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charmandi 's review for:

The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley
4.0

Since this edition has two of Aliya Whiteley's stories, I'm going to leave a review on each individually.

The Beauty...Maybe 3 stars at most? It felt incomplete and maybe it was my own expectations of horror and "monsters" that made me not enjoy this as much as a lot of other people did. It feels very incomplete, and there is not a sense of terror involved when reading it; it just felt very robotic and monotone in voice. I'm unsure if it's because I'm an adult and reading it from the viewpoint of a young adult and younger that it just seems very unrealistic in reaction, and the characters are super angsty and frustrating to watch interact. It was a really cool concept though, and I do think the writing in general is very good. I'm just not sure if my expectations made me dislike it or if it is incomplete.

Peace, Pipe...Definitely 5 stars. This story felt complete and the lack of details mixed with the concept clues given just in prose writing was incredible. This story gave me some major feels about how we all as human beings experience language and emotions. Maybe it was so good just in comparison to The Beauty but I absolutely preferred this one. I love the writing, the concept, the importance on language but also the importance in feeling/body language. I would recommend this story to anyone who enjoys philosophy but in a more subjective manner than in academic.

Overall I enjoyed reading both equally. Despite not being overly impressed with The Beauty it still held my interest as I hoped the mushroom creatures would end up eating the children or enslaving them or something. Both had very unique concepts and interesting delivering methods.