Reviews

Sea, Swallow Me and Other Stories by Craig Laurance Gidney

scrow1022's review against another edition

4.0

Lush and intriguing, some horrific. Like the variations in narrator, setting, time (esp. the one as Rimbaud).

entazis's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Sea, Swallow Me was a hard book to swallow (don't hate me for the bad pun 😅). It talks about some heavy topics like explorations of slavery and racism; its legacy of pain and dehumanization. It depicts what it means to be both Black and queer. It talks about desire, guilt and pleasure. And it doesn't pull its punches.

The book is filled with religious imagery and dream-like quality bordering on nightmarish. It paints the world of the stories in melancholic strokes and you can feel the deep sadness between pages, and the discomfort they bring. So yes, it's not a light read. It's not a fun book. But it's hauntingly mesmerizing, and worth your time. 

tregina's review against another edition

3.0

While not everything worked equally well for me, which is usually the case with collections, I thought "Circus-Boy Without a Safety Net" was wonderful, and closing the collection with "Catch Him By the Toe" left a deep and lasting impression.

lmaloney's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective medium-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

4.0

I didn’t like two of the stories but besides that - amazing! 
So raw and exhilarating.
A real treasure in Queer literature that intertwines diasporic African themes with amazing prose!
Such beautiful storytelling. 
Looking forward to reading more of this author in the future!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Gore, Drug abuse, Colonisation, and Body horror

caseythecanadianlesbrarian's review against another edition

5.0

Wildly inventive and gorgeously written. I don't often reread books, but I would love to pick this up in print form so I could linger over the language more. That said, the audiobook is beautifully and feelingly narrated.
This is top-notch speculative fiction. Don't miss it!!

tora76's review against another edition

2.0

Honestly I wasn't really impressed with this book. There were a few stories I really liked and the rest were just okay. Also, the copy I have is an ARC, so it's got a lot of mistakes, which hopefully were corrected in the final proof (the most annoying one was in the Japanese story, where Amaterasu was misspelled as Amaratsu throughout the story).

tregina's review

3.0

While not everything worked equally well for me, which is usually the case with collections, I thought "Circus-Boy Without a Safety Net" was wonderful, and closing the collection with "Catch Him By the Toe" left a deep and lasting impression.

sagelinae's review

4.0

The language was super pretty reading it. I think my favorite story out of it was Come Join We. Each story was original and full of life which made them great reads!

kjcharles's review

Woah. I don't often read short stories, but this collection was amazing. No wonder Gidney is winning awards. Fantasy stories, mostly contemporary, protags mostly gay and black, but veering off to Rimbaud and Japanese monasteries and suchlike, just because the author can. Stunning writing, stunning imagination, very unsettling. I just bought [b:Skin Deep Magic: Short Fiction|24811051|Skin Deep Magic Short Fiction|Craig Laurance Gidney|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422935909s/24811051.jpg|44451152] on the back of this, and am pretty much going to work through everything I can get my hands on. A really excellent writer.