What an addictive, beautiful world Cooney has created in Dark Breakers.

I first heard about Cooney years ago when Gene Wolfe mentioned her in an interview, she was one of the writers he mentored and highly recommended keeping an eye on. And although her work is nothing like Wolfe’s, I can see why he was impressed. It’s just a pity I don't think he lived long enough to read this book, it'd make him proud.

Beautiful, lucid prose fills Cooney’s book to the brim. Her characters are unforgettable, and in a a world where humanity, the Faerie (the Gentry), and the Kobold/Goblin kingdom are separated into three levels of existence, they are all at risk. The humans live in the top layer of reality, the Gentry faery in the middle layer, and the Goblin kingdom exists at the lower level. These kingdoms are separated and impassable except for in certain locations and at certain times, and in such a rigid way that humans mostly don’t believe the other kingdoms exist. One of those places where the other worlds can be accessed is Breaker house which exists in some form on all levels of existence (Human/Gentry/Kobold), where much of the action happens.

Its a very weird and dark novel, full of very richly described and terrifying creatures, wonderfully romantic and romanticised characters (I say that in all the best ways), and beautifully written in eloquent prose fit for the setting and the themes of the enthralling, nail-biting story. It’s the kind of novel you dwell in and savour, not wanting it to end. The characters are unforgettable, the suspense visceral, and the descriptions and prose beautiful but never without substance and precision.

When the novel (more like a selection of long stories) was over, I was already searching the web for more stories set tin the Dark Breakers universe. I am not usually a great reader of romance novels, and this id firmly in the fantasy/romance genre — but Cooney won me over. I just couldn't get enough.

Dark Breakers is an incredible collection full of rich prose and smart worldbuilding teeming with creativity and talent. I'd never heard of Cooney's work before this, and I definitely plan of checking it out now!

This is a phenomenal collection, packed with memorable prose, heavy concepts wrapped in dark and beautiful descriptions, and unforgettable characters. I have been recommending it to all & sundry since finishing it.

A few of the loosely connected novellas and short stories in this collection were self-published individually, but recently reworked slightly to accommodate the events in the author’s “Desdemona and the Deep”.

C.S.E. Cooney writes gorgeous prose evoking uncanny people and places, exuberant and vibrant, popping with a myriad of colours and sounds.

The first two stories are lush and romantic, focusing on two separate couples whose lives are inextricably tied to the linked worlds Cooney has created, humans inhabiting Athe, gentry (fae-like beings) inhabiting the World Beneath (Valwode), and goblins existing in the World Beneath the World Beneath (Bana the Bone Kingdom). The Worlds Beneath are full of surpassing beauty, violence and foulness in equal measure. Athe connects with the gentry world at Breakers (a mansion on an estate), which has a Day side on Athe, and a Dark side in the gentry world.

The first two stories occur pre-“Desdemona and the Deep”, while the remaining tales occur five years and later, after “Desdemona and the Deep”.

The Breaker Queen:
Artist Elliot Howell encounters a woman, Nix, at one of Desdemona Mannering’s parties at Breakers. Nix (the Queen of Dark Breakers) takes Elliott back to Dark Breakers, where there is war and the start of an incredible passion. The story is full of scrumptious prose.
4 stars.

The Two Paupers:
We discover more about sculptor Gideon and writer Ana (from story 1), and why Gideon has been trying to shove Ana out of his life. Ana is kind and powerful, and her actions cause tremendous change in the gentry world.
4 stars.

Salissay’s Laundries:
This story, taking place five years after “Desdemona and the Deep”, has a different tone than the previous two stories, and is also told in first person by Salissay Dimaguiba a journalist in Athe. Salissay is after her next exposé, and discovers some shocking truths about her world. There is so much energy coming off Salissay, and Cooney’s prose reflects it.
4.5 stars.

Longergreen:
Sixtyish years after “The Two Paupers”, Ana comes to a particular glade, to perform a very important task.
Cooney does a lovely job making me feel the weight of Ana’s years, and her deep love and grief.
4.5 stars.

Susurra to the Moon:
A fizzy drink of a story, revealing who Alban Idris, Ana’s friend, two queens are and what they get up to when bored.
4 stars.

Overall rating: 4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Mythic Delerium Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I LOVED this collection of connected stories, and I am very much looking forward to reading Desdemona and the Deep now.

The writing is absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous. It was challenging at first, a bit of a tangle, and then as I read it opened up and I fell in love with it. With Athe and the Valwode, humans and gentry and goblins, and doors that open at midnight and art that can change the world.

The characters were so layered and intriguing, so interconnected, and it was a joy to come to know them.

There was honestly nothing I would change about it - a rare thing - and I am hereby adding CSE Cooney's name to my list of favorite and must-read authors.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Mythic Delirium Books for providing an e-arc for review.

I did not finish this book because I realized it was a companion book of short stories featuring characters from another novel, which made things very confusing. I could not make it past the 10% mark. The writing was good, but the stories were scattered and incomprehensible.

i'm from new england, i've visited the actual breakers a couple of times and i love it, simply decadent, super unethical, a wonderfully contradictory marvel. i find this collection to be similarly discordant, i simply did not know what to make of any of these pieces. they're not objectively bad, the style is there, the atmosphere is there, but most didn't land with me

Thank you NetGalley and Mythic Delerium Books for a copy of the eArc of C. S. E. Cooney's Dark Breakers. If you've read and enjoyed Desdemona and the Deep - as I did - you need to pickup this collection of novellas and stories that also takes place in Seafall City. It has been several years since I read Desdemona and the Deep, but Cooney's wonderful method of storytelling pulled me right in and helped me remember from the very first steps into Breaker House in Dark Breakers. The characters are fully formed in each story and many evolve over the course of several stories, Analise Field being a highlight. The stories I loved the most were The Two Paupers, Salissay's Laundries ,and Susurra to the Moon.

This was a beautifully atmospheric read. At first I was lost, and if asked I would say it reminded me of Alice in wonderland, because of how you don't understand what is real and how the story flows. But then it becomes very adult, and the whole time I felt like I was in a magical dream.
The book contains 5 stories, all in the same world. In this world there are three dimensions, but we only get a look into 2 of those. The human world where some artists are in the know, and are in high demand in the gentry world, a world built on dreams. I believe there is more about the 3rd in the book that takes place after the first two stories in this one, so I am very intrigued!
I loved the second story the most.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me an advance copy of this gem!
Ok look, I love C.S.E Cooney's writing. I got my first taste with Bone Swans and I've never looked back. Everything is magic. Sometimes dark, but absolutely always full of life. Reading her stuff just makes me feel good, what else is there to say?

Oh, how I have missed reading Cooney's words! This collection may be complied of separate novellas and stories but the tell one larger tale of a place and a group of friends and how the world changes to adjust to unexpected magic.

The book begins with Dark Breakers which follows Elliot Howell, a gifted painter, as he tries to navigate the world of his rich friends. Bright and bubbly Desdemona Mannering has decided that Elliot is the New Great Painter of the age and so he finds himself suddenly famous and completely unequipped to handle it. The story tells of a party at Breaker House where Elliot encountres a decidedly otherworldly creature - who happens to be the Queen of the Valwode, the Veil Between Worlds - and they promptly fall in love. But being queen of a rather important part of the three worlds, things aren't as easy as one would hope...

My favorite tale by far was the second one that focuses on two of Elliot's friends, Ana Fields (penniless but warm-hearted writer) and Gideon Alderwood (sculptor and super rich cousin to Desdemona Mannering). In The Two Paupers, we get to know these two a little bit better. They already made an impressive appearance in the first story but this one is really all about them and everything about it ticked the boxes I love when reading a story. Gideon and Ana aren't on the best of terms, at the moment, because Gideon is a big jerk. But as they live as something like flatmates - sharing a garret with only one toilet, being separated by nothing but a thin wall - they can't quite escape on e another, no matter how often Gideon elittles Ana and her work, no matter how many times she complains about him using up all the toilet paper and never replacing it.<br>What sounds like your basic romcom actually turns into something a lot more magical once you read it. Gideon creates beautiful statues only to destroy them the moment they are completed. He is responsible for Ana's manuscript having found its way into the hands of a capable and utterly delighted agentand even though Gideon would never admit why he did it, we know that he actually really likes Ana. Theirs is a weird relationship that can only find a way to work once the secrets are out, once the magic that has been part of their lives gets revelaed. Oh, and once one of them saves the other from certain doom.

The other stories int his collection were quite nice as well, but they felt more like additional material to the first two novellas, rather than something that can stand on its own. Salissay's Laundries was charming insofar as it is written by an investigative jorunalist who infiltrates a place that is said to "disappear" women and/or their unborn children. The Valwolde is supposed to be involved, but we all know that's just fairy stories...
In Longergreen, we jump forward in time and learn how the world (and some characters we've met earlier) have changed. I really can't say much about it without spoiling, but I found it a very touching, quiet tale that would have rounded up the collection beautifully.
But Cooney ends things on a lighter note with Susurra to the Moon. Here, we meet a character from the first story again as well as someone from Desdemona and the Deep>. Things haven't only changed in our world, but the Valwode has evolved as well. And so we meet two queens of that Kingdom Below as they enjoy each other and make silly plans about how they want to go to the moon. It's a cute little story but it didn't touch me nearly as much as the ones about Elliot, Gideon, and Ana.

I love how interconnected Cooney's work is (a play called Bone Swans> is mentioned in this collection, which happens to be a real book in our word) and how she writes about artists. Whether it's Elliot and his paintings, Gideon and his statues, or Ana and her writing - Cooney manages to make them all feel like real artists, she makes their work come vibrantly alive thorugh her own art, and she made them all real, multi-faceted people. I adored both the friendship between these three as well as the strange love/hate relationship that Ana and Gideon have going on. The otherworldly characters were also amazingly done. A fairy queen who is thousands of years old shouldn't behave like a regular homan and Cooney did a fantastic job making Nyx strange but still relatable enough for me to care about her.

If you like fairy stories, pretending to walk through walls between worlds, to meet magical beings at the chime of midnight, if you like art and beautiful words, then pick this up. It's truly lovely and makes me all the more excited for Cooney's second 2022 book (a big fat novel!) Saint Death's Daughter.

As this year is coming to an end I can easily say Dark Breakers was one of my favorite books this year. This is a collection of wonderful short stories/novellas full of magic and beautiful oddities. All of the stories in this collection take place in the same world, with a great atmosphere that sucks the reader in. The way Cooney described the characters was amazing. This was my first time reading Cooney's works and I would happily read it again!

3.5 stars

I had fun reading this fun collection of fantastical short stories/novellas. I found it interesting to read a collection of stories all set in the same world, which I hadn't ever done before. The author does a great job of creating atmosphere that sucks the reader in, and that atmosphere was probably my favourite part of these stories. If there will indeed be a novel forthcoming in this world (as hinted in the forward), I'm very much interested in reading it too.

At first I felt like this book was beyond my depth. The valwode and the concept of the veil-between-worlds was hard for me to grasp. However, as I read on, and as the worlds became more familiar, I was totally entranced. These stories were so delightfully weird and original. My imagination conjured such beautiful, grotesque and magical scenes. I had to grab a pen and paper and sketch the wonderfully unpleasant Susurra after reading her description. Plus the prose you guys. The beautiful, evocative, enchanting prose.

Dark Breakers was my introduction to C.S.E. Cooney. I was not familiar with her beforehand. But the magic and beautiful oddness of her storytelling has charmed me. I’ve just ordered Desdemona the Deep because I don’t want this Dark Breakers experience to end.

The stories of C.S.E. Cooney mostly excel in atmosphere. They have a certain feeling to them that I haven’t found in many other authors, which slowly draws you in, with characters that feel like fairytale figures yet fully formed people of their own. Sometimes I get a bit lost in the story, but for the most part they’re enjoyable reads.

Individual reviews for each story:

The Breaker Queen (2/5)

This one was almost a DNF. Could not wrap my head around the story! I didn’t really understand what was going on anymore halfway through and honestly couldn’t bring myself to care enough to try. While I loved the prose, I wasn’t really reading the actual story, and had to power through to finish it. Maybe a re-read is in order, one day.

The Two Paupers (4/5)

After almost DNF-ing this collection, this story was an absolute joy to read straight from the start. It’s a delightful mythopoeic story filled with mystery, intrigue and romance culminating in a fantastic tale of artists and magic. The imagery in this story is beautiful.

Salissay’s Laundries (3.5/5)

This one was quite interesting; a journalist tries to infiltrate some kind of institution in an attempt to essentially prove magic exists. She’s very sceptical and gets up to a bunch of trouble. Just like the others, it’s kind of a slow burn, not much going on, and it had a bit of a middle drag for me.

Longergreen (4/5)

A very sweet story on grieving and a bit of interesting worldbuilding. Becomes much more meaningful after having read some of the previous stories in this collection. I especially liked how it interwove a historical event in the world with the personal story of some characters we got to know earlier.

Susurra to the Moon (3.5/5)

This was a very quick and cute absurd little short story. What I really like about C.S.E’s stories is how they are very much myths, with fairytale logic, yet they incorporate hard terms of science, referring to decidedly “real” organisations and facts of science, within this illogical feeling world. It’s an interesting paradox, and it works quite well.

Average rating: 3.4, rounded down to 3.

First of all, i'd like to say that this is probably one of the best books i have read all year.

It was my first time reading any of Cooney's work and i was pleasantly surprised; the characters were delightfully eccentric and lovable, the prose was gorgeous and the over-all atmosphere just felt so lush! As an artist, this book was a total feast for my imagination. A lot of popular fantasy books nowadays depicts the fair folk, but i loved Cooney's take on them, making them just the right amount of achingly beautiful and terrifying.

I can definitely see myself shamelessly recommending this to all my friends - honestly, what a delightful read!