The Slantwise Histories: Collected Stories

by Alix E. Harrow

From the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of The Everlasting and Starling House comes a new fantastical collection of stories about tricksters and ghosts, magics ordinary and spectacular. Alix E. Harrow spins tales never-told and seen just outside the periphery of reality--in the tradition of Angela Carter, Anne Sexton, and Carmen Maria Machado, these hauntingly resonant and defiant stories leap from the page and dance in and out of a history that never was (but could have been) and into a future startingly like our own.

Before I was a liar I was a historian, which is a kind of storyteller who doesn’t make any money and likes footnotes.

These are stories about the past as it wasn’t quite, but might have been, from ancient battlefields all the way up through roadside attractions off I-70. They’re about the people caught in the mean jaws of history: the women and workers, the soldiers and mothers, everyone shoved into the margins of the world.

But these aren’t singular tragedies―these are the stories of the ones that got away. The ones who defected and dissented, who broke the rules, who ran and tossed a match behind them. SLANTWISE HISTORIES AND OTHER STORIES collects the best known short fiction of Alix. E. Harrow, including the Hugo-award winning "A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies" and for the first time in print, Amazon original titles "The Six Deaths of the Saint" and "The Knight and the Butcherbird". Updated to reflect the author's preferred editions, Slantwise Histories also includes "The Long Way Up", "Roadside Attraction", "Mr. Death", "The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly", "The Sycamore and the Sybil", "Do Not Look Back, My Lion", "The Whisper in the Weld", "Dustbaby", and four all-new short stories.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Adult, Anthologies, Fiction

304 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication October 20, 2026

About the author

a former academic, adjunct, cashier, blueberry-harvester, and kentuckian, alix e. harrow is now a full-time writer living in virginia with her husband and their semi-feral kids.

she is the hugo award-winning and nyt-bestselling author of THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY (2019), THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES (2020), a duology of fairytale novellas (A SPINDLE SPLINTERED and A MIRROR MENDED), STARLING HOUSE (2023) and various short fiction. her next book, THE EVERLASTING, will be out on october 28th, 2025!

her writing is represented by kate mckean at howard morhaim literary agency.

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email: alixeharrow at gmail.com
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**I AM NOT ON FACEBOOK OR TWITTER, nor will i ever offer to connect you with my "marketing team." this is a scam.

Reviews

[h o l l i s]

we're getting THE SIX DEATHS OF THE SAINT in p r i n t.

[Raquel Flockhart]

Looking forward to reading these stories, and especially excited to finally have The Six Deaths of the Saint in print!

[Alex]

"Six Deaths of the Saint" in print? SAY LESS.

[Korynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall Rating: 3.4/5 stars (rounded up)
I have been a fan of Alix Harrow since her first novel, and I will continue to read everything she writes. I admit I wasn’t the most excited to hear her next book would be a short story collection as I tend to not really enjoy short stories, but of course I had to give it a read regardless. I do wonder why some of Harrow’s short stories were excluded from this collection, such as “Patience and Not-Forsaken” and “The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage.” Regardless, I am glad to have more of Harrow’s words to consume, and I think this is a solid collection of stories. Fans of Alix E. Harrow’s voice and beautiful writing style and flawed but deeply human characters will love this collection. I really enjoyed most of the stories myself, and there are many in here that I know I will read again and again.

The Tale of the Two Brothers, or, The Famous Folklorist Confesses Fratricide!—4.5/5 stars
This story was sad but it was also really good. A moral fable of two brothers and the price of greed, a fairytale about wolves and love and what it means to be an honest liar. This was the longest story in this collection, and it deserved every page.

Mr. Death—4/5 stars
I really liked this story. It’s about a reaper who has the job of reaping a little boy who reminds him of his son. The story was tender and more hopeful than I expected.

A Whisper in the Weld—2.5/5 stars
A story of the ghost of a woman during the war who became the ghost of a building and watched over her children. It was an interesting concept, and I liked how Harrow told the story as far as her writing style goes, but the story itself was just okay for me, enjoyment-wise.

The Knight and the Butcherbird—3/5 stars
Original rating from Mar. 2025: 3/5 stars
I had already read this story only one year ago but I remembered nothing about it; it was like I was reading it for the first time again. It’s about a knight who is sent to a village to hunt a demon, and the outlander village girl who tries to stop him. I liked the story and I liked how it ended, but I still don’t think it will stick with me.

The Six Deaths of the Saint—1.5/5 stars
Original rating from Nov. 2022: 1/5 stars
This story could be turned into a full-length novel with the amount of details that are alluded to but never expounded upon. The story is telling the life of a warrior who has become the prince’s “devil,” but the entire story is just telling instead of showing. Years fly by in paragraphs. Epic battles are over in just a sentence. This story needed so much more than it was given. I think I’m the only person alive who likes Alix E. Harrow but did not like this story. I will say, if you liked The Everlasting, you are sure to like this story, and vice versa; they have the same vibes and are both stories about lady knights that are told entirely without “showing” any details in the life of the lady knight, and they are both stories that I did not like but that everyone else seems to love. The only thing I enjoyed about this one was that it is told in second-person, my favorite POV to read from.

The Final Voyage of the Good Ship Fortune—1.5/5 stars
The story of a shipwrecked sailor talking to a sea creature. I didn’t really care for this story, but I do think the ending was fitting.

Do Not Look Back, My Lion—2/5 stars
This has the feel of a historical epic, but unfortunately I didn’t really care for it. A woman at home tries to convince her pregnant warrior wife not to go into battle. The baby in vitro is the real main character as that’s who the focus of the whole narrative is on. This story was both sad and hopeful at the same time.

The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly—4/5 stars
A fun and subversive epistolary short story about a fairy queen who steals a child and corresponds with the child’s mother to bargain for her return. I liked this one, and I really liked how it ended.

The Long Way Up—3.5/5 stars
Original rating from Sept. 2023: 4/5 stars
A woman walks the long way down to the underworld to bring her deceased husband back. This story felt unique in the way it was told, which I appreciated. I liked it, even though it’s a little sad and the ending was ambiguous.

Up in Flames (Working Title)—5/5 stars
Okay, I loved this story. Definitely my favorite in the collection. It’s written as a manuscript being sent to the editor for review, and it has the editor’s comments in it, so there’s the underlying story and then also the one-sided communication the editor is having with the author. I loved that idea, but on top of that I just loved the entire story altogether. I don’t want to say more about the plot because I think this is one of those stories that best read without knowing much beforehand, but do know it’s about love and curses and rebellion and joy.

A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies—5/5 stars
I loved the idea in this story that librarians are witches and they can tell what book a person wants to read based on the scent of the person and how the book literally calls out to them. I fully support the idea of librarians being witches who are able to discern the exact books patrons need and when they need them. There is a magical quality to librarians when you’re younger, and this story takes that idea and makes it real. The writing was excellent and the ending was perfect. I need a whole novel about these witchy librarians, please.

Dustbaby—4/5 stars
This is such an unusual story, but I enjoyed it. The land is changing in strange and unprecedented ways, alluding to the end of the world. A woman finds a baby in a field. Is it her baby she lost, or is it a baby made of the dust of earth, a harbinger of the end? The voice of the narrator is so distinct and really lends to this story being told by an uneducated farm woman in the ’30s. Harrow is very good at writing beautiful sentences while still being able to change her style and word choice to fit the narrative, and this story is really indicative of that.

The Sycamore and the Sybil—4/5 stars
A story of a tree who used to be a woman who used to be a witch. She exists in a forest and watches those who come and go. The tree develops an interest in a particular woman who has come to her truck and is in need of some help. Another enjoyable story with a sad yet hopeful ending.

Roadside Attraction—2.5/5 stars
Original rating from July 2023: 2.5/5 stars
This must be a pretty forgettable story because I had no recollection of having read it before. A young man goes on time-traveling journeys, searching for his destiny. It’s sci-fi lite—the focus is on the main character and what he thinks and learns from his journeys rather than on the actual time-traveling element. I liked the moral of the story that your destiny is what you choose it to be and sometimes it’s right here with you all along.

The Last Archive—4/5 stars
Yet another story that is both sad and hopeful. This is a post-apocalyptic tale told when the world has become radioactive and the Company owns and rules all, but Verity Graves is a woman out to destroy corporate greed and protect the joys of life. It's told from the perspective of Verity's long-time friend, and once again I love Harrow's narrative voice in this story as she fully delves into the mind of the flawed yet redeemable Vex. A solid tale to end this collection with.

I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher via Edelweiss.

[Sammantha Gilbert]

Physical copy of six deaths of the saint sign me the fuck up

[Colby · Rating 4 out of 5]

the gorgeous debut short story collection by the incomparable alix e. harrow, the slantwise histories is precisely what you'd expect from its perfect title: tales set across time, intertwined by their portrayals of raw humanity and the ways their characters are haunted by the pleasures and perils of life—by faith, love, justice, identity, and hope. i'd only read two of the enclosed stories before, so diving into the slantwise histories was a dream of an experience, following characters at the margins of their society as they find a reason to go on (or, in some cases, to find a good death).

as with most short story collections, not all the stories here hit the same for me, but they're all incredibly solid and i can't recommend the collection enough, especially for fans of alix e harrow who are clamoring for more of her signature voice. particular favorites of mine are ​the six deaths of the saint, mr. death, a whisper in the weld, up in flames, a witch's guide to escape: a practical compendium of portal fantasies, and the last archive.

[Gretal · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a story collection!! I think a lot of people will pick this up because it contains The Six Deaths of the Saint (which did give me a bit of a breakdown upon reread because of everything that is the short story but also the echoes that you can see in The Everlasting), but the rest of the stories are also fantastic. I can't wait to purchase a copy of this book for my shelf.