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laurenexploresbooks's review
5.0
I loved the complexity and thoughtfulness of the short stories within this work. So many different experiences and topics of the heart are included within this work. Some of my personal favorites included Cat/Bird Love Song, The Time Broker, and Little Red Riding Hood and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. The characters are often heart broken, eerie, and eclectic and experience love in varying stages. These stories contain mature topics and examine triggering topics including: sexual assault and death. This is a deeply compelling collection that I would highly recommend. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
christinacarrie's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
lucysgoodfellow's review
3.0
⭐⭐⭐3 Stars
Heather Fowler writes about the female experience, but not every female's experience. Which is fine.
I found this collection to be touch and go in some sections. I either really enjoyed a story or was not engaged at all by it. My favourite stories were 'My Brother, Made of Clay', 'The Girl with the Razorblade Skin' and 'Men Like Chameleons In The Dark'. The abstractness of these stories is what appealed to me and how they blend magical realism, sci-fi and fairy tale tropes together to create completely unique narratives.
A lot of the topics that Heather explores in her collection are universal. However, the way she presents some of these themes could be interpreted as problematic. Particularly her description of a plus-sized character as a 'heifer'.
Overall, due to the large difference in quality between each of the stories I am giving this collection 3 stars.
⚠Trigger Warnings: Body Horror, Fat Shaming, Parental Neglect.
I received this ARC via Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review.
My Book Sirens Profile
Heather Fowler writes about the female experience, but not every female's experience. Which is fine.
I found this collection to be touch and go in some sections. I either really enjoyed a story or was not engaged at all by it. My favourite stories were 'My Brother, Made of Clay', 'The Girl with the Razorblade Skin' and 'Men Like Chameleons In The Dark'. The abstractness of these stories is what appealed to me and how they blend magical realism, sci-fi and fairy tale tropes together to create completely unique narratives.
A lot of the topics that Heather explores in her collection are universal. However, the way she presents some of these themes could be interpreted as problematic. Particularly her description of a plus-sized character as a 'heifer'.
Overall, due to the large difference in quality between each of the stories I am giving this collection 3 stars.
⚠Trigger Warnings: Body Horror, Fat Shaming, Parental Neglect.
I received this ARC via Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review.
My Book Sirens Profile
stephbookshine's review
4.0
*I received a free copy of this book, with thanks to the author and BookSirens. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
Suspended Heart is a gorgeous, often surreal, collection of short stories loosely themed around love and women (not always both, or either though).
Here is humanity in its gamut of emotional experiences: there is love and sex, suffering and sacrifice, tenderness, loneliness, contentedness, grief, regret, jealousy. There are elements of horror, romance, fantasy and sci-fi, and while the author frequently explores the female form and experience, she also embraces the masculine, and a variety of highly advanced animals (including a psychic pigeon, a lovelorn cat, and a pair of parrots on crack).
The writing is precise, as the author carefully digs out the truth of our thoughts and feelings using surrealist tools. The result is twenty stories that are just as short stories should be: emotional, thoughtful, strange, poignant, brief vignettes onto other lives (however fantastical).
The content and tone varies greatly between the stories. There are sensual stories about women’s bodies as they blossom with metal or petals, or turn into snakes, and satirical stories about avian editors and fairytale warriors. Therefore there is something for every taste, but not everything is likely to meet the same taste.
I would recommend this book to fans of the short form looking for some challenging, female-centred fiction.
Ginger Frank didn’t start out covered in metal. One August, standing in the sweltering Texas heat that bordered on a hundred and ten degrees, the heavyset girl in the peach and ivory dress looked down to find silver emerging on her arms, on her legs, silver bulging like stretch marks from every soft parcel of her skin.
– Heather Fowler, ‘The Girl with the Razorblade Skin’ in Suspended Heart: Stories
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com/2019/08/27/suspended-heart-stories-heather-fowler/
Suspended Heart is a gorgeous, often surreal, collection of short stories loosely themed around love and women (not always both, or either though).
Here is humanity in its gamut of emotional experiences: there is love and sex, suffering and sacrifice, tenderness, loneliness, contentedness, grief, regret, jealousy. There are elements of horror, romance, fantasy and sci-fi, and while the author frequently explores the female form and experience, she also embraces the masculine, and a variety of highly advanced animals (including a psychic pigeon, a lovelorn cat, and a pair of parrots on crack).
The writing is precise, as the author carefully digs out the truth of our thoughts and feelings using surrealist tools. The result is twenty stories that are just as short stories should be: emotional, thoughtful, strange, poignant, brief vignettes onto other lives (however fantastical).
The content and tone varies greatly between the stories. There are sensual stories about women’s bodies as they blossom with metal or petals, or turn into snakes, and satirical stories about avian editors and fairytale warriors. Therefore there is something for every taste, but not everything is likely to meet the same taste.
I would recommend this book to fans of the short form looking for some challenging, female-centred fiction.
Ginger Frank didn’t start out covered in metal. One August, standing in the sweltering Texas heat that bordered on a hundred and ten degrees, the heavyset girl in the peach and ivory dress looked down to find silver emerging on her arms, on her legs, silver bulging like stretch marks from every soft parcel of her skin.
– Heather Fowler, ‘The Girl with the Razorblade Skin’ in Suspended Heart: Stories
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com/2019/08/27/suspended-heart-stories-heather-fowler/
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