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niiinerrr's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Fatphobia, and Violence
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Blood
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Torture, Forced institutionalization, and Abandonment
enchantedviolin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
My Sad Dead - life in the projects of Buenos Aires if you can see ghosts - 5/5 - really atmospheric, loved the main character, said a lot about society.
A Sunny Place for Shady People - A reporter attends a ritual at the Cecil Hotel inspired by Elisa Lam’s mysterious death. It reminds her of her old, chaotic life in LA and her dead boyfriend - 4/5 - atmospheric and chaotic like the reporter’s life though exploitative of Elisa’s death.
Face of Disgrace - the daughter of a woman whose face disappeared after she was raped, also begins to lose her facial features - 3.5/5 - atmospheric and well written but the rules of the world aren’t clear.
Julie - Fat, ugly, pale, gringa (even though she’s Argentinian) schizophrenic Julie has sex with ghosts. The narrator feels sorry for her because her parents want to commit her in Argentina… and because she’s fat - 2/5 - I get it. You think Julie’s ugly because she’s fat. You pity her because she’s ugly and fat. You admire her because she has dignity despite being ugly and fat… at least Julie isn’t the villain (they are her slightly less fat and ugly ‘gringo’ parents).
Night Birds - sisters (one afraid of becoming a bird and one who is rotting alive) live in an old mansion. One by one the family leaves the house until only the rotting sister is left - 4/5 - a poetic portrait of sisterhood.
Metamorphosis - a woman with fibroids gets her uterus removed and the fibroids implanted into her back - 4/5 - this feels like my future 😂
Hyena Hymns - a couple have a terrifying experience when exploring an old castle that was once also a concentration camp - 2/5 - Not enough hyenas. Uses gore to hide the weak concept.
Different Colors Made of Tears - a woman who hates old people buys cursed vintage clothes - 4/5 - really effective body horror but I wasn’t a fan of how repetitive the elder hate was.
The Suffering Woman - a hypochondriac is haunted by images of a woman with cancer - 5/5 - spoooooky
The Refrigerator Cemetery - children lock a boy in a broken fridge - 4/5 - lots of potential and atmosphere but it fizzled out.
A Local Artist - a young couple go on holiday to a small, friendly, eerie town with an abandoned train station and a local artist - 4.5/5 - ooooh a folk horror. I love folk horror. The ending felt a little weak but otherwise I loved this.
Black Eyes - two black-eyed boys ask help from a social worker who hates the homeless she cares for - 4/5 - delightfully spooky but like a lot of the stories, it fizzled out by the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
anjnryn's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, and Gore
Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Fatphobia
Minor: Rape, Forced institutionalization, and Murder
sofiastar's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
This was a very mixed bag for me. While a few of the stories were compelling and a lot of the writing solid, I just didn't enjoy this that much.
I'm not sure if it was some of the subject matter at hand - these are all fairly dark stories, obviously - or if this just wasn't the right time to pick this one up, but I found myself not wanting to read it most of the time and basically forced myself through. Which is a shame because, even if the stories didn't work for me, it was clear many of these authors are fantastic writers. 🤷♀️
On a side note, the cover art is stunning.
I'm not sure if it was some of the subject matter at hand - these are all fairly dark stories, obviously - or if this just wasn't the right time to pick this one up, but I found myself not wanting to read it most of the time and basically forced myself through. Which is a shame because, even if the stories didn't work for me, it was clear many of these authors are fantastic writers. 🤷♀️
On a side note, the cover art is stunning.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Fatphobia, and Gore
Moderate: Grief
inamerata's review against another edition
Four stories is enough to call it. So much of what I read came off as cruel spectacle. This meanness may be realistic and intentional, but it did not feel like it had a meaningful point. The narrator of Julie calls her cousin ugly and "deformed" for being fat, reduces her to eating habits and body parts even as she wonders if she's leaving her for dead.
Most egregious, though, was using the relatively recent death of a real woman, Elisa Lam, as set dressing. This added nothing and actively worsened the titular story, which could have been just about a journalist mourning her partner and reflecting how societies regard drug addicts and other marginalized people. Even if Enríquez wanted to keep a "true crime" angle, just make up someone else. By exploiting a real person, how is this any better than what it tepidly condemns?
Most egregious, though, was using the relatively recent death of a real woman, Elisa Lam, as set dressing. This added nothing and actively worsened the titular story, which could have been just about a journalist mourning her partner and reflecting how societies regard drug addicts and other marginalized people. Even if Enríquez wanted to keep a "true crime" angle, just make up someone else. By exploiting a real person, how is this any better than what it tepidly condemns?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Rape, and Suicide
something_anya's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Even I, a self-proclaimed scardy cat/ninny, enjoyed this book, although the stories did get more tense and scary as you went along. Had to fully skip over the short stories involving harming/dead animals, and couldn’t give it a full 4 stars because of the imagery/storylines involving animal harm.
*slaps knees* Welp, off to read something not terrifying, like watching cartoons after a scary movie so you can sleep at night.
*slaps knees* Welp, off to read something not terrifying, like watching cartoons after a scary movie so you can sleep at night.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gore, Rape, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
camillej's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
As with any short story collection, some stories were better than others but this was a solid collection overall. I’m amazed at how many weird and creepy things one person can think of.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, and Blood
Moderate: Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Rape, Excrement, and Pregnancy
Minor: Suicide, Excrement, and Vomit
wellvallie's review against another edition
I really enjoyed most of these stories. I get scared easily, but mostly only with movies, rarely with books. This scared me so much! "Julie" threw me all the way off though bc it pretty much entirely centered around a fat character being treated terribly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
mennypenny's review against another edition
Review by @korilakkuma sums it up pretty well. The story Julie included some fatphobic descriptions that made me feel really uncomfortable and it turned me off from wanting to finish the collection.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia
skogsheks's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail