5/5 stars

“Then she takes her husband’s hand, and they follow their merman to the place where all strange, outcast things must be carried in the end. To the sea…”

There are only a handful of short-story collections I’ve rated a full 5-stars over the past few years. It’s only normal that you will enjoy some stories more than others, and having a collection with only outstanding stories is exceedingly rare. Monstrum is that exception. Each of these stories is a tentatively tender yet subtly dark exploration of Otherness in all its monstrous beauty. A lovesong to the Monstrous and living life on the margin, with a slight dissonant note to it; exactly the way I love it.

These stories read modern fables about characters who are, for some reason or another, outcast by society for their differences, and now make a life in the margins. We’ve seen the trope done countless times, but Lottie Mills shows us a different angle. She shows us the beauty of that marginal life, and the strange but profound connections found within it. We find patchwork families, hybrid-bodies and queer love (romantic and otherwise) here.
The metaphors in here aren’t shy about their real world counterparts; there’s a lot of disability/chronic illness, bodily difference and queerness in the widest sense of the word in here. Yet rather than feeling on the nose, that clarity helps to ground the collection. Stunning prose and imagery, heartfelt connections and a final story that actually put a lump in my throat make this into a collection I will cherish and remember for a long time to come.

If you enjoy disability-fiction, queer magical realism, or stories that otherwise explore what its to be “othered” by the world around you (think Kirsty Logan, Jen Campbell or Julia Armfield) this one is for you!

My personal favourite stories: The Changeling, The Bear-children, The Body, The Merman.

Many thanks to Oneworld Publications for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.2024-releases disability-illness-body poetry-and-short-stories ...more3 s Katrina Clarke130 10

A surprising, playful, dark and often sweet collection of fairy tales. Myths and characters out of folklore are pulled into a surreal present day. Really enjoyed this.3 s Demelda Penkitty823 20

A father and daughter build a life for themselves on an isolated beach. But the outside world is pressing in. It's only a matter of time before their secret refuge is discovered.

A young disabled woman opts to receive a perfect, pain-free body. Soon, however, she finds herself haunted by the one she cast off. 

A travelling circus master discovers the ideal addition to his cabinet of curiosities: 'damaged', 'grotesque', gifted. He plans to make her the star of his show; she plans to take her revenge.

Firstly thank you to the publishers for an early copy of this fabulously dark, atmospheric collection.

I can honestly say I enjoyed each and every one of these short stories and that's unusual as often with collections these there are a couple of standouts and the rest are just ok but with Monstrum each one is a standout! A unique reimagining of characters excluded by a society that struggles to accept differences and disability.

Monstrum is an outstanding and ambitious debut but Lottie Mills pulls it off and I can't wait to see what she writes next.2 s Rachel Louise Atkin1,125 265

Rtcowned2 s Missy (myweereads)581 23

“Monsters are people too.”

Lottie Mills debut collection of stories is described as a meditation in otherness. Each story looks closely at how appearances affect and shape how society sees individuals and brings out the best and worst in people.

This collection is written beautifully, each story left you thinking about it and feeling that unease of how cruel and unfair this world can be.

All these tales address different aspects of disabilities and perception. In one a mother rejects her daughter in favour of a doll she has hand made, a father and daughter build a life for themselves on an isolated beach only to have it shattered when they are discovered by other and a merman appears to an elderly couple on a beach who take him in but once the towns people find out he captured and treated poorly.

The author with her lyrical prose looks closely at acceptance of differences within society through a black mirror style of storytelling. Some stories were darker than others and a few were pulling at my heartstrings.

I enjoyed this collection and will definitely be buying a physical copy once its published.

Many thanks to @netgalley for a copy of this collection.1 A97 10

Short story collections are best savoured. Enjoyed as concentrated morsels between larger books as a palate cleanser of sorts.

With Monstrum, I devoured the collection a picky tea* on a rare warm evening. These emotionally charged fairy tales range from the cautionary to the bizarre but each engage the reader in a story of otherness that address our concept of perception when it comes to our differences.

The writing here is tight, poetic and deeply humbling as Mills poses many significant questions with such grace these stories burst from the page.

As with all collections, some stories will hit harder than others and this is also the case here but where they fall short it’s usually because they’re too short and our time in these worlds is cut unceremoniously short.

This is a fantastic debut and an author I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for in the future.

*picky tea for the non-Brits, think Mezze, or Tapas but beige.

Thank you to Lucy at Oneworld for the finished copy it’s gorgeous1 Joe Foxford67 8

How sad, thought the toymakers daughter. How very sad and strange, to love a child who could never exist.

Monstrum is a collection of short stories loosely based on classic fairy tails but more often than not with a black mirroresque twist.

The underlying themes of body acceptance are rife throughout, highlighting the challenges of a variety of disabilities throughout and what one must endure to overcome them.

I have to say, the merman was probably my favourite short story in the collection purely for how much you could feel for a character who was completely mute, shortly followed up by the body which was possibly the most black mirror style story in the collection.

A disabled person gives up their body to be cast into a new shell completely freed by their disabilities, all blemishes and marks removed a completely “normal” body only their original body comes home with them and whilst their essence is no longer in it, the shell remains caught between life and death and just exists as a constant reminder of who they were and what made them that person.


Autor del comentario:
=================================