Welcome to Litsy!

This was one of those short story collections that I sat with for a while before moving on. I didn‘t want this to end and that‘s the mark of a good short story. I had this on my GoodReads TBR for a while. I went in completely blind and I think that worked in my favor. Surreal fiction is, apparently, my jam.

Spooky, gross, creepy, clever, melancholic, feminist, exquisitely well-written. Single-handledly restored my faith in my ability to love short story collections.
Hats off to the Greek mythology references, Medusa, Maenads remix, maybe a little Eleusinian mysteries.
⚠️Body horror, miscarriage

I got the feeling that the entire anthology centers on some aspect of the fear of the feminine, made visceral and touchable. Exploring that. Lots of blood and body horror. Sea motifs, all around. Atmospheric, but a lot of the endings seem kind of clipped.

Our Wives Under The Sea is better, but I can see how the author got from this anthology of short stories to that book.

3.75/5

Loved this collection of surreal short stories. The author has a great voice. I am excited to read her first novel when it is published. 4.5 🌟 highly recommend.

Just finished The Ocean at the End of the Lane: Neil Gaiman. Working my way through Iris Murdoch The Sea The Sea and listening to Disoriental by Negar Djavadi. Just starting Salt Slow: Julia Armfield.

2022 is off to a good reading start! Tackling some big books as well as reading off my shelves.

#BeginsWith @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
#Salt

One of the more metaphorical and "literary" reads I've delved into in a while. I highly recommend, especially for the variety of female perspectives.

Anyone else in the mouthguard squad? 😅🙋🏽‍♀️ #currentlyreading

Here is my #BookSpin list for November! Finally on time 🤪 @TheAromaofBooks

I'm not a huge fan of short stories and whilst I enjoyed these ones I didn't love them. I like that all seemed to have a slightly dark quirky twist to them. The descriptions were beautiful.

How to write about this collection of short stories? It‘s weird, gothic, visceral, sometime gory. But also beautiful, intriguing, strangely relatable and absorbing. I think that just about covers it.

I‘ve got a companion with me today as the kids scramble over the ‘mountain‘. She‘d much rather be up there with them but they‘re not so keen to have her company so she‘s reluctantly stuck with me and my audiobook.

Our afternoon activity now involves walking to the ‘mountain‘ so the kids can scramble over it while I listen to audiobooks or podcast. This is my latest book.

Panic buying, bookworm style. #marchbookhaul #stayhomeandread Stay safe and healthy everyone 💕💕

Holy moly, y‘all. This slim short story collection is beyond amazing. Armfield‘s writing is crisp and luxurious and dazzling. The stories are incredibly weird but somehow very grounded, like a horror movie you only see in your peripheral. These are the monsters we see and the monsters we are and it is beautiful and horrifying and heartbreaking. I cannot wait to see what she does next. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

Excellent

Belletrist December Pick
Photo: Amazon

I loved this book. All the stories were unique and original, which can be hard to find sometimes. Julia has a way to take an idea and just create magic. Really excited to see what the future holds for this author, as I am a fan! My favorite story was The Great Awake, so I recommend reading that first if you wanna get a taste.

Beautiful ugly dark short stories about women and girls and bodies that change, as the bodies of women and girls do. The writing‘s stunning. And I think I may be at sea for a few days now.

Thanks so much for choosing this one @lele1432 - I loved it. Afraid you‘re going to have to read it @monalyisha 😉

(ETA: Forgot the tag - #NewYearWhoDis )

3 stories into this collection of weird, dark stories so far. For someone who writes totally out-there, everything is so beautifully observed, so perfectly told. Loved the first two stories - I‘m sure I WAS one of the teenage girls in the first, and such a unique scenario in the second- not so much the third: more predictably shocking, perhaps? Really looking forward to seeing what else she has in store in the rest of the book.

#NewYearWhoDis

After surviving a week of reading deprivation (it was hard!), I read 3 books last week...
📗The sharp-edged The Head and the House by Ivy Compton-Burnett #nyrbbookclub
🎧The overwrought On Earth We're Briefly Beautiful by Ocean Vuong #tob
📗The unsettling short story collection Salt Slow by Julia Armfield #mounttbr
So not a bad week! @Cinfhen

#Weeklyforecast. After I finish Angle of Repose and Overthrow, next up are:
📘Salt Slow, a collection of short stories from #mounttbr
📘A House and its Head for #NYRBbookclub
🎧 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous for #tob
@Cinfhen

#NewYearWhoDis #LibraryHaul

My reservations came in! Just need to rustle up a free extra week to read them now. Looking forward to both of these. @lele1432 @monalyisha

This collection of short stories is beautifully written and bizarre. Some of the stories are downright creepy and unsettling. They centre on women's bodies in inventive and sometimes unexpected ways. It was thoroughly enjoyable to read! I will definitely come back to it! #queerbooks

Enjoying this creepy, beautiful book! #queerbooks

Loved! 4.25⭐️s! Continuing my mini-reviews of each story below & in comments.

Smack: Armfield's strength at writing gross, yet captivating descriptions with a sense of foreboding is on full display here. A woman going through a divorce barricades herself inside the beach house where a smack of jellyfish continuously invade the shore, bursting open.

Cassandra After: A woman is visited by her dead girlfriend in this sad tale of shame & regret.👇🏽

When the neighbors called to complain about the smell, Miriam told them with great dignity that we were purging ourselves of evil spirits.
“Well I‘m sorry you‘ve had to close your windows, Mrs. Adams, but that‘s the price one pays for catharsis.”

Finally finishing this one! Some more highlights:

The Collectables: began with an eerie sinister feeling, & ended with a shocking "oh sh*t!"? Lol this was about 3 friends moving on from their boyfriends, while trying to decide what would make the "perfect man." Turns out there's more going on than meets the eye.

Stop your women's ears with wax: explores female fandom of a female band & how their music turned young girls into the fans from hell.

The Great Awake: a strange phenomenon occurs where people's sleep-state removes itself from their bodies, resulting in the owners never being able to sleep. I loved this one. It was surreal, absurd, yet riddled with humor and truths of human nature. Reminiscent of Her Body and Other Parties, Severance, The Need, and Dark Matter all wrapped into one fine-tuned package of fabulism.

#MrBook1InAMillion #24b4Monday #LitsyPartyofOne #readathon

Mantis is the first in this collection, and it's a visceral story detailing a young woman's ailing skin condition, while highlighting all the ways in which young girls love to hate their bodies. Becoming increasingly grotesque, by the end reality had slipped and I was unsure if this was metaphor or real, but I enjoyed it.

#MrBook1InAMillion #litsypartyofone #24b4monday #readathon

A little late to the party, but I'm excited about this #readathon! Here are some of my weekend #TBR choices. Currently 2 hrs in and enjoying the tagged collection of ethereal short stories! Also have my #LMPBC choices I may get through for #Round7 #GroupI and #GroupC, and my next #NFNov pick. Need to break out my snacks! 🤗

#MrBook1InAMillion #LitsyPartyofOne #24B4Monday

This was an excellent short story collection focused on women, their relationships, and bodily transformations. Wonderful writing and weird but intelligent stories about how women face society and are impacted by it. Highly recommend. 5⭐️

Salt Slow is a beautiful series of female centric and mostly queer short stories, with always a touch of mouth-opening fantasy in it. I advise to read only one chapter a day because you want to savour it and the effect of the conclusions is so much better.

#saltslow #shortstory #signed

My purchases from the Gay‘s the word bookstore, Salt Slow was recommended by it and even signed!

#newbooks #london