Tag Archives: Mental health

Underbridge by Peter S. Beagle

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
naked-city

Title: Underbridge
Author: Peter S. Beagle
In: Naked City (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Fae, Mental health, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 20th September 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Year: 2011
5th sentence, 74th page: The months passed, and the weather turned relatively mild and notably dry.

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Synopsis

Richardson just wants tenure, or, at the very least, a stable job. But his discovery of the Troll Underbridge might just change everything…

Thoughts

As someone who is halfway through her PhD and just entering the world of academics… I can completely understand Richardsons’ incredible need to just… crack. Right down the centre. With absolutely no finesse. Alright, I don’t actually want to crack, and I definitely wouldn’t do what he did… but we’ve all had our moments of instability, and I found Beagle’s take on this in this short story incredibly entertaining and intriguing.

We’re all a little scared of the things that go bump in the night. The creatures which hide under the bed in the dark. The ghouls which hide under our bridges and in the dark, hideaway places. Which makes the troll under the bridge a perfect feature for an urban fantasy short story. After all, they’re a fixture in fairy tales and fit that idea of the things that scare us – although, they don’t seem to show up as commonly in the stories… probably because they’re just not quite sexy…

For me, this short story highlighted the question “how far will you go?” For Richardson, I think the answer was kind of too far. But it still begs the question – how far would I go to achieve my goals? To get a steady job… I think that there may be a little of Richardsons’ darkness in all of us when we truly want something…

 <- Picking Up the Pieces ReviewPriced to Sell Review ->
Image source: Patricia Briggs

Fan Fictions by Gabrielle Zevin

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for love is hell book cover

Title: Fan Fictions
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
In: Love is Hell ( Melissa Marr, Scott Westerfield, Justine Larbalestier, Gabrielle Zevin & Laurie Faria Stolarz)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Mental health, Paranormal romance, Young adult
Dates read: 19th September 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Novella
Publisher: Harper Teen
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: Honestly, I’m worried about you.

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Synopsis

Paige is invisible. And ordinary. Someone who nobody notices. Until Aaron. But now she’s not sure if he’s real or just a figment of her imagination…

Thoughts

At one point or another, we all feel like we’ve been overlooked in high school. Or at least, everyone that I know feels that way… but this story took that feeling to a whole new level. And kind of a whiney one. I really liked the concept, and loved the writing (hence the four-star rating), but I seriously had to take a star off for Paige’s down right insanity…

Although I’m a complete bibliophile, and tend to have some insane dreams about what I’m reading… I’ve never taken on the persona of a book that I’m reading. Never felt those lines begin to blur as I take on a reality that is far more enjoyable than my own. Probably a good thing, considering I read a lot of stories with some incredibly messed up protagonists. But I have had moments when I’ve wished that more of my life could be like that in the stories I read.

From the title of this story, I wasn’t really expecting this kind of tale. I was expecting something with a character who actually writes fan fictions. But, in hindsight, I suppose that taking on the storyline that you’re reading is exactly what fan fictionists (is that even a word?) are actually striving for. After all, they’re generally writing a fan fiction so that they can immerse themselves into a world that someone else has created, and they’re just not really ready to leave… and what avid reader hasn’t felt that way?

 <- Thinner Than Water ReviewLove Struck Review ->
Image source: Harper Collins Publishers

Isobel Avens Returns to Stepney in the Spring by M. John Harrison

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for black feathers ellen datlow book cover

Title: Isobel Avens Returns to Stepney in the Spring
Author: M. John Harrison
In: Black Feathers (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Contemporary, Horror, Mental health
Dates read: 12th April 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Pegasus Books Ltd.
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: London was as quiet as a nursing home corridor.

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Synopsis

China loves Isobel. But Isobel is aiming for something higher. Something that might end their lives together and create a new world view.

Thoughts

This story made me think of anorexia and other eating disorders. Although the storyline features Isobel Avens trying to turn into a bird, her constant weight loss and wish to be something else has serious echoes of an eating disorder. It made me incredibly uncomfortable reading this too, especially since I know a lot of women who have suffered with such horrible body issues…

Unrequited love is a bitch. And honesty, I think it’s what shifts this story into the horror realm for me. It feels like one of the more terrifying things that anyone can experience… China gives his everything to Isobel. And yet, at the end of the tale, that is not enough and he must find a way to either move on in life or be miserable forever…

 <- The Secret of Flight ReviewA Little Bird Told Me Review ->
Image source: Amazon

Great Blue Heron by Joyce Carol Oates

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for black feathers ellen datlow book cover

Title: Great Blue Heron
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
In: Black Feathers (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Death, Horror, Mental health
Dates read: 30th January 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Pegasus Books Ltd.
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: The wife is shivering, her feet are getting wet, she would like to turn back but the husband presses forward, he has something to show her.

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Synopsis

The Wife is mourning the loss of her husband. The Wife keeps on remembering moments together and seeing a Great Blue Heron flying free. As her grief and love for the birds collide, there is no telling what will happen next.

Thoughts

This story had my heart racing. Something about the pace of it and the way in which it was written felt like an intense horror story. That, and the setting is based around a lake with overcast days… the perfect setting for a horror story and a horrific murder if I ever did hear one.

This is the fourth story in this series of bird-based horrors (I never knew that there was such a thing, or that it could be this TRULY scary… but I digress). And it is the second story that has an essence of grief and loss in its heart. This feeling of loss and grief is intense and the slightly broken way in which this story is told really drives this idea home. There is an almost ethereal quality to the storyline which makes it both solidly real and wispily dreamlike.

 <- Something About Birds ReviewThe Season of the Raptors Review ->
Image source: Amazon

The Mathematical Inevitability of Corvids by Seanan McGuire

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for black feathers ellen datlow book cover

Title: The Mathematical Inevitability of Corvids
Author: Seanan McGuire
In: Black Feathers (Ellen Datlow)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Horror,
Mental health
Dates read: 28th January 2019
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Pegasus Books Ltd.
Year: 2017
5th sentence, 74th page: She’s the only one that’s stayed.

Synopsis

“One’s for sorrow, two’s for joy.” Brenda counts corvids as a way to understand the mathematics of her day. But when the unthinkable happens, will her counting and corvids help her? Or will they spell the end?

Thoughts

I feel like I liked this story a little tooooo much. It was dark, twisted and resulted in murder. And yet I absolutely loved it. Can’t stop thinking about it. Feel almost completely obsessed with it. Although, unlike most short stories that I love this much… I’m more than happy that it ended when it did. This was poignant and powerful, but it was also perfectly succinct in what it was attempting to entail.

There’s something hard about being different. And in this short story, the horrific way in which others can treat a child who is different are highlighted. There is a knowledge and understanding in the slightly jittery voice that highlights just how aware the young protagonist is. And when this hatred of her difference leads to something far too horrible to contemplate… well, that’s why this short story is on the horror shelf.

I don’t often feel sympathy for people who do a “bad thing”. Especially not something delivered in cold blood. But I definitely did in this story. And it left me feeling both awed and uncomfortable. A feeling that I think is fantastic to gain from a well-written short story.

 <- The Obscure BirdSomething About Birds ->

Image source: Amazon

Greylands by Isobelle Carmody

Book Review, , ,





Overview
Image result for greylands isobelle carmody book cover

Title: Greylands
Author: Isobelle Carmody
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Death, Fantasy, Mental health
Dates read: 1st – 2nd January 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: Ford St
Year: 1997
5th sentence, 74th page: She stroked the bundle of rags tenderly, and a strange thought entered Jack’s chilled mind.

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Synopsis

One wakeful night in the aftermath of his mother’s death, Jack enters a land devoid of colour or scent. Here he meets the tragic laughing beast and Alice, a strange girl with a secret.

Will Jack escape before the terrifying wolvers find him? Or is he destined to be trapped in the Greylands forever?

Only the cats know…

Thoughts

I really had no idea what to expect from this novel. I know that I love Isobelle Carmody’s writing, but this is the first truly young novel that I have read by her. It is also, weirdly enough, the first standalone story that I have read. And man, I wasn’t disappointed. This was one of those stories that left me thinking, contemplating and wondering long after I turned the final page. This is certainly one of those stories that lingers long after you finish, in the best way possible.

The fragmented nature of this story highlights Jack’s misunderstandings and confusion beautifully well. As do the mystical and dreamy scapes in which he moves – both the real world and the Greylands. The settings are so incredibly vivid and yet vague that you can see the hazy contrast perfectly in your minds eye, and it emphasises the symbolism behind Jack’s confusion and grief.

Even if you don’t fully understand what is happening throughout Jack’s adventure, the beginning, middle and end (literally named this) give a great account as to what the symbolism means. And also the ways in which this reality bisects with our own. Having the character write his own story is a new-to-me ideal, and I loved how well it worked.

Dealing with grief and issues of mental health can always be quite difficult. And there are few literary pieces I’ve found that deal with such topics in an open, accessible way. The fact that this is done in a language that young children can access is all the more impressive and is exactly what helps this story to linger in my mind’s eye so strongly.

 <- Green Monkey Dreams ReviewMetro Winds Review ->
Image source: Ford Street Publishing