Advance Review: PRETEND YOU DON’T SEE HER

by | Sep 25, 2025 | Book Reviews, Reviews, The Horror Review News | 0 comments

Pretend You Don’t See Her: The Invisible Woman
Jill Girardi and Lydia Prime, eds.
Kandisha Press (September 30, 2025)
Reviewed by Nora B. Peevy

False eyelashes; lip plumper; dewy sprays to make our skin look younger; contouring makeup; photo ready foundation; eyebrow threading; Botox; girdles; corsets; push-up bras; bras to minimize our size; color blocked clothes to make us look slimmer and more attractive; shoes so tall we will shrink our Achilles tendons just to show off our calves in an inviting way; spray on tans; spray on pantyhose; diets; cleanses; Pilates; goat yoga; dog yoga; hot yoga; single strand hot oil hair treatments. Women are obsessed with the way they look because of the advertising industry presenting them with an unhealthy, unattainable goal forcing us to do things men would never do to themselves. We just want to be seen. As. Beautiful. For. Who. We. Are. And we’re tired of all the gimmicks and the latest makeup tips and gym fads and diet fads. We’re tired of it all. And we’re tired of being tired too. We want to be seen, but we don’t want anyone to know the lengths we go to get there.

To me, Pretend You Don’t See Her represents how hard women, whether human or supernatural work to be seen by everyone and loved. Three stories stood out in this collection. In The Blood We Live by Nicole M. Wolverton tackles the topic of menopause and aging in vampires. Afterbirth by Charlotte Brookins discusses how many women feel undesirable and invisible to their husbands after giving birth. And The Waitress illustrates how envious your co-workers can be of your beauty, until they find the truth behind it and realize how ugly you truly are.

This book plays a game of hide and seek. You will see us, but you won’t. And if you do see us, you might not like what you get. But if we are seen we will feel powerful, energized, and ready to take on the world. This collection belongs on any woman’s and any man’s bookshelf. Everyone could take a lesson or two from the bloody good stories in this tome.

About Nora B. Peevy

Nora B. Peevy is a cat trapped in a human’s body. Please send help or tuna. She toils away for JournalStone and Trepidatio Publishing as a submissions reader, is a co-editor for Alien Sun Press, the newest reviewer for Hellnotes, and has been published by Eighth Tower Press, Weird Fiction Quarterly, and other places. Usually, you can find her on Facebook asking for help escaping from her human body or to get tuna. Tuna is nice. Cats like tuna.

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