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A review by angethology
Salt Slow by Julia Armfield
3.75
"For all her insistence that her presence didn't constitute a haunting, there seemed a strange intent behind her aimlessness ..."
A beautifully disturbing short story collection that hit home more than expected. I struggle to pick a favorite but Mantis, Cassandra After, and The Collectibles are up there. With a mixture of quiet and body horror, this anthology explores the all too familiar alienation and qualms of being a woman, an outsider, or a shell of a person that haunts you — or our own bodies betraying us.
Julia Armfield does this by taking very regular experiences and sprinkling fantastical elements or transforming them into horrors that are sometimes only revealed by the end. The existential dread of the characters, and the despondency sink in you deeper with each story, and despite the slow and gentle pacing, I found myself having to take a breather after finishing a story. Armfield's prose is rich but never superfluous with her imagery, and I'm in awe that she can make body horror sound so delicate but terrifying at the same time, in a way that transcends mere gore.
I didn't love this as much as Our Wives Under the Sea but it's worth a read if you want a taste of Armfield's writing, one story at a time.
A beautifully disturbing short story collection that hit home more than expected. I struggle to pick a favorite but Mantis, Cassandra After, and The Collectibles are up there. With a mixture of quiet and body horror, this anthology explores the all too familiar alienation and qualms of being a woman, an outsider, or a shell of a person that haunts you — or our own bodies betraying us.
Julia Armfield does this by taking very regular experiences and sprinkling fantastical elements or transforming them into horrors that are sometimes only revealed by the end. The existential dread of the characters, and the despondency sink in you deeper with each story, and despite the slow and gentle pacing, I found myself having to take a breather after finishing a story. Armfield's prose is rich but never superfluous with her imagery, and I'm in awe that she can make body horror sound so delicate but terrifying at the same time, in a way that transcends mere gore.
I didn't love this as much as Our Wives Under the Sea but it's worth a read if you want a taste of Armfield's writing, one story at a time.