Author: Karen Heule
5 out of 5 stars
Book Info: Genre: Dark fiction/short stories, anthology
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of the strange, the dark, the macabre, the beautiful
My Thoughts: Usually when I review anthologies I'll put up a list of stories in the books and try to give a bit of info about them, but this particular anthology is all by the same author, so I'll just address the writing. Which is brilliant and creepy. Each of the stories is a brilliant gem, and each has a wonderfully strange or macabre or surprising ending. For those who enjoy the strange, the dark, the weirdly beautiful, these stories are definitely for you. Check this great little anthology out right away.
For more information about this book, please follow this link to see John Scalzi's Big Idea post about this book, which is very good. To purchase the book directly from ChiZine, you can click here (where formatting allowed) or on the cover image.
Disclosure: I received an ARC from ChiZine Publications in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I also was part of the cover reveal, and that post can be seen here (linked where formatting allowed).
Synopsis: Heuler’s stories dart out at what the world is doing and centre on how the individual copes with it. Anything is possible: people breed dogs with humans to create a servant class; beneath one great city lies another city, running it surreptitiously; an employee finds that her hair has been stolen by someone intent on getting her job; strange fish fall from trees and birds talk too much; a boy tries to figure out what he can get when the Rapture leaves good stuff behind. Everything is familiar; everything is different. Behind it all, is there some strange kind of design or merely just the chance to adapt? In Heuler’ s stories, characters cope with the strange without thinking it’ s strange, sometimes invested in what’ s going on, sometimes trapped by it, but always finding their own way in.
