Reviews

From the Neck Up by Aliya Whiteley

janwe's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

Mind-blowing Worldbuilding 😍weird, twisted, and body-horror SF stories. Loved most of them. 

laviskrg's review against another edition

1.0

I refuse to waste another second of my life reading this collection of nothing. It reads like it was written by a rookie AI. Nothing makes sense, it reeks of hipster randomness. This has cured me of any desire to read short fiction for the remaining year. Zero out of five.

books_and_keys's review

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

ellulin's review

4.0

Not all of them hit but when they did they were very good

marthatinker's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

zlaza's review against another edition

4.0

I fell in love with Aliya Whiteley's writing and creativity after reading her fascinating novella, 'The Beauty', when it first came out in 2014.
'From the Neck Up' is Whiteley's collection of 16 short stories that both scare and inspire you.

Her stories are an interesting blend of science fiction and speculative horror.
The stories cover a variety of themes about the world we live in, ranging from environmental apocalypse to exploring the uglier parts of the human psyche.
The genius of her writing is in how normal and mundane surroundings grow increasingly more strange and uncanny.

Like most short story collections this is a bit of a mixed bag, some stories are more gripping and impactful than others. My personal favourites were 'Into Glass' and 'Blessings Erupt', which I suggest you look up online.
But what this collection does best is highlight Whiteley's dreamlike prose and her wild imagination.

I highly recommend this to anyone who's into semi-disturbing and weird fiction like I am.

j_o600's review

4.25

Really strong collection, very strange and unusual.

My personal favorite stories were 
Brushwork, Many-Eyed Monsters, blessings erupt, compel, from the neck up, and tears of a building surveyor 

But generally all the stories contain an odd thoughtful approach to horrific conditions. The morality seems both obvious and complex, and I love how creative the writing is too, using many different approaches to tell the stories, provide information to the reader, which makes for a fun, disturbing, and somehow also gentle experience. 

dridavis's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

abbie_bryant's review

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

lori_reads_everything's review

4.0

3.5 ⭐