Felan's Fables

by Jamie Yourdon

A boy with bones made of wicker. A girl with a heart made of glass. A bride who marries a worm, a mother who gives birth to a teacup, and always watching, but rarely seen, the meddlesome “little people.” This collection of sixty fables features simple souls wrestling with dark desires. In Felan’s world, not everything is as it appears to be, yet some things are -- for better or worse -- exactly so.

195 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 9, 2026

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

A collection of short stories that don't seem to actually be fables, as they aren't teaching any sort of moral lessons. The stories are passable.

[Yelena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mix a large portion of assorted mid-century European absurdism (paying careful attention to Ionesco) into a bubbling stew of Jaroslav Hacek and Haruki Murakami that was infiltrated by trace amounts of Joseph Heller, Thomas Pynchon, and JG Ballard, and get ready to dive into the world of Felan's Fables.

Be pretty angry at the author after the third one and then find yourself all-in for the rest that follow.

This is not your mama's Aesop and I encourage you to abandon preconceptions and let the author take you on this charming, confounding, dizzying journey. In an expanse of sameness, I was delighted to be transported to such an unexpected land and thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

[Tamara Barringer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories, sort of. Some don't really have an ending or much of a point. Most have dark twists.

[Jasper · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25

I won this book from a goodreads giveaway

A fun little collection of fables. I liked how they were interconnected and seeing the recurring characters.

[Aileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read and greatly enjoyed novels by this author before, I thought I knew what to expect going in to this collection of fables but I was still pleasantly surprised. Reading it is like eating a feast comprised only of bite-sized morsels, each expertly composed with unexpected but well-balanced ingredients.

The fables share a similar structure without being overly repetitive or trite. They're emotional but not mawkish or moralizing. I enjoyed the world building which felt both familiar and expected for a series of fables (old-world monarchy, peasants and townsfolk) but often incorporating more modern family and social dynamics in a way that felt natural.

A few characters pop up repeatedly (mean-spirited little people and a soldier with ears like jug handles as examples) and frequently there are more subtle references to previous fables that add cohesion to the collection.

I was sad to reach the end, particularly because there were more than a few threads left unresolved but found the last fable to be a moving and satisfying conclusion to the experience of reading this book.

[Betsy Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was mesmerizing in a way I haven't experienced in a long time. From the first pages, I had to know more, and the way the structure of this mythical world unfolded itself was fascinating. Every story by itself is interesting and unsettling, and you never know what twist it will take across a 4-5 page span. But as you read, you start to pick out the threads -- characters who recur, thematic constructs, components of the world itself. You learn more as you read on.

This is not to say that this book is a cohesive whole - it doesn't try to be. It tells stories in tantalizingly short bites, and what you find at the end is the shape of understanding its world. From the first page, I could not put it down. Having read it, I almost immediately wanted to read it again, putting each story in the wider context I had earned by reading the first time through.

[Jeffrey Malamy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! Many of the fables start off with an engaging and accessible premise, yet what happens next is unpredictable, delightfully confounding, odd and hilarious. It's tough to avoid searching for a moral in each tale, so to relax that reflex I sought out connections among the fables, trying to understand the rules and history of Felan's world.
My favorite part of this book was rereading it; when I read some of the fables out loud to my partner so many of the details hit differently in revealing, touching, disturbing, and humorous ways.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting read. My biggest problem with short stories, this one suffers from it too, is that sometimes theyre too short. A lot of them I would start to get into and then it ends, and it feels like it doesnt have a satisfying conclusion. I found myself say “what? thats it?” a lot. I will say that I did find several of them funny. I would be very interested in seeing what this author does in the future because i did really enjoy their writing