Malcolm Devlin Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Malcolm Devlin
Malcolm Devlin’s stories have appeared in Interzone, Shadows and Tall Trees, and Black Static.

“You Will Grow Into Them”, his first short story collection, was shortlisted for the British Fantasy and Saboteur Award.

His earlier work was influenced by authors like Philip K. Dick, Alison Moore, Magnus Mills, Aliya Whiteley, Kelly Link, and Robert Aickman.

With “And Then I Woke Up”, Malcolm had a couple things he wanted to explore. One was the idea of the way we can fall under the sway of select false narratives, to the point that we actively perpetuate them instead of try and comprehend how they came about.

Another was the trend of zombie stories veering into survivalist fantasies. Stories where the “heroes” have total license to just mow down this “horde” of people that they view as monsters. These two ideas came together when catching this one zombie themed TV series and wondering about what people would think if the series had the balls to end with the old and much derided trope of it all being “just a dream”. The more Malcolm thought about it, the more he wondered if it may actually be the more horrific outcome of the two.

Malcolm wrote and submitted the novella before the real world pandemic hit. And even though he worked his way through editing through the lockdown, he did not make too many changes to the actual pandemic parts of the story to attempt making it more relevant.

Although it is always interesting to see how stories will adapt to current events. This one was not meant as some sort of comment on the existing pandemic, however it is interesting to Malcolm to read it in such terms. There are a few scenes where characters walk through this deserted city, eyeing people that they meet with suspicion, and that felt strangely true while he’d go on permitted walks during lockdown.

However the pandemic found in his story is much more of a vehicle to explore the ways that society gets divided through narrative. It is also sorta alarming to see that it remains topical in such terms, especially considering the rise of the anti-vax movements or the odd COVID denier conspiracies that sprung up right, left, and center.

As he first wrote this story, the idea that entire groups of people would be denying aspects of reality was alarming in its own way. He had a working title in his mind of “Brexit Zombie Story”, if this gives the idea any provenance.

“You Will Grow Into Them” is the first short story collection, and was released in 2017. The world is a much strong place than we give it credit for. It’s here, in the things that we believe are familiar, safe, are these certain aspects. Our desires and fears given form. Moments which defy explanation. Shadows in our own homes.

In Malcolm’s debut collection, change is the one single constant. Across nine stories he tackles the unease of growth, transformation, and change in a world where horror seeps out of the mundane. Childhood anxieties manifest as fungal blooms are harvested from the backs of dancers, degraded and debased doppelgangers, and lyncanthropes becomes the new social pariahs. The demons that we carry inside of us are incredibly real indeed, however You Will Grow Into Them.

Taking horror and weird fiction and blending them into odd and wondrous new forms, this book follows in the grand tradition of Aickman, Vandermeer, and Ligotti, reminding us that the mundane world is a far stranger place than it appears.

“Unexpected Places to Fall From, Unexpected Places to Land” is the second short story collection, and was released in 2021. This collection crosses dimensions and genres, exploring the repercussions of a rare cosmic anomaly. In this exact same moment, all potential versions of Prentis O’Rourke are going to cease to exist. By conflict, by accident, by malice, and by illness; Prentis won’t simply die. He is going to go extinct. These are the tales of the journeys we wish we had taken and the journeys we actually take.

Malcolm’s second short story collection ranges from folk horror to science fiction while Prentis O’Rourke’s demise echoes across different dimensions. Ex-nuns, time travelers, artists, scientists, taxi drivers, and aliens, all of which are the same people that live varied lives in subtly different worlds. Something unprecedented is going to happen, and it’ll colour all of them.

Crossing different realities, countless versions of ourselves, and then shifting forwards and backwards through time, these are stories of forking paths and some unexpected destinations, of falling and flying and then getting up to try once more.

“And Then I Woke Up” is the first stand alone novella and was released in 2022. In the tradition of Stephen Graham Jones and Mira Grant, this novel is a layered, creepy, and literary story about false narratives and their ability to divide us.

In a world that’s still reeling from this unusual plague, there are monsters lurking in the streets where the horrified survivors arm themselves and start roaming the countryside in packs. Or possibly something quite different is going on. When this disease affects how reality’s perceive, it is tough to be certain of anything.

Spence is one of the “cured” ones living at the Ironside rehabilitation facility. Haunted by his own guilt, he refuses to face this changed world until this one new inmate challenges him to help her find her old crew. However if he is unable to tell the lies from the truth, how is he going to even know that he has earned the redemption that he dreams about? How is he going to know that he has not just made things even worse?

Malcolm breaks and twists the typical zombie narrative without ever spoiling one of the most clever conceits in recent horror. Suffice to say that this author takes a scalpel to the post-truth era. This novella is compassionate, intelligent, and unsettling. At first, you first believe you know precisely where this story is going, before it takes you somewhere totally different.