Reviews
A selection of reviews of Maura’s work:
‘Bone Mother’
‘Maura McHugh’s “Bone Mother” brilliantly blends Slavic folklore with the vampire mythos to create a speculative gem of a tale.’
Publishers Weekly
‘The Light at the Centre’
‘Maura McHugh’s ‘The Light at the Centre’ has three friends attending a rave at a half built housing estate, and grabs our interest with zestful dialogue and vibrant characterisation. It’s only at the end though that McHugh lays her cards on the table, with the true purpose of the rave revealed. Deftly written and blindsiding the reader until the last minute, this was one of the most powerful stories in the collection, thematically similar to the stories in Ellison’s Deathbird Stories, with its engaging characters and a thoroughgoing sense of modernity that grounds the action in our world even as the age old genius loci of the story makes its appearance.”
Pete Tennant, Black Static, issue 56 (Jan-Feb 2017)
‘Zel and Grets’
‘The departing message is, therefore, rather different than in the original. “Zel and Grets” is enjoyable not because it faithfully reproduces an ancient fairy tale, but because the author puts so much into the world and characters. A dark-future recreation of a story so well-known could easily have fallen flat had it not benefited from McHugh’s evident care to give life to characters and perspective to their problems.’
Review of ‘Zel and Grets’ from The Grimm Future anthology, on Tangent Online, July 2016
‘Water’
“I first came across Maura McHugh’s work in Black Static from TTA Press. That story was ‘Vic’ in issue 10, and as well as being one of my favourites of that issue, it’s one of my favourites of all Black Static’s offerings. ‘Water’, which came along in issue 21, is another favourite. This one I love so much that I use it to show my students what can be done with metaphor as well as how much you can achieve with only a few hundred words.’
Case study of my story ‘Water’ on This Is Horror web site, written by writer Ray Cluley
In short, the book comes recommended, particularly for: anyone new to Fire Walk with Me who is struggling to understand this shift in the Twin Peaks universe; to anyone who has seen the film but is skeptical of its value; to anyone about to watch Twin Peaks: The Return who is confused about the vast jump in tone from the original series; and, most of all, to all the other grown up Lauras wanting more insight into this truly singular character.
Samm Deighan – Diabolique Magazine.
‘And for those who prefer their fairy tales on the dark side, more Grimm (and grim) let’s say than Disney, I’d like to point you in the direction of Maura McHugh’s wonderful collection, Twisted Fairy Tales: 20 Classic Stories with a Dark and Dangerous Heart (Barrons). With wonderfully gothic (and goth) illustrations by Jane Laurie, McHugh’s fascinatingly dark, feminist and yes, twisted versions of fairy tales I thought I knew kept me awake and turning pages late into the night.’
Publishing Perspectives, July 2013