Bleeding Ghosts, the debut collection from Lara Chamoun, is a lyrical exploration of grief, perception, and identity, working in the currents of experimentalism and Surrealism. Though each individual piece stands on its own, towing the line of poetry and fiction, the core narrative of the collection follows an unnamed protagonist whose lover's death fractures their sense of reality, leaving them untethered. Their world shifts between the intimate and the incomprehensible, and they spiral into detachment and delusion. Eventually, a second self - The Watcher - emerges, offering an external gaze that forces them to reckon with who they have become and how they envision their future. What follows is a slow, dull awakening, a step back into the real world, a movement toward elsewhere, and even toward the possibility of love again.
Bleeding Ghosts resists a single reading. The narrative is submerged beneath a dream logic that reflects the absence of stability or clear distinctions between what is memory, what is the present moment, what is perception and what is reality. The work draws inspiration from authors who blur the limits of the conscious and the subconscious - think Sabrina Orah Mark or Leonora Carrington. In some ways, more than a story, it is an atmosphere.
Review :
"Lara Chamoun's Bleeding Ghosts is a haunting, breathtaking descent into the beautifully fractured psyche of grief, girlhood, and bodily memory. Chamoun's poetic prose shimmers with the intimacy of mythology-where scars fossilize the selves we can't quite claim. With extraordinary control, Chamoun conjures worlds that pulse with tenderness as they unspool and reveal the self."
Peter LaBerge, Editor-in-Chief of The Adroit Journal
"Dark and strange and funny, Bleeding Ghosts follows language into its abysses with a flashlight to reveal urgent stories of disembodiment and hauntings. Chamoun shows all the promise of a young Leonora Carrington, unafraid to unearth what lies deep in the mind."
Amina Kayani, writer, editor, and teacher
"A journey from the inside out, Bleeding Ghosts is a breathtaking ride and a revelation. This collection is a scar that has been opened and teeth, ghosts, carousel's, mirrors, and stardust are among the things that bleed freely throughout, connecting like tissue Charmoun's haunted and shimmering poems. A powerful debut, Lara Chamoun's virtuosic grasp of language and prose poetry is well beyond her years. Bravo!"
Charlotte Slivka, Editor-in-Chief of LIT Magazine
