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katie_greenwinginmymouth's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
This short story collection really made me question what I want out of a macabre story and what it means to use dark and disturbing imagery. I definitely believe it has a place when used well, something about this collection didn’t sit right for me though. Too often the grossness and horror of the stories was tied up with the character’s poverty, disfigurement or fatness. Also, I really hate to say this, but I got a little bit bored. I found the imagery a repetitive across stories and soon noticed that every story started with a list, a very self consciously odd and incongruous combination of objects that felt a bit contrived. By the time I was most of the way through the book and this list thing was really getting to me, what did I come across but a WHOLE STORY that was literally just a list. The lives of the characters are very gendered and heteronormative, women move straight from childhood to marriage and remain slightly naive and childlike for their whole life. They seem resigned to abuse and whatever bizarre rules they have to follow. However somehow this didn’t feel like it was anchored enough to be making any sort of comment on similar things in our own world, the stories feel more like they look backwards to the dark origins of fairytales but without, for example, the strong feminist slant of Angela Carter.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexism, Ableism, Body shaming, and Fatphobia
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