What a WEIRD fucking book, and I picked it specifically because I wanted more of the author’s unique brand of “off”. I was expecting gothic horror but it was in fact a collection of “social (sometimes horror)” stories, each being very real life situations that take a spin for the odd. This is a book that hooked me on and off, and I almost dropped it even before being hooked again.
My issues are twofold tho: first of all the spin is sometimes hard to “get”, sometimes it does end up indeed being scary especially the more feminist stories that play on the fears one can have and such. But other times I just plain didn’t get it and had to look up explanations because they relied on having the experiences and fears of someone living a century ago.
But more importantly, all stories end right as they start, and it was a repeated almost intentional pattern that I didn’t manage to appreciate. From the very first story, that seems to end abruptly or be missing a page, the tone is announced. And sometimes that amplifies the scariness or commentary of the story… but sometimes it felt like a waste of time. Like watching only the beginnings of five movies in a row.
I still liked it for how it was a window into a different time which is something I really looked forward and that got really satisfied by how “real” the stories were. It was fascinating to read stories play on fears and anxieties that were, for lack of better words, the consequence of how shitty the times were, especially stories commenting how racist and sexist they could be.
