The Illustrated Woman

by Melissa Bobe

A young woman enters a house and doesn’t leave until after she’s long dead. A college student takes a summer job and learns to teleport through bodies of water. The sister of a suicide victim finds herself on a train that brings her nightmares to life. A girl with a unique power tries to prevent an apocalypse from overtaking her town.

THE ILLUSTRATED WOMAN is a collection that follows women in situations of hazard. The frame narrative of the book features a woman at a weekend carnival who allows her customers to gain new perspective by looking at her tattoos. Through these images on the Illustrated Woman’s skin, her customers’ eyes are opened to the many ways in which women strive to exist, to prevail, and to survive.

Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary

346 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 17, 2024

About the author

Melissa Bobe is a fiction writer living in New York. She is the author of the books NASCENT WITCH, ELECTRIC TREES, SEASON OF THE WITCH, and SIBYLS, along with many short stories. After a decade of teaching college English, during which she earned a PhD in literature along with a few other degrees, Melissa now works as a youth librarian. She's the creator of The Writing Hive and The Hive Press, and a moderator for the New York City Society of Wayward Writers. Melissa and her husband have five rescue cats (and one beloved kitty spirit) who, despite their humans' best efforts, have little reverence for the many wonderful books in their home.

Reviews

[Sydney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the structure of this with each chapter being a different short story, but some fell flat to me. A lot of these stories were really deep and thought-provoking with powerful messages, but I had to force my way through a few of them due to boredom.

[Liz Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, thank you so much to Goodreads, the publisher, and the author Melissa Bobe for the free copy of The Illustrated Woman I received via Goodreads giveaway. I am so conflicted regarding how to rate this book. It's a collection of short stories contrived to be grouped together via an opening story of a woman wandering away from the people she is with at a carnival and finding a small tent that she anticipated having a fortune teller within. There is no fortune teller, but instead she finds The Illustrated Woman. She falls into a trance like state upon gazing at the woman's many tattoos and there the short stories begin. The stories do not have a common theme, except they are all told from a female point of view and have some sort of paranormal conflict within them. I think I would have liked better if a thread ran through each story connecting it, or if they had more of an introduction to each story. As written, it feels very jumpy and disjointed. That being said, some of these stories were absolutely fantastic. Real standouts for me were Whatever We Lose (I wanted more of this one!); These Dark Deeds (phenomenal, 5 stars for this one), A Taste of a Memory (this was gorgeous and felt so poetic. The only story I felt so pulled in that I was experiencing it and not just reading words on a page); Belonging (OMG, I wanted this to be a full length novel. There was so much more in this world and story I wanted to explore); and finally Come the End, She Will Be Light (I would consider this this best story, largely because it was the only one that felt like a complete story was told). The other few stories either felt confusing or like they were interesting ideas that needed more work to be told as a story. My heart says 3.5 stars, but Goodreads doesn't do that so I'll round up to 4. I wish I could have rated each individual story, but overall I'm glad I received this book and mostly enjoyed reading it.

[The Void Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Illustrated Woman by Melissa Bobe is a compelling collection of speculative fiction stories that explore the lives of women in extraordinary and often perilous situations. The book is tied together by a fascinating frame narrative, where a woman at a weekend carnival allows her customers to gain new perspectives by looking at her tattoos. Through these images on her skin, readers are introduced to the myriad ways in which women strive to exist, prevail, and survive.

Some of the standout stories include:

A young woman who becomes trapped in a house, unable to leave even after her death.

A college student who takes a summer job and discovers the ability to teleport through bodies of water.

The sister of a suicide victim who finds herself on a train that brings her nightmares to life.

A girl with a unique power trying to prevent an apocalypse from overtaking her town.

Melissa Bobe's writing is both strange and sublime, with a touch of the sinister. Her ability to craft immersive and eerie narratives keeps readers on the edge of their seats. If you enjoyed some of the stories, the entire collection is likely to be an engaging and thought-provoking read.

[Mackenzie Barrera Nunnally · Rating 2 out of 5]

Won this book in a giveaway. DNF at 15%.

The premise of this book is that a woman at a carnival has customers that look into her tattoos, see a story, and gain a new perspective on life. Each chapter is a new short story.

I love the premise but the execution fell flat to me. There is no resolution to each of the short stories. And only the first chapter actually has the customer interacting with the illustrated women. The rest of the chapters just start abruptly with a new story and new customer with no explanations.

Maybe there would have been more of a resolution or explanation at the end of the book, but I don’t have the desire to push through it.

The writing style was also difficult for me to read and felt a little unnatural.

[Stuart Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's a collection of stories that'll enchant, haunt and mesmerize you to no end...just a wonderful collection...!

Along the line as the decades earlier book 'The Illustrated Man'...this is just a great read...

And with all the different kinds of stories...this will enchant just about anyone...

If you want to run with your imagination...and have a blast with a seriously imaginative read...here's your book!

Highly Recommended!

[Emmy Banks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. It is a book of short stories, which typically isn't my jam, but this was done so well. I felt like each story connected to each other in the theme of the book even though the characters were not connected. The overall theme really gets you thinking and really kept me hooked. The book starts out with a woman at a traveling carnival who allows her customers to see peoples stories by looking at her tattoos. In Melissa's words, "Through these images on the Illustrated Woman's skin, her customers eyes are opened to the many ways in which women strive to exist, to prevail, and to survive." I loved the spooky and at times odd stories. They gave me goosebumps and made me think. Each story took me to a different place. I felt like one of the characters in the book who was walking through the odd museum (If you read this book you'll see what I mean). Melissa's writing has such a way of invoking emotion and she is so descriptive. Five stars for me!

[Christine Timmo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this in a giveaway. The stories were good, but many seemed to finish in the middle of the action, which is not for me. I like to see more of a resolution.

[Sam Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm normally not for open ended stories, but these almost aren't.
If you want to speed past it, you can assume the ending, but on a deeper level it could be so much more.