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Yellowcake
Yellowcake brings together ten short stories from the extraordinarily talented Margo Lanagan--each of them fiercely original and quietly heartbreaking.
The stories range from fantasy and fairy tale to horror and stark reality, and yet what pervades is the sense of humanity. The people of Lanagan's worlds face trials, temptations, and degradations. They swoon and suffer and even kill for love. In a dangerous world, they seek the solace and strength that comes from family and belonging.
These are stories to be savored slowly and pondered deeply because they cut to the very heart of who we are.
“Haunting, gorgeous, and sometimes painful, Lanagan’s stories are unlike anything else in fantasy literature.” -- Publishers Weekly , starred review
"Lanagan unravels familiar myths and fairy tales, weaving them into unique, sharply resonant forms in this characteristically stunning collection." -- Kirkus , starred review
The stories range from fantasy and fairy tale to horror and stark reality, and yet what pervades is the sense of humanity. The people of Lanagan's worlds face trials, temptations, and degradations. They swoon and suffer and even kill for love. In a dangerous world, they seek the solace and strength that comes from family and belonging.
These are stories to be savored slowly and pondered deeply because they cut to the very heart of who we are.
“Haunting, gorgeous, and sometimes painful, Lanagan’s stories are unlike anything else in fantasy literature.” -- Publishers Weekly , starred review
"Lanagan unravels familiar myths and fairy tales, weaving them into unique, sharply resonant forms in this characteristically stunning collection." -- Kirkus , starred review
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
24 people are currently reading
958 people want to read
About the author
Margo Lanagan
109 books627 followersMargo Lanagan, born in Waratah, New South Wales, is an Australian writer of short stories and young adult fiction.
Many of her books, including YA fiction, were only published in Australia. Recently, several of her books have attracted worldwide attention. Her short story collection Black Juice won two World Fantasy Awards. It was published in Australia by Allen & Unwin and the United Kingdom by Gollancz in 2004, and in North America by HarperCollins in 2005. It includes the much-anthologized short story "Singing My Sister Down".
Her short story collection White Time, originally published in Australia by Allen & Unwin in 2000, was published in North America by HarperCollins in August 2006, after the success of Black Juice.
Many of her books, including YA fiction, were only published in Australia. Recently, several of her books have attracted worldwide attention. Her short story collection Black Juice won two World Fantasy Awards. It was published in Australia by Allen & Unwin and the United Kingdom by Gollancz in 2004, and in North America by HarperCollins in 2005. It includes the much-anthologized short story "Singing My Sister Down".
Her short story collection White Time, originally published in Australia by Allen & Unwin in 2000, was published in North America by HarperCollins in August 2006, after the success of Black Juice.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 110 reviews
June 26, 2015
As a short story reader, it was a bit of a surprise that I didn’t pick up a Margo Lanagan short until after I’d polished off her two novels, though now that I have I fear the flood gates have opened. As with her larger works, I must emphatically state that Lanagan’s work is not for every reader, but there is just something about her twisted world view that keeps drawing me in. Her mind works in short stories. With Tender Morsels I became overwhelmed with the story and emotions, unable to disconnect and observe passively–it was too much. With Brides of Rollrock Island, the story was fractured into smaller narrative pieces, almost making it in itself a short story collection, allbeit one that coagulated into a cohesive narrative. I adored it. Here, with Yellowcake, I fell in love in ten pages, was horrified in 30, and felt no great loss when 20 were completely lost on me.
Yellowcake holds ten short stories, all snippets of vastly different lives and times. Many were downtrodden, some were spiteful, while a very few showed glimmers of true joy. Here were some of my favorites:
Shroud of Gold–This was an enchanting and different take on Rapunzel (though to be fair, I haven’t read many retellings), starting after the witch has cut off all of Rapunzel’s hair and focusing on the prince’s rescue of the woman he loves. To me, this was the one truly light story of the lot, working with the help of Rapunzel’s strands in a way that brought magic to life, the lightness coming only because the darkness has already passed. Unlike some of her other tales where it becomes almost laborious to figure out the precise setting and premise, Shroud of Gold was easily recognizable to those familiar with this tale, and I greatly enjoyed it.
A Fine Magic–This, this is my favorite Lanagan. The Lanagan that is simultaneously breathtaking and horrible. The story of a fascinator who attempts to entrance one of two eligible sisters to marry him, and seeks to punish them when they refuse. In a language that sounds almost like a script laying out blocking and dialog, Lanagan easily immerses us in a world that is beautiful and frighteningly bitter. Hands-down, my favorite of the collection.
Into the Clouds on High–It’s starting to feel like the closest to “happy” Margo Lanagan can come is bittersweet, and a large part of me is okay with that. This would be that one very bittersweet story in the collection. A boy, his father, and baby sister struggle together to keep their otherworldly mother grounded and with them with a higher power calls her to office. It is both charming and heart wrenching, a reminder that there are different kinds of love, and that unfortunately they can sometimes be quantified and ranked.
Catastrophic Disruption of the Head–This is the longest story in the collection, but that also makes it one of the most gripping and unforgettable. It is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Soldier and the Tin Box, and true to that man’s bleak outlook on human nature. Indeed, I think Lanagan and Andersen are kindred spirits, both reveling in sea foam and cold winter nights that can freeze a soul. Catastrophic Disruption of the Head tells the story of a soldier who gains control over three powerful supernatural dogs that he uses to fulfill every whim. Here we see the opening chasm that is desire, and how easily a mind can turn from contented to wanting more more more until there is nothing more to take. It is both disturbing and ugly, but the sentiment was so poignant that it is a story I will not soon forget. Warning here though: this story contains brutal rape and violence.
It is very confusing when you can do anything. You settle for following the urge that is strongest, and call up food, perhaps. Then this woman smiles at you, so you do what a man must do, then another man insults you, so you pursue his humiliation. While you wait for a grander plan to emerge in your head, a thousand small choices make up your life, none of them honorable.
Ferryman–Psycopomps seem to be cropping up a lot lately in my life, and as odd as that sounds, I’m more than okay with it. Ferryman is a tale told to us through the eyes of the daughter of the ferryman–the man who ferries souls over the river Styx from our world into the next, first feeding them morsels to forget about their lives and all those they loved or lost. This was the most classic YA of all the stories, one I could easily see as a full novel plot, but was quite happy to take in in this short piece. It captures so elegantly that moment when we realize we must pick up and bear the burdens of our parents, and how impossible and unavoidable this seems in times of deepest grief.
The other stories in the collection didn’t grab me in the same manner as these five, and I’ll admit–I’m not sure I understood a couple of them at all. Still. I will certainly be back for more, and seeking out Lanagan’s other color-named collections over time. She’s not a sure thing for me, and yet, she’s so utterly fascinating and gripping that I can’t not read her work.
Original review posted at Bunbury in the Stacks.
Yellowcake holds ten short stories, all snippets of vastly different lives and times. Many were downtrodden, some were spiteful, while a very few showed glimmers of true joy. Here were some of my favorites:
Shroud of Gold–This was an enchanting and different take on Rapunzel (though to be fair, I haven’t read many retellings), starting after the witch has cut off all of Rapunzel’s hair and focusing on the prince’s rescue of the woman he loves. To me, this was the one truly light story of the lot, working with the help of Rapunzel’s strands in a way that brought magic to life, the lightness coming only because the darkness has already passed. Unlike some of her other tales where it becomes almost laborious to figure out the precise setting and premise, Shroud of Gold was easily recognizable to those familiar with this tale, and I greatly enjoyed it.
A Fine Magic–This, this is my favorite Lanagan. The Lanagan that is simultaneously breathtaking and horrible. The story of a fascinator who attempts to entrance one of two eligible sisters to marry him, and seeks to punish them when they refuse. In a language that sounds almost like a script laying out blocking and dialog, Lanagan easily immerses us in a world that is beautiful and frighteningly bitter. Hands-down, my favorite of the collection.
Into the Clouds on High–It’s starting to feel like the closest to “happy” Margo Lanagan can come is bittersweet, and a large part of me is okay with that. This would be that one very bittersweet story in the collection. A boy, his father, and baby sister struggle together to keep their otherworldly mother grounded and with them with a higher power calls her to office. It is both charming and heart wrenching, a reminder that there are different kinds of love, and that unfortunately they can sometimes be quantified and ranked.
Catastrophic Disruption of the Head–This is the longest story in the collection, but that also makes it one of the most gripping and unforgettable. It is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Soldier and the Tin Box, and true to that man’s bleak outlook on human nature. Indeed, I think Lanagan and Andersen are kindred spirits, both reveling in sea foam and cold winter nights that can freeze a soul. Catastrophic Disruption of the Head tells the story of a soldier who gains control over three powerful supernatural dogs that he uses to fulfill every whim. Here we see the opening chasm that is desire, and how easily a mind can turn from contented to wanting more more more until there is nothing more to take. It is both disturbing and ugly, but the sentiment was so poignant that it is a story I will not soon forget. Warning here though: this story contains brutal rape and violence.
It is very confusing when you can do anything. You settle for following the urge that is strongest, and call up food, perhaps. Then this woman smiles at you, so you do what a man must do, then another man insults you, so you pursue his humiliation. While you wait for a grander plan to emerge in your head, a thousand small choices make up your life, none of them honorable.
Ferryman–Psycopomps seem to be cropping up a lot lately in my life, and as odd as that sounds, I’m more than okay with it. Ferryman is a tale told to us through the eyes of the daughter of the ferryman–the man who ferries souls over the river Styx from our world into the next, first feeding them morsels to forget about their lives and all those they loved or lost. This was the most classic YA of all the stories, one I could easily see as a full novel plot, but was quite happy to take in in this short piece. It captures so elegantly that moment when we realize we must pick up and bear the burdens of our parents, and how impossible and unavoidable this seems in times of deepest grief.
The other stories in the collection didn’t grab me in the same manner as these five, and I’ll admit–I’m not sure I understood a couple of them at all. Still. I will certainly be back for more, and seeking out Lanagan’s other color-named collections over time. She’s not a sure thing for me, and yet, she’s so utterly fascinating and gripping that I can’t not read her work.
Original review posted at Bunbury in the Stacks.
June 28, 2013
man i was really hoping to be more into this collection than i was
like i loved her previous sets of short stories? especially white time, that was my jam. so when i saw yellowcake was coming out i pretty much threw a party and ordered it as fast as my fingers could type
idk, most of these stories felt pretty weaksauce. like the summary sells it as 'strange disturbing weirdness! good times!!!!' and i read it and it just wasn't weird enough? if you're going to sell me a collection on the basis of 'this is going to twist your mind' it better manage to be really out there
also i think i've been reading too many books about straight people lately because the more i read the more all the stories kind of seemed to smush into a mass of super hetero families. all the mums matching with the dads and nearly no romance worth getting excited over
and 'catastrophic destruction of the head' verged on interesting but not enough to be worth the rape, like i think 'tender morsels' justified itself because it was centered on the survivors and avoided being at all prurient. i could see what she was going for with the war making monsters of men theme there but imo not worth it
it's possible i'm being extra harsh though because i had some unhappy suspicions about how the soldier was being racially coded :l
i did quite like into the clouds on high though! if the whole collection had been like that i'd've been pleased. and while i didn't much like the collection as a whole i would read an essay on how lanagan talks about work because it pops up in a lot of her stories and i think there's something interesting there. won't be me who writes it though
also i think people who haven't made a lifetime of reading every fairytale riff they could find would like the golden shroud even though i found it a little dull
in the afterword she mentions getting the idea for the golden shroud off picture this, an anthology dedicated to showing students how stories could spring from visual images. i can't really speculate on her writing process beyond what she says but i did feel most of these stories felt like they'd sprung from a single image as well, and not all of them managed to flesh it out enough to satisfy me
worth reading if you're a die hard lanagan fan; maybe just check out 'into clouds on high' and 'ferryman' if you're not. 2 stars
edit: read a couple of other reviews, figured out why golden shroud doesn't do a thing for me. i saw it described as a twist on rapunzel that gives the tale a happier ending. here's the thing about rapunzel's fairytale; it has a really kickass heroine. after the witch discovers the prince and he is blinded by thorns, rapunzel -- a woman who has lived in a tower all her life, who hasn't had the opportunity to learn much of the world -- is thrown out. she is pregnant and she is alone and d'you know what? she survives. she raises her twins and years later when she finds the prince she heals his eyes with her tears. and to take that fairytale and make it about the prince rescuing her just seems like the most boring reductive way to play it, like instead of expanding an incredible story of a woman who survives against the odds and saves her love you give her the passive role of someone to be rescued?
there's plenty of fairy tales that already fit that narrative; what a waste to change one that didn't. lanagan essentially gave over rapunzel's agency to her hair. not my idea of a happy ending
like i loved her previous sets of short stories? especially white time, that was my jam. so when i saw yellowcake was coming out i pretty much threw a party and ordered it as fast as my fingers could type
idk, most of these stories felt pretty weaksauce. like the summary sells it as 'strange disturbing weirdness! good times!!!!' and i read it and it just wasn't weird enough? if you're going to sell me a collection on the basis of 'this is going to twist your mind' it better manage to be really out there
also i think i've been reading too many books about straight people lately because the more i read the more all the stories kind of seemed to smush into a mass of super hetero families. all the mums matching with the dads and nearly no romance worth getting excited over
and 'catastrophic destruction of the head' verged on interesting but not enough to be worth the rape, like i think 'tender morsels' justified itself because it was centered on the survivors and avoided being at all prurient. i could see what she was going for with the war making monsters of men theme there but imo not worth it
it's possible i'm being extra harsh though because i had some unhappy suspicions about how the soldier was being racially coded :l
i did quite like into the clouds on high though! if the whole collection had been like that i'd've been pleased. and while i didn't much like the collection as a whole i would read an essay on how lanagan talks about work because it pops up in a lot of her stories and i think there's something interesting there. won't be me who writes it though
also i think people who haven't made a lifetime of reading every fairytale riff they could find would like the golden shroud even though i found it a little dull
in the afterword she mentions getting the idea for the golden shroud off picture this, an anthology dedicated to showing students how stories could spring from visual images. i can't really speculate on her writing process beyond what she says but i did feel most of these stories felt like they'd sprung from a single image as well, and not all of them managed to flesh it out enough to satisfy me
worth reading if you're a die hard lanagan fan; maybe just check out 'into clouds on high' and 'ferryman' if you're not. 2 stars
edit: read a couple of other reviews, figured out why golden shroud doesn't do a thing for me. i saw it described as a twist on rapunzel that gives the tale a happier ending. here's the thing about rapunzel's fairytale; it has a really kickass heroine. after the witch discovers the prince and he is blinded by thorns, rapunzel -- a woman who has lived in a tower all her life, who hasn't had the opportunity to learn much of the world -- is thrown out. she is pregnant and she is alone and d'you know what? she survives. she raises her twins and years later when she finds the prince she heals his eyes with her tears. and to take that fairytale and make it about the prince rescuing her just seems like the most boring reductive way to play it, like instead of expanding an incredible story of a woman who survives against the odds and saves her love you give her the passive role of someone to be rescued?
there's plenty of fairy tales that already fit that narrative; what a waste to change one that didn't. lanagan essentially gave over rapunzel's agency to her hair. not my idea of a happy ending
June 3, 2013
Hmm. Normally, opening up a book by Margo Lanagan is like dipping your toes into a cool spring laced with diamonds, rubies, and broken doll parts. Beautiful and strange. Yet refreshing. This collection did not impact me the way her other works have, and I am sad. Maybe it's me...it's probably me. I didn't "get" most of the stories in the collection. In fact, I had already begun my research online in order to understand two of them, when I discovered the author's "where these stories started" bit in the back (note, I almost never look in the back of a book until I get there so as not to ruin anything for myself). Even when some of the stories were explained...I still didn't get them. I think I am really and truly crushed to not know what the Fascinator DID to the sisters. What?!? Are they statues? Part of the carousel? How much of what happened in the messed up soldier's head actually happened? Why was that kid's mother dying and how would a wreath stop it? Here I feel I suffered too much weird without even being thrown a bone of sense. It's me, I think, I just hate short stories. This one is not making me change my mind. Why in the hell is it called Yellowcake? I just don't know.
June 17, 2013
Beautiful cover, dull collection. I didn't mind that it proclaimed itself as "beyond the perimeters of normal" as the inside jacket states (after all, strange can turn out to be divine), but I honestly got the impression that the stories themselves were just odd for the sake of being odd and served no real purpose. There was more than one that I simply did not understand, and honestly the stories themselves often weren't even interesting enough for me to care to figure them out. I've read that Margo Lanagan is great overall, but sadly I'm more than a little apprehensive now to give another one of her works a chance (and I probably won't).
May 14, 2013
Quick—someone teach me how to review a short story collection. I’m afraid I didn’t take notes on individual stories as I read this, so just a few words on the collection as a whole.
The book’s afterword explains not only Lanagan’s inspiration for each of these stories, which I found interesting to read, but also that the majority of these stories have been previously published elsewhere. If you’ve been a dedicated YA short story anthology reader, particularly of the SFF kind, then you may have read some of these stories already. It’s probably a good idea to know this, in order to avoid buyer’s disappointment.
The best audience for YELLOWCAKE is devoted Lanagan fans, or readers who have read a book or two by her and are curious for more. I fall into the latter, perhaps moving into the former. Like her other books, the stories in YELLOWCAKE don’t seem like they should work, but they do. In each of them is a vague echo of something familiar: I felt like I had read the essence or the ideas of some of them before. But in Lanagan’s uniquely skillful hands, the ideas turn into phantasmal sights, old and new at the same time.
I’m not sure if there’s a connecting thread running through all these stories. Sometimes I felt like I could catch hold of a connection, but then the next story comes along and dashes my tentative theories into pieces. The best I can come up with is that this short story collection persuasively argues, in a peripheral, is-it-or-is-it-not kind of way, the importance of having a little more magic—however you define it—in our lives.
The book’s afterword explains not only Lanagan’s inspiration for each of these stories, which I found interesting to read, but also that the majority of these stories have been previously published elsewhere. If you’ve been a dedicated YA short story anthology reader, particularly of the SFF kind, then you may have read some of these stories already. It’s probably a good idea to know this, in order to avoid buyer’s disappointment.
The best audience for YELLOWCAKE is devoted Lanagan fans, or readers who have read a book or two by her and are curious for more. I fall into the latter, perhaps moving into the former. Like her other books, the stories in YELLOWCAKE don’t seem like they should work, but they do. In each of them is a vague echo of something familiar: I felt like I had read the essence or the ideas of some of them before. But in Lanagan’s uniquely skillful hands, the ideas turn into phantasmal sights, old and new at the same time.
I’m not sure if there’s a connecting thread running through all these stories. Sometimes I felt like I could catch hold of a connection, but then the next story comes along and dashes my tentative theories into pieces. The best I can come up with is that this short story collection persuasively argues, in a peripheral, is-it-or-is-it-not kind of way, the importance of having a little more magic—however you define it—in our lives.
February 23, 2011
*Sigh*
I wish I could write short stories like Margo Lanagan. Or at all, really.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy of 'Yellowcake' - and I've spent the last week or so, on and off, just dipping into and out of this, her most recent collection of short stories.
Lanagan has, for a long time now, been one of my favourite practitioners of this particular writing craft; a combination of her imaginative use of language, her vivid and left-of-centre ideas, and her capacity to say so much through the gaps and silences in her writing makes her short stories into dense, sensory experiences. Readers of Lanagan's short stories will find themselves disoriented from the get-go by the language, but also by her effective use of the idea of Das Unheimlich - the uncanny.
I found this to be particularly the case with the stories in 'Yellowcake'. There is an odd familiarity which lingers behind the words of these stories, a sense that you're reading not about another world, but about a world not all that far from our own; perhaps separated by the flimsiest membrane of space/time, and not yet fully diverged.
That might not make sense to many people, I realise, but it's the best way I can describe the sensation of reading this collection. It's also the reason I'm not going to go into detail regarding specific stories in this review: to do so would be to undermine, I suspect, some of the reading pleasure.
Sadly the short story is regarded by many as a dying art, and it's a rare writer who can make them work so well. Luckily for us, Margo Lanagan is one such writer.
I wish I could write short stories like Margo Lanagan. Or at all, really.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy of 'Yellowcake' - and I've spent the last week or so, on and off, just dipping into and out of this, her most recent collection of short stories.
Lanagan has, for a long time now, been one of my favourite practitioners of this particular writing craft; a combination of her imaginative use of language, her vivid and left-of-centre ideas, and her capacity to say so much through the gaps and silences in her writing makes her short stories into dense, sensory experiences. Readers of Lanagan's short stories will find themselves disoriented from the get-go by the language, but also by her effective use of the idea of Das Unheimlich - the uncanny.
I found this to be particularly the case with the stories in 'Yellowcake'. There is an odd familiarity which lingers behind the words of these stories, a sense that you're reading not about another world, but about a world not all that far from our own; perhaps separated by the flimsiest membrane of space/time, and not yet fully diverged.
That might not make sense to many people, I realise, but it's the best way I can describe the sensation of reading this collection. It's also the reason I'm not going to go into detail regarding specific stories in this review: to do so would be to undermine, I suspect, some of the reading pleasure.
Sadly the short story is regarded by many as a dying art, and it's a rare writer who can make them work so well. Luckily for us, Margo Lanagan is one such writer.
August 18, 2013
Lanagan's stories have a startling originality, in fact they are so fresh that a few of the them were confusing (The Point of Roses) but the best of them (Night of the Firstlings and Ferryman). These last two started obscurely and the truth was slowly doled out. Many of the stories were based in part on legends or received tales that Lanagan reworks to make them new.
Since this collection is designated as Young Adult I kept trying to imagine how they would read to the designated over twelve audience. I found that challenging. Young readers may not be familiar with the genesis of the tales yet that might be an advantage since they'd have an open mind with few preconceptions however there were unsettling concepts. I know most teens have seen more scary movies than us adults but those aren't usually psychologically complicated. These stories were and that's the problem.
"Yellow Cake' is well written and psychologically insightful and most of them have a moral lesson BUT they are brutal, some of them extremely so. They include rape, death, murder, casual violence, war, hunger, and drugs. It bothers to think of Young Adults reading them but definitely anyone under 18 should be discouraged away from them. I'm in my mid 50's and was deeply disturbed by the concepts which, of course, also speak to their power. My feeling is that there's enough horror all around us without reading fiction like this. Ironically I might have been less negative if Lanagan was not such an astounding writer.
Since this collection is designated as Young Adult I kept trying to imagine how they would read to the designated over twelve audience. I found that challenging. Young readers may not be familiar with the genesis of the tales yet that might be an advantage since they'd have an open mind with few preconceptions however there were unsettling concepts. I know most teens have seen more scary movies than us adults but those aren't usually psychologically complicated. These stories were and that's the problem.
"Yellow Cake' is well written and psychologically insightful and most of them have a moral lesson BUT they are brutal, some of them extremely so. They include rape, death, murder, casual violence, war, hunger, and drugs. It bothers to think of Young Adults reading them but definitely anyone under 18 should be discouraged away from them. I'm in my mid 50's and was deeply disturbed by the concepts which, of course, also speak to their power. My feeling is that there's enough horror all around us without reading fiction like this. Ironically I might have been less negative if Lanagan was not such an astounding writer.
April 20, 2011
Yellowcake was a very odd book. I found the stories really strange and had to force myself to finish it and was relieved because I didn't have to read it anymore. The endings of the short stories and the overall plots of them were hard to follow (for me anyway). The strangest one was 'heads' which from what I gathered was about a boy who measured the circumference of dead people's heads!
There was only one story out of the ten that I kind of liked but was still a bit odd 'the golden shroud' which was a Rapunzel-esque story which was actually alright, but I just don't like Margo's type of writing. It's just not my cup of tea.
There was only one story out of the ten that I kind of liked but was still a bit odd 'the golden shroud' which was a Rapunzel-esque story which was actually alright, but I just don't like Margo's type of writing. It's just not my cup of tea.
December 4, 2015
I absolutely loveloveloveloveloved all of these stories. The very last one took me a couple tries to really get my head around. I've been a Lanagan fan for a long time now so I wasn't surprised to find myself sucked into each of these little fantasy worlds. Wowza.
to-read-slowly
May 11, 2013Another collection by Margo Lanagan? Awesome, I can't wait! Sign me up!
September 2, 2019
This is one of the most clever collections of short stories I've read in a long time. I like it even more that Red Spikes, where Lanagan brings pain (of many kinds) to life in such vibrant ways. The stories in Yellowcake have a wide emotional range and a tenderness that suffuses them, while still embracing the darkness that underpins a lot of the tales. The book works together really well, each story sort of prepares the way for the emotional world of the next one.
Every story was fantastic, although I think "Night of the Firstlings" and "Living Curiosities" are somewhat weaker than the remainder of the collection. The best stories in the book are about connection and understanding--"The Point of Roses", "Ferryman," and "Eyelids of the Dawn" in particular (and the first and last of these bookend the collection and both contain this wonderful sense of the place and overwhelming compassion. The prose is elegant and present, like the end of "The Point of Roses," which centers around a sort of telepathy wit htinges of sympathetic magic:
Every story was fantastic, although I think "Night of the Firstlings" and "Living Curiosities" are somewhat weaker than the remainder of the collection. The best stories in the book are about connection and understanding--"The Point of Roses", "Ferryman," and "Eyelids of the Dawn" in particular (and the first and last of these bookend the collection and both contain this wonderful sense of the place and overwhelming compassion. The prose is elegant and present, like the end of "The Point of Roses," which centers around a sort of telepathy wit htinges of sympathetic magic:
"And then I'll get the bat hon," said Nance. "But you'll want a smackle of something to eat, Billy. A round of sandwiches?"Throughout the book we are close to the material--whether it's the disturbing undercurrents of fairy tales like "The Tinderbox" or the dark glamor of "A Fine Magic" or the tenderness of the three I mentioned above. A fabulous read, highly recommended for all who can find it.
"You go up," said Corin. "I can do that."
She looked at him doubtfully. BUt he knew if he let her feed the boy this time, tonight might as well not have happened.
April 30, 2019
I don't even know what I just read. This was so unintelligible that it might as well have been in a foreign language.
September 25, 2023
Margo Lanagan is one of my favourite writers of short stories and this collection is fabulous! Beguiling, unsettling, profound and haunting tales that alway surprise - some of them knocked me sideways. I’m going to be thinking about them for a while!
August 7, 2023
a promising collection full of interesting ideas that were, sadly, confusing in their execution. out of the ten stories, only two struck me as amazing, namely Into the Clouds on High ⛅️ and Ferryman 🛶
looking forward to reading Black Juice in the (distant???) future 🐷
looking forward to reading Black Juice in the (distant???) future 🐷
August 11, 2013
I was really looking forward to this. Modern fairy-tale-like stories; magic realism; poetic language.
This made me want to claw my eyes out, and I actually didn't finish the very last story. I came close and realized life was too short for bad writing.
OK, that's harsh. I don't know that it was "bad," per se. It might be SOME people's cup of tea. It just wasn't MINE.
Two of the stories actually have stuck with me, a couple weeks later, enough that I can bring them to mind...so I guess those two were successful. The rest...no. Not for me. Not at all. I found most of the book to be an esoteric mess, and won't be reading any more of Lanagan's work.
This made me want to claw my eyes out, and I actually didn't finish the very last story. I came close and realized life was too short for bad writing.
OK, that's harsh. I don't know that it was "bad," per se. It might be SOME people's cup of tea. It just wasn't MINE.
Two of the stories actually have stuck with me, a couple weeks later, enough that I can bring them to mind...so I guess those two were successful. The rest...no. Not for me. Not at all. I found most of the book to be an esoteric mess, and won't be reading any more of Lanagan's work.
March 8, 2013
Margo Lanagan's ingenuity as a writer never ceases to startle and delight me. She is my favourite writer of the short story, and this is another brilliant collection of her work.
This book will sit on my shelf alongside Black Juice, White Time, Red Spikes (short story collections), as well as two of her fantasy novels, Tender Morsels and Sea Hearts/The Brides of Rollrock Island.
This book will sit on my shelf alongside Black Juice, White Time, Red Spikes (short story collections), as well as two of her fantasy novels, Tender Morsels and Sea Hearts/The Brides of Rollrock Island.
May 23, 2013
I wanted to like this book so badly. I love short stories and the second one in the book is based on fairy tales -- my favourite! And yet After I read the first two stories I put the book aside with a sigh, knowing that I had no interest in reading beyond that point. If I couldn't enjoy a story of Rapunzel reworked, I wasn't going to like any of it. It's sad, I wanted to love this.
June 10, 2013
Complete and total whack-a-doo! The writing was good, but not overwhelming. What was overwhelming was the total bananapantz-ness of the stories. I like Donald Barthleme more than the next man, but when the story is so confusing that I can't figure out what is going on 8 pages into a 20 page story, that's not economical, that is, as I said before, bananapantz (and yes, it does get the "z").
July 15, 2018
I loved it.
You think you know short stories?
It's hard to write a review for a Margo Lanagan book because I'm always tempted to oversell it.
That's because it deserves it, and I only write honest reviews.
Just read the book alright?
Then the next time your in Hobart on a Saturday buy one of those shirts that the young goth boys sell down at the market that say "Margo Lanagan is God."
You think you know short stories?
It's hard to write a review for a Margo Lanagan book because I'm always tempted to oversell it.
That's because it deserves it, and I only write honest reviews.
Just read the book alright?
Then the next time your in Hobart on a Saturday buy one of those shirts that the young goth boys sell down at the market that say "Margo Lanagan is God."
February 10, 2020
A collection of poignant and moving short stories. They each whisk you away into strange worlds, and you meet characters that are at once familiar and foreign. These are stories that will reward re-reading, and careful attention.
Want to read
February 23, 2011Dying to read it because Black Juice is my fav. short story collection of ALL time!!!
November 15, 2015
Quite a strange collection of stories...
Read
August 8, 2013I found this to be pretentious, unappealing, and baffling (in a bad way). I don't think this a major enough contender to struggle through it any longer.
January 19, 2016
this was the book I thought "the bloody chamber" would be. loved it, highly recommended if you like folklore/fairy tales
May 9, 2017
Margo Lanagan's stories are hard to categorise, because like dreams, they never settle into anything predictable or sit in any one genre. The stories here drift from fairytale to parable to supernatural, full of evocative, emotional scenery. The full category of senses is covered, and the stories often seem to be more about sensation and capturing a scene than creating a rounded plot with beginning, middle and end. This led me to some vague sense of incompleteness with some stories, but if you think of them more as strangers glimpses out a train window than full autobiographies, they make more sense.
My favourite was 'Heads' - which seemed to me to capture the strangeness and horror-made-ordinary of children struggling to grow up in a war zone.
The stories may be a little too weird for people used to more standard prose, but if you like tales with more flavour and visual imagery, they are worth looking into.
My favourite was 'Heads' - which seemed to me to capture the strangeness and horror-made-ordinary of children struggling to grow up in a war zone.
The stories may be a little too weird for people used to more standard prose, but if you like tales with more flavour and visual imagery, they are worth looking into.
February 11, 2023
I love Margo Lanagan's work. Her writing is rich and mystical and though I enjoyed this too I think full novels are better suited to her style as there is more space in them for powerful and strange images to move. Her novels 'Black juice' and 'Red spikes' blew me away. I loved every page of reading and dreaded reaching the end before I actually did as I knew I would not want to leave. I found many of the stories plots here almost drowned under the density of the language because the space was not there to absorb at a gentler pace. I also think this is something to do with me as a reader as I can see other readers would not have the problem I did. Regardless, reading Margo Lanagan is always a joy.
November 20, 2021
Read this a long time ago; some stories still stay with me.
Margo Lanagan has written another collection of dazzling, fantastical stories. Some of them just dip a toe into strange, magical places, while others dive in deep. In "The Golden Shroud," Rapunzel’s long golden hair becomes a magical creature all its own, seeking the maiden in the witch's castle and unlocking the door to her prison. In “Into the Clouds on High," a mother leaves her small family behind by simply drifting upward, out of their reach. In "Ferryman," the mythical Charon slips and falls into an underworld river, loses his own hold on life, and must pass the job on to his reluctant daughter.
Margo Lanagan has written another collection of dazzling, fantastical stories. Some of them just dip a toe into strange, magical places, while others dive in deep. In "The Golden Shroud," Rapunzel’s long golden hair becomes a magical creature all its own, seeking the maiden in the witch's castle and unlocking the door to her prison. In “Into the Clouds on High," a mother leaves her small family behind by simply drifting upward, out of their reach. In "Ferryman," the mythical Charon slips and falls into an underworld river, loses his own hold on life, and must pass the job on to his reluctant daughter.
August 30, 2017
Hmm. This collection is a bit of a conundrum for me. At best, one story (The Point of Roses) had a few of the most beautifully-written passages I've ever read; however, I can't really say I enjoyed the process of reading the it. The prose in this collecting is amazingly elusive--perhaps to a fault. I was terribly, maddeningly confused by the authors trickstery use of language, yet I kept going back for more. This is definitely a collection that you have to work for. I can't say that it is a book that I bonded with, but others with a penchant for the unconventional might enjoy it.
December 16, 2017
This is my first encounter with Margo Lanagan's work, and it did not leave a good first impression. This collection of short stories was poorly written -- where was her editor for this?? The stories were a bit too short with a plethora of plot holes and jargon (and very few context clues to explain the jargon). I read this for a Young Adult Literature class in my teacher education program -- I would absolutely NOT use this or recommend it for any of my students, unless we were looking at examples of bad writing.
November 13, 2020
This is a collection of short stories. As with most collections, there are stories that resonate with you more than others. My two favorite stories were one based on Rapunzel (Shroud of Gold) where Rapunzel’s hair has a life of its own, even after being cut from her head, and “Ferryman” where the man who ferries the dead has an accident, leading for his daughter to take over his position, which allows the perspective of the recently deceased and their families to show through. The stories are a mix of fantasy and horror and will appeal to fans of the author’s other works.
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