This is one dark story 💀
💀💀💀💀
This novella is a look at gender roles and norms, and it is unsettling, creepy, and disturbing, which is, I think, the point. The setting is a dystopian future where all the women have died and a group of men form a small society. Then ‘The Beauty‘ come - a group of mushroom-like creatures that reshape the new society and flip gender roles on their head. The writing was very good, and I would look for more from this author. 4⭐️
#7days7covers #covercrush Day 3
7 days, 7 covers, no explanation. I'm loving seeing everyone's choices.
Want to play @atla ?
One of the strangest books I‘ve ever read, and I read some weird stuff! In it, a fungal plague has killed all of the women, leaving only men. The story follows a small band of men in a village who come into contact with new life - mushroom women who emerge from the graves of those lost. This was VERY weird and very disturbing, but it‘s brilliant and the writing is stellar - absolutely LOVED this novella!
This story beautifully illustrates how gender is a social construct and a spectrum. With mushrooms.
Women die out from a fungus disease, but come back in a sense as mushroom women. The main character, Nathan, is the story-teller of what's left of the men and he brings these mushroom women back to the group to bizarre and disturbing results. A post-apocalyptic, gender-bending horror tale. With mushrooms.
Last completed book: The Black God's Drums
First to be completed book: The Beauty
#lastfirst #giveaway - thanks @BookNAround 🎉
Trying something new. I requested the library order this, and they did! I'm still trying to break through this slump. We're having a snow day, and I'm not feeling 100%, so I'm hoping to get some reading done. Happy Friday to everyone! #ThisCoverIsStriking #ItsOnly103PagesLong
Looks like I‘m going to add The White Bone in as well. I‘m less than half done and don‘t want to speed read it.
Literary-horror-scifi-dystopia in which women have succumbed to some kind of sickness. The men in a small camp are left behind, forging a life, trying to hang on to the memories. Nature finds a way to fill the void. Mushrooms are involved. Really well written and genuinely unsettling.
I am a dandelion clock. One breath from Ted and I am scattered.
"Dandelion," I say.
"What?"
"Thoughts fly if you breathe too hard. The rules are a shout but the story is a sigh. This way they keep their shape, and only bend in the breeze."
On the bus on my way to a job interview. Plus side: get to sneak in a little reading time with this strange and wonderful little book.
Just finished The Beauty and it's an odd story. It takes place in the Valley of the Rocks, a secluded region where the Group lives.The Group are people that were sick of city life and wanted to return to a simpler time. That works for a while, but then all the women die. The story begins when Nate, the Group's storyteller, rips up his mother's photo and mushrooms grow on the graves of the women. This story is classified as #Horror but I loved it.
1. Finishing up The Beauty before I start the summer reading challenge
2. Haven't made any plans yet. Just playing by ear, I guess.
3. Ribs, mac and cheese and brisket
@JoScho #ManicMonday
🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤This is the weirdest thing I‘ve ever read. A blurb on the back is the best description I think. “The brilliant gender-bending, post-apocalyptic horror fable the world needs right now. This book messed me up in the best way possible.” #sogood #love #canteven #genderbender #discoverthebeauty #brilliant
My husband when describing to him the grislier shock points of this book
Pick with the caveat that you need a strong stomach for bizarre.
Weird and engaging. Like that feeling of distasteful, thrilling fixation you get from Geek Love (not nearly as brilliant but what is). All the women have died years before and a strange fungus growing on their graves bloom into living women-shaped amalgamations of men's idea of women -- mother, lover, a thing to perhaps fear and revile all in one. Should be done in an hour. I'm reserving judgement.
The writing is lovely and it‘s clear Whiteley is a poet. There‘s a lot to unpack in this little book re: gender roles, motherhood, and how men view women — if you can get past the “what the f*ck?!” stage. The premise is disturbing, amusing and can sometimes distract from the wider themes. The premise = Day of the Triffids meets feminism meets bad sci-fi porn 😂 (There may be a wider commentary there on speculative fiction in general)
My San Diego purchases! Courtesy of Mysterious Galaxy, Bay Books, Book Catapult, Comickaze, and Comics-n-Stuff! Oh, I miss the sun and the sand already!
Another sojourn into the narrative trend of all women being dead. How related to the rise of the alt-right is this pattern?
Super weird, disturbing, and very well-written. This book unfolds in a small, isolated community after a pandemic has killed all of the world's women and the men are left to determine how to live in the aftermath. One day, Nate, the community's young storyteller, finds that mushrooms are growing from the bodies of the dead women, and things get crazier from there. This is an unsettling story that packs a lot of plot and meaning into 99 pages.