A review by nostoat
Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott

5.0

Somehow nearly every one of these short stories hits perfectly and beautifully. The title is from one story, but also captures the idea of the whole collection: here are a variety of beasts and girls and boys to break your heart. All kinds of magics small and large, to slip into your soul and tingle at the corners of your eyes threatening tears. Nethercott writes (and I suspect more essentially edits) short stories with an incredibly deft hand. Each story is told in exactly as many words, sentences, metaphors, ideas as it needs and not a single one more. Many of them ended before I felt satisfied but unlike with the typical short story that ends "abruptly", after a moment, the ending fit like a glove. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a collection of short fiction this thoroughly or felt so strongly that there were no misses!