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All the Fabulous Beasts
The debut short story collection from acclaimed U.K. writer Priya Sharma, All the Fabulous Beasts collects 16 stunning and monstrous tales of love, rebirth, nature, and sexuality. A heady mix of myth and ontology, horror and the modern macabre.
288 pages, Paperback
First published March 30, 2018
78 people are currently reading
2177 people want to read
About the author
Priya Sharma
148 books243 followersPriya Sharma’s fiction has appeared venues such as Interzone, Black Static, Nightmare, The Dark and Tor. “Fabulous Beasts” was a Shirley Jackson Award finalist and won a British Fantasy Award for Short Fiction. Priya is a Shirley Jackson Award and British Fantasy Award winner, and Locus Award finalist, for “All the Fabulous Beasts”, a collection of her some of her work, available from Undertow Publications.
“Ormeshadow”, her first novella (available from Tor), won a Shirley Jackson Award and a British Fantasy Award. It was a 2022 Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire finalist.
"Pomegranates", her second novella (from Absinthe, an imprint of PS Publishing) is a Shirley Jackson Award, British Fantasy Award finalist and won a World Fantasy Award.
Her stories have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Czech, and Polish.
“Ormeshadow”, her first novella (available from Tor), won a Shirley Jackson Award and a British Fantasy Award. It was a 2022 Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire finalist.
"Pomegranates", her second novella (from Absinthe, an imprint of PS Publishing) is a Shirley Jackson Award, British Fantasy Award finalist and won a World Fantasy Award.
Her stories have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Czech, and Polish.
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February 22, 2020Dark and macabre story collection by a very strong writer. Very grounded in social justice, reproductive justice and feminism, which is to say there is a *lot* of abuse of women including on-page rapes (not graphic, but there), so heads up if that's a dealbreaker. It's not gratuitous: this is what horror is *about*, mostly from the perspective of women and in one case a trans man. Some of the reproductive horror is going to keep me awake at night, not because it's ghastly splatter on the page (it's not that kind of horror), but because it's delicately outlined, gently told stuff that slides into your brain like a scalpel.
Very good indeed, an author to watch. I got her novella immediately after reading this.
Very good indeed, an author to watch. I got her novella immediately after reading this.
March 19, 2019
Priya Sharma writes very dark stories in a very strong, terse style, drawing on horror, weird fiction, and fairy tales as the mood strikes her. Overly flowery prose (particularly overwrought and ineffective similes and metaphors) has really been irking me recently, and this was exactly the palate cleanser that I needed.
The oldest story here ("The Englishman") is a relatively straightforward use of horror/weird tropes to examine race and alienation and belonging. These same concerns motivate many of the later stories as well, but in a much subtler, more diffuse way, with characters finding their very humanity blurring away as often as not (human-animal hybrids are a recurring theme). Familial alienation is the other key concern here, with many of her protagonists are working through issues caused by missing, indifferent, or actively hostile parents (or are indifferent or hostile parents themselves). The stories range from 2006 to 2018, and watching Sharma develop and pare her work down to the bare essentials is truly fantastic.
The Crow Palace • (2017)
The perfect story to begin the collection; a recent publication that distills a lot of her thematic concerns into an excellent slow burn of family secrets and off-putting details. A woman returns home for her father's funeral years after drifting apart from him and her twin, who suffers from cerebral palsy. Their mother died under Mysterious Circumstances when they were children, and our protagonist has been an emotional void ever since. This reverberates throughout the pitch-perfect social misery of the father's funeral. The titular structure sits in the family's backyard, and corvids are omnipresent in general, and, again, the slow accretion of details about their behavior is fantastic. I'm trying to avoid using comparisons in review quite as much but I have to say this is quite (positively) Ramsey Campbellian.
Rag and Bone • (2013)
I read and enjoyed this one when it was first posted on Tor.com (five years ago?!) and resolved to read more of Sharma's work, which of course I promptly failed to do until now. It's all the well, though, this one's very much an outlier here, an alternate history Liverpool, kind of steampunkish (if that even means anything anymore) focused on class and exploitation with a dash of gender bending and biopolitics. The voice is rather noir-ish, and in retrospect Sharma was working outside her comfort zone, having to convey worldbuilding in a way most of these stories don't; the dialogue is a bit wooden at times, and the narrative kind of careens about, zipping from one point to the next to cram a novel's worth of ideas into a short story. That sounds overly harsh - this is a good story, it just suffers in comparison to the surer hand of her later work.
The Anatomist's Mnemonic • (2013)
A man, having been awakened sexually by a palm reader, retains an overriding hand fetish. Things take a dark turn when he happens to commission some art from a woman who lives with her sister. This was a beautifully-written, solidly-constructed story that I did not enjoy reading at all. I wasn't expecting such a straight horror story, having pegged Sharma as more of a weird/dark fantasy type, which serves me right for making assumptions, I guess.
Egg • (2013)
A woman, suffering from endometriosis, obtains the assistance of a mysterious hag in becoming a mother. She finds parenting a bittersweet ordeal. Very much a working through, in reverse, of the territory "The Crow Palace" was investigating - an embryonic version, if you will.
The Sunflower Seed Man • (2013)
There are these young parents, and the man is a great, enthusiastic father, and the woman unfriendly and harsh toward their toddler. She makes more of an effort after the father sickens and dies, sharing with the girl the regenerating lifecycle of the sunflowers they've grown. Letting go takes the form of wrestling with the titular monster, which is emotionally resonant but faintly ridiculous.
The Ballad of Boomtown • (2012)
In Ireland, a woman living in an unfinished, post-crash housing development and ostracized by the scant community surrounding it circles around happier times in her memory (you know how I love weird stories that circle around past unhappy occurences). She was an oral historian, researching a local revenge myth centering on three standing stones, and entered into an affair with the builder behind the development, and then things went awry. A great one.
The Show • (2011)
A woman from a family of psychics lost her abilities after her dad died young, leaving her alienated from her mocking sister and mother. Now she fakes it on a ghost-hunting reality show until she doesn't have to fake it anymore. Another relatively straightforward horror tale, although more my speed than "The Anatomist's Mnemonic."
Pearls • (2012)
Medusa finds herself after a "millennium of sleep" an artist living in NY (in a "flat"), desperately lonely despite (because of?) the best efforts of weak men over the ages, until she meets a familiar face. Not my thing.
The Absent Shade • (2015)
A man returns to his native Hong Kong. As a miserable, unruly child, neglected by awful parents, his nursemaid was his one source of comfort, until she was jointly betrayed by the misogyny he and his father both harbored. Cursed, he now works as a hitman, alienated from the world, cold and unfeeling aside from his continuing fixation on her. Also, there's shadow magic. A good one!
Small Town Stories
A woman in a small (and getting ever smaller) post-industrial town is surrounded by low-key hauntings - ghosts, but not the vengeful kind, just ever-present reminders of loss. She herself is haunted by a more mundane trauma from her childhood, and the present day unfolds in a series of vignettes as she retraces the past leading up to the crisis. Class-inflected, suffused with melancholy and a very concrete sense of place, the standout piece of the collection, just an absolutely fantastic story.
Fish Skins • (2012)
A fisherman-turned-fishmonger, 20 years after an accident smashed his leg and he was rescued by the mermaid who became his wife, fears that they're drifting apart. A steady, low-key story with a nicely touching ending.
The Rising Tide • (2014)
A doctor, having made a huge mistake, retreats to her dead father's beach hut, full of mementos of his time as a diviner. She struggles with depression and grief and then Gwrach-y-Rhibyn pays her a visit. A solid weird tale.
The Englishman • (2006)
The titular man returns to post-colonial India and tries to figure out where he belongs. Tackles race and colonialism effectively even while making clear that Sharma hadn't yet pared down her prose into her later effective style.
The Nature of Bees • (2010)
A woman, defined entirely by her male relationships, rents a house next to an apiary that produces "the caviar of honey." Another early, relatively didactic story, about gender rather than race and less successful (and even more flowery) than "The Englishman." This story about bees features a woman named Bea.
A Son of the Sea
A dilettante is summoned back to Hong Kong after the death of his (wealthy, absent) father, having inherited the old man's apartment. He's always felt alienated, especially socially but especially sexually, and looks forward to exploring his family's mysterious roots. The inhumanity of humankind vis a vis marine life is explored in asides, and this one is overall a bit more surreal and oneiric than many of her other stories. I'm a sucker for weird fiction about the ocean.
Fabulous Beasts • (2015)
The perfect story to end the collection. An unflinching look at trauma and abuse and monstrosity and finding beauty in ugliness (and snakes). Nicely structured, beautifully written, and resonant with much of her other work.
The oldest story here ("The Englishman") is a relatively straightforward use of horror/weird tropes to examine race and alienation and belonging. These same concerns motivate many of the later stories as well, but in a much subtler, more diffuse way, with characters finding their very humanity blurring away as often as not (human-animal hybrids are a recurring theme). Familial alienation is the other key concern here, with many of her protagonists are working through issues caused by missing, indifferent, or actively hostile parents (or are indifferent or hostile parents themselves). The stories range from 2006 to 2018, and watching Sharma develop and pare her work down to the bare essentials is truly fantastic.
The Crow Palace • (2017)
The perfect story to begin the collection; a recent publication that distills a lot of her thematic concerns into an excellent slow burn of family secrets and off-putting details. A woman returns home for her father's funeral years after drifting apart from him and her twin, who suffers from cerebral palsy. Their mother died under Mysterious Circumstances when they were children, and our protagonist has been an emotional void ever since. This reverberates throughout the pitch-perfect social misery of the father's funeral. The titular structure sits in the family's backyard, and corvids are omnipresent in general, and, again, the slow accretion of details about their behavior is fantastic. I'm trying to avoid using comparisons in review quite as much but I have to say this is quite (positively) Ramsey Campbellian.
Rag and Bone • (2013)
I read and enjoyed this one when it was first posted on Tor.com (five years ago?!) and resolved to read more of Sharma's work, which of course I promptly failed to do until now. It's all the well, though, this one's very much an outlier here, an alternate history Liverpool, kind of steampunkish (if that even means anything anymore) focused on class and exploitation with a dash of gender bending and biopolitics. The voice is rather noir-ish, and in retrospect Sharma was working outside her comfort zone, having to convey worldbuilding in a way most of these stories don't; the dialogue is a bit wooden at times, and the narrative kind of careens about, zipping from one point to the next to cram a novel's worth of ideas into a short story. That sounds overly harsh - this is a good story, it just suffers in comparison to the surer hand of her later work.
The Anatomist's Mnemonic • (2013)
A man, having been awakened sexually by a palm reader, retains an overriding hand fetish. Things take a dark turn when he happens to commission some art from a woman who lives with her sister. This was a beautifully-written, solidly-constructed story that I did not enjoy reading at all. I wasn't expecting such a straight horror story, having pegged Sharma as more of a weird/dark fantasy type, which serves me right for making assumptions, I guess.
Egg • (2013)
A woman, suffering from endometriosis, obtains the assistance of a mysterious hag in becoming a mother. She finds parenting a bittersweet ordeal. Very much a working through, in reverse, of the territory "The Crow Palace" was investigating - an embryonic version, if you will.
The Sunflower Seed Man • (2013)
There are these young parents, and the man is a great, enthusiastic father, and the woman unfriendly and harsh toward their toddler. She makes more of an effort after the father sickens and dies, sharing with the girl the regenerating lifecycle of the sunflowers they've grown. Letting go takes the form of wrestling with the titular monster, which is emotionally resonant but faintly ridiculous.
The Ballad of Boomtown • (2012)
In Ireland, a woman living in an unfinished, post-crash housing development and ostracized by the scant community surrounding it circles around happier times in her memory (you know how I love weird stories that circle around past unhappy occurences). She was an oral historian, researching a local revenge myth centering on three standing stones, and entered into an affair with the builder behind the development, and then things went awry. A great one.
The Show • (2011)
A woman from a family of psychics lost her abilities after her dad died young, leaving her alienated from her mocking sister and mother. Now she fakes it on a ghost-hunting reality show until she doesn't have to fake it anymore. Another relatively straightforward horror tale, although more my speed than "The Anatomist's Mnemonic."
Pearls • (2012)
Medusa finds herself after a "millennium of sleep" an artist living in NY (in a "flat"), desperately lonely despite (because of?) the best efforts of weak men over the ages, until she meets a familiar face. Not my thing.
The Absent Shade • (2015)
A man returns to his native Hong Kong. As a miserable, unruly child, neglected by awful parents, his nursemaid was his one source of comfort, until she was jointly betrayed by the misogyny he and his father both harbored. Cursed, he now works as a hitman, alienated from the world, cold and unfeeling aside from his continuing fixation on her. Also, there's shadow magic. A good one!
Small Town Stories
A woman in a small (and getting ever smaller) post-industrial town is surrounded by low-key hauntings - ghosts, but not the vengeful kind, just ever-present reminders of loss. She herself is haunted by a more mundane trauma from her childhood, and the present day unfolds in a series of vignettes as she retraces the past leading up to the crisis. Class-inflected, suffused with melancholy and a very concrete sense of place, the standout piece of the collection, just an absolutely fantastic story.
Fish Skins • (2012)
A fisherman-turned-fishmonger, 20 years after an accident smashed his leg and he was rescued by the mermaid who became his wife, fears that they're drifting apart. A steady, low-key story with a nicely touching ending.
The Rising Tide • (2014)
A doctor, having made a huge mistake, retreats to her dead father's beach hut, full of mementos of his time as a diviner. She struggles with depression and grief and then Gwrach-y-Rhibyn pays her a visit. A solid weird tale.
The Englishman • (2006)
The titular man returns to post-colonial India and tries to figure out where he belongs. Tackles race and colonialism effectively even while making clear that Sharma hadn't yet pared down her prose into her later effective style.
The Nature of Bees • (2010)
A woman, defined entirely by her male relationships, rents a house next to an apiary that produces "the caviar of honey." Another early, relatively didactic story, about gender rather than race and less successful (and even more flowery) than "The Englishman." This story about bees features a woman named Bea.
A Son of the Sea
A dilettante is summoned back to Hong Kong after the death of his (wealthy, absent) father, having inherited the old man's apartment. He's always felt alienated, especially socially but especially sexually, and looks forward to exploring his family's mysterious roots. The inhumanity of humankind vis a vis marine life is explored in asides, and this one is overall a bit more surreal and oneiric than many of her other stories. I'm a sucker for weird fiction about the ocean.
Fabulous Beasts • (2015)
The perfect story to end the collection. An unflinching look at trauma and abuse and monstrosity and finding beauty in ugliness (and snakes). Nicely structured, beautifully written, and resonant with much of her other work.
Want to read
March 19, 2018Contents:
009 - "The Crow Palace"
033 - "Rag and Bone"
055 - "The Anatomist’s Mnemonic…"
067 - "Egg"
081 - "The Sunflower Seed Man"
093 - "The Ballad of Boomtown"
111 - "The Show"
123 - "Pearls"
137 - "The Absent Shade"
157 - "Small Town Stories"
175 - "Fish Skins"
187 - "The Rising Tide"
205 - "The Englishman"
213 - "The Nature of Bees"
229 - "A Son of The Sea"
255 - "Fabulous Beasts"
285 - Acknowledgements
287 - About the Author
009 - "The Crow Palace"
033 - "Rag and Bone"
055 - "The Anatomist’s Mnemonic…"
067 - "Egg"
081 - "The Sunflower Seed Man"
093 - "The Ballad of Boomtown"
111 - "The Show"
123 - "Pearls"
137 - "The Absent Shade"
157 - "Small Town Stories"
175 - "Fish Skins"
187 - "The Rising Tide"
205 - "The Englishman"
213 - "The Nature of Bees"
229 - "A Son of The Sea"
255 - "Fabulous Beasts"
285 - Acknowledgements
287 - About the Author
September 8, 2023
There were several highs and a few lows - All the Fabulous Beasts isn’t the most consistent collection I’ve read.
But when the highs were this exquisite, I can’t help but look at the whole collection through rose colored glasses.
Suffice to say, I recommend it, especially Fabulous Beasts. It's a standout for sure.
But when the highs were this exquisite, I can’t help but look at the whole collection through rose colored glasses.
Suffice to say, I recommend it, especially Fabulous Beasts. It's a standout for sure.
October 22, 2021
La reseña completa en https://inthenevernever.blogspot.com/...
«Los pájaros son traicioneros. El ser pequeño requiere de todo tipo de artimañas para sobrevivir, pero los Corvidae, en toda su gloria como el cuervo, el grajo, el arrendajo, la urraca y la grajilla tienen mayores ambiciones que esa.
Tienen un plan».
Cuervos, serpientes, caballos de mar, brujas, médiums, fantasmas, mitología y folclore… Todas las bestias fabulosas, de Priya Sharma, tiene todo eso y mucho más. Las dieciséis historias están repletas de crítica social: a la violencia doméstica, al machismo, al racismo, al capitalismo. A las historias no les falta ni sensualidad, ni brutalidad. Una parte de ellas están llenas de culpa y arrepentimiento que se sienten reales. La autora crea con facilidad escenarios sugerentes y opresivos en muy pocas páginas. Si están buscando historias inquietantes, incómodas y sorprendentes tienen que darle una oportunidad. Todos los amantes de la ficción oscura lo deberían estar leyendo.
«Los pájaros son traicioneros. El ser pequeño requiere de todo tipo de artimañas para sobrevivir, pero los Corvidae, en toda su gloria como el cuervo, el grajo, el arrendajo, la urraca y la grajilla tienen mayores ambiciones que esa.
Tienen un plan».
Cuervos, serpientes, caballos de mar, brujas, médiums, fantasmas, mitología y folclore… Todas las bestias fabulosas, de Priya Sharma, tiene todo eso y mucho más. Las dieciséis historias están repletas de crítica social: a la violencia doméstica, al machismo, al racismo, al capitalismo. A las historias no les falta ni sensualidad, ni brutalidad. Una parte de ellas están llenas de culpa y arrepentimiento que se sienten reales. La autora crea con facilidad escenarios sugerentes y opresivos en muy pocas páginas. Si están buscando historias inquietantes, incómodas y sorprendentes tienen que darle una oportunidad. Todos los amantes de la ficción oscura lo deberían estar leyendo.
January 22, 2019
There's nothing particularly surprising about a flower unfolding—it's a predictable process, after all—and not everyone has the patience to wait and watch while it happens... but its beauty is undeniable.
Priya Sharma is both a physician and a poet, and from the very first page of her first short-story collection All the Fabulous Beasts, I was captivated by the beautiful language Sharma unfolds in each of these fascinating and often terrifying tales.
I'm being very vague, I know. I want you to go in blind, as I did, or mostly so, groping for the twin senses of anticipation and dread that fill each of Sharma's creations.
The stories in All the Fabulous Beasts are well-arranged, though, becoming stronger as they go along.
The main character of "The Englishman" is named Krishna Sharma. This seems unlikely to be coincidence, either.
Even twist endings can become predictable and tedious if you know they're always coming, but that's never the case here—Sharma's stories don't even have twists, much of the time. Some are straightforward, driving toward a conclusion both obvious and inescapable—but irresistable nonetheless.
"The Nature of Bees" is one of those more linear tales—it's clear from the very beginning what's going to happen, but I couldn't quit reading it nonetheless.
Sharma's characters rarely feel anything as simple as anger, either; it's more likely to be anger with a pearl of love at its heart. This is also a good thing.
About the only fault I can lay at the feet of All the Fabulous Beasts—not that Sharma's entirely to blame—is its extremely sloppy copy-editing, which seems unusually bad even for these benighted times. Phrases like "It' sticky" and "They hated me and in return and I felt nothing," both from p.26, interrupted my enjoyment, one cumulative trifle at a time.
All of the stories in All the Fabulous Beasts are speculative fiction of one sort or another. One might be tempted to call most of them "horror," except for one thing—unlike most genre horror, Sharma usually offers hope that she doesn't snatch away.
This is also a good thing.
I need to thank Zach for the recommendation here... I probably wouldn't have found Priya Sharma's work on my own—and that would have been my loss...
Priya Sharma is both a physician and a poet, and from the very first page of her first short-story collection All the Fabulous Beasts, I was captivated by the beautiful language Sharma unfolds in each of these fascinating and often terrifying tales.
Birds are tricksters. Being small necessitates all kinds of wiles to survive but Corvidae, in all their glory as the raven, rook, jay, magpie, jackdaw, and crow have greater ambitions than that.All kinds of wiles... and later on that same page comes the sentence, "Our garden was an avian haven." Try reading that aloud a couple of times...
—p.9, "The Crow Palace"
I'm being very vague, I know. I want you to go in blind, as I did, or mostly so, groping for the twin senses of anticipation and dread that fill each of Sharma's creations.
The stories in All the Fabulous Beasts are well-arranged, though, becoming stronger as they go along.
My wife has brine instead of blood. She's full of the sea. I can taste it in her sweat, her tears, her sex. She's crafty and quick. She's lunar. She's tidal.After a beginning like that, I could not falter—I had to know where Sharma was going, despite or perhaps even because of that pun.
Men look at her. I don't need to see their wanting her to know that she's a catch.
—p.175, "Fish Skins" (italics in original)
The main character of "The Englishman" is named Krishna Sharma. This seems unlikely to be coincidence, either.
Even twist endings can become predictable and tedious if you know they're always coming, but that's never the case here—Sharma's stories don't even have twists, much of the time. Some are straightforward, driving toward a conclusion both obvious and inescapable—but irresistable nonetheless.
"The Nature of Bees" is one of those more linear tales—it's clear from the very beginning what's going to happen, but I couldn't quit reading it nonetheless.
Sharma's characters rarely feel anything as simple as anger, either; it's more likely to be anger with a pearl of love at its heart. This is also a good thing.
About the only fault I can lay at the feet of All the Fabulous Beasts—not that Sharma's entirely to blame—is its extremely sloppy copy-editing, which seems unusually bad even for these benighted times. Phrases like "It' sticky" and "They hated me and in return and I felt nothing," both from p.26, interrupted my enjoyment, one cumulative trifle at a time.
All of the stories in All the Fabulous Beasts are speculative fiction of one sort or another. One might be tempted to call most of them "horror," except for one thing—unlike most genre horror, Sharma usually offers hope that she doesn't snatch away.
This is also a good thing.
I need to thank Zach for the recommendation here... I probably wouldn't have found Priya Sharma's work on my own—and that would have been my loss...
August 29, 2021
No suelo leer terror, por lo que tal vez no sea esta la reseña más objetiva, pero aún así: me ha encantado. Los primeros relatos han sabido darme las puñaladas en los sitios correctos, hablando sobre todo de la familia. El estilo de Priya a veces es sutil, parece que estés leyendo un relato sobre cualquier cosa, a veces un relato fantástico, y de repente, pam! La puñalada terrorífica. La mayoría de las veces los personajes no son horribles en absoluto, son gente con la que empatizas y a la que acompañas a su abismo particular, casi con naturalidad. Aún así, también hay pinceladas de gore, no demasiado gratuitas, y tan bien descritas que, bueno, entiendes que la autora *sabe* de eso.
Si leéis terror, es muy recomendable. Si, como yo, no soléis adentraros en este género, creo que es una muy buena introducción al mismo.
Si leéis terror, es muy recomendable. Si, como yo, no soléis adentraros en este género, creo que es una muy buena introducción al mismo.
April 17, 2020
The fabulist element--of snake-women and cuckoo children, of seaward compulsions and the effigies of dead husbands--is too often tied up in a plot reveal, and thus is more a gotcha than a complex, fully-realized experience. This emphasis on plot gives too little room to theme, and so the monstrousness of non-normative bodies/identities is insufficiently subverted. There's so much potential: in the rhythmic, stylized language; in stories like "Rag and Bone," which has a engaging interplay of historical setting and horror elements with a more successful mystery plot; but moreover in the beautiful monster, the fabulous beast. I want to love these, often admire their concepts, but it's frustrating that the concepts are often treated not as jumping-off points but as endings.
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June 25, 2024“Nell’aria c’era un suono, un mormorio tra gli alberi, un brusio, l’Om intrinseco dell’universo. Era sospeso di fronte a lei, un rumore incarnato”.
in questa raccolta di racconti umano bestiale sovrumano spirituale e mitologico camminano sulla stessa terra perché questa sola li ha partoriti. nella storia ideale eterna ogni creatura è figlia dell’unica madre natura: tutto rientra in un sacrosanto arazzo olistico in cui un tempo potevamo distinguerne i singoli fili; oggi abbiamo perso la facoltà di interpretare i presagi divini e di trasformarci in animali come le masche.
qui donne e uomini “lunari e mareali” sentono brillare dentro di loro l’energia fluviale dell’universo. agognano pulsano piangono gioiscono, ma riescono a tornare al loro luogo naturale: rompono il guscio ancestrale e si trasformano. l’ordine naturale è stato ricomposto. ognunə “per rinascere deve morire”: la morte non è esorcizzata ma accolta e compresa, perché non collima con la vita ma la completa, in quanto rinascita. è un ciclo familiare e atavico. tutto muta, nulla perisce.
come ogni parto umano o animale, il mutamento metamorfico è anche orrorifico. non puoi evitare di attraversare quello stadio traumatico in cui il tuo corpo è irriconoscibile e estraneo: non temere. presto, nonostante la lacerazione della carne e il sacrificio della comprensione, un nuovo nido sarà disposto ad accoglierti.
Sharma declina ogni storia su questa metamorfosi, sulla “forma che va oltre”: nessunə riesce a mantenersi immobile ma deve liberarsi del peso della carne assegnata. la fattualità umana viene sfidata smentita superata. oltrepassato il confine univoco che separa umanità da bestialità, la persona trasformata non si annulla ma si salva. accoglie in sé due sfere che tornano unite come nella cosmogonia arcaica. la bambina barattata spicca il primo volo, l’uomo partorisce sott’acqua, le sorelle mordono e soff0cano il loro carnefice, la donna ritrova la coda perduta sugli scogli, lo sciame di api incorona gioioso una nuova regina.
una raccolta favolosa, che mi ha sussurrato fino a farmi venire i brividi. un monito a conservare in te tutte le tue moltitudini.
assolutamente impeccabile e impercettibile la traduzione di Lucrezia Pei.
in questa raccolta di racconti umano bestiale sovrumano spirituale e mitologico camminano sulla stessa terra perché questa sola li ha partoriti. nella storia ideale eterna ogni creatura è figlia dell’unica madre natura: tutto rientra in un sacrosanto arazzo olistico in cui un tempo potevamo distinguerne i singoli fili; oggi abbiamo perso la facoltà di interpretare i presagi divini e di trasformarci in animali come le masche.
qui donne e uomini “lunari e mareali” sentono brillare dentro di loro l’energia fluviale dell’universo. agognano pulsano piangono gioiscono, ma riescono a tornare al loro luogo naturale: rompono il guscio ancestrale e si trasformano. l’ordine naturale è stato ricomposto. ognunə “per rinascere deve morire”: la morte non è esorcizzata ma accolta e compresa, perché non collima con la vita ma la completa, in quanto rinascita. è un ciclo familiare e atavico. tutto muta, nulla perisce.
come ogni parto umano o animale, il mutamento metamorfico è anche orrorifico. non puoi evitare di attraversare quello stadio traumatico in cui il tuo corpo è irriconoscibile e estraneo: non temere. presto, nonostante la lacerazione della carne e il sacrificio della comprensione, un nuovo nido sarà disposto ad accoglierti.
Sharma declina ogni storia su questa metamorfosi, sulla “forma che va oltre”: nessunə riesce a mantenersi immobile ma deve liberarsi del peso della carne assegnata. la fattualità umana viene sfidata smentita superata. oltrepassato il confine univoco che separa umanità da bestialità, la persona trasformata non si annulla ma si salva. accoglie in sé due sfere che tornano unite come nella cosmogonia arcaica. la bambina barattata spicca il primo volo, l’uomo partorisce sott’acqua, le sorelle mordono e soff0cano il loro carnefice, la donna ritrova la coda perduta sugli scogli, lo sciame di api incorona gioioso una nuova regina.
una raccolta favolosa, che mi ha sussurrato fino a farmi venire i brividi. un monito a conservare in te tutte le tue moltitudini.
assolutamente impeccabile e impercettibile la traduzione di Lucrezia Pei.
August 2, 2018
A lovely macabre little tome that deserves a place on my carefully curated shelf. It may be a dark commentary on humanity and full of horror, but among the sickness, hate, heartbreak and despair there was also love, sacrifice, joy, transformation, acceptance and more. I loved the bits of mythology and philosophy twining through it. Someone else mentioned ontology and while I hadn't thought of it while I was reading, it's certainly quite apt.
I don't recall how I came across this author and work although I was ecstatic when my library ordered it after I requested it. I love the cover art and the stories contained therein certainly ran the gamut. My favorites however, were Fabulous Beasts, Fish Skins, Pearls and The Nature of Bees.
I don't recall how I came across this author and work although I was ecstatic when my library ordered it after I requested it. I love the cover art and the stories contained therein certainly ran the gamut. My favorites however, were Fabulous Beasts, Fish Skins, Pearls and The Nature of Bees.
December 6, 2020
I couldn't finish it, and the stories that I did manage to read I just didn't enjoy.
November 14, 2020
Some of the stories I really enjoyed, others less so. I think it gets stronger throughout. A few were v creepy!! A few I didn't really understand.
Also there were quite a few typos which is always odd? Like who read this before it was published and missed them, but okay.
Also there were quite a few typos which is always odd? Like who read this before it was published and missed them, but okay.
June 14, 2024
Bizzaro, grottesco, inquietante.
Ci sono tanti aggettivi per descrivere questa strabiliante raccolta di Priya Sharma, poiché credetemi mentre leggevo “ Tutte le favolose bestie” edito Moscabianca rimanevo sempre più attonita, mi sono gustata i racconti in questi ultimi due mesi, sono stata costantemente sorpresa e affascinata poiché é davvero una raccolta delirante che sorprende e trascina a fondo nella suo folle delirio, ovviamente imperdibile per chi adora il macabro e il weird!
Un libro che ha il sapore della giustizia, della sessualità e della stranezza, una scrittura che si insinua lentamente nell’anima, che ti fa pensare sempre al classico “ ma che cavolo sto leggendo” fino ad arrivare a volerne di più, come il canto ammaliante di una sirena.
Le storie di Sharma mi hanno ipnotizzata completamente, sebbene non siano horror nel senso tradizionale, sono talmente uniche e strane da lasciare un senso di inquietudine persistente, credetemi nella loro particolarità fanno davvero effetto, già dal primo racconto, “Il palazzo delle cornacchie”, la protagonista ci narra un ricordo d'infanzia legato ai corvi, poiché lei e sua sorella li attiravano alla mangiatoia che avevano costruito. I corvi, con i loro occhi neri e pieni di segreti, dominano il racconto, creando un'atmosfera di mistero ma anche presagio, assolutamente indimenticabile.🐦⬛
Priya Sharma esplora temi di trasformazione e identità in modi che sono al contempo fantastici, profondamente umani, il tutto con uno stile di scrittura ammaliante ed evocativo.
La famiglia è spesso al centro delle sue narrazioni, mentre leggevo questo libro, mi sembrava di essere immersa a ballare una danza oscura, attraverso i meandri della mente umana e delle sue trasformazioni più profonde e tenebrose, incapace di fare altro se non seguire il flusso di questi racconti che parlano di bestie e persone in modo così profondo.
I miei racconti preferiti, quelli che mi sono rimasti più impressi sono:
• “La natura delle api”, la protagonista viene portata in un alveare umano per diventare la regina,l'inquietudine cresce come il ronzio incessante delle api, un racconto che mi ha destabilizzata e che mi é rimasto impresso.
•“Stracci e ossa” ci porta in una Liverpool steampunk dove la classe operaia è letteralmente sfruttata per prolungare la vita di ricchi mercanti, una tagliente metafora delle disuguaglianze sociali, una storia forte che fa sicuramente riflettere.
Ogni racconto fonde il fantastico con il reale, l’orrore con il sensuale, una raccolta che sicuramente destabilizza e da esplorare fino in fondo, assolutamente imperdibile se amate questo genere!
Ci sono tanti aggettivi per descrivere questa strabiliante raccolta di Priya Sharma, poiché credetemi mentre leggevo “ Tutte le favolose bestie” edito Moscabianca rimanevo sempre più attonita, mi sono gustata i racconti in questi ultimi due mesi, sono stata costantemente sorpresa e affascinata poiché é davvero una raccolta delirante che sorprende e trascina a fondo nella suo folle delirio, ovviamente imperdibile per chi adora il macabro e il weird!
Un libro che ha il sapore della giustizia, della sessualità e della stranezza, una scrittura che si insinua lentamente nell’anima, che ti fa pensare sempre al classico “ ma che cavolo sto leggendo” fino ad arrivare a volerne di più, come il canto ammaliante di una sirena.
Le storie di Sharma mi hanno ipnotizzata completamente, sebbene non siano horror nel senso tradizionale, sono talmente uniche e strane da lasciare un senso di inquietudine persistente, credetemi nella loro particolarità fanno davvero effetto, già dal primo racconto, “Il palazzo delle cornacchie”, la protagonista ci narra un ricordo d'infanzia legato ai corvi, poiché lei e sua sorella li attiravano alla mangiatoia che avevano costruito. I corvi, con i loro occhi neri e pieni di segreti, dominano il racconto, creando un'atmosfera di mistero ma anche presagio, assolutamente indimenticabile.🐦⬛
Priya Sharma esplora temi di trasformazione e identità in modi che sono al contempo fantastici, profondamente umani, il tutto con uno stile di scrittura ammaliante ed evocativo.
La famiglia è spesso al centro delle sue narrazioni, mentre leggevo questo libro, mi sembrava di essere immersa a ballare una danza oscura, attraverso i meandri della mente umana e delle sue trasformazioni più profonde e tenebrose, incapace di fare altro se non seguire il flusso di questi racconti che parlano di bestie e persone in modo così profondo.
I miei racconti preferiti, quelli che mi sono rimasti più impressi sono:
• “La natura delle api”, la protagonista viene portata in un alveare umano per diventare la regina,l'inquietudine cresce come il ronzio incessante delle api, un racconto che mi ha destabilizzata e che mi é rimasto impresso.
•“Stracci e ossa” ci porta in una Liverpool steampunk dove la classe operaia è letteralmente sfruttata per prolungare la vita di ricchi mercanti, una tagliente metafora delle disuguaglianze sociali, una storia forte che fa sicuramente riflettere.
Ogni racconto fonde il fantastico con il reale, l’orrore con il sensuale, una raccolta che sicuramente destabilizza e da esplorare fino in fondo, assolutamente imperdibile se amate questo genere!
August 20, 2020
Blown away. I grew up on a steady diet of speculative fiction but never ventured into the sub-genre of horror before—probably because I had stereotypical notions of what it would entail (decapitations, haunted houses, misogynistic violence). This collection, which center on the eerie similarities between birds and humans, has changed all that. The stories feel familiar because they draw on known tropes but end up in places that are unexpected and occasionally horrifying. A story in which the protagonist confronts her dysfunctional family history ends up an avian horror reminiscent of Hitchcock: she discovers her mother’s belief that crows helped her to conceive and then swapped the human baby in a classic changeling scenario that forces the protagonist into a devastating identity crisis. In another story, difficult parenting and sacrifice are explored through the eyes of a woman who obtains the help of an old crone to conceive, and ends up with a baby who eats worms, flaps about, and has useless appendages for arms. The supernatural elements in these stories aren’t immediately introduced, but they’re central to Sharma’s themes of familial conflict, love, obsession, and social alienation. This is my favorite kind of speculative fiction—where the speculative elements don’t just serve the plot, but open the door to reflections on what it means to be human.
January 18, 2019
Sad families and lovers, many of them horribly depressed and/or with some sort of aspect of another species.
Most of the stories are set in Britain (one of them over a hundred years ago), two in Hong Kong and one in India.
Despite most of the stories having a supernatural element and a few using mythology (one of them goes much further into fantasy), these are very grounded in realism, relationships being the main focus. The cover and title don't suggest quite how gritty and bleak the stories are.
I've got mixed feelings about this collection, there were lots of times I recognized Sharma's skill but just wasn't especially engaged, sometimes I thought the comparisons were overdoing it a bit (particularly all the things compared to birds in "Crow Palace"), and sometimes I felt the stories deserved something a little better than the perhaps too traditional supernatural elements they had.
But I was also frequently swept away with the stories and found several of them quite emotional. All in all, it's a pretty solid collection, the best stories are very good ("Son Of The Sea", "Fabulous Beasts", "The Absent Shade" and "Rag And Bone").
Most of the stories are set in Britain (one of them over a hundred years ago), two in Hong Kong and one in India.
Despite most of the stories having a supernatural element and a few using mythology (one of them goes much further into fantasy), these are very grounded in realism, relationships being the main focus. The cover and title don't suggest quite how gritty and bleak the stories are.
I've got mixed feelings about this collection, there were lots of times I recognized Sharma's skill but just wasn't especially engaged, sometimes I thought the comparisons were overdoing it a bit (particularly all the things compared to birds in "Crow Palace"), and sometimes I felt the stories deserved something a little better than the perhaps too traditional supernatural elements they had.
But I was also frequently swept away with the stories and found several of them quite emotional. All in all, it's a pretty solid collection, the best stories are very good ("Son Of The Sea", "Fabulous Beasts", "The Absent Shade" and "Rag And Bone").
January 25, 2020
My love for the first story has probably made me up the star rating for this collection. I like that Sharma is not afraid to be dark and twisty, but there were more references to sex than I usually like in my short stories - it features heavily in the majority of them - so that zapped my enjoyment a fair bit.
My favourite stories were: 'The Crow Palace' (where a woman goes home after her father's death to discover there's more to her family than she first thought); 'The Anatomist's Mnemonic' (about Sam, who has strong feelings about hands) and 'The Rising Tide' (where a tragedy haunts a young doctor's life). Unfortunately, I didn't really connect with any of the rest of the stories. They weren't badly written, I just didn't find them terribly entertaining, many were forgettable and some were downright dull, in my opinion. I can, however, see the promise of this author's talent in the stories I did enjoy, so will look to read some more of her work in future.
My favourite stories were: 'The Crow Palace' (where a woman goes home after her father's death to discover there's more to her family than she first thought); 'The Anatomist's Mnemonic' (about Sam, who has strong feelings about hands) and 'The Rising Tide' (where a tragedy haunts a young doctor's life). Unfortunately, I didn't really connect with any of the rest of the stories. They weren't badly written, I just didn't find them terribly entertaining, many were forgettable and some were downright dull, in my opinion. I can, however, see the promise of this author's talent in the stories I did enjoy, so will look to read some more of her work in future.
December 24, 2018
I’ve been a fan of Priya Sharma’s work since I first read her story “The Sunflower Seed Man”, which appeared in Black Static #37 back in 2013, and so when her debut collection was announced by Michael Kelly at Undertow it instantly rocketed to the top of my ‘must read’ list. Undertow Publications have become somewhat notorious for producing beautiful books, and “All the Fabulous Beasts” is no exception – the accompanying artwork is the perfect complement to Sharma’s darkly beautiful prose, and great attention to detail has clearly been paid to the placement of each story, both in terms of typesetting and chronology.
Opening tale “The Crow Palace” is the perfect introduction to Sharma’s unique style; a story about the secrets we keep, and the stories we tell ourselves to justify our behaviour. More importantly, though, it turns notions of normativity and belonging on their head, deftly sidestepping expectations. “Rag and Bone” is an early favourite, a Mieville-esque sideways squint at a sanguinary city that looks a bit like Liverpool, in which a pound of flesh is viable currency; there is a heart at the core of this story, beneath the gore; this story truly showcases Sharma’s unique ability to imbue strange, dark narratives with authentic emotion.
“The Anatomist’s Mnemonic” is our first glimpse of pure horror, charting the consequences of fixation and obsession with an ending that might have been clichéd in less skilled hands (no pun intended). I had the privilege of hearing “Egg” read aloud at Fantasycon a few years ago, and it has lost none of its magic. A beautifully dark fairytale, “Egg” explores the unconditional love between mother and child, and, like “The Crow Palace”, asks us to consider the nature of imperfection; an important question in a time where society is beginning to open to the notion that to be born disabled is not necessarily to be born ‘less than’. The ending is triumphant, and utterly sublime, and here again Sharma’s ability to mix the uncanny and the emotional takes centre stage. “The Sunflower Seed Man” is wire-taut throughout, another brilliantly crafted piece of horror, followed by “The Ballad of Boomtown”, a slightly longer story in which regret takes centre stage, a litany of bad choices and terrible, inescapable consequences set against a well-realised backdrop of economic decline.
“The Show” casts a wry wink in the direction of Derek Acorah et al, while “Pearls” revisits classical mythology in a story thematically reminiscent of Gaiman’s American Gods, except that the female characters are more deftly drawn. And then to “The Absent Shade”, which is perhaps my favourite story in the book. An almost Shakespearean tragedy, “The Absent Shade” follows Thomas, the neglected son of wealthy Hong Kong Chinese parents, and a woman named Umbra, the family’s Filipina domestic servant. The narrative leaps masterfully back and forth in time, charting Thomas’s lonely, empty future and the terrible decision that led him there. “The Absent Shade” paints a world cast in perpetual shadow, in which the wealthy abuse their privilege, and the abandoned cling to scraps of warmth, and retribution, even at its most righteous, feels very much like damnation. A masterpiece of storytelling.
“Small Town Stories” brings us closer to home, a love letter of sorts to small lives in small places, and the unexpected depths that lurk beneath mundane surfaces. “Fish Skins” recalls folkloric accounts of selkies, mermaids and swan maidens, prying gently at the brutality inherent in old tales of shapeshifters and taking a softer road. At its heart, it’s about love, both of the shapeshifting women of myth and legend, and of the sea from which they so often originate. “The Rising Tide” too invokes the sea, but in drastically different circumstances; in this story women do not originate from the sea, but are taken by it, drowning on dry land. The hospital drama underpinning the story is clearly informed by Sharma’s own medical background, and is all the more effective for its authenticity, sacrificing neither fact nor feeling in its portrayal of the profession – often a difficult balance to strike.
“The Englishman” is a short, strangely sweet tale which straddles British and Indian culture, weaving Hindu lore and English history in a story about how we shape our identity, and about rebirth. “The Nature of Bees” and “A Son of the Sea” explore hybridity in very different ways; the latter is a particularly strong story which, like “The Absent Shade”, considers the ways in which we are shaped by our past, but comes with a sharp dose of very effective body horror which may make male readers shudder. Closing tale, the titular “Fabulous Beasts”, is perhaps the best known of Sharma’s stories, and for good reason; it’s a visceral gutpunch which charts the messy dissolution of a family, and a young girl’s escape from an abusive patriarch. To say more would spoil what makes this story so special, so I will simply say that this is the perfect way to close a book of uncommonly good stories; Sharma paints pictures with prose, and every story has multiple layers which leave food for thought long after you’ve finished reading. Priya Sharma’s star is on the rise, and I can think of no better ambassador to the British horror scene.
Opening tale “The Crow Palace” is the perfect introduction to Sharma’s unique style; a story about the secrets we keep, and the stories we tell ourselves to justify our behaviour. More importantly, though, it turns notions of normativity and belonging on their head, deftly sidestepping expectations. “Rag and Bone” is an early favourite, a Mieville-esque sideways squint at a sanguinary city that looks a bit like Liverpool, in which a pound of flesh is viable currency; there is a heart at the core of this story, beneath the gore; this story truly showcases Sharma’s unique ability to imbue strange, dark narratives with authentic emotion.
“The Anatomist’s Mnemonic” is our first glimpse of pure horror, charting the consequences of fixation and obsession with an ending that might have been clichéd in less skilled hands (no pun intended). I had the privilege of hearing “Egg” read aloud at Fantasycon a few years ago, and it has lost none of its magic. A beautifully dark fairytale, “Egg” explores the unconditional love between mother and child, and, like “The Crow Palace”, asks us to consider the nature of imperfection; an important question in a time where society is beginning to open to the notion that to be born disabled is not necessarily to be born ‘less than’. The ending is triumphant, and utterly sublime, and here again Sharma’s ability to mix the uncanny and the emotional takes centre stage. “The Sunflower Seed Man” is wire-taut throughout, another brilliantly crafted piece of horror, followed by “The Ballad of Boomtown”, a slightly longer story in which regret takes centre stage, a litany of bad choices and terrible, inescapable consequences set against a well-realised backdrop of economic decline.
“The Show” casts a wry wink in the direction of Derek Acorah et al, while “Pearls” revisits classical mythology in a story thematically reminiscent of Gaiman’s American Gods, except that the female characters are more deftly drawn. And then to “The Absent Shade”, which is perhaps my favourite story in the book. An almost Shakespearean tragedy, “The Absent Shade” follows Thomas, the neglected son of wealthy Hong Kong Chinese parents, and a woman named Umbra, the family’s Filipina domestic servant. The narrative leaps masterfully back and forth in time, charting Thomas’s lonely, empty future and the terrible decision that led him there. “The Absent Shade” paints a world cast in perpetual shadow, in which the wealthy abuse their privilege, and the abandoned cling to scraps of warmth, and retribution, even at its most righteous, feels very much like damnation. A masterpiece of storytelling.
“Small Town Stories” brings us closer to home, a love letter of sorts to small lives in small places, and the unexpected depths that lurk beneath mundane surfaces. “Fish Skins” recalls folkloric accounts of selkies, mermaids and swan maidens, prying gently at the brutality inherent in old tales of shapeshifters and taking a softer road. At its heart, it’s about love, both of the shapeshifting women of myth and legend, and of the sea from which they so often originate. “The Rising Tide” too invokes the sea, but in drastically different circumstances; in this story women do not originate from the sea, but are taken by it, drowning on dry land. The hospital drama underpinning the story is clearly informed by Sharma’s own medical background, and is all the more effective for its authenticity, sacrificing neither fact nor feeling in its portrayal of the profession – often a difficult balance to strike.
“The Englishman” is a short, strangely sweet tale which straddles British and Indian culture, weaving Hindu lore and English history in a story about how we shape our identity, and about rebirth. “The Nature of Bees” and “A Son of the Sea” explore hybridity in very different ways; the latter is a particularly strong story which, like “The Absent Shade”, considers the ways in which we are shaped by our past, but comes with a sharp dose of very effective body horror which may make male readers shudder. Closing tale, the titular “Fabulous Beasts”, is perhaps the best known of Sharma’s stories, and for good reason; it’s a visceral gutpunch which charts the messy dissolution of a family, and a young girl’s escape from an abusive patriarch. To say more would spoil what makes this story so special, so I will simply say that this is the perfect way to close a book of uncommonly good stories; Sharma paints pictures with prose, and every story has multiple layers which leave food for thought long after you’ve finished reading. Priya Sharma’s star is on the rise, and I can think of no better ambassador to the British horror scene.
September 10, 2020
This is the type of horror you read when you want something unsettling, chilling, and halfway between creepy and comforting.
Priya Sharma was able to capture the more horrifying thing that is human nature and weave it with the small hints of the supernatural. Sometimes I couldn’t tell if there was something unnatural happening or if it’s just people being people.
Highly recommend. Perfect autumn read, I think.
Priya Sharma was able to capture the more horrifying thing that is human nature and weave it with the small hints of the supernatural. Sometimes I couldn’t tell if there was something unnatural happening or if it’s just people being people.
Highly recommend. Perfect autumn read, I think.
July 30, 2024
Five stars for a short story collection seems unlikely, but I can't not do it. There isn't a single story here that I didn't like very much, and there are a couple that I completely adore (I will point them out) The book itself is absolutely gorgeous, incredible artwork on the cover, a unique and scintillating font, and the material of the cover is compelling to touch. At the same time, it's a tiny bit sinister.
The stories inside are a similar, perfect mix of beauty and horror. My very favorites--- "Pearls", "The Nature of Bees," and "Fabulous Beasts", bring mythology into the modern world in order to tell complicated haunting love stories. There are ghosts and ghouls and hideous humans, all fleshed out in perfect, sometimes perfectly horrifying, detail.
I couldn't recommend this book more if you are a fan of literate horror. I'm hoping I can find more of her work to read.
The stories inside are a similar, perfect mix of beauty and horror. My very favorites--- "Pearls", "The Nature of Bees," and "Fabulous Beasts", bring mythology into the modern world in order to tell complicated haunting love stories. There are ghosts and ghouls and hideous humans, all fleshed out in perfect, sometimes perfectly horrifying, detail.
I couldn't recommend this book more if you are a fan of literate horror. I'm hoping I can find more of her work to read.
November 2, 2024
4-4.5/5
November 21, 2024
All the Fabulous Beasts è una raccolta di racconti dell'autrice britannica Priya Sharma (30 Dicembre 1971), nata da padre indiano e madre anglo-indiana, ma sempre vissuta nell’area North West England. Pubblicata inizialmente nel 2018 da Undertow Publications, è stata finalmente portata in Italia da Moscabianca Edizioni nel 2024.
"Tutte le favolose bestie" è un cocktail inebriante che mescola sapientemente elementi di horror, folklore, fantasy e realismo magico, intrecciandoli con temi assolutamente umani come come l'amore, la perdita, la famiglia e la trasformazione.
La raccolta si compone di 16 racconti, ciascuno caratterizzato da una voce unica e da una struttura narrativa che oscilla tra il reale, il gotico, l'horror e il fantastico. Nonostante le differenze di ambientazione e trama, i racconti condividono un filo conduttore: al centro delle narrazioni dell'autrice troviamo figure femminili complesse e tormentate, sia per la loro natura, sia per la società circostante, e spesso legate da rapporti familiari o amorosi intensi, conflittuali, tossici. Queste donne, alla ricerca della propria identità, si confrontano con i propri mostri interiori, in un continuo gioco di specchi tra natura e società.
L'autrice, con una prosa fluida ed elegante, crea momenti di vita assolutamente reali e realistici, insinuando pian piano elementi stridenti con la realtà come la conosciamo, che hanno quasi sempre a che fare con il mondo animale. Uccelli, serpenti, pesci, insetti vengono tutti usati per esaltare la diversità e la capacità dell'Uomo di infliggere dolore ai suoi simili.
L'orrore quindi non sono i fantasmi o le creature animalesche che compaiono nei racconti, ma quei traumi che può infliggere la vita ad una persona. Sia esterni alla società, fulmini inaspettati che distruggono una vita quando colpiscono, come un tumore nascosto o un incidente fatale del tutto casuale, sia interni come genitori incapaci di amare o famiglie disfunzionali.
Uno dei racconti più potenti è "Il palazzo delle cornacchie", che apre la raccolta e racconta di una situazione familiare disperata, della morte di un genitore, di una sorella disabile, di oscuri segreti che vengono accennati al funerale del padre, di corvi che infestano il giardino e strane uova che contengono bambini umani. È un racconto potentissimo, profondo ed inquietante. Come molti altri della raccolta, una volta terminato ha bisogno di essere lasciato decantare ed è difficile terminare un racconto senza prendere tempo per pensarci sopra e iniziare subito il successivo.
Un altro racconto notevole è "Uovo". Questo racconto mescola maternità, sacrificio e il senso di perdita in un contesto che unisce horror e mitologia in modo brillante. Mentre "Bestie favolose", ultimo racconto ma che da il titolo alla raccolta, affronta temi come il trauma familiare e il potere della trasformazione, sia metaforica che letterale, è uno dei racconti più profondi e inquietanti che abbia mai letto.
Questa è un’antologia che quando la si legge lascia un segno indelebile nel lettore.
CONSIGLIATO se cercate qualcosa di veramente nuovo.
NON CONSIGLIATO se non volete letture impegnate.
COSA MI È PIACIUTO
- Racconti duri e crudi
- Originalità
- Impegnativo e stimolante
- Emotivamente profondo
- Prosa elegante, ma senza esagerare
COSA NON MI È PIACIUTO
- Perde l’impatto iniziale man mano si legge
- Tanti salti temporali possono disorientare
Voti dei singoli racconti (Attenzione! Ci sono forti spoiler!):
"Tutte le favolose bestie" è un cocktail inebriante che mescola sapientemente elementi di horror, folklore, fantasy e realismo magico, intrecciandoli con temi assolutamente umani come come l'amore, la perdita, la famiglia e la trasformazione.
La raccolta si compone di 16 racconti, ciascuno caratterizzato da una voce unica e da una struttura narrativa che oscilla tra il reale, il gotico, l'horror e il fantastico. Nonostante le differenze di ambientazione e trama, i racconti condividono un filo conduttore: al centro delle narrazioni dell'autrice troviamo figure femminili complesse e tormentate, sia per la loro natura, sia per la società circostante, e spesso legate da rapporti familiari o amorosi intensi, conflittuali, tossici. Queste donne, alla ricerca della propria identità, si confrontano con i propri mostri interiori, in un continuo gioco di specchi tra natura e società.
L'autrice, con una prosa fluida ed elegante, crea momenti di vita assolutamente reali e realistici, insinuando pian piano elementi stridenti con la realtà come la conosciamo, che hanno quasi sempre a che fare con il mondo animale. Uccelli, serpenti, pesci, insetti vengono tutti usati per esaltare la diversità e la capacità dell'Uomo di infliggere dolore ai suoi simili.
L'orrore quindi non sono i fantasmi o le creature animalesche che compaiono nei racconti, ma quei traumi che può infliggere la vita ad una persona. Sia esterni alla società, fulmini inaspettati che distruggono una vita quando colpiscono, come un tumore nascosto o un incidente fatale del tutto casuale, sia interni come genitori incapaci di amare o famiglie disfunzionali.
Uno dei racconti più potenti è "Il palazzo delle cornacchie", che apre la raccolta e racconta di una situazione familiare disperata, della morte di un genitore, di una sorella disabile, di oscuri segreti che vengono accennati al funerale del padre, di corvi che infestano il giardino e strane uova che contengono bambini umani. È un racconto potentissimo, profondo ed inquietante. Come molti altri della raccolta, una volta terminato ha bisogno di essere lasciato decantare ed è difficile terminare un racconto senza prendere tempo per pensarci sopra e iniziare subito il successivo.
Un altro racconto notevole è "Uovo". Questo racconto mescola maternità, sacrificio e il senso di perdita in un contesto che unisce horror e mitologia in modo brillante. Mentre "Bestie favolose", ultimo racconto ma che da il titolo alla raccolta, affronta temi come il trauma familiare e il potere della trasformazione, sia metaforica che letterale, è uno dei racconti più profondi e inquietanti che abbia mai letto.
Questa è un’antologia che quando la si legge lascia un segno indelebile nel lettore.
CONSIGLIATO se cercate qualcosa di veramente nuovo.
NON CONSIGLIATO se non volete letture impegnate.
COSA MI È PIACIUTO
- Racconti duri e crudi
- Originalità
- Impegnativo e stimolante
- Emotivamente profondo
- Prosa elegante, ma senza esagerare
COSA NON MI È PIACIUTO
- Perde l’impatto iniziale man mano si legge
- Tanti salti temporali possono disorientare
Voti dei singoli racconti (Attenzione! Ci sono forti spoiler!):
January 29, 2019
Award winning author, Priya Sharma, brings together a collection of some of the most amazing short stories I have ever read. Each one is a perfect vignette – conjuring up such vivid imagery I am amazed filmmakers aren’t beating her door down to sign her up. She successfully combines the fantastic and mythological with fairytale, legend and folklore. Humans, birds and animals transform into more than they were at first. Even the most challenged of the ‘fabulous beasts’ she creates have the ability to metamorphose into creatures of wonder and beauty.
June 10, 2024
Ho ADORATO moltissime di queste storie (la prima, la seconda e l’ultima non le scorderò facilmente) ma ho notato che verso la fine l’autrice tendeva a diventare un po’ ripetitiva con temi e nomi dei personaggi. Forse avrei tolto uno/due racconti, ma per il resto è stata una lettura pazzesca. Sharma scrive da favola e mi fa apprezzare persino i racconti.
Want to read
September 27, 2019
February 2, 2020
Book Club Read. This is not my usual read. I do not read horror / macabre, it is not to my taste, I prefer to be entertained and to be frank some of the stories in this collection made me feel both physically and emotionally sick. I have to confess there came a point where I could read no more.
Whilst the content may not have been for me there is no doubt that the quality of the writing is to be admired. The stories were tightly written with superb use of language and there was no unnecessary padding - a heinous crime in my eyes.
A book of contrasts for me, loved the quality of the writing, really did not enjoy the content.
Whilst the content may not have been for me there is no doubt that the quality of the writing is to be admired. The stories were tightly written with superb use of language and there was no unnecessary padding - a heinous crime in my eyes.
A book of contrasts for me, loved the quality of the writing, really did not enjoy the content.
May 15, 2022
I don't wish to focus on what I disliked; Fish Skins, Pearls,
The Ballad of Boomtown
,
Rag and Bone
and The Crow Palace are all worth seeking out, with some exquisite writing at points.
May 4, 2019
I was worried that all of the stories would be the same, since the first three followed the same format but in different settings (oppression, symbolic sad sex, punishment). However, from the fourth story on they were unique. As with most story collections, they were hit, super hit, miss, and super miss. The best story was the title piece, Fabulous Beasts. I'd like to see a full novel by this author.
May 22, 2018
Priya Sharma's All the Fabulous Beasts is an outstanding collection of short stories, one that serves as a shining example of the very best of contemporary speculative fiction. Not one of the tales feels 'lesser', which is a remarkable feat for a debut collection. Most of the stories originally appeared in high quality publications so there's no surprise about the standard of writing, but it's the breadth of genres represented that keeps this book richly engaging from its first word to the last. Kudos to Undertow Publications for publishing this book, it's one that deserves to be widely read. Highly recommended.
July 29, 2019
I have reviewed this collection here https://youtu.be/a8jk_FZeGyY and must say it is a great read. Recommended to those who have been curious seeing this on award lists or that enjoy very dark folk horror. Well written and fantastical ideas here. 4.75 out of 5 as there were a few stories that just weren't for me thought the ones that were wowed me.
May 7, 2020
Incredible collection! Varied, wonderfully written, surprising, enchanting and often horrific (in a good way). Desire, guilt, class-conflict, loss, longing, transformation and family all get explored through these original and compelling stories. I can't recommend this book enough.
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