Reading this book has made me fall in love with fairy tales again!

3,5 Stars but I will judge each story on its own because this book is a collection of short stories that don’t really belong together (story wise)

Animals: 8/10 - shocking, bloody, weird (in a good way)

Jacob: 7/10 - cute, easy to read

Plum Pie. Zombie Green. Yellow Bee. Purple Monster: 9/10 - imaginative, surprising, everything I love about this book

In the Dark: 7/10 - mysterious, liked the open ending

Margaret and Mary and the End of the World: 8/10 - shocking in a very real way, love the thoughts about the Virgin Mary, so many emotions

Little Deaths: 6/10 - love the inclusiveness of this book, but other stories in here are better

The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night: 3/10 - did not like it at all, not my cup of tea which was sad because it’s the titular story, for a script like writing style I was very bored by the characters and the dialogue

Pebbles: 8/10 - great story telling, again the inclusiveness is great, almost cried (but I don’t see the connection to the supposed magical element of this book)

Aunt Libby’s Coffin Hotel: 8/10 - scary, loved the mythology and the ode to women and death

Sea Devils: 7/10 - good story but not the best in this book

Human Satellites: 6/10 - nice story but I felt no emotions

Bright White Hearts: 7/10 - has a great magic is all around us vibe but makes it actually realistic. Loved the sea analogies

whimsical, magical. to be utterly amused, be thinking what the actual F, and grapple with your own existence - that's what this book was to me.

I connected with these stories on so many levels and I'm so grateful to have picked this up.

I read it over 6 days only because I loved it so much I didn't want it to end. easily devourable in one sitting!

honestly could not have asked for a better book to win my goodreads challenge with.

Leggendo The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night mi è venuta in mente la frase che ho detto quella volta che stavo andando a fare l’esame più difficile della mia carriera universitaria. Era il lontano gennaio 2016, camminavo su un ponte con la mia migliore amica quando mi sono sentito la gamba bagnata. Era nuvoloso, ma non pioveva e non capivo da dove venisse quell’acqua finché non ho scoperto la bottiglia chiusa male nello zaino. La frase in questione è: “Ma che cazz…?”
È un aneddoto irrilevante, ma d’altronde questa raccolta è abbastanza irrilevante e temo abbia avuto una certa risonanza solo perché l’autrice è una booktuber. Ci sono un paio di racconti carini (Animals e Aunt Libby’s Coffin Hotel), ma in generale si collocano nei due estremi degli scrittori alle prime armi: alcuni sono troppo chiari nelle intenzioni, altri fanno il passo più lungo della gamba e si rivelano inconcludenti e/o inutilmente complicati.
Traspare tanto amore per le fiabe per via delle innumerevoli interruzioni con rimandi espliciti, e alcune idee (i cuori comprati online, i fantasmi in barattolo) mi sono rimaste impresse, ma tutto sommato sono racconti spesso scritti in modo strano e forse un po’ pretenzioso che purtroppo lasciano il tempo che trovano.

I felt no connection to the stories whatsoever and I didn’t even understand what I was reading about most of the time. I‘m afraid this book wasn’t really for me

Thank goodness my first book of 2021 was this wonderful collection of weird, poignant, and delightful stories. The fairytale elements are both explicit and subtly woven, and no two tales are alike. Recommended.

actual rating: 2.5

4 star: Animals
3 star: Plum Pie, Pebbles, Aunt Libby’s Coffin Hotel
2.5 star: Margaret and Mary and the End of the World
2 star: Jacob, In the Dark, Little Deaths, Sea Devils, Human Satellites,
Bright White Hearts, The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night

which comes out to a 2.71 average so despite the fact that I would generally say I didn't really enjoy this I will round it up. Unfortunately the first story was the best and most interesting by far and tricked me into reading the rest of the collection. Many of the 2 star stories are between 600 and 1500 words and I just don't consider them long enough to really comprehensively explore an idea. The 2.5 star story was technically a good story but dealt heavily with religion, pregnancy, and eating disorders and although it was interesting how it all wove together I just didn't enjoy reading it. There are definitely a lot of interesting ideas here but it seems the author has trouble forming them into a coherent story in most cases which makes a lot of them seem like just weird stream of conscious stuff. I'm sure this will be very enjoyable for a lot of people but to me it left a lot to be desired.

4.5 stars

I was very close to giving it 5 stars, but there was just SOMETHING that stopped me, though I cannot really identify it. You know when you love a book, but you just don't love it ENOUGH to give it the highest rating? So 4.5 it is. Maybe it's just me being unfamiliar with short story collections.

This was beautiful, though. Wonderful prose and enchanting and twisted stories that brought all these different concepts and worlds alive. I've been a fan of Jen for a couple of years now through her booktube channel, and this collection was very much anticipated. It's got queer characters and disabled characters and characters with disfigurements, which I'm not in the least surprised over, knowing Jen. Along with the magical elements she managed to create this beautiful little collection that managed to take me so many places. It was truly an honor.