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b_wilder's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
patrique's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
An absolute delight; it helps that I was coming in a huge fan of Magpie from her podcast work, but I feel like this would convert someone completely new to Margaret. I’m not huge into SF/F so some of the allusions may have been lost on me, and one or two of the more genre heavy pieces in the middle third kind of dragged for me (the Mermaid story was the only one I took more than one sitting to finish), but for the most part every story does a fantastic job of finding a different stylistic angle on love, death and identity from a strongly leftist, proudly trans perspective
It’s also frequently hilarious although that’s partially attributed to instinctively hearing all the characters in her voice (to the point I would say that the book’s one flaw is that Killjoy maybe doesn’t do enough to distinguish the character voices from each other, most [and all of the heroines] sounding like some variation on her own- but Stephen King does that all the time and he seems to have done pretty well)
Remarkably cohesive for a collection of short stories from a fairly broad timeframe.
It’s also frequently hilarious although that’s partially attributed to instinctively hearing all the characters in her voice (to the point I would say that the book’s one flaw is that Killjoy maybe doesn’t do enough to distinguish the character voices from each other, most [and all of the heroines] sounding like some variation on her own- but Stephen King does that all the time and he seems to have done pretty well)
Remarkably cohesive for a collection of short stories from a fairly broad timeframe.
forestwith1r's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
bg_oseman_fan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This short story collection is incredible. Each story felt like a unique creation, but they all fit together, like a great comfy quilt. I was transfixed by every story. it was beautifully written. everyone should read this book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Police brutality, Animal death, Violence, and War
Minor: Blood, Alcohol, Grief, Cursing, Deportation, Drug use, Gore, Confinement, Sexual content, Homophobia, Murder, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Cancer
polychromatic_hedgehog_parable's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
good stuff
largely forgettable
congrats to Margaret Killjoy for being a really great writer who largely writes about stuff that I don't find very engaging (as opposed to the way too many people who write stuff I find engaging but have clearly never organized so much as a birthday party nor googled USAian history who I find myself barely not rage quitting all the time.)
largely forgettable
congrats to Margaret Killjoy for being a really great writer who largely writes about stuff that I don't find very engaging (as opposed to the way too many people who write stuff I find engaging but have clearly never organized so much as a birthday party nor googled USAian history who I find myself barely not rage quitting all the time.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
texascashew's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
69goose69's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
booksthatburn's review
adventurous
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
Many of the stories deal with blurred lines between fantasy and reality, where superstition and belief end up with their own kind of practicality. As someone with OCD who struggles with compulsions and magical thinking, these stories were deeply compelling to me. The collection is cohesive in tone while ranging through a variety of settings and many kinds of queerness. They're usually first person narratives, which wholly inhabit a different way of thinking about things in each story, all while remaining extremely accessible and evocative.
"The Devil Lives Here" is a strong opening to the collection, establishing the overall fever-dream tone and precarious sense of existence which undergirds the rest of the stories. "The Free Orcs of Cascadia" is one of the strangest, most moving stories I’ve read in a while. It’s part narrative, part interview with an orc in a permanent LARP community. It’s a story of fighting against fascism and figuring out what it means to defend the idea of a community as well as the literal people within it. I’ll be thinking about Golfimbul for a long time. I also particularly enjoyed "Everything that Isn't Winter" and “We Who Will Destroy the Future”. Every story gave me several things to ponder, and they shook some unconscious assumptions about the bounds of what could happen in stories, how far the narratives could stretch in such a small space.
I discovered Margaret Killjoy's work through her appearances on Behind the Bastards and other podcasts (she currently hosts Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff). The focus on community and queer anarchism which is an integral part of those shows is fundamental to the stories in this collection, each in their own way.
"The Devil Lives Here" is a strong opening to the collection, establishing the overall fever-dream tone and precarious sense of existence which undergirds the rest of the stories. "The Free Orcs of Cascadia" is one of the strangest, most moving stories I’ve read in a while. It’s part narrative, part interview with an orc in a permanent LARP community. It’s a story of fighting against fascism and figuring out what it means to defend the idea of a community as well as the literal people within it. I’ll be thinking about Golfimbul for a long time. I also particularly enjoyed "Everything that Isn't Winter" and “We Who Will Destroy the Future”. Every story gave me several things to ponder, and they shook some unconscious assumptions about the bounds of what could happen in stories, how far the narratives could stretch in such a small space.
I discovered Margaret Killjoy's work through her appearances on Behind the Bastards and other podcasts (she currently hosts Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff). The focus on community and queer anarchism which is an integral part of those shows is fundamental to the stories in this collection, each in their own way.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Sexual harassment, Deadnaming, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Child death, Cursing, Racism, Drug use, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Sexual content, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, War, Suicide, Transphobia, and Violence
Minor: Homophobia, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Vomit, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness
“The Devil Lives Here” - Minor CW for injury detail, child death. “The Free Orcs of Cascadia” - Moderate CW for cursing, blood, violence, murder, death. Minor CW for racism. “Not One of Us Will Survive the Fog” - Moderate CW for grief, child death, death. Minor CW for antisemitism, homophobia, lesbophobia. “One Star” - Moderate CW for confinement, car accident. Minor CW for injury detail, suicidal thoughts, death, animal death. “We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow” - Moderate CW for cursing, drug use, blood, gun violence, murder, death. Minor CW for panic attacks, fire/fire injury, suicide, parental death, child death. “The Fortunate Death of Jonathan Sandelson” - Moderate CW for cursing, grief, stalking, blood, gun violence, car accident, murder, child death, death. “Imagine A World So Forgiving” - Moderate CW for cursing, confinement, blood, gore, violence, gun violence, injury detail, murder, animal death, death. Minor CW for vomit. “Everything That Isn’t Winter” - Moderate CW for drug use, fire, excrement, blood, gore, gun violence, murder, death. Minor CW for sexual content. “Into the Gray” - Moderate CW for sexual content, blood, violence, body horror, murder, death. “The Bones of Children” - Moderate CW for transphobia, racism, blood, gore, child death, death. “Mary Marrow” - Moderate CW for blood, murder, death. Minor CW for violence, cannibalism, suicide, child death, parental death. “Beyond Sapphire Glass” - Moderate CW for grief, sexual content, suicide, death. “The Northern Host” - Moderate CW for grief, cursing, racism, violence, gun violence, war, death. “Malediction” - Moderate CW for grief, cursing, sexual content, alcohol, excrement, blood, violence, gun violence, injury detail, suicide, suicidal thoughts, animal death, death. “Invisible People” - Moderate CW for violence, gun violence, police brutality. Minor CW for cancer, terminal illness, pandemic, death. “We Who Will Destroy the Future” - Moderate CW for alcohol, excrement, gun violence, murder, death. “Men of the Ashen Morrow” - Moderate CW for grief, cursing, blood, violence, animal death, death. “A Reasonable Place If You’re Careful” - Moderate CW for animal death, death. “The Name of the Forest” - Moderate CW for cursing, grief, sexual content, tick swarm, fire/fire injury, police brutality, gun violence, murder, suicidal thoughts, death. “It Bleeds, It Burrows, It Breaks the Bone” - Moderate CW for deadnaming, blood, sexual harassment, fire/fire injury, murder, suicide, death. “The Thirty-Seven Marble Steps” - Moderate CW for kidnapping, confinement, animal death, child death, death.independent_wombat's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
mammajamma's review against another edition
5.0
I love the same thing about these stories as I love about Margaret Killjoy's podcasts: hope in the face of plenty of reasons to despair. As an added bonus, there's wonderful love stories throughout this book, some of them new ways for this old lady to think about love.