I’m a lover of strange short stories when they are done well and offer a deeper commentary, which is why, based on the blurb, I picked this one up. Having previously read Camilla Grudova's work, I was excited to explore this collection—both the cover and the buzzwords in the description drew me in. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed and ended up DNF’ing it around halfway through. 

 

The frequent references to bodily fluids felt like they were included purely for shock value and added very little to the narrative of each story. Normally, I’m not the slightest bit bothered by elements of body horror, but when it feels like there’s no purpose other than to be as gross as possible, I lose interest in reading further. 

 

To me personally, the writing style also felt overly simplistic. At times, it seemed as though I was reading a play-by-play description of an unedited draft. While this may have been an intentional narrative choice by the author, it sadly didn’t work for me. 

 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC. All opinions are my own.