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Unwelcome Bodies
Pain. Pleasure. The sensation of touch.we feel everything through our skin, that delicate membrane separating "I" from "other," protecting the very essence of self.Until it breaks. Or changes. Or burns.What would you do if you were the one called on to save humanity, and the price you had to pay was becoming something other than human? Or if healing your body meant losing the only person you've ever loved?Wander through worlds where a woman craves even a poisonous touch.a man's deformities become a society's fashion.genetic regeneration keeps the fires of Hell away.and painted lovers risk everything to break the boundaries of their caste system down. Separate your mind from your flesh and come in. Welcome.
252 pages, Paperback
First published February 16, 2008
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325 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Pelland
25 books22 followersJennifer Pelland lives just outside Boston, sharing her home with an Andy and three cats. She’s been a published short fiction author since 2002, with stories appearing in such venues as Strange Horizons, Abyss and Apex, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Tales of the Unanticipated, and Apex Digest.
(Photo by Andrew Benson.)
(Photo by Andrew Benson.)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
October 1, 2010
Jennifer Pelland's first short story anthology Unwelcome Bodies from Apex Publishing contains only eleven stories, but they are all winners and would be considered among the highlights of any anthology they're a part of. Jennifer's style is at once both intimate and removed, she focuses on her main characters with a detail that betrays how much she cares for each of them (especially their flaws), while the world around the characters tends to disappear into a vague "otherness". This is the strength of her stories, the faceted characters that are engaging and unique and the relationships between them. Her stories tend to focus on the conflicted desires and obsessions within her protagonists and even the secondary characters, clearly sock puppets for the conflicted feelings of her heroes and heroines, are drawn with more depth and affinity than many other authors can achieve for their protagonists in a novel.
I'd classify the genres represented as dark sci-fi, horror and a touch of "regular" dark fiction. Make no mistake, Jennifer has no trouble leading the reader into darkness using the noblest of human intentions as a guide - the phrase "the path to hell is paved with good intentions" is clearly a common factor in her stories. As I was reading the book, watching her explore different styles and points of view while growing her craft, I felt I was watching a formidable writer take shape and hone her craft. Jennifer is definitely a writer to keep an eye on, she clearly is destined to bring an understanding of the human condition back into dark fiction that, at least in my recent reading, seems to be sorely lacking.
The first story "For the Plague Thereof Was Exceeding Great", the first story Jennifer sold, tells of a grim future where the human race is on the verge of extinction, but still trying to maintain twentieth century lifestyles. Two characters set up on a collision course, both of them dealing with the loss of their friends and family and the constant fear of airborne and contact based lethal viruses, find that while they're reacting to the plague differently, their feelings are coming from the same place inside them. Finally, they are able to absolve each other in a last moment of kindness before the lights go out on humanity.
"Big Sister/Little Sister" was also in the collection Apexology: Horror, and I wrote this about it after reading that book:
Sibling rivalry goes to places it probably never should, but thanks to Jennifer Pelland's excellent treatment of the subject Big Sister/Little Sister, this utterly twisted tale of jealousy and anger is a joy to read, even while people are doing hellishly horrible things to each other. It's the best kind of horror, in my opinion, the kind that makes me ask myself what I would do in that situation and would I be any kinder or humane. Ultimately, I'm not sure I would.
Another quality I enjoyed about this book is the sense of the author's involvement in the story. Some readers don't like to feel they're sharing with the author, they enjoy a disconnected relationship and want to consume the book without any give or take. Both because of the notes included at the end of each story, and the nature of the stories themselves, this is almost like a conversation by email with the author - slightly disjointed, and wild tangents in every direction, but ultimately rewarding. The story "Immortal Sin" certainly resonates for me, as this was clearly written as a catharsis of her catholic upbringing.
"Flood" engages a device Jennifer uses often, the young woman as protagonist. Undine is a pop star, obsessed with the mysteriously disappeared oceans and rivers of a dried up and barely inhabitable earth. Her obsession drives her and is grist for her fame and fortune... but is it driving her towards something, or away from a part of herself she doesn't want to admit? Whlie there's no doubt this story ended at the right time, I would desperately like to see a sequel about Undine's life after [the things that I'm not going to spoil for you].
The most experimental piece in the collection, "The Call" is best described by the author herself: "And now that I've written my second person, all-question story, I never have to do either of those tricks again." The theme, like the rest of the collection, deals with loss, loneliness, absolution and the value of sacrifice. Unfortunately, the stylistic tricks really do take her away from what she's best at, and this was my least favorite piece.
After that mercifully short story, the 2008 Nebula nominee "Captive Girl", another especially strong piece, tells the story of a love that can only happen between unequals - and the depths - and heights - people will go for love. A haunting piece, I believe most people will relate deeply to the metaphor of needing broken things - and intentionally breaking oneself to be needed.
Sometimes good things happen to people, and I would catagorize "The Last Bus" as dark fiction, certainly not horror. Absolution is writ large across every paragraph of this story. Another not so strong piece, but the characters are so richly drawn that even though the plot treads well worn ground, reading it is a pleasure.
One of the longest, and in my opinion the real standout in the collection, is "The Last Stand of the Elephant Man". Jennifer transports Joseph Merrick (the infamous "Elephant Man" of victorian england) into a post-cyberpunk future where bodies are worn like sleeves, and often heavily modified in increasingly garish ways to shock the jaded rich and bored. Jennifer's skill at getting inside the conflicted emotions of Joseph, who suddenly wakes up centuries ahead of his time and with a gorgeous body - simultaneously confused and grateful, she uses his deformed body almost like an albotross around the antagonist Jean-Piere's neck, allowing both Joseph and Jean-Pierre to emerge at the end of the story more wholly human - and imperfect - than ever.
"Songs of Lament" is what Walter Jon Williams' Surfacing would be like, if WJW was filled with a particularly sinister sense of humor and woke up in a bad mood for a couple weeks. From the notes, "One day I thought, 'What if whales are singing about terrible, violent things?' The thought of all those hippies and new agers blissing out to whales screaming in anger was just too delicious an idea not to play with". And I'm glad she did; I've often thought the exact same thing.
Going back to young heroines again, "Firebird" covers a lot of the same emotional ground that "Captive Girl" does, but from a very different angle. Frankly, "Captive Girl" is the better implementation, though stylistically "Firebird" is written in a journal format that makes the story come alive.
"Brushstrokes" is a very pretty story, but left me feeling a little empty at the end. If it were a happy ending, though, it wouldn't be dark fiction. Again, it deals with love and the lengths people will go to for it in a dark future where humans are basically pets of some undescribed races that control nearly every facet of their lives. Shades of "1984" were clearly visible, but the entire concept of humans as domesticated animals in servitude to vastly more capable alien races has been a thought experiment of mine for years, so it was fantastic to read a story set in such a world.
Without a doubt, Jennifer Pelland is someone to keep an eye on, and her engaging and intimate characters in dark and horrific scenarios makes for some good reading, even if some of the plots and themes feel a little derivative. I highly recommend this book in the strongest terms possible; it's a very quick read and well worth the effort.
April 3, 2017
I usually stay away from short story anthologies as I find often the stories I like don't outweigh the stories I don't enjoy. However seeing in this review the anthology being recommended for "fans of strong feminine characters, dark science fiction, dark fiction and horror", I decided it might just fit my taste.
And I loved this little book. Someone else mentioned in their review that the stories don't provide payoff. For me personally Jennifer's stories are about the journey and the motivation of the characters.
Some of her works are available online, you can check them out here. Look for the (direct link)
1. For the Plague Thereof Was Exceeding Great - 5*
[for making me imagine how isolating, tedious and crippling life would be if ... ]
2. Big Sister/Little Sister - 5*
[I think I can compare this to Harlans' I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. It's scary how well I understood Big sister's motivation]
3. Immortal Sin - 5*
[Well Jennifer certainly knows about paranoia. Another story that was scary relatable. I really like the story-related epilogues for each story. It seems I had a very similar reaction as a kid to her, even thought the circumstances were different.
And regarding the ending. This was not a story that is meant to have an ending. It is about the journey down the rabbit hole and how deep someone can fall. Another "what if" story. For me the ending was not a sign He was in , it was just a point that we cannot control everything, that his undoing is just starting.]
4. Flood - 3* [Dystopia, PA]
5. The Call - 5*
6. Captive Girl - 5*
7. Last Bus - 4*
8. The Last Stand of the Elephant Man - 4*
9. Songs of Lament - 4*
10. Firebird - 3*
11. Brushstrokes- 5* [Dystopian]
And I loved this little book. Someone else mentioned in their review that the stories don't provide payoff. For me personally Jennifer's stories are about the journey and the motivation of the characters.
Some of her works are available online, you can check them out here. Look for the (direct link)
1. For the Plague Thereof Was Exceeding Great - 5*
[for making me imagine how isolating, tedious and crippling life would be if ... ]
2. Big Sister/Little Sister - 5*
[I think I can compare this to Harlans' I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. It's scary how well I understood Big sister's motivation]
3. Immortal Sin - 5*
[Well Jennifer certainly knows about paranoia. Another story that was scary relatable. I really like the story-related epilogues for each story. It seems I had a very similar reaction as a kid to her, even thought the circumstances were different.
And regarding the ending. This was not a story that is meant to have an ending. It is about the journey down the rabbit hole and how deep someone can fall. Another "what if" story. For me the ending was not a sign He was in , it was just a point that we cannot control everything, that his undoing is just starting.]
4. Flood - 3* [Dystopia, PA]
5. The Call - 5*
6. Captive Girl - 5*
7. Last Bus - 4*
8. The Last Stand of the Elephant Man - 4*
9. Songs of Lament - 4*
10. Firebird - 3*
11. Brushstrokes- 5* [Dystopian]
July 4, 2023
2.5
Short story collections are always kind of mixed. I liked a few and didn't like a few. I didn't hate any
of these, despite what the rating is, but there were a number of very 'meh' ones and then something about autism that made me go for two stars rather than three. Sorry! I round up usually for indies but my autistic bloodlust must be satiated.
I'll quickly talk about each story as I usually do, including full spoilers. As I usually do!
For The Plague Thereof Was Exceedingly Great
★☆☆☆☆
The opening story is probably the weakest in the collection, and I don't know how it earned this slot. It's a story about a global pandemic, so it's partially not its fault it hasn't aged properly- it's hard to read about an outbreak of highly contagious HIV in a world where we've so recently had our own deadly outbreak, though covid was far less severe. In this story, half the world is already infected and no cure is in sight. A cult that believes spreading illness is God's will is running about trying to infect more people. A cultist and a lab worker confront each other. They both accept death and hug, the first physical contact in months for them both.
I do wonder about the parallels of physical contact being outlawed because of infection and the fact it's specifically a hyper contagious AIDS outbreak- if the author was on purpose drawing parallels to the AIDS crises and the refusal many had to even touch sufferers. Probably? But it's still a very oddly bland story that doesn't feel like it is doing or saying anything, and is especially flat in dialogue and character.
Big Sister/Little Sister
★★★★★
Here's what maybe should have been the opener. But maybe it was a bit too absurd and dark. Still, it's probably my favourite of the collection for being unique and weird. There's a set of twins, but one was born malformed and sickly. Their mother doted on the little sister at the expense and suffering of the big sister. When at 14 the little sister starts dying, the mother drugs and forces surgery on big sister, surgically attaching little sister's eyes, mouth, nose, and one ear to her stomach in a way they can never be separated. The mother continues to dote only on little sister, even as she now lives inside big sister. As you can imagine, it's not a happy situation.
When their mother dies, the big sister tries to make her own life, but absolutely can't. She takes out her anger on little sister, torturing her and taunting her, but can find no way to remove her. Eventually she removes little sister's extremities and closes her off with false skin, covering her entirely, though little sister still remains fully conscious and alive below. Yeesh!
This one is so gross and uncomfortable that it just works. It's a nasty, weird story and I like it for that. The collection is good at being uncomfortable and gross and I admire the writer for it, and this one just stands out as a good body horror plot.
Immortal Sin
★★★★★
See, I was feeling good after getting two good ones in a row. I'm pretty loose on my star ratings ith short stories, but I liked it plenty.
Immortal Sin follows an extremely, extremely, extremely, extremely catholic man. He thinks he's a good person and is paranoid of God constantly watching and judging him, and especially of going to Hell. He is not a good person though- he divorces his wife and promises the girl he loves he will get it annulled so it doesn't even count... but the girl he loves tells him she's just a waitress and already has a boyfriend. He is so angry at her he kills her, and then rushes to a confessional to be absolved of the sin. The priest inside though tells him he can't be absolved if he isn't hasn't repented, and that he has to take responsibility for the murder. He refuses, and instead decides that, since he wants to never go to Hell, he simply must never die.
So begins a many years long journey of paranoia in the quest for immortality, so that God won't punish him. He gets into speculative gene research for immortality and nanobots, he wears gloves everywhere and a bicycle helmet inside, he is convinced a random earthquake is God trying to take him out. He loses his life and mind in the full pursuit of immortality and seems to finally even achieve it by the end. Of course the cap on the story is that though he is immortal in perfected isolated safe house, the planet is not, and global warming seems to be coming for him anyway- making a literal Hell on Earth.
This is just a fun, funny story. The idea of becoming immortal just to spite God- not because you hate God but because you're scared shitless of him- is great.
Flood
★★☆☆☆
This is a hard one to rate, because while there's solid stuff going on, it also doesn't feel like it does much with it by the end. In a future where all the oceans have suddenly dried up, a water-themed suicidal pop star obsesses over the sea she never was alive to see. It's an entirely hopeless future where every drop of water is precious, and one of those dystopia visions that just seems to so Suck Shit it's not great to even read about. Weird complaint, and it's not really a complaint: I don't hold it against the story at all. I just sometimes get bummed out about horrible desert worlds with no hope, you know? The story itself is not much: the pop star dreams of drowning herself and eventually does, but is shocked her body rejects being drowned, leading her to drop the ocean persona and become a desert themed pop star instead.
Any points to this one go to just the bleakly imagined world and the idea too of a water themed pop star still existing. I've just never really seen the idea of 'touring pop star' paired with 'grim future' like this, and I appreciate it. Otherwise, the story is very eh.
The Call
★☆☆☆☆
It's hard to talk about this one, because it isn't really much of a story- it feels much more like a creative writing project, and the author's note at the end basically confirms it was just an exercise. A question based, second person, very short story about someone being chosen as a diplomat for aliens and humans and having to be entirely broken down body wise and rebuilt for that to happen. I considered not giving it a star rating at all, but it's all arbitrary, so whatever. It's just very... blank thoughts about it.
Captive Girl
★★★☆☆
I don't know if I like this one. I know, I went with 4 stars initially, but... Hm. The collection sure does know how to make me uncomfortable, and that fits for a collection about bodies and our relationships to them, and about skin and gross sensations. Still, this is a tough one.
It's about a colony which was attacked by a sudden invasion of mysterious ships years ago. They took three surviving young girls and hooked them up into invasive, disabling machinery and made them capable of interfacing with satellite monitors to look for a future invasion. This hook up leaves them entirely powerless and has driven one of the three insane, while another is extremely angry. Our lead is very stalwart on the mission as she lost everything to the initial attack, and is also in love with her handler. Her handler calls her 'captive girl', and indeed clearly just has a fetish for the girl in how helpless she is.
So, the tricky thing with this story is that this is really gross, the fetishizing of disabled people. It's a real thing and uncomfortable to read. Add onto that the fact the caretaker has been caring for the lead girl since she was first converted to the program as a child and is now just an adult and it gets worse. The story knows this, and people around the lead know this too. The star watcher program is shut down and the lead is forced to suddenly adapt to a life where she can control her body, much against her will. Her infatuation with her caretaker continues even as other people express to her that the caretaker just had a weird fetish, and the caretaker can't even stand to look at her not hooked up to all her machines. But eventually, the lead confronts the caretaker and asks if they can just roleplay out as detailed as possible her old situation, leading to a... I'm not sure it's Healthy, but a relationship.
Why the higher rating than others if I find so much of it just unpleasant? Hard to say. I think it's that I find the star watcher set up interesting, the extremely invasive procedure and concept, plus the notion too of a character having to suddenly exist in independence after such a thing has happened. This one is a challenging one though, I'll give it that.
Last Bus
★☆☆☆☆
This is a lot like 'Last Call' in that it just doesn't feel complete, or quite right. It's another shorter one, about a girl waiting for a bus who realizes slowly she is dead and the bus is reincarnation. There's very little to say about this one, because it's not really exploring anything or about anything, and it just passes by as you read it and leaves no impression.
The Last Stand of the Elephant Man
★★★★☆
One of two mini-novellas in the collection, in that it's about 35 pages rather than 15 like most. It has an extremely bizarre premise, but then I like weird ideas. It's about the elephant man- the real, historic guy- being suddenly abducted through time to a very far off future. A rich idiot has abducted him through time and swapped his body with the lead's as a lark. In the future, body modification is all the rage, and everyone is extremely modified to unsettling extremes. The elephant man's extremely diseased form is a novelty for the man who has hijacked it, while he himself finds himself in a healthy, although alien, body for the first time in his life. His extreme culture shock is difficult, as is the fact the man with his old body is the talk of the town, forcing him to confront his body everywhere he goes. He finds himself still exploited even as he now looks 'normal', famous against his will, until he takes more control of the narrative and is finally able to confront the hijacker. In the end, the far future can cure the diseases that made his original body so notable, and he switches back to it in a 'cured' form.
It's... a weird story. I'll just use weird a lot, who cares? Who is reading this? But it's sort of sweet in its own way too. The idea of the future is radically strange and suffocating as usual in this collection, and the author's note confirms the idea it is based on a desire to 'rescue' the historic man from the suffering of his life to some kind of happy ending. A sweet, if odd, idea. I like the ideas in these stories, the visions of futures that are extremely repulsive to me in particular: I don't read enough fiction that actually makes me grossed out, but the body horror in these stories does generally work on me.
Songs of Lament
★★★☆☆
So. A whale loving woman got an experimental surgery that let her understand whalesong, only to learn it was all extremely hateful messages towards humanity. The whales are all physically linked and their song carries through all water, including through the woman no matter where she is, and the psychic assault is enough she has to be hospitalized and restrained. Whales are entirely sentient creatures, all of them, and once they realize now a human can understand their songs but humanity still hasn't stopped polluting or harming them, they declare war on humanity. To curb this, the world decides to declare war back and genocide all whales.
This one feels a lot like a Franken Fran story. Maybe because I adore Franken Fran, and that manga has a few whale based body horror animal-horror stories in it? It absolutely has the exact same flair and so I love the concept. The story itself though is extremely minimal, lacking much structure besides a recap of previous events and then the decision to kill all whales. If it had more I would like it more, but instead it starts in media res and doesn't do much else. The idea rocks.
Firebird
★☆☆☆☆
The diary of a college girl. She is a huge fan of a teen pop star turned global warming advocate who once lit herself on fire to protest. The pop star is now going to be her college roommate, which the lead is super excited about. The lead tries to bond with the now thoroughly scarred advocate girl, but just can't, probably because she can't stop obsessing over the whole 'lighting herself on girl thing', which the advocate just wants to forget. The lead tries to go into chemistry even though she hates it because she's obsessed with trying to save the environment, and still can't get the advocate, her hero, to be her friend... or even seem to care about the things she lit herself on fire for. So the lead lights herself on fire. Though it gets the advocate back into advocacy, the lead now understands the burning alive thing wasn't worth it, and understands what it's like to resent her fame.
This story is... The lead is rather annoying, which is a bit on purpose, but it doesn't endear you to her in the short few pages you met her. I don't really understand why the advocate pop star girl gets back into it after the lead lights herself on fire, either: it seemed very clear she was sick of it and sick of copycats getting injured in her name, but at the end suddenly she is back at it again. It feels like some forced way to get a happier ending, even though this collection is not one sworn to happy endings.
It also is worth mentioning race in relation to this story and the book. There's something a bit funky about how the author writes race. I don't know- the diary here is the worst offender though, with the lead mentioning a number of times about her blackness and how she doesn't talk black, and how people always notice that. Who am I to know, but it feels out of sorts for how a black girl probably would write in her diary- not about her identity, but constantly how other people mildly react to it. I'm not sure I'm doing a great job explaining this, but it just reads wrong.
Brushstrokes
★★☆☆☆
The other mini-novella, Brushstrokes is a tricky one. It feels entirely like a slice of something much larger, and not always in a good way. There's a lot of world and worldbuilding which is quite interesting, but it doesn't have much room to be explained or to fit.
A population of humans were taken suddenly to an alien planet some time ago. There doesn't seem to be any non-humans there, though, but it's unclear. The planet is tricky to picture, though we see a number of alien foods and things like large leafy-centipedes as pets and huge 'Crawlers' replacing buses. There's a strict caste system in place now, which ranks based on how much the body is covered- the lowest being masked, then people who wear full face paint, then people with strong makeup/decor, then hairless and naked people, and then at the top 'the Skinless Empress'. Sick name. Interesting idea.
The lead is a Paintclad, having an affair with an Adorned, the caste above. Pretty forbidden, but not really as long as it's outside the Morning Bells and kept entirely anonymous, and the Adorned never sees any of the Paintclad's skin. The world has no real culture, fed instead with random television broadcasts from Earth, and people are obsessed with random bits of pop culture in ways very sharply contrasted by the alien planet they live on.
The lead notices that all the earth broadcasts lately have been reruns and disasters, and stumbles upon a way down to the Masked lower levels, where he learns Earth has been destroyed and the archive of broadcasts has run out. The higher levels plant to obscure this information to further control the lower castes. A friend sacrifices himself to get the news out to everyone, but the lead is also caught, with his lips sealed shut as punishment. His lover is also caught for his association and forced down to a lower caste, which at least means they are now together and can work on a revolution together in a more subtle way.
This story feels simply incomplete. I like a lot of the notions in it. I love the term SKINLESS EMPRESS and the way the caste system is made. I like the notion of Takers who mysteriously somehow abducted a whole population and brought them to an alien world with alien castes. I like the bug bus and the leafy bug pet. It's a very dour ending ultimately, but it feels still like it is meant to be a much longer project. It's because of that I don't rate the story very high: I would have liked more and a proper book, or less and a proper short story. It sits too uncomfortably in between as is.
h, and the autism thing, since I should probably explain that joke:
When the tv is playing war footage and disasters and upsetting news to try and wean the lower castes off Earth culture due to Earth being destroyed, one thing they show among that is... an autism documentary! Woohoo! Autism is totally comparable to Hitler speech and the Hindenburg!
"Now, it was playing a two-hour documentary on autism, a condition that had long since been wiped out in the City, but which apparently still thrived on Earth- at least, it had been still thriving when the televeion broadcasts had left the planet."
The City is bad and the lead can't be blamed for not being educated, I guess, but the wording here is still really annoying. 'Thrived' very much implies it is something which should not, and the notion of wiping it out is pretty ridiculous- it's a sci-fi world, I get it, but autism is a very complex array of neurodivergence and pretty hard to just flatly destroy. To me, the whole thing reeks of the kind of thing those documentaries usually portray anyway: Autism as a disease, and autism definitely comorbid with learning difficulties, (not the same as), to make it more the thing a dystopia would find horrific and useless. Basically, an author who doesn't know what autism is anymore than her ignorant lead does.
Short story collections are always kind of mixed. I liked a few and didn't like a few. I didn't hate any
of these, despite what the rating is, but there were a number of very 'meh' ones and then something about autism that made me go for two stars rather than three. Sorry! I round up usually for indies but my autistic bloodlust must be satiated.
I'll quickly talk about each story as I usually do, including full spoilers. As I usually do!
For The Plague Thereof Was Exceedingly Great
★☆☆☆☆
The opening story is probably the weakest in the collection, and I don't know how it earned this slot. It's a story about a global pandemic, so it's partially not its fault it hasn't aged properly- it's hard to read about an outbreak of highly contagious HIV in a world where we've so recently had our own deadly outbreak, though covid was far less severe. In this story, half the world is already infected and no cure is in sight. A cult that believes spreading illness is God's will is running about trying to infect more people. A cultist and a lab worker confront each other. They both accept death and hug, the first physical contact in months for them both.
I do wonder about the parallels of physical contact being outlawed because of infection and the fact it's specifically a hyper contagious AIDS outbreak- if the author was on purpose drawing parallels to the AIDS crises and the refusal many had to even touch sufferers. Probably? But it's still a very oddly bland story that doesn't feel like it is doing or saying anything, and is especially flat in dialogue and character.
Big Sister/Little Sister
★★★★★
Here's what maybe should have been the opener. But maybe it was a bit too absurd and dark. Still, it's probably my favourite of the collection for being unique and weird. There's a set of twins, but one was born malformed and sickly. Their mother doted on the little sister at the expense and suffering of the big sister. When at 14 the little sister starts dying, the mother drugs and forces surgery on big sister, surgically attaching little sister's eyes, mouth, nose, and one ear to her stomach in a way they can never be separated. The mother continues to dote only on little sister, even as she now lives inside big sister. As you can imagine, it's not a happy situation.
When their mother dies, the big sister tries to make her own life, but absolutely can't. She takes out her anger on little sister, torturing her and taunting her, but can find no way to remove her. Eventually she removes little sister's extremities and closes her off with false skin, covering her entirely, though little sister still remains fully conscious and alive below. Yeesh!
This one is so gross and uncomfortable that it just works. It's a nasty, weird story and I like it for that. The collection is good at being uncomfortable and gross and I admire the writer for it, and this one just stands out as a good body horror plot.
Immortal Sin
★★★★★
See, I was feeling good after getting two good ones in a row. I'm pretty loose on my star ratings ith short stories, but I liked it plenty.
Immortal Sin follows an extremely, extremely, extremely, extremely catholic man. He thinks he's a good person and is paranoid of God constantly watching and judging him, and especially of going to Hell. He is not a good person though- he divorces his wife and promises the girl he loves he will get it annulled so it doesn't even count... but the girl he loves tells him she's just a waitress and already has a boyfriend. He is so angry at her he kills her, and then rushes to a confessional to be absolved of the sin. The priest inside though tells him he can't be absolved if he isn't hasn't repented, and that he has to take responsibility for the murder. He refuses, and instead decides that, since he wants to never go to Hell, he simply must never die.
So begins a many years long journey of paranoia in the quest for immortality, so that God won't punish him. He gets into speculative gene research for immortality and nanobots, he wears gloves everywhere and a bicycle helmet inside, he is convinced a random earthquake is God trying to take him out. He loses his life and mind in the full pursuit of immortality and seems to finally even achieve it by the end. Of course the cap on the story is that though he is immortal in perfected isolated safe house, the planet is not, and global warming seems to be coming for him anyway- making a literal Hell on Earth.
This is just a fun, funny story. The idea of becoming immortal just to spite God- not because you hate God but because you're scared shitless of him- is great.
Flood
★★☆☆☆
This is a hard one to rate, because while there's solid stuff going on, it also doesn't feel like it does much with it by the end. In a future where all the oceans have suddenly dried up, a water-themed suicidal pop star obsesses over the sea she never was alive to see. It's an entirely hopeless future where every drop of water is precious, and one of those dystopia visions that just seems to so Suck Shit it's not great to even read about. Weird complaint, and it's not really a complaint: I don't hold it against the story at all. I just sometimes get bummed out about horrible desert worlds with no hope, you know? The story itself is not much: the pop star dreams of drowning herself and eventually does, but is shocked her body rejects being drowned, leading her to drop the ocean persona and become a desert themed pop star instead.
Any points to this one go to just the bleakly imagined world and the idea too of a water themed pop star still existing. I've just never really seen the idea of 'touring pop star' paired with 'grim future' like this, and I appreciate it. Otherwise, the story is very eh.
The Call
★☆☆☆☆
It's hard to talk about this one, because it isn't really much of a story- it feels much more like a creative writing project, and the author's note at the end basically confirms it was just an exercise. A question based, second person, very short story about someone being chosen as a diplomat for aliens and humans and having to be entirely broken down body wise and rebuilt for that to happen. I considered not giving it a star rating at all, but it's all arbitrary, so whatever. It's just very... blank thoughts about it.
Captive Girl
★★★☆☆
I don't know if I like this one. I know, I went with 4 stars initially, but... Hm. The collection sure does know how to make me uncomfortable, and that fits for a collection about bodies and our relationships to them, and about skin and gross sensations. Still, this is a tough one.
It's about a colony which was attacked by a sudden invasion of mysterious ships years ago. They took three surviving young girls and hooked them up into invasive, disabling machinery and made them capable of interfacing with satellite monitors to look for a future invasion. This hook up leaves them entirely powerless and has driven one of the three insane, while another is extremely angry. Our lead is very stalwart on the mission as she lost everything to the initial attack, and is also in love with her handler. Her handler calls her 'captive girl', and indeed clearly just has a fetish for the girl in how helpless she is.
So, the tricky thing with this story is that this is really gross, the fetishizing of disabled people. It's a real thing and uncomfortable to read. Add onto that the fact the caretaker has been caring for the lead girl since she was first converted to the program as a child and is now just an adult and it gets worse. The story knows this, and people around the lead know this too. The star watcher program is shut down and the lead is forced to suddenly adapt to a life where she can control her body, much against her will. Her infatuation with her caretaker continues even as other people express to her that the caretaker just had a weird fetish, and the caretaker can't even stand to look at her not hooked up to all her machines. But eventually, the lead confronts the caretaker and asks if they can just roleplay out as detailed as possible her old situation, leading to a... I'm not sure it's Healthy, but a relationship.
Why the higher rating than others if I find so much of it just unpleasant? Hard to say. I think it's that I find the star watcher set up interesting, the extremely invasive procedure and concept, plus the notion too of a character having to suddenly exist in independence after such a thing has happened. This one is a challenging one though, I'll give it that.
Last Bus
★☆☆☆☆
This is a lot like 'Last Call' in that it just doesn't feel complete, or quite right. It's another shorter one, about a girl waiting for a bus who realizes slowly she is dead and the bus is reincarnation. There's very little to say about this one, because it's not really exploring anything or about anything, and it just passes by as you read it and leaves no impression.
The Last Stand of the Elephant Man
★★★★☆
One of two mini-novellas in the collection, in that it's about 35 pages rather than 15 like most. It has an extremely bizarre premise, but then I like weird ideas. It's about the elephant man- the real, historic guy- being suddenly abducted through time to a very far off future. A rich idiot has abducted him through time and swapped his body with the lead's as a lark. In the future, body modification is all the rage, and everyone is extremely modified to unsettling extremes. The elephant man's extremely diseased form is a novelty for the man who has hijacked it, while he himself finds himself in a healthy, although alien, body for the first time in his life. His extreme culture shock is difficult, as is the fact the man with his old body is the talk of the town, forcing him to confront his body everywhere he goes. He finds himself still exploited even as he now looks 'normal', famous against his will, until he takes more control of the narrative and is finally able to confront the hijacker. In the end, the far future can cure the diseases that made his original body so notable, and he switches back to it in a 'cured' form.
It's... a weird story. I'll just use weird a lot, who cares? Who is reading this? But it's sort of sweet in its own way too. The idea of the future is radically strange and suffocating as usual in this collection, and the author's note confirms the idea it is based on a desire to 'rescue' the historic man from the suffering of his life to some kind of happy ending. A sweet, if odd, idea. I like the ideas in these stories, the visions of futures that are extremely repulsive to me in particular: I don't read enough fiction that actually makes me grossed out, but the body horror in these stories does generally work on me.
Songs of Lament
★★★☆☆
So. A whale loving woman got an experimental surgery that let her understand whalesong, only to learn it was all extremely hateful messages towards humanity. The whales are all physically linked and their song carries through all water, including through the woman no matter where she is, and the psychic assault is enough she has to be hospitalized and restrained. Whales are entirely sentient creatures, all of them, and once they realize now a human can understand their songs but humanity still hasn't stopped polluting or harming them, they declare war on humanity. To curb this, the world decides to declare war back and genocide all whales.
This one feels a lot like a Franken Fran story. Maybe because I adore Franken Fran, and that manga has a few whale based body horror animal-horror stories in it? It absolutely has the exact same flair and so I love the concept. The story itself though is extremely minimal, lacking much structure besides a recap of previous events and then the decision to kill all whales. If it had more I would like it more, but instead it starts in media res and doesn't do much else. The idea rocks.
Firebird
★☆☆☆☆
The diary of a college girl. She is a huge fan of a teen pop star turned global warming advocate who once lit herself on fire to protest. The pop star is now going to be her college roommate, which the lead is super excited about. The lead tries to bond with the now thoroughly scarred advocate girl, but just can't, probably because she can't stop obsessing over the whole 'lighting herself on girl thing', which the advocate just wants to forget. The lead tries to go into chemistry even though she hates it because she's obsessed with trying to save the environment, and still can't get the advocate, her hero, to be her friend... or even seem to care about the things she lit herself on fire for. So the lead lights herself on fire. Though it gets the advocate back into advocacy, the lead now understands the burning alive thing wasn't worth it, and understands what it's like to resent her fame.
This story is... The lead is rather annoying, which is a bit on purpose, but it doesn't endear you to her in the short few pages you met her. I don't really understand why the advocate pop star girl gets back into it after the lead lights herself on fire, either: it seemed very clear she was sick of it and sick of copycats getting injured in her name, but at the end suddenly she is back at it again. It feels like some forced way to get a happier ending, even though this collection is not one sworn to happy endings.
It also is worth mentioning race in relation to this story and the book. There's something a bit funky about how the author writes race. I don't know- the diary here is the worst offender though, with the lead mentioning a number of times about her blackness and how she doesn't talk black, and how people always notice that. Who am I to know, but it feels out of sorts for how a black girl probably would write in her diary- not about her identity, but constantly how other people mildly react to it. I'm not sure I'm doing a great job explaining this, but it just reads wrong.
Brushstrokes
★★☆☆☆
The other mini-novella, Brushstrokes is a tricky one. It feels entirely like a slice of something much larger, and not always in a good way. There's a lot of world and worldbuilding which is quite interesting, but it doesn't have much room to be explained or to fit.
A population of humans were taken suddenly to an alien planet some time ago. There doesn't seem to be any non-humans there, though, but it's unclear. The planet is tricky to picture, though we see a number of alien foods and things like large leafy-centipedes as pets and huge 'Crawlers' replacing buses. There's a strict caste system in place now, which ranks based on how much the body is covered- the lowest being masked, then people who wear full face paint, then people with strong makeup/decor, then hairless and naked people, and then at the top 'the Skinless Empress'. Sick name. Interesting idea.
The lead is a Paintclad, having an affair with an Adorned, the caste above. Pretty forbidden, but not really as long as it's outside the Morning Bells and kept entirely anonymous, and the Adorned never sees any of the Paintclad's skin. The world has no real culture, fed instead with random television broadcasts from Earth, and people are obsessed with random bits of pop culture in ways very sharply contrasted by the alien planet they live on.
The lead notices that all the earth broadcasts lately have been reruns and disasters, and stumbles upon a way down to the Masked lower levels, where he learns Earth has been destroyed and the archive of broadcasts has run out. The higher levels plant to obscure this information to further control the lower castes. A friend sacrifices himself to get the news out to everyone, but the lead is also caught, with his lips sealed shut as punishment. His lover is also caught for his association and forced down to a lower caste, which at least means they are now together and can work on a revolution together in a more subtle way.
This story feels simply incomplete. I like a lot of the notions in it. I love the term SKINLESS EMPRESS and the way the caste system is made. I like the notion of Takers who mysteriously somehow abducted a whole population and brought them to an alien world with alien castes. I like the bug bus and the leafy bug pet. It's a very dour ending ultimately, but it feels still like it is meant to be a much longer project. It's because of that I don't rate the story very high: I would have liked more and a proper book, or less and a proper short story. It sits too uncomfortably in between as is.
h, and the autism thing, since I should probably explain that joke:
When the tv is playing war footage and disasters and upsetting news to try and wean the lower castes off Earth culture due to Earth being destroyed, one thing they show among that is... an autism documentary! Woohoo! Autism is totally comparable to Hitler speech and the Hindenburg!
"Now, it was playing a two-hour documentary on autism, a condition that had long since been wiped out in the City, but which apparently still thrived on Earth- at least, it had been still thriving when the televeion broadcasts had left the planet."
The City is bad and the lead can't be blamed for not being educated, I guess, but the wording here is still really annoying. 'Thrived' very much implies it is something which should not, and the notion of wiping it out is pretty ridiculous- it's a sci-fi world, I get it, but autism is a very complex array of neurodivergence and pretty hard to just flatly destroy. To me, the whole thing reeks of the kind of thing those documentaries usually portray anyway: Autism as a disease, and autism definitely comorbid with learning difficulties, (not the same as), to make it more the thing a dystopia would find horrific and useless. Basically, an author who doesn't know what autism is anymore than her ignorant lead does.
Read
June 12, 2020Unwelcome Bodies is a collection of, well, frankly, utterly unnerving tales. It’s rare for me to review SFF and rare for me to review short stories, so a combination of both is practically unhead of. However, Jennifer Pelland’s collection looked to be full of intriguing ideas and I wanted to try something new.
Pelland presents a range of scenarios that range from slightly eerie to full blown frightening. From the story about the woman whose sister has been sewn into her body to the man on a quest to find the key to eternal life, these are thought provoking stories of what life in the future could be like. I found myself flitting from repulsion to fear to awe as I worked my way through the volume.
Each story is a relatively short length and easily digestible. All are followed by notes from the author, divulging ‘the story behind the story’. The volume is well narrated by Linette Geisel, who applies a steady pace and clear enunciation, making this a relatively easy listen for such a disturbing volume. If it lacks in one thing, it’s quite possibly in the editorial of the narration. There were times when the end of a story and the beginning of the ‘notes’ ran so closely together it took me a moment to realise that the story had finished. However, this is a minor complaint and only occurred a small number of times across the seven hour volume.
As a fan of John Wyndham and Isaac Asimov I often wonder why I don’t really consider myself a science-fiction fan these days. Reading/listening to a volume such as this makes me realise that this isn’t a genre I should close myself off to. This was one of the most intriguing volumes of short stories I’ve encountered. Pelland is an excellent storyteller with a vivid imagination. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her writing or to look out for future volumes.
Note: I received this audiobook from Audiobook Jukebox in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any further compensation. All views are my own.
Pelland presents a range of scenarios that range from slightly eerie to full blown frightening. From the story about the woman whose sister has been sewn into her body to the man on a quest to find the key to eternal life, these are thought provoking stories of what life in the future could be like. I found myself flitting from repulsion to fear to awe as I worked my way through the volume.
Each story is a relatively short length and easily digestible. All are followed by notes from the author, divulging ‘the story behind the story’. The volume is well narrated by Linette Geisel, who applies a steady pace and clear enunciation, making this a relatively easy listen for such a disturbing volume. If it lacks in one thing, it’s quite possibly in the editorial of the narration. There were times when the end of a story and the beginning of the ‘notes’ ran so closely together it took me a moment to realise that the story had finished. However, this is a minor complaint and only occurred a small number of times across the seven hour volume.
As a fan of John Wyndham and Isaac Asimov I often wonder why I don’t really consider myself a science-fiction fan these days. Reading/listening to a volume such as this makes me realise that this isn’t a genre I should close myself off to. This was one of the most intriguing volumes of short stories I’ve encountered. Pelland is an excellent storyteller with a vivid imagination. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her writing or to look out for future volumes.
Note: I received this audiobook from Audiobook Jukebox in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any further compensation. All views are my own.
March 16, 2019
I hesitated a lot on the mark, between 2 and 3, all of the short stories are well written and readable, but are just not that interesting, except for the very last one (longest of the book) with a twisted and delightful world with a very exciting social organisation. As it is the first publication I feel like the author has a lot of potential and will only grow from here.
February 19, 2025
Highlight: captive girl
Runner up: flood
Lowlight: the call
Everything else was a solid 4/5 at Least and that’s a full on win for a short story collection for me.
Runner up: flood
Lowlight: the call
Everything else was a solid 4/5 at Least and that’s a full on win for a short story collection for me.
April 9, 2016
*Spoiler Free*
After reading Glitter and Mayhem and reading Jennifer Pelland’s short story, “Star Dancer”, I was eager to read more by this author. Her collection, Unwelcome Bodies did not disappoint. I had sat down with the intention of reading one a day until I finished it, but I honestly couldn’t stop once I started. This is an amazing, enthralling collection of short stories. I have love fantasy and science fiction so much more for putting ideas like these into the head of such a fantastic writer.
This collection features eleven brilliant short stories. There are no words to do this collection justice (you really do just have to go buy it and read it), but I will try:
“For the Plague Thereof Was Exceeding Great”- This story is about a version of Earth in the future plagued by a new strain of HIV that is wiping out the planet and the struggle between those who wish to outlast it and those who wish to be ‘saved.’ Also, I have to really thank the author for including the news clippings at the end of this. They were wonderful to read.
“Big Sister/Little Sister”- I will be haunted for the rest of my life by this story, much like I am by Ray Bradbury’s “Small Assassin.” I don’t know why this made me think of that, but it does. It is amazing, but incredibly creepy and disturbing. I loved it.
“Immortal Sin” -Another wonderfully disturbing story about a man who commits murder but tries to escape judgment day by scientifically experimenting on himself to achieve immortality.
“Flood”- I can’t get over how beautiful this story was. An Earth in which water is scarce and fading, and the pop singer who laments over the lack of water and oceans.
“The Call”- A very short story written in all question format. Short, but effective and brilliant.
“Captive Girl”- This story was bittersweet to me. I’m not going to say much on this other than it really is a love story, albeit a strange one. Love is so much more than a pretty face; it is how that person makes you feel that is important.
“Last Bus”- A very sweet story about the journey after death.
“The Last Stand of the Elephant Man”- This might have been one of my favorite in the collection, though if really pushed to pinpoint my favorite I imagine I’d say they all were. This is the story of the Elephant Man, Joseph Merrick, yet transposed onto a future timeline in which Earth finds ‘normal’ people weird and the odd and strange fantastic. This story will linger on your mind long after you have finished it.
“Songs of Lament”- I loved this story also. It’s about a world in which whales are also an intelligent race and can finally be understood.
“Firebird”- Written in a journal-style format about a college freshman and her obsession with a pop star who lit herself on fire to send a message about global warming and ultimately ends up being her roommate. Really fantastic story.
“Brushstrokes”- I honestly wish this had been a full-length novel because I would have devoured the entire thing. This world is so incredible and also believable as strange as it is. It is one of the longest stories in the collections, but it is also a perfect final story of this collection.
This is one of the best collections of short fiction I have ever read.
After reading Glitter and Mayhem and reading Jennifer Pelland’s short story, “Star Dancer”, I was eager to read more by this author. Her collection, Unwelcome Bodies did not disappoint. I had sat down with the intention of reading one a day until I finished it, but I honestly couldn’t stop once I started. This is an amazing, enthralling collection of short stories. I have love fantasy and science fiction so much more for putting ideas like these into the head of such a fantastic writer.
This collection features eleven brilliant short stories. There are no words to do this collection justice (you really do just have to go buy it and read it), but I will try:
“For the Plague Thereof Was Exceeding Great”- This story is about a version of Earth in the future plagued by a new strain of HIV that is wiping out the planet and the struggle between those who wish to outlast it and those who wish to be ‘saved.’ Also, I have to really thank the author for including the news clippings at the end of this. They were wonderful to read.
“Big Sister/Little Sister”- I will be haunted for the rest of my life by this story, much like I am by Ray Bradbury’s “Small Assassin.” I don’t know why this made me think of that, but it does. It is amazing, but incredibly creepy and disturbing. I loved it.
“Immortal Sin” -Another wonderfully disturbing story about a man who commits murder but tries to escape judgment day by scientifically experimenting on himself to achieve immortality.
“Flood”- I can’t get over how beautiful this story was. An Earth in which water is scarce and fading, and the pop singer who laments over the lack of water and oceans.
“The Call”- A very short story written in all question format. Short, but effective and brilliant.
“Captive Girl”- This story was bittersweet to me. I’m not going to say much on this other than it really is a love story, albeit a strange one. Love is so much more than a pretty face; it is how that person makes you feel that is important.
“Last Bus”- A very sweet story about the journey after death.
“The Last Stand of the Elephant Man”- This might have been one of my favorite in the collection, though if really pushed to pinpoint my favorite I imagine I’d say they all were. This is the story of the Elephant Man, Joseph Merrick, yet transposed onto a future timeline in which Earth finds ‘normal’ people weird and the odd and strange fantastic. This story will linger on your mind long after you have finished it.
“Songs of Lament”- I loved this story also. It’s about a world in which whales are also an intelligent race and can finally be understood.
“Firebird”- Written in a journal-style format about a college freshman and her obsession with a pop star who lit herself on fire to send a message about global warming and ultimately ends up being her roommate. Really fantastic story.
“Brushstrokes”- I honestly wish this had been a full-length novel because I would have devoured the entire thing. This world is so incredible and also believable as strange as it is. It is one of the longest stories in the collections, but it is also a perfect final story of this collection.
This is one of the best collections of short fiction I have ever read.
May 31, 2008
This is a great collection of horror and speculative fiction short stories. I stared this book on the plane as we left WisCon and by the time I finished the second story, I turned to my partner and gave her a stunned look while all I could say was "Wow." Then I turned back to the book to devour more of the stories. Almost every story left me thinking and slightly unsettled - the horror is more speculative then gory, which is what I prefer in this genre. Slasher stories, serial killers and tentacle monsters have their place, but the stuff that stays with me are the stories that unnerve me or make me think.
Some of the standout stories (they were all good … these are the ones that stuck with me):
For the Plague Thereof was Exceeding Great – A fantastic story to start the collection with. The story takes place in the near future where an epidemic is ravaging the world. The story resonates with me, not just because we were escaping a convention that had a noro-virus breakout, but because it takes very little imagination to believe that it could happen. A disturbingly believable plot, some wonderfully crafted scenes and a bittersweet ending makes this a very memorable story.
Big Sister/Little Sister – Okay, this was sick and twisted and I absolutely loved this one. I think this is the only one that really made me cringe and had a high ick factor. But I couldn’t stop reading it and had a grin on my face when I turned the last page. It is about sisters – and that’s all I’m gonna say.
Captive Girl – This one I was kind of on the fence when I read it. It is an intriguing story and an uncomfortable one. The author’s note at the end of it put some things into perspective and upon a bit of reflection I find that I liked the story a lot.
Songs of Lament – Although it was short, this one worked well. This is one of the more ecologically oriented horror stories about a woman who hears the whale songs.
Brushstrokes – This was not what I was expecting and I was very pleasantly surprised. Jennifer Pelland jokingly described it as pretty boys in pretty make up having sex up against a wall. That is a very minimal part of the story. This is probably the most “sf” of the stories and deals with the ideas of society, castes and the beginning of revolution. I enjoyed it.
Some of the standout stories (they were all good … these are the ones that stuck with me):
For the Plague Thereof was Exceeding Great – A fantastic story to start the collection with. The story takes place in the near future where an epidemic is ravaging the world. The story resonates with me, not just because we were escaping a convention that had a noro-virus breakout, but because it takes very little imagination to believe that it could happen. A disturbingly believable plot, some wonderfully crafted scenes and a bittersweet ending makes this a very memorable story.
Big Sister/Little Sister – Okay, this was sick and twisted and I absolutely loved this one. I think this is the only one that really made me cringe and had a high ick factor. But I couldn’t stop reading it and had a grin on my face when I turned the last page. It is about sisters – and that’s all I’m gonna say.
Captive Girl – This one I was kind of on the fence when I read it. It is an intriguing story and an uncomfortable one. The author’s note at the end of it put some things into perspective and upon a bit of reflection I find that I liked the story a lot.
Songs of Lament – Although it was short, this one worked well. This is one of the more ecologically oriented horror stories about a woman who hears the whale songs.
Brushstrokes – This was not what I was expecting and I was very pleasantly surprised. Jennifer Pelland jokingly described it as pretty boys in pretty make up having sex up against a wall. That is a very minimal part of the story. This is probably the most “sf” of the stories and deals with the ideas of society, castes and the beginning of revolution. I enjoyed it.
Read
April 2, 2012Checking out the first story, but I have no idea what's going on. I don't like that. Not ideal for car listening. Of course the short stories aren't listed in the description. Naked people on covers is cool.
From the author's site:
The collection contains the following stories:
(Titles in bold are available to read online.)
"For the Plague Thereof Was Exceeding Great"
"Big Sister/Little Sister"
"Immortal Sin"
"Flood"
"The Call"
"Captive Girl" (2008 Nebula nominee)
"Last Bus"
"The Last Stand of the Elephant Man"
"Songs of Lament" (previously unpublished)
"Firebird" (previously unpublished)
"Brushstrokes" (previously unpublished)
Captive Girl was 'interesting'. :) I linked to the online text version.
Pretty good podcast interview http://blog.outeralliance.org/archive...
I'm going to listen to big sister/little sister in the car. I hear it's pretty freaky. -- Yup, it is.
From the author's site:
The collection contains the following stories:
(Titles in bold are available to read online.)
"For the Plague Thereof Was Exceeding Great"
"Big Sister/Little Sister"
"Immortal Sin"
"Flood"
"The Call"
"Captive Girl" (2008 Nebula nominee)
"Last Bus"
"The Last Stand of the Elephant Man"
"Songs of Lament" (previously unpublished)
"Firebird" (previously unpublished)
"Brushstrokes" (previously unpublished)
Captive Girl was 'interesting'. :) I linked to the online text version.
Pretty good podcast interview http://blog.outeralliance.org/archive...
I'm going to listen to big sister/little sister in the car. I hear it's pretty freaky. -- Yup, it is.
July 22, 2011
Jennifer Pelland's short story collection has been number one on my wishlist for some time now, so of course I started reading it as soon as I picked it up at last weekends readercon. I was not disappointed either. Jenn deserves the rave reviews I first read on Amazon. Her stories cover a broad range of topics as varied as speculative fiction itself, ranging from dystopian societies to environmental issues to flat out abuse. The ability to write across such a wide range while keeping one's voice as a writer intact is the mark of a natural talent. And I admire her unflinching willingness to write about things that disturb her. Often these are the subjects others aren't willing to discuss, and beyond the tragedy or horror of the individual story is a warning or a philosophical musing. I cringed, I laughed, and at one point I had to take a deep breath and put the book down, I was so engrossed. Jenn is a voice for those of us who like our speculative fiction broiling over with grit and dark things that go bump in the night.
December 22, 2011
When I heard Pelland was releasing a short story collection, I was very excited. Granted, I've only read two of her short stories, but the one really stuck with me. Pelland has a smooth, clean writing style and her story ideas can really knock a person on their ass. [return][return]Unwelcome Bodies is a collection that focuses on a variety of issues: the environment, religion, and terrorism, and the one thing that unites these stories is the character's body image and how they fit into the world/society around them. Each of the stories are different and unique, and most all of the stories balance a wonderful blend of science fiction and horror. This collection is an easy one to recommend.[return][return]For the full story-by-story review, which does include spoilers in some cases, just click here: http://calico-reaction.livejournal.co...
January 27, 2010
The stories in this book are top-notch. So many are creepy enough that I have a hard time recommending it, unless you are prepared to be made very uncomfortable.
The only reason this book isn't getting a 4, is that the stories are all so different that I felt no flow from story to story. Should all short story books have such a flow? I'm not sure. But I'm not very good about continuing to read short story books unless they do. I lose momentum and would rather be reading a novel at that point.
All that being said, I like the author and find her ideas fascinating. I can't wait to read more of hers.
The only reason this book isn't getting a 4, is that the stories are all so different that I felt no flow from story to story. Should all short story books have such a flow? I'm not sure. But I'm not very good about continuing to read short story books unless they do. I lose momentum and would rather be reading a novel at that point.
All that being said, I like the author and find her ideas fascinating. I can't wait to read more of hers.
September 17, 2012
i can't make myself finish.
i've read the first 4 or 5 stories, and while they are good-enough stories (as some mothers are good-enough mothers), there just isn't any payoff. the prose is ok. the images are ok. the characters are ok, and the plot notions are... ok.
but a book of short stories should have at least one in the first 4 or 5 that leaves one reeling, even just a little bit. short stories are supposed to abuse a reader a little--they have to have punch. not plot-level punch, either; they have to show you something that you had never considered before.
these stories just don't have that, for me.
i've read the first 4 or 5 stories, and while they are good-enough stories (as some mothers are good-enough mothers), there just isn't any payoff. the prose is ok. the images are ok. the characters are ok, and the plot notions are... ok.
but a book of short stories should have at least one in the first 4 or 5 that leaves one reeling, even just a little bit. short stories are supposed to abuse a reader a little--they have to have punch. not plot-level punch, either; they have to show you something that you had never considered before.
these stories just don't have that, for me.
March 16, 2013
This one was an unexpected experience. Goodreads recommended it to me after Valente's "Silently and Very Fast", so I thought it to be a bit different. But it was good, really good.
I think this is exactly the kind of science-fiction where fantastic elements are only secondary (though there are so many beautiful worlds which I would like to see in a novel) and the first place belongs to questions and answers. There are many of them in these stories, and they are stated quite clearly, and they are so relevant. Relationship and all the twisted forms it sometimes take, and different personal issues with self-attitude.
It was a cool book, this one. Really thought-provoking.
I think this is exactly the kind of science-fiction where fantastic elements are only secondary (though there are so many beautiful worlds which I would like to see in a novel) and the first place belongs to questions and answers. There are many of them in these stories, and they are stated quite clearly, and they are so relevant. Relationship and all the twisted forms it sometimes take, and different personal issues with self-attitude.
It was a cool book, this one. Really thought-provoking.
May 1, 2012
I discovered that after reading each story I needed recovery time, the same way I did when I first read Harlan Ellison (his stories from the 60s, before he disappeared up his own enfant-terrible legend), because however fantastic or futuristic the settings, the people and emotions are true and the stories cut deep. I read "Big Sister/Little Sister" in the evening, and it seriously interfered with my sleep, so consider yourself warned. On the other hand, there are pieces like "When Science Fiction Cliches Go Bad" which are just plain fun, almost guaranteed to leave you unscarred.
August 6, 2012
At this moment I am so in love with Jennifer Pelland's writing.
This is a collection of weird and wonderful short stories. Each one is beautifully crafted and it draws you into the fantastical worlds created by Pelland.
The stories are hard hitting and pulls no punches. It attacks, it captivates, it seduces.
The genre is probably sci-fi but as in her previous works, she uses different worlds, technologies and social systems to enhance rather than detract from the very human face of her stories.
Love it, love it, love it!
This is a collection of weird and wonderful short stories. Each one is beautifully crafted and it draws you into the fantastical worlds created by Pelland.
The stories are hard hitting and pulls no punches. It attacks, it captivates, it seduces.
The genre is probably sci-fi but as in her previous works, she uses different worlds, technologies and social systems to enhance rather than detract from the very human face of her stories.
Love it, love it, love it!
November 6, 2016
I read this because I met the author at a convention, and really enjoyed what she had to say on the panels that she was a part of. The stories in this book were all fascinating and creepy, and while they aren't my kind of stories, I don't regret having read them. In the earlier stories especially, however, the characters felt too extreme to me, like they were caricatures to serve the idea of the story rather than fully fleshed-out people. The latter stories did not suffer from this problem, however. This collection definitely gets better as one gets further into it.
Currently reading
April 18, 2013I'm currently only two stories in, and as hard-hitting as these stories are I don't want to move any faster. In the first story, we see the best and worst of humanity--in one person, without a moment to change gears. In the second, I found myself struggling not to root for a troubled individual to finish the merciless act that would let her live a normal life.
We'll see what the rest has in store. I have a feeling there will be more powerful stories that are challenging to read.
We'll see what the rest has in store. I have a feeling there will be more powerful stories that are challenging to read.
November 30, 2015
This is an amazing book! It's social relevant and very interesting, exploring both science fiction and humanity. If English classes read books like this more kids would be true reading die hards.
Pelland speculates about the future and cuts to the core of the human soul with a collection of story that should be required reading.
Pelland speculates about the future and cuts to the core of the human soul with a collection of story that should be required reading.
December 19, 2010
I waited way too long to review this. Suffice it to say that this was great. And as the title implies, a lot of the stories had to do with people's bodies. So those with an interest in reading disabled fiction should really check this out.
Several of the stories have stuck with me. It's great science fiction, really.
Several of the stories have stuck with me. It's great science fiction, really.
November 26, 2010
Unwelcome Bodies is a collection of stories linked by skin, by bodies, by touch. Fused bodies, scarred flesh, body exchanges, sacrifices, caste systems, and more. All intriguing. I found the writing engaging and each story was very different. Fantasy, science fiction, futuristic. If you enjoy a taste for the unusual, I'd recommend this collection.
December 1, 2012
Jennifer Pelland tells us that her stories creep out her husband - well, they creep me out too. Pelland has joined my "find more by" group of authors.
If you like the older Twilight Zone episodes and don't mind stories that make your skin crawl, you'll enjoy Unwelcome Bodies
If you like the older Twilight Zone episodes and don't mind stories that make your skin crawl, you'll enjoy Unwelcome Bodies
June 28, 2012
I love the unifying thread of this anthology which is summed up beautifully in the title: Unwelcome Bodies. Bodies that are changed or uncomfortable or deformed or manipulated; each story concerns itself with the body and self in a speculative environment. I am fascinated and captivated by each and every one of these stories.
October 17, 2008
Clever, compassionate, brutal and bleak – some astounding stories from a writer who clearly loves telling tales out of the ordinary.
Read my complete review in the next issue of The Short Review.
http://theshortreview.com/index.html
Read my complete review in the next issue of The Short Review.
http://theshortreview.com/index.html
June 18, 2009
Short stories with a dark undertone. (The author said she had funny stories that would make your head explode if combined with the dark ones.) She foresees ecocatastrophes, a cold day in hell, revolutions in alien castes. Even her love story is very dark. Well written though.
August 12, 2012
I came to this book through the Goodreads Recommendations feature, and I'm glad I read it. It isn't as great as the book it was recommended from, but it certainly has its moments. Most of the stories are dark and twisted, and the quality is reasonably even and generally quite high.
3.5/5
3.5/5
April 5, 2015
A dark and magical collection of stories, not a bad one in the bunch. Disturbing, sometimes ugly, but always making you rethink reality, Unwelcome Bodies is one of the best short story collections I've ever read.
February 5, 2016
I know the author, but even if I didn't, I would love this collection. The worlds that are created and the vivid imagery are both creepy and beautiful. They are thought provoking, nightmare inducing, funny, touching, and just really fun to read.
February 5, 2017
So uneven. I can't make up my mind. I'll round up the stars.
January 8, 2009
Excellent! Different, entertaining stories, looking forward to reading more.
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