"In the eerie fiction of Farah Rose Smith we see a vital, unsettling voice, meticulous in the darkly intricate phantasmagorical labyrinths she presents. She guides readers through a world of unusual birds and curious machinery, uncertain dreams and weird moments you must experience for yourself. Of One Pure Will provides an excellent introduction to her work for new readers while her regular readers will be delighted to have so many of her finest stories collected together in one volume. From the titular "Of One Pure Will" to a "Delirium of Mothers" or "Rithenslofer (The Corpses of Mer)" these are elegant tales of chilling beauty that accomplish much in their frequent brevity. Dance, art, waves and pain, whatever she turns our attention to, she consistently transforms into something just short of a majestic poem rumbling, ominous raven-stuffed storm clouds at the periphery of your imagination. They'll linger with you long after you've put this book down. Not to be missed!" -Bryan Thao Worra, Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association President (2016-2022)
"I have become a huge fan of Farah Rose Smith. This collection of haunting, lyrical, visceral stories is a maximalist writer's dream come true. These stories will hypnotize you, transform you, fill you with longing, and set you free in a never-ending forest filled with awful possibilities." -Richard Thomas, author of Disintegration and the Thriller Award-nominated Breaker
"Written in dense and luminously poetic prose, Of One Pure Will reads like a series of hypnotic dream-visions. Steeped in fantastical imagery, these stories contend with humankind's capacities for cruelty and deception, pulsing with an undercurrent of weird Gothic romance. Farah Rose Smith is a highly talented, compelling, and distinct voice in the world of dark speculative fiction." -Mike Thorn, author of Shelter for the Damned and Darkest Hours
"To read Farah Rose Smith's prose is to walk through a dark, ornate museum. The walls are covered in vivid, decadent paintings of surreal nightmares. A low cacophony of discordant music, screams, and ancient languages echo through the halls. Take the tour." -Ben Arzate, author of Elaine
"With her splendid collection Of Pure Will, Farah-Rose Smith manages to reinvent cosmic horror with an idiosyncratic world of her own. Slow apocalypses, haunted parallel worlds, charismatic monsters and shattered personalities will haunt the reader for a long time, like a delicious and rare poison. If Anais Nin had written horror instead of erotica, she could have penned down such stories. Both luxurious and unforgiving, Of Pure Will is an instant and welcome classic in a genre that craved both renewal and a genuinely original feminine touch." -Seb Doubinsky, author of Missing Signal, The Invisible, and Paperclip.
"In Of One Pure Will, Farah Rose Smith deftly intertwines the oneiric, the mystical, and the brutally physical. This is a dark, elegiac collection from a powerful and unique new voice." -Matthew M. Bartlett, author of Gateways to Abomination
"Of One Pure Will is a haunted mirror in a palace ballroom: it gilds and filigrees the ghosts of the familiar with an opulent darkness, populating its reflected world with shades of uncanny and elegant horror. An echoing fanfare of fever dreams, the lush density of imagination and intoxicating craft on display establish Smith as an unmistakable talent." -Gordon B. White, author of As Summer's Mask Slips and Other Disruptions and Rookfield
