Caleb > Recent Status Updates

Amazons were ' a bunch of golden-shielded, silver-axed, man-loving, boy-killing women.' The fifth-century BCE historian Hellanikos of Lesbos presumably doesn't intend this list as a compliment, but it certainly makes me want to join them.
P115

A cluster of fantastic stories in this section of the book. The Troll (1935) by T. H White reads wonderfully contemporary. Richard Hughes'Gertrude's Child (1940) is surreal, and while Bluebeard's Daughter (1940) by Sylvia Townsend Warner feels dated, it is still feels like the type of contemporary fairy treatment that delights when written now.

Mark Doty’s ‘You are here, you are not a ghost’ may be one of the best pieces of fiction I have read so far this year.

Chloe Wilson’s ‘Hold Your Fire’ is delightfully sinister suburban gothic.

Wonderfully unsettling.

Only a quarter of the way through this collection and I’ve come across so many wonderful tales I’ve not encountered elsewhere. Mostly recognisable but so rich in their offering. Lucy Lane Clifford’s ‘The New Mother’ is has been the stand out so far for being surprisingly dark take on a simple story.