infamous past life, and he can't let go of anything as his junk-filled, hoarder-style house might suggest. Or Google-Glass Marcus, whose roommates were recently slaughtered by a homeless man. Marcus sees things from behind the lenses of his video game goggles - monsters who travel among us otherwise unseen. Or Barbara, a woman now living with a secret message carved into her bones by a madman. You get the picture. People who have lived through some crazy shit - getting together to try and overcome their past. But, little do they know, their fates are wrapped together more intimately than they could ever imagine. "What a colorful cast of characters! What a cool premise! How could you not be in love with this book?!" That is what you may say if you, like many others on GoodReads or LibraryThing, loved this book. And I would answer them with the following: "It was too short, and I felt let down by the set-up for a sequel at the end. I felt the search for Gretchen could of continued in this book. I really dug the twist reveal at the end, and I can understand why you loved it. It just wasn't enough for me." Hey there, NetGalley. Muchios Gracias for the galley. While I wouldn't actively search out the sequel, I would read it if it crossed my path. I can imagine recommending this to fantasy-horror fans.

[ireneattolia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

honestly this was far better than I had expected. the premise sounded kinda cheesy, but it was weird and delightful.

[samjehanzeb · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ein Buch über eine Selbsthilfegruppe für Menschen, die Opfer oder Zeugen übernatürlicher Phänomene geworden sind, ist Mal etwas anderes im Fantasy-/ Horrorregal. Ich gestehe, dass ich hier etwas eher humorvolles erwartet hatte, was allerdings nicht der Fall war.In We Are All Completely Fine (dt.: Uns geht’s allen total gut) treffen wir auf fünf traumatisierte Patienten und ihre Therapeutin. Alle Mitglieder der Gruppe sind verschlossen und keiner traut dem anderen. Wie zu erwarten beginnt der Roman also zunächst damit, dass sich die Patienten untereinander erst kennenlernen und Vertrauen zueinander finden müssen. Innerhalb der Gruppe sind zunächst alle, mit Ausnahme von Stan, eher verschlossen und geizen mit Informationen darüber, was ihnen eigentlich im Detail passiert ist. Das erfährt man erst nach und nach in perspektivisch wechselnden Kapiteln. Die Erzählform passt zu der Geschichte und zeigt auf, welche Geheimnisse die Patienten trotz ihrer Selbsthilfegruppe nicht zu teilen bereit sind, mit welchen inneren Dämonen sie sich alleine schlagen. Während andere diese stetigen Perspektivwechsel bemängeln, fand ich das sehr spannend.Die Figuren in We Are All Completely Fine haben durchaus schaurige Dinge hinter sich. Einer hat die Gefangenschaft in einer kannibalischen Familie überlebt, wenn auch stark verstümmelt. Ein anderer ist ein Ex-Dämonenjäger und noch ein anderer kann als einziger Monster sehen, die boshafte Ideen in die Köpfe der Menschen flüstern. Besonders unter die Haut gegangen ist mir die Geschichte einer Frau, die einen Serienmörder überlebt hat, seither aber keine Ruhe findet, weil er eine Nachricht in ihre Knochen eingeritzt hat. Dass sie nie die Gelegenheit hatte herauszufinden was das für eine Nachricht ist, treibt sie seither um. Die einzelnen Hintergrundgeschichten sind dabei alle recht verstörend und mal mehr, mal weniger eindringlich, zeichnen aber alle ein sehr individuelles Bild der Figuren. Mit der soliden Charakterzeichnung fing das Buch also zunächst vielversprechend an, auch wenn sich innerhalb der Gruppe eine recht klassische Rollenverteilung zeigt. So feinden sich die männlichen Gruppenmitglieder zunächst offen an, während die Frauen entweder eingeschüchtert schweigen oder zu schlichten versuchen.Leider driftet die zweite Hälfte des Romans dann immer weiter in eine wenig überraschende Allerwelts-Horrorgeschichte ab ohne tatsächlich gruselig zu sein. Eine Entwicklung die ich als recht schade empfunden habe, da es mich viel mehr interessiert hätte zu erfahren, wie die Patienten weiter mit ihren schrecklichen Erinnerungen oder noch ungelösten Problemen zurechtkommen. Stattdessen befindet man sich plötzlich wahlweise auf der Flucht vor – oder auf der Suche nach – einem Djinni-Kult,rast quer durch irgendeine US-Stadt deren Name ich schon wieder vergessen habe (war es New York? … hm), Gebäude werden dem Erdboden gleichgemacht, Menschen sterben, dämonische Kreaturen kriechen nebenbei durch die Straßen. Was mir sehr missfallen hat war, dass hier mit dem Djinni-Thema zwar mal eine fernöstliche Sagengestalt benutzt wird, leider wird der ebenso fernöstlich stämmige (rein weibliche) Kult zum Feindbild und wie eine Art Schläferzelle präsentiert, die auf den einen großen Moment des Zuschlagens wartet. Gegen wen genau der Kult sich richtet erfährt man übrigens nicht, aber sie haben diese besondere Waffe für irgendein Ereignis, auf das sie warten. Ob dieser Fremdenfeindliche Eindruck nun vom Autor provoziert war möchte ich dabei gar nicht unterstellen, mir als Frau und in einer Zeit, in der Fremdenfeindlichkeit wieder ein verstärktes Thema ist, fällt das einfach nur sehr negativ auf. Der Kult benutzt zudem das „unschuldige weiße Mädchen“ für seine Machenschaften und spätestens da waren es mir zu viele der unglücklich kombinierten Kleinigkeiten. Nebenbei schwingt da auch noch so ein halb subtiler Männerhass in dem Frauenkult mit. Ich weiß nicht genau worauf der Autor damit hinaus wollte. Vielleicht hat er bloß versucht auf gewisse Problematiken hinzuweisen, doch zumindest bei mir ist er damit gescheitert und hat bei mir zwei recht negative Theorien aufkommen lassen.Wegen all dieser Kleinigkeit weigere ich mich jedenfalls dieses Buch als Diversity-Read zu deklarieren, auch wenn arabische Frauen und Djinnis drin vorkommen.So ganz kann ich das Buch also leider weder empfehlen noch davon abraten. Die erste Hälfte war gut und vielversprechend, sprachlich gut gemacht und die Idee der Selbsthilfegruppe war mal etwas Neues. Auf der anderen Seite nimmt die zweite Hälfte eine bedeutungslose Wende und überhäuft sich mit Klischees und Vorurteilen – oder von mir aus auch unbewusst unterstützten Vorurteilen. Ich hätte gerne mehr im Stil der ersten Hälfte gelesen und dafür auf die viel zu schnell erzählte zweite Hälfte verzichtet, die noch dazu mit etlichen offenen Fragen endet. Der erhoffte Humor ist selbstredend auch ausgeblieben.Mein Fazit: Seichte Unterhaltung mit spannendem Anfang und fadem Ausklang. Schade.

[cuentosalgernon · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In “We Are Completely Fine”, Dr. Jan, a psychologist, decides to try a new group therapy with five people who have survived terrible traumas. But if you’ve read any of Daryl Gregory’s previous books, you may suspect this is not going to be just a realistic story about how this doctor helps her group of patients. Here, it turns out that all the traumatic experiences have been more or less supernatural, although Dr. Jan seems to be the only person to believe them. As the patients start to share their experiences with the rest of the group, the reader also finds out gradually more and more about what happened to them and about the real reason why they have been chosen to join this therapy group.I’ve read and enjoyed most of Daryl Gregory’s short fiction and I had really high expectations for this book, and maybe that was one of the reasons why, although I enjoyed this novella, I was a bit disappointed. Although the story is intriguing and enjoyable, I think it has some pace problems at certain points, and the plot and the characters are not developed fully enough, apart from the fact that I found hard to empathize with any of them. I wouldn’t say this is exactly a horror book; it’s more an urban dark fantasy with a touch of horror, which I’m afraid is not my favorite genre. But if you enjoy weird/horror/dark urban fantasy, this book is probably for you. And even if that’s not your case, it’s such a quick read that you might even want to give it a try.

[jen6e6moore · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An elegant story about trauma, monsters, and fate. (I couldn't help but be reminded of Shira Lipkin's story "The Final Girl," which I heard her read at WisCon last year. It's since been published in Strange Horizons.)

[jan0fleming · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Harrison is the Monster Detective, a storybook hero. Now he’s in his mid-thirties and spends most of his time not sleeping.

Stan became a minor celebrity after being partially eaten by cannibals. Barbara is haunted by the messages carved upon her bones. Greta may or may not be a mass-murdering arsonist. And for some reason, Martin never takes off his sunglasses.

Unsurprisingly, no one believes their horrific tales until they are sought out by psychotherapist Dr. Jan Sayer. What happens when these likely-insane outcasts join a support group? Together they must discover which monsters they face are within and which are lurking in plain sight.

A super compelling, creepy novella that sucks you in from the first page and grips until you finish it.

The author creates characters that are so vivid that you feel you are there with them in the group and on occasion he uses a collective voice that gives you the feel that the group is an entity itself. I would have liked to learn more of the mythos, the brief glimpses had a definite Lovecraftian component.

The writing is masterful, the pacing tight - I can see this being made into a film or a series. Fabulous word perfect storytelling - enjoy

[scolgo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very short book that packs an incredible wallop! This is the second book by Gregory that I have read and he is quickly becoming a favorite author. Gregory develops wonderfully flawed characters and places them into fully rendered worlds - and does so with nary a wasted word. This is story-telling that is direct, witty, smart, disturbing, and poignant. This guy needs to write faster because I am going to blaze through his catalog very, very quickly!

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

You don’t see many novellas written in first person plural, that’s for sure. This one features a group of survivors of supernatural events in a therapy group—the rest of the world doesn’t believe in the supernatural features of their trauma, and they largely don’t trust each other, but slowly they start revealing their histories. And it develops that they may be more connected than they expected. Not conventional horror, but plays with the tropes thereof—I liked it a lot.

[stefferoo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you recall in my review of Harrison Squared, I described that book as a fun, adventurous mystery which strikes the perfect balance for teen and adult crossover appeal. Well, nothing could be further from my experience with We Are All Completely Fine. Rather, try descriptions like “traumatic”, “disturbing” and “mature audiences only”.Don’t get me wrong, though; I’ve developed a taste for horror fiction in recent years, and I loved this book. But what surprised me was just how completely different this it from Harrison Squared, which is actually its prequel. In fact, that was what prompted me to pick up We Are All Completely Fine, after finding out how the two books were related, and because I wanted to read more from Daryl Gregory. The teenaged Harrison whom I first met in Harrison Squared is presently a man in his mid-thirties. Not that he was a jolly personality even at aged sixteen, but as an adult he has become even more gloomy, jaded and world-weary. He’s a famous author now, known for his “Monster Detective” childrens’ stories starring the boy hero from Dunnsmouth named Jameson Jameson, AKA Jameson Squared (things are getting kind of meta here). He’s also seeing a psychiatrist, which is how he eventually landed in a support group with four other members – Stan, Barbara, Martin, and Greta – led by the psychotherapist Dr. Jan Sayer.Some reviewers have remarked on the strange quirk in the narrative style, specifically how at the beginning of each chapter in this book an unknown narrator appears to be speaking in the first person, though the usage of the pronoun “we” suggests he or she would be part of the support group. However, after a few paragraphs the narration will invariably shift back to the third person. As strange as it sounds, this style immediately brought to my mind the movie The Breakfast Club. Director John Hughes used a slightly different but similar “breaking the fourth wall” technique with voiceover narration at the beginning of the film, explaining to the audience what’s going to happen and why all the characters were there. This creates a kind of “reflection to the past” effect which helps us gain a slightly better understanding. In the case of this book, it tells you that despite the horror that is coming, you know that at least some members of this group managed to survive and come through intact. Well…mostly. And perhaps comparing this book to The Breakfast Club isn’t so absurd, if you think about it. Instead of five teenagers who have little in common with each other, all trying to fit in amidst the crushing pressures of high school life, you have five likely-insane adults who have little in common with each other, all trying to get by in their normal day lives without the crushing fear of appearing completely unhinged. The characters in The Breakfast Club find themselves in detention, where none of them want to be. The characters of We Are All Completely Fine find themselves in group therapy, where none of them want to be. Despite their differences, the teens in TBC realize they are more than their individual stereotypes, and band together against a common enemy, Principal Vernon. Despite their differences, the strangers in WAACF realize they are more than their individual fucked up pasts, and band together against a common enemy, an ancient all-devouring evil from another world entirely. All fanciful comparisons to classic 80s movies aside though, this was a fantastic book. It’s the characters that make We Are All Completely Fine – mainly because they are all so completely not. Everyone in Dr. Sayer’s support group is there because they have experienced something terrifying and traumatic…but also unexplainable. No one would believe them if they told their stories of what really happened to them. Unraveling each group member’s mystery is therefore the first step of this hair-raising journey, and my favorite part of the novella. How does Stan handle his minor celebrity status, after being abducted by a family of cannibals a la The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and emerging as the sole survivor? What message did the Scrimshander leave on Barbara’s bones twenty years ago, when he bound her, drugged her, and carved up her flesh with his knives? Why doesn’t Martin ever want to take off his sunglasses? And Greta, what awful inconceivable secrets must she be hiding behind her silence?However, the biggest mystery of all – at least to me – was what on earth happened to the Harrison Harrison that I thought I knew from Harrison Squared?It does make me wonder now, how I would have felt if I hadn’t read that book first before this one. We Are All Completely Fine reveals no major spoilers but does refer to many of the significant events from Harrison Squared, especially those relating to the nightmarish creature called The Scrimshander. It’s made me rethink everything I read in the prequel novel. How much of it was glossed over, played down for “a story for kids?” Mind you, I want to make it clear that reading this in no way diminished my experience with HS, but I am now looking at it now in a whole different light. It’s that whole meta thing again. In a weird trippy way, the two books actually complement each other quite well.Well, now I realize I’ve gone about this review in a very roundabout way. Partly, it’s because I don’t want to spoil too much of the story. We Are All Completely Fine is an average-sized novella, a very quick read, and yet it is just so densely packed with goodness. It just begs to be experienced firsthand. True, it might not be an easy read at times, with its disturbing themes and bone-chilling violence, but I did also find it tremendously addicting. Needless to say, I highly recommend this book and author. It’s a good place to jump on board if you love the horror genre, or if you’re curious about checking out Daryl Gregory’s work. I for one am looking forward to more from his pen.

[gecizzle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I don't understand this writer. His style drove me nuts. In the narrative, he kept using we like a first person book would use I. It drove me insane. Like he was narrating the story in first person, but he wasn't.

I kept looking for who the first person might be. I waited until the end... No demon or anyone stood up and said "Gotcha! It was me all along." Which was kind of what I was expecting. But no. So, I'm still left confused.

Other than that, it was a great book. A compelling read, with vibrant characters and a disturbing story. It centers around a therapy group of fucked up rejects who all have some supernatural element in common. They reveal their stories one by one until they finally learn what must be done. And no, it's not group suicide. Good guess, though.

[imyril · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good read and an interesting idea, but didn't quite work for me at this length - it needed to be more or less than it was, I think. I really liked the concept of a support group for the survivors of supernatural encounters, and I liked the switching POVs that helped you understand the fragility of each one. However, I struggled with the segue into plot - and the rapid escalation of that plot. I think I'd have been happier with this as several short stories that stayed at arm's length or with a longer novel that gave the plot more time to develop (and flesh out the character sketches to allow some sympathy to develop). As it stands, I felt at arm's length through the latter stage of the novella, not sufficiently invested in the outcome.

[altheaann · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There are a few people out there that therapists must see as hard cases. Lone survivors of terrible tragedies, damaged in both mind and body. Sometimes, they refuse to talk about what happened. Sometimes, they insist on explaining that what happened to them had some supernatural element to it - clearly a kind of self-delusion to avoid facing reality.

But one psychologist, Dr. Jan Sayer, has put out her professional feelers to try to contact and form a group therapy meeting with these victims. Half a dozen people, from different walks of life, with different dark secrets, agree to meet. The one thing they have in common is malfunction. But together, what they could uncover is... well, it's both slyly humorous and pretty horrific.
Think Lovecraft meets serial-killer, with a nod to the superhero-team genre. Add in a spooky cult, some cannibalism... it's got it all, 'American Horror Story'-style.

I didn't like this quite as much as Gregory's recent 'Afterparty' (which I loved.) This feels like it was written a bit more quickly - it's a short book, and a fast read. But it is very good.

Much appreciation to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of the book. As always, my opinion is my own.

[seschend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not my usual sort of read, but the Kindle preview got me interested. Fascinating angle of a therapy group for people traumatized by the (normally unseen) horrors left vague enough to beg a sequel. Having that distance and making nearly all the horror secondhand and subtle made it more enjoyable for me, honestly.

And like a cover blurb says, it's a well-crafted web of overlapping stories that don't reveal the web until the ending and it's a surprising twist worth the wait.

[revslick_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Imagine a therapy group filled with a cast of Lovecraft stories. It is both boring and frustrating of all the glorious ways it could have been and yet fulfill for all the directions it did go.