The Melancholia of the Grotesque

by Katie Seaver

The Melancholia of the Grotesque is a gothic horror short story collection centred around women killing people, eating people, and losing sense of reality. These stories are atmospheric, woefully written pieces on solitude, girlhood, existentialism, derealisation and misery. They detail the journeys of different women, all isolated and miserable in their own ways as they navigate the utter horrors that occur both in their bodies and in their minds.

The Melancholia of the Grotesque explores philosophical ideas about identity and women’s place in the world, while detailing gruesome scenes of body horror and excruciating feelings of solitude. This collection contains 20 short stories written by Irish author Katie Seaver, with influences such as Bram Stoker, Franz Kafka, Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelley, Albert Camus, Julia Armfield, Sayaka Murata, Mieko Kawakami, Vladimir Nabokov, Simone de Beauvoir, Junji Ito, Clarice Lispector and Oscar Wilde.

“I feel my soul slipping away from the only vessel I possess that connects me to this world. I am living in a hell of my own making, forced to relive my own lonesome life forever.”

Genres: Horror, Gothic, Short Stories, Fiction

123 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 15, 2024

Reviews

[Georgina]

yeah actually no sorry i can’t be bothered with how bad the writing is. it makes me feel like a five year old.

[paige marie ⋆˚꩜｡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was so so so so beautiful. i am SO obsessed with it!!!!! i believe the writing to be incredible and i adore these stories with my whole soul. some, of course, weren't my favs, but i still somewhat enjoyed them all. if you ever read my copy of this.. well.. don't. WAY too personal. this is also my last (annotated) book of the year <3 i posted an in depth review on tiktok!

[kehindeslibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

have you ever walked to your kitchen in the middle of the day, ravenous with a maddening hunger, desperately craving for a snack?

You look around your kitchen, open the cupboards, look inside the fridge and find nothing, until you stumble upon the fruit basket in the middle of the dining table? you smile to yourself, finally something to eat. You pick up a piece of fruit, about to dig in until you see that’s it’s rotten to the core.

You grimace in disgust, in anger, in frustration and throw the stupid fruit in the bin (or on the floor if you’re careless) and stomp back to your room.

Well, reading this book was a little something like that:)

The Melancholia of The Grosteque is a gothic horror short story collection about cannibalism, existentialism and girlhood. The writing in this book is sickening, beautiful and disgustingly vivid.

There were certain things because described and I remember reading in bed and grimacing because of how nasty it was, but then I smirked at how well the writing was:)

Short story collections are always a hit or miss, but I think this one is worth the read.

Favourite stories in the collection:

- Spectacle of Femininity
- Everything Yet Nothing
- Post-Suicide Notes
- Hellish
- Spilled Blood

[Miska · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dreadful

I impulsively bought this cuz i really like the cover and a gothic horror collection where women lose their minds sounded right up my ally but this was just not great. The writing was simple and mediocre, this was just rehashing everything u see on social media ( specifically on tiktok) that falls into the “ weird girl niche” , it felt so soulless and flat. I was also just rolling my eyes at all the references like “ one must imagine Sisyphus happy 🤓 “ “ i have no mouth yet i must scream “ , “ killing eve was what she needed to do”. Wouldn’t u want to make your first book yours truly? Why add all those other authors and retellings of their story? I also found mistakes in terms of grammar and even within the story? On page 91 a complete different name is used for one line for an already established character ? After reading that this was written in 2 months , self published and edited by a 16yo it all made sense.
There were some stories that were good or had an interesting premise! but with those I always wished that they went on for at least one more page! The endings were unimpressive and bland, there was no build up and if something interesting was happening it just ended abruptly like “ oohh thats cool oh ok its over i guess” . It also became repetitive when most of the ending were just women randomly dying or the” there was actually no xyz 😱”. In my opinion there is toooooo many stories in this and scraping half of them to work on those that actually had potential would have been better.

The ones i liked were : pareidolic house of unstable women “, “aphorisms of a sinful woman” and “ post suicide notes”

[Helena · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book is disgusting, body horror is well written in this and if you enjoy cannibalism this book is for you. Despite the repetitiveness of grotesque and monotonous mentions of blood, blood, blood everywhere (which is forgivable since she wrote the book at 16 years old) I still enjoyed half of it for the most part. I couldn't help raising some ethical concerns about the publishing of this book though. Amazon? Really?

With what is going on in America and world, supporting billionaires is insensitive to say the least. I couldn't help but catch irony in this, the book deals with feminist themes of misery especially in girlhood and the suffering of people ignoring how this whole text is published in a corporation that is the cause of the suffering for more than millions. I would be somewhat sympathetic if this book came as a last effort financial plead from a disabled mother of three kids that has no other way to make income but this book is from a 16-17 year old girl who wrote it like she had nothing better to do whilst still living at her parents and I doubt has any financial burdens on her own.

The author also seems to romanticise the life of a teenage author. So this whole book seems to me like it was published just so she could tell others she was a teen writer ignoring how unethical of the choice she made is. This raises a question why couldn't she go through more ethical traditional publishing route and I wonder was it because normal publishing house wouldn't take her book because it is mediocre? Billionaires are the reason for the death of multiple people each day so it truly baffles me what was the hurry or need to publish a book at that site other than pride and accessory title of a teen author. It just does not fit to have these heavy themes of suffering, girlish melancholy and philosophical dread compared with unethical, billionaire supporting ground on which this book stands.

[jalyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I haven’t had the motivation to write reviews lately, but this is the first book I’ve read in a long time that I actually dislike. To the point where I feel like I need to vent to get out my frustration that I wasted time I could have spent reading something actually worthwhile.

I’ll get the positives out of the way, because there aren’t many. The title is great, way too cool for the contents of the book. The cover is beautiful? I will say that there are some good lines sprinkled in between all the atrocious writing, I’ll give the author that. I do really like some of the quotes I highlighted. I wish they could have been a part of a better book. I thought this would be right up my alley. I’m very much into gothic literature, horror, and stories about women losing touch with reality and spiraling out in disturbing ways. This fell short, to say the least.

The only reason why I didn’t “DNF” this book was because I kept telling myself maybe it’ll get better, and it’s so short that I thought I could get through it in no time anyway. I slogged through this. The writing is honestly so soulless and elementary it made me feel like throwing my kindle at the wall at times. I can tell it was written by a 16 year old in 2 months, what with all the grammar/punctuation issues, as well as the unbearable pretentiousness. I think “viscera” has to be the author’s favorite word, because it was used over and over and over again. In fact. the writing in general was overly repetitive and the dialogue was stiff and even cringey. People don’t talk like that, this isn’t how conversations work.

The stories/characters were very poorly fleshed out, and none of the endings were satisfying nor did they shock me like how the author intended. I can tell the book was self published, because any respectable publishing house wouldn’t have touched it, and for good reason. It could have been good, core idea of it was solid. It just didn’t pan out. As someone who loves horror and isn’t disturbed by reading about gore/dark topics- it felt like the author was just saying things to be edgy. It was over the top in such an unsatisfying way.

Alright, I’m done ranting. I know I bitched a lot, but on a more positive note- I think the author has interesting ideas, and she clearly has a lot of knowledge about classic literature. She picked out some of my favorite stories to interpret. Like I said earlier- I did love the lines I highlighted from the book. The writer clearly has it in her to create something fantastic. I just wish instead of publishing this, it was used as a rough draft for her to sculpt out. There is a lot of potential, it just needs time and practice to nurture. Don’t rush perfection.

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm actually mutuals with the author on TikTok and I was waiting until the day it came out. Honestly, everyone should read The Melancholia of the Grotesque. The storytelling is amazing, it truly captures your full attention and you can't look away. Go Katie!!

[Shannon Smit · Rating 5 out of 5]

“ There is nothing more terrifying than losing control over your own mind and body “

This book was recommended to me by a friend and I must say I was surprised to see that there were no reviews on this book.
The Melancholia of the Grotesque is a series of 20 beautifully written short horror stories.
Now I will be honest horror stories were never something that I was interested in but these stories were so much more than just that. They covered many deeper thoughts about women’s inner thoughts.
There are some gruesome topics explored in this book like the eating of other humans but there written in a way that those topics don’t feel as gruesome or disturbing as they should.
This book is personalised to the Author with a list of her favourite quotes at the back which I thought was a lovely touch.
The Authors note is also a great personal touch including details about them as an author and there journey through writing there debut book. After reading it I feel I almost know them personally.
If you’ve read this whole review please read this book you will not regret it because I certainly don’t.

[An Vo]

I admire the author for being able to write and self-publish a book at such a young age (16, super impressive); however, the writing is... not good. The prose is simple, and not in a good way. I hope the author continues to write and improve her craft though.

[holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I missed the simplicity of childhood for all the years after i was done being a child."

WOW I'm in shock how someone my age has written & published this.

A detail i liked & noticed was how the stories progressively got sadder & more 'lonely' i guess. The stories went from having two or more characters to just one. Maybe that wasn't on purpose but still.

My favourite stories were The inescapable hell of being Statuesque, A natural death & Fae's metamorphosis. But there were also very good stories i didn't say here.

I kind of wish the stories were longer and maybe even full length books but of course beggars can't be choosers especially with how many stories are in this.

The only thing i didn't like was the cannabolism. Just because that sorta stuff freaks me out.

I really recommend if you're into modern classics (& classics). It also reminded me of poetry books you can buy.

Anyway that's all :)

[Charlotta Vanamo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is amazing. The writing and storytelling is wonderful. All of the stories were interesting and made me ponder a great deal. Some more than others. If I had to name my favourites I’d propably say Everything yet Nothing, Spectacle of Femininity, A Natural Death, Hellish and Haunted by the Ghost of My Own Mind. Don’t ask me to pick one favourite, it’d be impossible. One thing I didn’t really enjoy in this book was the cannibalism, but that’s just me. There were maybe a few stories that I wasn’t as curious about, but they were still very good. The book is great. It even almost made me cry once (or twice) and I’m not a big crier when it comes to books. This should definetly get more recognition and I’m so happy Tik tok introduced me to this. Also very glad about the valuable reading experience I had. I am now a proud owner of the paperback version that can now sit in my bookshelf for many years onward. Keep up the great work. Lots of love from Finland. LOVED IT

[Marcey Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my typical read but this book truly makes you take a step back and really think. Although it is laden with gruesome and gory details depicting absolutely insane situations, that is the authors intent. I think the philosophical inclusions were done well and it tugs at the reader. I really enjoyed “Another kind of prey”. I would be absolutely enthralled to see that in a full length novel! This book and author has so much potential and I can’t wait to see what they produce next.

[Caitlin Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird girl fiction at its finest!

This book was definitely a very graphic read, but some of these stories involve things I think about, like ‘what if’ I did this or that… of course I would never act upon these things. But it’s good to read something from someone who has such ‘grotesque’ and macabre thoughts as I do sometimes.

[Louie Palmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

6 characters in the first sentence.

[Katie Curran · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I did rate this book quite low, I do want to acknowledge the fact that this book comes from a young, self-published author. This is an incredibly impressive feat, and I if the author does by any chance read this review, I want her to know that she should absolutely continue to pursue writing. She clearly is very well read, and can write much better than most her age. I hope that she will understand that my criticisms come from a constructive place, and that no matter what I (or anyone else) says, she should be so proud of her accomplishment.

To begin, I understand that this book was a side-project that was written in two months with all of the work being done by Seaver herself. While I commend her independence, it may have done ger well to hire an editor and recruit some beta readers, as there were many small mistakes I noticed trailing throughout the book, mostly just grammatical mistakes. I won't dwell on that, as it would be pedantic, and those small mistakes were not considered in the way I rated the book, I am simply leaving that there for advice for future projects.

I think my overall criticism is that Seaver doesn't write as herself. It is obvious that she has great ideas, and has some amazing concepts for stories, but it is hard to comfortably read her writing style, as it is written in a forcibly older style, making dialogue sound unnatural and takes some of the sincerity out of the characters. I understand the need to show off more "impressive" vocabulary, but it often is written as though the author has a word in mind and writes the sentence around the word, rather than using that vocabulary as it is needed. This can be seen with the repetitive use of words like "viscera". I think it would be interesting to see Seaver write in a style that is more natural to her, rather than embodying the works of others.

To carry on from the previous point, while this is a heavily influenced anthology of short stories, there are points where the originality is lost completely. I appreciated so many of the references to classical literature, but there were points where the influence overtook the art. For example, in the chapter "Aphorisms of a Sinful Woman", Seaver retells Edgar Allen Poe's "A Telltale Heart" through a women's perspective, with themes of romance more heavily prominent. While I have no problem with retellings, often the rewriting became to similar to the original, with multiple paragraphs running completely parallel to the original tale, much dialogue being taken completely from Poe's work. My issue with this is not that it is unoriginal, but because I'm sure Seaver could have taken a much more different approach here, and made the tale completely her own. She shows a well of talent through her writing, and I would have loved to see more of her originality in this chapter.

A final point of criticism and advice is for Seaver to focus on quality over quantity. This book is 150 pages long, with 20 short stories. I think if she cut this down to 10 or less stories, she would have had much more time to expand her stories and really ensure they are of a higher quality. The ideas are there, and they are great, but it feels as though they are rushed, the pacing becoming more of a 'play by play' with less room for description. Events are relayed like a police report, and certain lines read more like essays. I do want to note that quality description does not only include using "impressive vocabulary", but really taking the time to describe the events and imagery as they happen. For example, in chapter one, a black sludge begins killing the inhabitants of the house. I would have loved to hear more of a description of the sludge. It is, after all, an abnormal creation. What could it have been likened to, what other sensory experiences would it have invoked (did it smell bad, how did it feel when it lunged on its victims?). Perhaps, a good way to get around this lack of description is to avoid the omniscient narrator, who often describes the thoughts and feelings of all characters, and only focus on one perspective. This would slow the story down, giving more time for description, and will allow the reader to make discoveries alongside the chosen character.

Okay, that was a big chunk of criticisms, but I want to reiterate that this is incredible writing for a sixteen year old, and to be able to pull it together in two months is just so impressive. But, this two month deadline may have been an obstacle, as it usually takes a lot more time to ensure the book is of high quality on all measures. If the author publishes another book (which I really hope she does, and I will absolutely be buying it), I'd advise she considers at least hiring an editor, beta readers, and perhaps a cover designer.

Now, onto the praise! Seaver explores incredibly relatable topics through macabre tales, and leaves the reader wondering. Themes of love, loneliness, death, fear, female anger, and the struggles of womanhood are explored in very raw and original ways. I appreciate greatly the presentation of these tales in a grotesque, and real way. The characters and themes are not fully romanticised in the way they often are in more superficial stories, but rather are shown in their true form. We see women getting angry, we see women become violent, we see depravity and hopelessness and we can relate to it because that is the reality of humans.

Seaver takes influence from incredibly thoughtful sources, and is very obviously well read. It is amazing for younger girls to pursue knowledge and philosophy, as it sets them up for a lifetime of fulfilling discussions, and allows for works like this to come to fruition. She knows much more about these subjects at sixteen than many people will come to know in their whole lives. To see it reflected in her writing is incredible.

While I did say that the descriptive work could be improved, there are of course many moments of imagery that prompt a world of imagination to be opened, such as bleeding statues, a deprived woman finding the beauty in a rotten corpse, a home of intellectuals being attacked by a paranormal slime, and so much more. The originality and unique imagery displayed in this work is just incredible.

Overall, while I think some more can be done to improve, I highly commend Seaver on the effort she has put into this, and I hope to see her name on more covers. Again, despite my low rating, I do recommend that if anyone is thinking about reading this, they do! It can easily be read in less than a day, and is definitely worthwhile!

[Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t want to be too negative considering this is written by someone who is quite young but my GOD is the writing style insufferable… it’s like very simple sentence structures— ‘_____ did this, and she was _____’— except there are ridiclously long words thrown in every few of sentences for the sake of sounding intelligent. To be fair though, given the format being short stories, I do understand TO SOME EXTENT why structures of the sentences aren’t too complex.
The dialogue is unfortunately unrealistic, even if you consider the fact it’s inspired by gothic literature. The characters don’t speak like characters from the modern age, nor characters from centuries-old gothic novels.
There are some punctuation issues, eg. ‘Assuming that this was not you of course.’ This line, for example, could definitely be improved if the author just put a comma between ‘you’ and ‘of’. In general, I think the book would read a lot better if there was much more variety in the punctuation. There’s really only full stops, question marks, and commas (though not enough, in my opinion).
Very very tropey. Imagine an irritatingly pretentious TikTok Kafka and Dostoevsky reader having a child with a pomegranate-obsessed TikTok ‘poet’ who believes cannibalism is the most powerful metaphor in literature— it’d be this book.
It’s a decent attempt at a book and better than a lot of 16 year olds could write but I’d advise the author to think originally instead of mindlessly indulging in asinine, overused online literary tropes. Also, I think the author would work a lot better with longer novels as it’d give them a chance to flesh out their VERY simple sentences which do seem a bit juvenile.
Also, being pretentious isn’t a good thing. You’ll never become some great established author if you take pride in the fact your work is so ‘pretentious’ when it’s only ‘pretentious’ because it’s quite poorly written yet marketed as some great, serious piece of literature for deep thinkers and intellectuals…

[Mar Moon · Rating 4 out of 5]

the writing of this book is BEAUTIFUL!! I don't read many short stories books, but this was really good! I enjoyed all the stories (some more than others, of course) and I genuinely believe there isn't a single bad one. Also this kind of felt like reading a book that could be a classic imo. And the concept in "Spilled blood" kind of reminded me of Pirandello. This book deserves way more hype, I hope it gets more recognition. The author did a fantastic job, especially since she did everything by herself. And I hope in the future to get to read other books by her! :)

[wik · Rating 2 out of 5]

The problem with this book is that you can clearly see a 15 yo wrote it in 2 months - and it's not something to be proud of. Some parts were great and quite relatable, but there weren't many of them. I feel like advertising it as a gothic horror is misleading because it didn't feel like gothic at all and lacks the genre's depth. The writing style felt wattpad-ish, and there were several typos. The cover and the description sold this book to me, but the stories weren't it. Simply a 15/16 yo girl trying a bit too hard to be pretentious

[Tegan Bevan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book perfectly sums up the gruesome thoughts of a teenage girl yet makes them poetic and even beautiful. As disturbing as some stories were, I was drawn in by each one and each character brought on more thoughts and questions. Honestly, I probably should not have read this, since it's too thought provoking and I may spiral but I couldn't resist. I loved how it let me indulge my disturbing thoughts and gave them legs almost.

[zowiemandarin · Rating 4 out of 5]

weird girls do it better!! loooved the references to books, movies and songs♥️
my 3 favorite stories:
–spilled blood
–post-suicide notes
–the picture of ophelia's corpse
── .✦
"i shall never compare to you. i have stopped trying to be anything because i know that you will always be more. i should punch this window of perception with all of the anger within me and slit my own throat with the glass of which i have broken"

[katie s · Rating 5 out of 5]

i wrote this book!!! i’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to write and publish a book that i am beyond proud of. thank you to everyone who gives an ounce of support to my book, i appreciate everything <3

[Tyler Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

tormented like kafka, witty like dostoevsky, and bizarre like poe. read this while in intense inpatient for an eating disorder. it has been an unexpected oasis to crack this thing open and read a few stories.

[Addy Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg this book killed me it’s so good. I will always recommend this book bc it’s so creative and beautifully written.

[Tala❦︎]

Was not my cup of tea

[Lilah · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS BOOK?

This book did not only get me out of my reading slump, but it also very quickly became one of my favourite of all time. A classic in the making!

[xoxo, Deztiny · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF’d at 17%.

The writing is abhorrent. I only gave it two stars because the first story in the collection had a good body-horror concept. May return to this at a later date.