house_of_hannah's reviews
257 reviews

The stories start out rooted in reality, but each one is more surreal than the last until it just gets to where I have no idea what is happening anymore. After reading the first two stories I really had high hopes for this book, but then the last three stories felt quite similar to each other, and either fell flat, or I just straight up couldn't figure out what was going on. At the end of the book there are author explanations for each story, and I really thought this would give me some insight, but sadly that was not the case.

The Coral Reef - You can feel the desperation. 4 stars

Gunboat on the Yangtze - This one made me very uncomfortable, but I also found it to be fascinating. 4 stars

The Back Streets of Hoi An - I can't remember this story at all. I have absolutely no feelings towards it.

Nha Nam - This is where things started getting a bit too surreal. I am also neutral towards this story.

The Dragon Hunt - I didn't understand what was happening for a majority of this one. Where I could understand the purpose of the rape in the other story, this one felt out of the blue, and I hated every moment. 1 star.

As you can see the stories here range from being quite good to forgettable. I'd probably only recommend this to people who have read and enjoyed other works from this author. 

These two quotes summarize very well how this book played out: "Guinevere had made a mistake." & "And now she had ruined everything."

I felt like book 2 & 3 just took all the characters I fell in love with in book 1, and either sidelined them, or made them regress in their character development. Guinevere is so fucking annoying, and is the queen of jumping to conclusions. She thinks nothing through, and just assumes she's always right. Who cares what anyone else thinks ? For me only Arthur and Mordred felt like the same characters in the end.

Speaking of Mordred...he got absolutely hosed by this story. I haven't felt this bad for a character in ages. He was reduced to just being the emotional punching bag of Guinevere, and all the buildup we had for their relationship never payed off. I definitely get the "Justice for Mordred" reviews now.

Each book in this series lost a star from the one before in the rating. I rarely read series, and this just reiterated why. I just cannot get past how many obviously horrible decisions Guinevere made. There's just no way she could be that stupid. This really should have been called The Guinevere Curse instead; I wouldn't want her back in Camelot. 

If you aready know the myths surrounding Troy then you won't get much from this book. I feel like this would be perfect for those who are first getting into the myths, but are unsure where to start, since they are presented in the order they occurred. 

It took forever for me to get through this book. I found myself really losing interest after the first 100 pages. It's actually quite easy to read, besides some of the names, but that's to be expected. However, I didn't find Stephen Fry's voice here to be very interesting. I mean, yeah, he's certainly telling us the myths, but it's just not the fresh take that I think most are looking for when it comes to retellings. 

The actual book ends on page 333 (paperback version), with the last 100 pages being the Appendix, List of Characters, Picture Credits, Acknowledgements, and Index. So it's at least less of a beast to read than it first appears. 

Thank you so much to Kodansha Comics and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC; it is greatly appreciated.

What a funny little book ! Based on the description I was thinking this might be a manga where it's several stories in one that all take place on the island. Instead we follow our main character, Hayasaka, and the events that occur after she finds a bizzare looking idol on the beach. She cleans it up, takes it to a shrine, and following the lead of a local folktale, prays to it for help. This seems to bring the idol to life, but he has grown to the size of a child, which is just straight up creepy !

It's quite lighthearted at first as it establishes the characters. There's a humorous undertone throughout most of the story, as the characters simply do not know what to make of this idol turned "God." However, by the end of the manga you can definitely see the sinister side of this good fortune, so it appears that the story will get darker as it goes on.

Since this is the first volume, it's mostly about establishing the setting, characters, and situation, so that we're on the same page as the main characters. Due to this it is more dialogue heavy, which I did not mind at all. I felt like this book accomplished quite a lot for a first volume, and ended in a perfect spot to just give the reader a taste of the darkness of the God's power.

Overall I'm really looking forward to continuing on with this series. It's exactly as NetGalley bills it, a "bizzare, supernatural new story." I did see that it came out in its original language, Japanese, back in 2016, and there are currently nine volumes released there. I'm hoping that this is good news for the English translation, as I am ready to jump into the next volume ! 

My ranking of the 4 stories in this book are as follows:
Aepyornis Island
The Sea Raiders
The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Empire of the Ants

I feel like this kind of tale does well as a short story. I was surprised at how some of the descriptions really got to me, and I definitely felt some tension. I'd really only call Doctor Moreau sci-fi out of the four, as the other three were simply animals being animals really.

For me, I think what makes sci-fi a terrifying genre is when what is being explained feels probable. Perhaps that could be something that actually happens one day. That is not the case at all in Doctor Moreau; it is definitely something that will not be possible, and I believe that took me out of the story. This is to no fault of the author, but is simply my tastes.

Overall, I am quite happy that I have finally read this story ! I am still trying to navigate what parts of this genre I enjoy, so this helped with that. 

This anthology starts out with a bang, with one of the best introductions I've ever read. The first half also has the best stories, so it starts out fantastic, and stays at that level for awhile. The "energy level" does die down in the second half with more traditional feeling stories, and a few that don't really match with what the prompt seems to be.

This could have done with more proofreading, as there are some very blatant mistakes that definitely should have been caught. There are at least several instances of repeating words, such as "throat sore throat", or even entire repeated sentences. (It is obvious that these are not intentional) There are also some typos, such as "don't't".

As someone who is not generally a fan of body horror, I went into this book feeling nervous that it might be too much for me. That was not the case at all, and there are actually very few stories in here that made me feel squeamish. Not every story deals with body horror, and only a handful take it to the extreme. So if you feel nervous like I did, I'd definitely give it a try, as I honestly think the first half of this book are some of the best short stories I've ever read.

I'm going to list each story in this collection, give a one sentence summary, and also list any content warnings that the book listed. The content warnings for this are listed on the very last page, so I figure it'd probably be good to include them in my review. It does also say, "some degree of violence, gore, sex and/or death is present in most of these stories," so the content warnings are in addition to that.

THE FLENSING LENS
An apparatus with blades is inserted into a man's eye, travels down his body, and exits out his anus. Just a two page story. I have no idea how to feel about that.

TONSILSTONESPUNKSPLATTER666!
Someone with what seems to be DID is targeted by a hate group. You might not understand a few paragraphs if you aren't familiar with internet culture.

CW: Violent transmisogyny, partner emotional abuse, ableism, rape

HIGH MAINTENANCE
Heartbreaking story. You can see what's going on immediately. A man continually "upgrades" his Android lover.

CW: Domestic abuse

THE INFINITE BEING
A couple who does heists together in a world of magic make the mistake of accepting a job to steal a Sorcerer's ring.

BROTHER MATERNITAS
A monk, who was transformed into a woman by a demon, hides their pregnancy.

CW: Sexual assault, miscarriage

THE SAME THING THAT HAPPENED TO SAM
Tiny man made creatures called worms, are placed in the brain to "correct" your sexuality. Very short, but hard hitting.

CW: Child abuse

BALLAD OF THE PEST
A person discovers mice in their apartment, but the traps aren't catching anything.

PLAYING HOUSE
A housewife isn't exactly happy with how her life has turned out.

CW: Domestic Abuse

HYBRID
Human-animal hybrids are created by the government for the elimination of targets.

CW: Animal Death

CHOLESTEROL-MONOXIDE
A guy driving on the highway is pulled over by what first appears to be a cop, but quickly turns into a nightmare.

WHY WE KEEP EXPLODING
What a great metaphor. The freshman girls of Sutton college keep exploding when taunted by the upperclassman boys.

CW: Bullying & abuse

WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO REACH YOU
An individual with a family history of schizophrenia runs away from the incessant sound of a ringing phone.

CW: Suicide & ableism

LOST IN REINCARNATION
A man is told by his masseuse that he has skipped a life.

BECAUSE MY MOTHER TELLS ME SO
A woman is plagued by a religious zombie that won't leave her porch.

SEAFLOWERS
1 & 1/2 pages long. Reasons why you should never trust a drowned woman.

FENCING CHESTPLATE
A trans teenager turns to the demonic to make it on the fencing team.

CW: Transphobia & homophobia

GENDER ENVY
A gory poem about wanting to be a man.

REST, MY HEAD
I'm not sure how to summarize this one. It seems like the individual might be confined and questioning their existence.

THE DIVINE CARCASS
My favorite first line out of all the stories, "When God died, we first thought it was from lack of faith." Living on a Cathedral in space that's as big as a city, an individual goes through a transformation after following their friend to a religious ceremony.

CHIRONOPLASTY
A centaur seeks alien help to feel like their authentic self.

#MOTHERMAYHEM
I could easily read a novel based on this story. Takes place in a universe where it's normal for one of your hands to just be a skeleton.

THE LIVES OF SCAVENGERS
A widow takes in a grave-child with an insatiable hunger.

THE SIMULACRUM
Essentially a retelling of Frankenstein, which is even acknowledged in the story.

CW: Transphobia

THE ROOTS THEY PULL
Separated by a hedge between their properties, two women meet at sunset where the wisteria grows.

CW: Homophobia & sexual assualt

STENCH
Uhhhh, a pregnant woman cheats on her husband with her priest, and crazy shit ensues. Not sure how else to summarize this one !

THE PEARL DIVER
A dying deer asks the buzzard who is about to eat him to tell him a story.

CW: Animal death

TINY MAGIC
A child uses cleaning chemicals to take care of those that have wronged them, or others.

CW: Domestic abuse, sexual abuse, child abuse, & cannibalism 

Thank you so much to IDW Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC; it is greatly appreciated. 

As a woman I am pleased to see anything that gives us a voice, and discusses our experiences. In particular there is quite a hard hitting story in here called The Bug. I was hoping there would be more stories like this one that really go in depth, and show the nitty gritty, but unfortunately most of the comics were surface level. 

Considering how short this anthology this, I would have loved to have seen some longer comics. Some are simply too short, and don't leave much of an impact. I would have liked to have seen a few more comics with more diversity, as it felt like there was only one "type" of woman really being represented. 

I do hope more graphic novels like this are released in the future, and I look forward to seeing how they evolve.

Going into the last 20 pages I thought I was going to rate this a 3.5, because although it's taken some thought and re-reading, I was enjoying the story. However, I do not understand this ending. I just cannot figure out what happened here, what was going on, and why it was significant. 

There are some interesting scenes, and I liked the flashback aspect as well. The older characters don't quite seem their ages though, and I ended up viewing everyone as the same age group even though that was not the case. The interconnection of their stories is probably the best part of the book, but it comes together in an unsatisfying way since I just cannot understand the end. 

Could have used more mongoose scenes. 

As someone who does not read smut often at all I was hella into this ! This was recommended by a friend, and the Gargoyles intrigued me. The writing here is actually very well done, and the characters are fully fleshed out. Everyone has their own personality; there is no way you could confuse characters.

The world this story takes place in is also quite interesting. The magic, the paranormals, the interactions, just everything made me want to know more about this world. Grace's powers in particular are fascinating, and I love how much she connects with and adores her power.

Every spicy scene felt natural; nothing felt forced, or out of place. I thought they were well timed in the story, and that there was a great variety in the scenes themselves, so they never felt repetitive.

The reason this is a 4.5, and not a 5, is that

the deceived part of this book happened way too much. There are 3 instances where the same character has to come clean about something, and it just got to be a, "omg, really, again !?" sort of situation.

Overall this book really took me by surprise. I started it, and just had to finish it, so I ended up reading until 3am ! Definitely going to be checking out the Kraken story next...

For how short this book is it felt like it took me forever to read. Our narrator, the brother of "the Arab" in the book The Stranger, tells his story as if he is speaking to another patron at the bar. He is not only completely unreliable, but speaks in circles so much that nothing truly happens in this story until the halfway point. It is bizarrely repetitive in a way that drove me nuts. 

This story also ended up being quite different from what I was expecting. I knew going into this that it would be from the perspective of the brother, but for some reason I was thinking that the brother had been one of the people on the beach that day. I really thought we were going to get more insight into what went down, but instead it was more about how the incident ruined his life and his perceptions. 

I can see why this is an important book, but the enjoyment factor just wasn't there for me.