I chose to read this book as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team. I received a copy from the author but that does not alter my review in anyway.
This is a book of short stories. Some are very short indeed, some quite long. I enjoy short stories, so the variety in length worked well for me.
The writing throughout is strong and engaging, and the author has a real talent for creating vivid, memorable situations and characters. Some stories appealed to me more than others, which is often the case with collections like this, but there were several that have stayed in my mind long after I finished reading.
The writing is good, though the content is, in places, challenging. Some of the stories I liked a great deal, while others didn’t really work for me. The author uses the word “macabre” in the subtitle for this book, and a couple of the stories I found genuinely dark and unsettling.
There is a considerable amount of sexual content in this book, and not of the hearts-and-flowers variety. It fits the tone of the collection and contributes to the intensity of the stories. However, if you are easily offended, or prefer more conventional storytelling, this may not be the book for you.
That said, I found this to be an imaginative, thought-provoking, and highly original collection. Even the stories I didn’t particularly enjoy were well written. Overall, this is an unusual and often disturbing collection that will probably appeal most to readers who enjoy dark and edgy fiction.
Thank you Georgia.
You’re welcome, Rosie.
Interesting to see what you thought – I started this collection and found that the sexual content was not something i wanted to read, though I did ‘like’ the story about how to control the children (I think it was the second one), if ‘like’ is the right word!!! But I abandoned it after four of them, simply because of my aversion to the subject matter.
Yes, I know which one you mean. I liked it too 🙂 And I totally understand your feelings – I think I’ve made it clear that it’s not for everyone.