Welcome to Litsy!

A surprising collection of atmospheric queer stories that unsettled me yet kept me wanting more. Standouts include the title story, in which a woman has mushrooms growing out of her body, and The Changeling, which is from the viewpoint of a child who is certain her baby cousin was swapped by Fairies. #LGBTQ

“This is what fairies look like.”
I thought it made sense that fairies would be small things that crept on spindled legs sometimes instead of flying—that they would have narrow fragile bodies & be beautiful in a way that was neither human nor comforting, sharp at all their angles, and equipped with mandibles to sever the heads of their mates. Nothing magical is safe, nothing safe is magical. I knew that from reading fairytales.

The difference between a Shakespearean comedy and a Shakespearean tragedy is whether there‘s a marriage at the end. Here whatever has come before is answered with love, which means sex, which means children. Let‘s fuck and be plentiful. That‘s how you send death out of the room for a while.

Beautiful collection of short stories. Every single one was fascinating in it‘s own way. I didn‘t really get into “Take Only What Belongs to You” I think I was too distracted while reading it. Really enjoyed all the rest. I think my favorites were Fiddler, Fool Pair and Endangered Animals.

Started this one a few days ago. Loved the first couple of stories, but I‘m having a hard time getting through the one I‘m currently on. Maybe my mind is too distracted 🙃

So many gems in this collection! Stories featuring mostly lesbian or bi women, lots of the stories have themes of climate change and have elements of magical realism. I‘m not always a short story person, but I found these really rich and immersive. Favorite here was “Fiddler, Fool, Pair” but really all of them are great.

It is very rare that I find myself loving every short story in a collection but this collection spoke to my soul while reading it. 💚

The writing is superb and each story felt like a magical journey, whether into a fairytale setting or in a library with a character soul searching for answers, I loved them all.

I wish this had made the shortlist for #ToB23, but I'm thankful it was on the longlist or I might have missed out on it.

I felt like I was in a relationship with this book of 8 short stories. The last story is about a goodbye and ending of sorts while realizing there is still beauty in the world and I‘m crying because I felt like the book in the gentlest of ways also broke up with me. All of these stories had a female protagonist. Most if not all were lesbian. All were fantastic. Harlan really loves a fairytale mashup. Just so effing good. There is one about 👇🏼

This is how I feel just having read this short 28 page story. Esther and Cora are on their first vacation together as a couple and Cora is cool enough to let Esther spend 2 days at the Library of Congress looking through boxes of correspondence and works of her favorite gothic writer, Anais Casey. Harlan builds this universe by providing passages from some of Casey‘s books, letters to and from friends and family, end even passages from 👇🏼

I like short stories to surprise me, to be bizarre, unsettling glimpses into human nature. This collection delivered on that. As usual, I liked some stories in the collection better than others, but overall it was very good. My favorites are definitely Take Only What Belongs to You and Fiddler, Fool Pair. Didn‘t make the shortlist, along with many others I‘ve enjoyed. 🤷🏻‍♀️#ToB2023