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Staff Pick
I've really been loving short story collections and this one is no exception. The stories are for all those wonderful weirdos that we embrace or get warned about. It gives huge Kelly Link and Angela Carter vibes, so if you're into those authors, this will enchant you. Recommended By Vicky K., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
From the author of the breakout novel Thistlefoot: a collection of dark fairytales and fractured folklore exploring how our passions can save us — or go monstrously wrong.
The stories in Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart are about the abomination that resides within us all. That churning, clawing, ravenous yearning: the hunger to be held, and seen, and known. And the terror, too: to be loved too well, or not enough, or for long enough. To be laid bare before your sweetheart, to their horror. To be recognized as the monstrous thing you are.
Two teenage girls working at a sinister roadside attraction called the Eternal Staircase explore its secrets — and their own doomed summer love. A zombie rooster plays detective in a missing persons case. A woman moves into a new house with her acclaimed artist boyfriend — and finds her body slowly shifting into something specially constructed to accommodate his needs and whims. A pack of middle schoolers turn to the occult to rid themselves of a hated new classmate. And a pair of outcasts, a vampire and a goat woman, find solace in each other, even as the world's lack of understanding might bring about its own end.
In these lush, strange, beautifully written stories, GennaRose Nethercott explores human longing in all its diamond-dark facets to create a collection that will redefine what you see as a beast, and make you beg to have your heart broken.
Review
"Real magic, real delight, doled out generously in the shape of wistful, ferocious, this-world-but-better stories." Kelly Link, author of White Cat, Black Dog
Review
"Delectable dark fairy tales which tend to start in worlds that feel almost comfortable — until the shadows thicken and all at once everything has teeth….Nethercott's supremely confident prose assists — and indeed demands — the suspension of disbelief….Fantastic." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Nethercott's writing takes on the tone of timeless folklore, from fairy tales to urban legends to ghost stories….A memorable story collection that makes the supernatural personal."
Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
About the Author
Gennarose Nethercott is the author of a novel, Thistlefoot, and a book-length poem, The Lumberjack's Dove, which was selected by Louise Glück as a winner of the National Poetry Series. She tours nationally and internationally performing strange tales (sometimes with puppets in tow) and helps create the podcast Lore. She lives in the woodlands of Vermont, beside an old cemetery.