Turducken blends a variety of genres, from literary to comedy to horror, often within the same piece.
This collection includes several of McLeod's most lauded short stories, including 'Them At Number Seventy-Four' (Pseudopod, '22), and Best Small Fictions nominated 'Cake By The Ocean' (The Razor, '22), as well as a wide assortment of new, boundary-pushing work. You'll meet a banal retired couple who decide to spice up their marriage with a spot of murder, a sentient three-in-one bird who decides to escape from the warped scientist who bred it, and a story of a lads' night out gone terribly, terribly wrong. McLeod's ability to shock and delight is only surpassed by her ability to keep you up late into the night.
Praise for Turducken:
“Turducken is an energetic brew of the dark, the bizarre, and the completely delightful. McLeod’s ability to constantly surprise from genre to genre is a rare pleasure. Her stories masterfully play with form and reader expectations at every turn, until you almost feel less like a reader and more like a passenger in her wicked car, or a guest at her banquet, and you’ve got no choice but to buckle up, settle in, and eat hearty.”
— K.C. Mead-Brewer, Pushcart Prize-nominated, and Best of the Net-nominated author
“Lindz McLeod’s short story collection, Turducken, is as rich and vivid in its language and imagery as it is experimental. The stories within this collection are smart and quirky and often use cheeky metaphors to illuminate complex and unique relationship dynamics which highlight McLeod’s careful observation and details of intimate life and living. Many of the stories use the backdrop of Edinburgh and hone in on its culture and gothic landscape. McLeod uses the metaphorical to understand the literal, featuring humans as places and as creatures—the collection is psychological, primal, satirical, haunting, and gut-wrenching.”
— Ai Jiang, author of Linghun and Ai Jiang’s Smol Tales From Between Worlds, and Nebula Award for Best Short Story Nominee for “Give Me English”
“Clear prose and a bright vision, Lindz McLeod’s new story collection, Turducken, is much like the title creature, containing multitudes. There is a perfect balance of humor/the weird/horror in these separate pieces with themes that subtly intersect and echo back to each other – well rendered domestic scenes that go off the rails in a wonderful array of surprising directions.”
— Jeffrey Ford, World-Fantasy, Nebula, and Edgar Allan Poe award-winning author of The Drowned Life, A Natural History of Hell and many more
“Turducken is an eclectic and boisterous mix of the dark and mysterious, the fantastical, the sardonic and the real. It is a collection that I would advise any keen literary aficionado to add with haste to their collection of literary works. I am beyond honoured to have had the pleasure of reading this riveting collection and only hope that you, dear reader, cherish Turducken as much as I do!”
— A. R. Arthur, Full House Literary (fullhouseliterary.com)
Lindz McLeod (she/they) is a queer Scottish writer, editor, and poet whose short work has been published by Apex, Catapult, DIVA, Nightmare, and many more. Her work has been taught in schools and universities, turned into avant-garde opera, and optioned for television. She is currently in her final year of a PhD in Creative Writing. You can find Lindz waxing lyrical about books, cats, and films on Bluesky at @lindzmcleod, and examples of her work can be found on www.lindzmcleod.co.uk.
