Scan barcode
A review by myweereads
There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbour's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Anna Summers, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
4.0
“It's no secret, of course, that souls sometimes die within a person and are replaced by others — especially with age.”
There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbour’s Baby - Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya is a collection of the most bizarre tales which will surprise you in many ways. The stories in this collection cover all kinds of themes like vanishings, nightmares, apparitions, mysterious ailments and supernatural haunts.
I came across this book whilst browsing in the library and what popped out for me was the tile of this collection. Its written by one of Russia’s beloved contemporary fiction writers. This being my first read by her, I could see why a lot of readers enjoy her twisted take on reality.
You get the sense of macabre and black comedy from these stories reminiscent of Poe’s dark tales on many occasions. There were lots of stand outs but the first few are quite harrowing and shocking and enough to capture your attention. From here they became quite visceral and unsettling in a way which challenges one’s perception on what they think they know is happening to the characters. The scary stories live up to their description as they are creepy and on many occasions I found myself taking a moment to process what I had just read.
Written in a beautiful way evoking all kinds of emotions from the reader and leaving them laughing and unsettled at the same time, I would definitely recommend this collection to those wishing to read something that would challenge them and in true fairy tale form these stories are bizarre and quite out there.
There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbour’s Baby - Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya is a collection of the most bizarre tales which will surprise you in many ways. The stories in this collection cover all kinds of themes like vanishings, nightmares, apparitions, mysterious ailments and supernatural haunts.
I came across this book whilst browsing in the library and what popped out for me was the tile of this collection. Its written by one of Russia’s beloved contemporary fiction writers. This being my first read by her, I could see why a lot of readers enjoy her twisted take on reality.
You get the sense of macabre and black comedy from these stories reminiscent of Poe’s dark tales on many occasions. There were lots of stand outs but the first few are quite harrowing and shocking and enough to capture your attention. From here they became quite visceral and unsettling in a way which challenges one’s perception on what they think they know is happening to the characters. The scary stories live up to their description as they are creepy and on many occasions I found myself taking a moment to process what I had just read.
Written in a beautiful way evoking all kinds of emotions from the reader and leaving them laughing and unsettled at the same time, I would definitely recommend this collection to those wishing to read something that would challenge them and in true fairy tale form these stories are bizarre and quite out there.