Jack Duggan’s Reviews > She's Always Hungry > Status Update

The King: another of the funniest short stories I’ve ever read. The narrator is such a piece of shit, it’s so much fun to read, and there’s probably meant to be an analogy for billionaires or demagogues or something here too?

Shake Well: absolutely vile, partly in the mildly body-horror aspect, but mostly in the characters. Everyone in this is (deliberately) so awful, and every line of dialogue was sickening. Really well written, but now I am depressed.

Nightstalkers: I don’t have much to say about this one, but it was nice. Based on the name I was half expecting it to be about Richard Ramirez, which the setting would have supported, but instead it’s just a nice story about teenage curiosity that manages to leave enough unsaid to show that Clark really knows what she’s doing

Extinction Event: please get Denis Villeneuve on this one. Another great sci-fi short, very dystopian. The world-building is great and very natural, and I liked the environmental theme to it that blended with a sort of body-horror, but where the real horror is people (isn’t it always)

Goth GF: Very similar energy to Boy Parts, which I loved. Darkly funny, and the narrator’s complete inability to recognise his own objectification of the woman he fancies is depressingly common in the comments of every social media platform

Hollow Bones: very cool sci-fi horror, eventually leading into some fun grisly body horror. I think there was some meaning I might have missed - exploring the wound felt overly sexual, but thee was a reference to Not Washing Hands that makes me wonder if there was supposed to be a Covid analogue or something in there. Still very cool, great world building in such a short time.

She’s Always Hungry; a very cool story that I liked a lot. Fisherman-style horror is such a cool theme, and this blends a few archetypes so well. The matriarchal society is developed really well and doesn’t feel gimmicky, the matronymic naming is such a great way of establishing it so quickly, and gradually coming to realise why it’s the case is almost chilling. Excellent story.

The Problem Solver: I liked this one, but it almost felt like an attack. A woman being a passive observer to the aftermath of her own SA as a vehicle to explore men’s reactions to it is an interesting concept and good for thought, but in a way precipitated by the story itself

Off to a great start, and funny to think I effectively traded this for a copy of a book I wasn’t even sure anyone else would like.

Build a Body Like Mine: Off to a suitably and delightfully gross start. This reminds me a lot of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, but much shorter and tighter in focus in an way that improves it massively