Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

As most short story collections, there were some I Loved and some I was meh on. The neverending staircase was such a strong start that I had really high hopes. There were some great gems throughout, with really striking imagery. All in all a great story collection!

I am a lover of dark short stories as far back as the 90's, with Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark; The Girl with the Green Ribbon is my all-time favorite and has stuck with me ever since. GennaRose Nethercott hit the mark with these deliciously dark short stories and their many forms of heartbreak. Fox Jaw is my favorite and had me in tears. Also notable for me are A Diviner's Abecedarian, A Lily is a Lily, and Homebody. If you love scary, creepy stories that will keep you thinking, I highly suggest Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart. Thank you to Netgalley and GennaRose Nethercott for this ARC.

I'm giving this four stars because the ending left a good taste in my mouth. I kinda hated the middle and considered dnf'ing, but I'd absolutely loved Thistlefoot and knew how well Nethercott could write, so I kept going. I'm glad I did because the ending stories left me wanting more. They were the perfect mix of darkly witchy and spooky, perfect for the Halloween season. I'll probably reread some of these, mainly the ones at the beginning and the ending. I did like this overall!

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review
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These fourteen stories are extremely hard to read because they're all so abstract and have such nebulous plotting that you won't know what they are about most of the time; they are all stream-of-consciousness and so hazy that you simply get lost in the web of (pretty) words. Nethercott can write, but she spends too much time choosing how to say it prettily and as vaguely as possible to the detriment of the storytelling and characterisation.

Might be up your alley if you like weird fiction and fever-like storytelling and aren't too fixated on clear plot structures. Do not expect to be told what the stories are about, though, because you'll be on your own to figure them all out.

I feel so lucky to have gotten to read this ARC!

This collection of stories was off putting and kept my mind reeling for days after I completed each story! There were some stories that did not quite reach me as I expect they were supposed to, but others will stick with me for a lifetime.

Beautiful and dark. Just the way I like my fairytale short stories. This author has an original and poetic style. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this lovely collection!

There was such a great variety of stories and they were all so fun to read and dive into. Like this author's previous work, this anthology wonderous yet scary.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for this ARC!

This is a fantastic collection of creepy, weird and gross short stories. A perfect read around this time of year for sure!

Some of them really didn't make sense to me, but they were very well written, so I didn't care if it left me confused. The journey itself was excellent! My favorite section was around the middle of the book, which actually discussed the fifty beasts within the title.

While the title sounds promising and the writing is that good, this isn’t my cup of tea. The first story made me stop. No interest on lgbtq so I didn’t read the rest. Sorry.

Very abstract but beautifully lyrical.
I will always read everything Gennarose puts out!
My favourite was the eternal staircase, despite it being at the beginning I have found myself thinking about it frequently since. It gave me the same feelings Piranesi did, I liked the vast rules that the staircase had.

I'm usually not one for short story collections, but the cover and the promise of more of Nethercott's writing were too tempting to pass up. I really, really enjoyed this collection and each one of the stories. While, at surface level, these are horror stories, each one touches on different types of love and different kinds of relationships and how they can become twisted or obsessive. This was such a great read.

I feel like Midwest Gothic becomes a trend every now and then and I always say that I wish it was more of a staple in the reading community. There’s just something SO GOOD about disconcerting weirdness that leaves you wanting more. Even when your skin is crawling with the heebie-jeebies.

Listen, I’m a scaredy-cat. I don’t like unnatural stuff. I am easily spooked by the supernatural and I am a firm believer in the theory: "If I can't physically fight it, I don't want anything to do with it." HOWEVER if even a scaredy-cat like me can handle this book, I think absolutely anyone can. It's not scary, per se, but more off-putting. And when you put down the book, something in you feels... off-kilter. There's no good way of putting it but essentially I'm trying to say that this book was AMAZING. And totally perfect for the Autumn season!

I always say it's hard to review a book of many unconnected short stories because some are super good while others... not so much. But this book makes reviewing easy because ALL the short stories were incredible. Even the ones that I thought started off a little weak ended up being some of my favorites. For example, the one about the woman turning into a house. IT SPOKE TO ME. I too feel like I am transforming into an inanimate object.

Anyways. Time for my existential crisis. Toodaloo!

A savage, weird and wonderful blend of dark fairytale short stories. There were some stories i liked better than others but overall this was a great anthology with a varied selection of tales. Was quite reminiscent of T Kingfishers short story collections which I love. This also just cemented how much I like this authors writing style. Looking forward to reading what they put out next!

"Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart" and I would let each of them do it over and over again. GennaRose Nethercott woved a magnificent lore of short stories, which are not my favourite sort of reading, yet from time to time there appears an author who proves me wrong. I'm honored to add Nethercott to that list, because their imagination draws world in colors not known to human eyes. It's simple, yet magical, lyrical and, when it needs, able to rise goosebumps.

Wonderful collections. Please proceed to let it break your heart.

I'm a sucker for weird short stories and this did not disappoint. I liked that there were lots of different formats for the stories and many gave off Welcome to NightVale vibes.
Thank you netgalley for the ARC

These eerie, and frightful stories feel like they were transcribed right from my soul. I never wanted to stop reading and I wish there were a hundred more.

This collection of short stories portrays so many kinds of love, both monstrous and beautiful (but really, what’s the difference?) These stories make you dig deep, and let you decide whether you want to take the risk of loving something so wholly, or not, and if you even have that choice in the first place.

My favorites were The Thread Boy, Drowning Lessons, Dear Henrietta, and The Plums at the End of the World. But I loved every story.

DNF @ 70% … but that's after basically skipping over most of the previous 22%, so make of those percentages what you will. I really wanted to like this book because the premise sounded fantastic, but I guess maybe I'm just dumb because I didn't get it at all?

This book is very strange and the stories very … abstract, I suppose? Most of them just felt like fever dreams rather than actual stories. There are armies of fog and endless staircases and girls who drown in the rain and a boy made out of thread and something about a fox and oh god I am so confused right now. My reaction at the end of every story was pretty much “Huh?!?”

I feel bad because I almost never DNF books, especially ARCs, but I just couldn't bring myself to finish this one. This collection of stories doesn't currently have a ton of reviews, but the ones it does have are all super positive so I'm obviously in the minority here. So it's probably me and not the book, but it is what it is, I suppose.

With that said, my “favorite” story of the bunch (prior to the 70% mark) was probably the first story in the collection, “Sundown at the Eternal Staircase.” And by “favorite” I mean that I somewhat understood what was happening. Two girls work at a tourist attraction called the Eternal Staircase (which is, indeed, an endless staircase) and they're maybe kind of in love but the staircase makes everything weird. The rules for visiting the staircase were pretty amusing.

My least favorite was “The War of Fog” because I'll be damned if I had any idea what was happening there. Something about an army made of fog and a girl had to type things for her father?

Despite my issues with the stories themselves, Nethercott's writing is absolutely lyrical and I wish I could have appreciated it more.

Even though I DNF'd this book, it wasn't quite a one-star read for me since a couple of the stories were more enjoyable (or less bewildering) than the others. 1.75 stars seems about right, rounded up to a weak two-star rating.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Vintage for providing me with an advance copy of this book to review.