Title: The Strength Inside
Author: Melissa Marr
In: Home Improvement (Charlaine Harris & Toni L.P. Kelner)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Paranormal fantasy, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 14th August 2020
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books
Year: 2011
5th sentence, 74th page: “Clever thing, aren’t you?”
The Bori want nothing more than to build a fence, and raise their young in quiet. But an annoying neighbourhood watch woman feels the need to constantly interfere… until she sees the strength inside.
I absolutely adored this short story. And, halfway through I realised that’s probably because I kind of love everything by Melissa Marr that I’ve read anyway. She manages to make some faery tale style works and paranormal fantasy stories just that little touch darker. Not so much so that it’s uncomfortable. But enough that it’s not all happy and light. Exactly the kind of story that I love.
I’ve never come across Bori in a story before. And I’m now curious to see whether they are a “real” mythological creature, or one that is entirely of Marr’s own imagination. I’m hoping that they are in other stories… I really liked the idea of them and was completely drawn in from the very beginning.
There is nothing that I love more in a story than a little busybody getting their comeuppance. Alright, in this story it was a little intense and drastic, and I probably shouldn’t have enjoyed it quite so much. But I did. And I laughed. And it was just a great, fun short story that had a little bit of death and darkness to make me fall all that more deeply in love.
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