Welcome to Litsy!

Lily King has officially been added to my list of favorite authors.
This was a great collection of short stories.

Paul Biga,an Australian taxi driver who picks up young women and men,then kills them is at the center of each story without ever being the main character.Yet the characters in each story are somehow affected by the murders.There‘s Eva,principal of the school Biga attended&his former neighbor,Simon whose sister is one of his victims or Grace who fought back&got away.

An ex library book I got it not knowing it was short stories. I‘m not a fan of short stories. I was in my younger days. Anyway I gave this a go. The best story was the last one which was titled Australia Day. So that made me glad I had persevered and made it to the end. A story I feel is probably close to the authors heart.

"It seems that somehow the hearts of human beings and trees are connected."

- The Princess and the Nutmeg Tree ??❤️?

#FirstLineFridays @shybookowl

"The ghost stories and strange tales that make up this book are set in the ancient Japanese province of Shinshu, or Shinano (now Nagano Prefecture), located in the center [sic] of Japan's main island of Honshu, a region intersected by three mountain ranges, mist-covered streams and a number of large and fast-flowing rivers."

At about ½ way through, the blurb descriptors of spine-chilling, spooky & terrifying ??

Bertino‘s follow up to Beautyland is this very interesting collection of stories, ranging from realistic to heavy on the magical realism. I think it‘s a really good collection and can‘t point to a single story I didn‘t like.

The blurb says that these are traditional stories of yokai, spectral apparitions of varied kinds, which Wada retells in "spine-chilling" & "terrifying" fashion ?
Some I'm partially familiar with (the Snow Woman, the kappa, & the tengu ?) but I'm hoping to encounter lots of ghosts that are new to me ?
The book is copiously illustrated by the author's daughter, Haruna Wada, who really deserves a cover credit.
I think I'm going to enjoy this one!

“‘Why are you so unhappy, Louise?‘
‘I‘d not be so unhappy if Bob loved me just a little.‘
‘You mustn‘t be unhappy, Louise-you know that I love you.‘ They would leave together, and talk, and have no secrets from one another. But it wasn‘t like that. Louise was alone. She had a daughter; but though a child might give warmth, a presence and a reason for living, she couldn‘t offer relief or help of any kind- she was more like a tender burden.”

First line of Louise- The third story.

“When melted sugar falls on the steel surface of a stove it‘s the very devil, it sticks like glue.”

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

“Nicolas was a big man: he shook the whole bed. He leaned heavily against her and his voice went soft. Whenever he spoke intimately he faltered and stammered: ‘M-my ddear little pussy…‘ Anna struggled: she was soaked in sweat and gasping, trying to keep her teeth clenched. She struggled against herself: Nicolas would overcome her body, and her body would overcome her. -