I hardly know what to say about this book. My son said that I might "enjoy it".
It sets itself up from the very beginning as not being a book for the faint of heart, nor for the squeamish and Ms. Baker does have a thing for eye ball jelly and heads getting squashed. It is extreme and I almost didn't continue -more than once- but I am glad I stuck with it.
As I set in a recent meditation--I found myself labeling my intrusive thoughts as either white spiders or hungry ghosts.
I have been struggling with the "short story" ever since I set myself the challenge of reading a-short-story-a-day. But it seems each time I am about to quit in dispair I stumble across a collection and/or a writer that restores my faith. Ms. Monroe accomplished this in spades, it is no wonder that she is the recipient of the Nobel Prized in Literature as well as the winner of the Man Booker International Prize and many other prizes to boot. She is a master of short fiction. Reading time well spent and yes I will be reading all of her collections.
Jackman & Evans #2
I'm enjoying this series. This book revolves around a series of missing and murdered "daughters". Nice spare writing and a series all about the case work, with almost zero personal stuff. I will definitely be reading more from this author.
My only gripe and it is certainly not the fault of the author--it is more this social media fascination with the trope of the "huge twist". Just saying, and in my own opinion, wouldn't a twist be much more satifying if the fact of its existence wasn't advertised on the front cover and lauded ad naseum by social media influencers. I find it tarnishes the reading experience, because now you start reading and constantly try to figure out the "huge twist", instead of just happily reading totally unaware that something is just not what it seems to be... That said the ending of this book was satisfyingly complicated, but not what I would label as a twist.
