Reviews - Fen | The StoryGraph

342 reviews for:

Fen

Daisy Johnson

3.59 AVERAGE

sylvanas's review

3.75

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

flutist59's review against another edition

3.25

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

hagstones's review

4.0

dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ribcager's review

6 stories in and I felt like I’d gotten everything I could out of this one. I nearly stopped at 5, but the concept of the 6th (Language) was interesting enough that I decided to stick with it a little longer (and at the end it was my favorite of the lot, alongside Starver). The writing style is nice but got tired quickly, maybe by the fourth story - after that it was up to the content to keep me hooked, and it just wasn’t strong enough to shoulder that responsibility all on its own. There’s a pervasive sense of malaise and detachment blanketing every chapter that doesn’t make this a very pleasant binge read (I wouldn’t call it disturbing, just dreary), so I’d suggest tackling it one tale at a time. Some parts were much, much weaker than others - I would’ve cut “How To Fuck A Man You Don’t Know” out completely. Admittedly, I don’t care much about the overarching topic tying this collection together, so that one’s on me.

panikos's review

4.0

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

After reading the first short story in this collection several years ago and being blown away by it, I finally decided to check out the full book. Unfortunately (but not unexpectedly) none of the other stories quite meet the standard that 'Starver' does, but that's not to say that I didn't enjoy many of them. As is often the case with short story collections, 'Fen' is a mixed bag. Some of the stories are weaker than others - a bit too obscure, strange for the sake of strange, without a solid enough foundation beneath the speculative elements. But others left a strong, unsettling impression on me. Aside from 'Starver', my favourites were 'Language', 'A Heavy Devotion', and 'The Scattering'.

I wavered on giving this 4 stars, but what cemented it for me is that this collection - while variable in quality - does have a strong sense of what it is. All of the stories feel united by common themes and a strong sense of unease, discomfort, and wildness. I enjoyed what the stories were trying to do even if they didn't always pull it off.

I'll be checking out more of Johnson's work in future.

ed_moore's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious fast-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: Complicated

Daisy Johnson’s ‘Fen’ is a collection of short stories exploring the experience of the younger generations local to the Cambridgeshire fens. The stories were often quite serious in topic, ranging from anorexia to cannibalism but also incorporating elements of magical realism. As expected, the first half of the stories were much stronger in my opinion than the second, a clear structuring choice, but none had any major flaws other than being less interesting than the initial few. I did however appreciate the connections in the stories through setting, the pub ‘The Fox and Hound’ being the most notable recurring location. Johnson’s style makes her stories easy reads, though they were also very emotionally heavy so I would proceed with caution.

Content Warnings