Reviews

Outsiders by Alice Slater

aquakerwitch's review

dark reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

livthediv's review

5.0

Weird, creepy-clever stories. My faves were:

The Lady is Not For Burning
Peep Hole
Sinkhole
Skin

If you like your stories fantastical and fantastically queer, this is a collection for you.

abbie_'s review

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

Thank you @threeofcupspress for my free copy of Outsiders, edited by Alice Slater! Honestly I was hesitant to accept this because I've been burned by anthologies before. I often find them too much of a mixed bag to enjoy properly, but I couldn't resist the temptation of a new Julia Armfield story... and I'm happy to report the risk paid off! This is a really solid short story anthology, with a good mix of voices (especially queer voices), many of which I'm looking forward to exploring more!

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All the stories deal in some way with the feeling of being an outsider, but they all vary so wildly it never feels repetitive! We have fairytale-esque stories, straight up horror, sci-fi, and real, sometimes tender, human stories too. There were a few that didn't make much of an impression on me, but they are outnumbered by the ones that had me frantically googling whether the author had more published works. Discovering that Lena Mohamed does NOT have any other fiction I can read was soul-crushing.

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Here's a little outline of my fave stories in this collection:

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Wendigo by Julia Armfield - Two strange beings make their way across the country, leaving destruction in their wake.

Peep Hole by Leone Ross - A CREEPY AF story where a man is trapped in his lover's apartment with something disconcerting on the other side of the door.

Skin by Lena Mohamed - A future where skin thieves are terrorising neighbourhoods.

Sinkhole by Emma Hutton - A delightfully dark and oddly romantic story.

The Lady's Not for Burning by Sarvat Hasin - By far my favourite story, where a young woman is haunted in her new home.

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I was very excited to see that Hasin has a few works already, and a new novel forthcoming in 2021 with Dialogue Books! I'll also look forward to seeing what else Beverley Ho comes out with, as her story To Peel an Orange had all the qualities I enjoy in a novel, which I'd like to see developed more! All in all, I'm glad I was lured in with Julia Armfield, as now I have many more authors to watch for and thoroughly enjoyed this collection.