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A review by shannenwales
Strange Girls: Women in Horror Anthology by Phoebe Jane Johnson, Madison Estes, Regan D Moore, Alyson Faye, Danielle R. Bailey, Erica Ruhe, Maxine Kollar, Rachel Bolton, Angela Sylvaine, Claire Hamilton Russell, Azzurra Nox, Ashley Tudor, Wondra Vanian, Angelique Fawns, Emma Johnson-Rivard, Marnie Azzarelli, Rebecca Rowland, Charlotte Platt, Jude Reid, Hillary Lyon
2.0
I received an e-ARC from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
I really appreciated what this collecting was trying to do, putting together horror stories featuring women in new and strange ways. In the forward, the editor describes the collection with 'and in a world where everyday women's choices are dwindling or are at stake, this anthology serves to celebrate these girls' choices' which got me very excited.
Unfortunately, the collection overall didn't speak to this theme to me. Some story were definitely celebrating women's choices, whether hero's or villains - which was especially interesting, but some of the stories had women in the old horror trope of powerless victims which was a huge letdown.
This book dealt with some tough themes, in some stories it was done very well and I'd recommend them to a young adult audience. However, other stories in this book were far more violent in their themes (thankfully with a content warnings). Overall these shifts in tone and degrees of violence made the book confusing and I was left wondering who was the intended audience for this collection. Some stories I'd eagerly recommend to teenagers, but others I'd be pressed to recommend to most women without a heavy content warning due to really graphic sexual violence. I am not sure who to recommend this collection to in its entirety.
My favourite story in the collection was the second story which took a strange and modern spin on the Medusa mythological story that I found was quite powerful! be sure to check it out if you grab this collection.
I really appreciated what this collecting was trying to do, putting together horror stories featuring women in new and strange ways. In the forward, the editor describes the collection with 'and in a world where everyday women's choices are dwindling or are at stake, this anthology serves to celebrate these girls' choices' which got me very excited.
Unfortunately, the collection overall didn't speak to this theme to me. Some story were definitely celebrating women's choices, whether hero's or villains - which was especially interesting, but some of the stories had women in the old horror trope of powerless victims which was a huge letdown.
This book dealt with some tough themes, in some stories it was done very well and I'd recommend them to a young adult audience. However, other stories in this book were far more violent in their themes (thankfully with a content warnings). Overall these shifts in tone and degrees of violence made the book confusing and I was left wondering who was the intended audience for this collection. Some stories I'd eagerly recommend to teenagers, but others I'd be pressed to recommend to most women without a heavy content warning due to really graphic sexual violence. I am not sure who to recommend this collection to in its entirety.
My favourite story in the collection was the second story which took a strange and modern spin on the Medusa mythological story that I found was quite powerful! be sure to check it out if you grab this collection.