Actual Rating 3.5

This is a collection of 14 short stories by the author that is advertised as a collection of dark fairytales and fractured folklore. I don’t know if I particularly agree with this description. I feel like calling them a collection of abstract magical realism may be less misleading. That being said, I did quite like the stories overall. They were unique and quite odd, varying much between stories. I had one five-star story, two two-star stories, and the remainder were either three- or four-star tales. My favorites were:

A Diviner’s Abecedarian – This story is told by describing a type of magic for each letter of the English alphabet (26). There’s a short paragraph under each letter to describe the magic types, and I loved how creative many of them were. But my favorite aspect was that each of these paragraphs came together to form a cohesive, dark, magical tale. This was a clever short story and by far my favorite of the collection.

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart – A bestiary compiled by florists. Each entry has an associated sketch of the creature and brief descriptions of what the authors were able to learn. This probably won’t be a favorite for most folks, but as someone who loves playing tabletop RPGs, this was right up my alley. The drawings were fun, and I loved how well the authors’ personalities came through the entries.

The Plums at the End of the World – A passionate act leads to the creation of a monster, but are all things that look monstrous truly evil? This was one of the weirdest tales in the collection, but I couldn’t help but enjoy it. The characters were wonderfully written and developed for such a short story, and it was a fascinating and creative tale.

While this collection won’t be for everyone, if you enjoy odd tales that are generally abstract and somewhat dark, then you’ll probably enjoy this one. The author’s writing is lovely but these stories generally aren’t plot-driven, so keep that in mind before picking it up. My thanks to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Fun and experimental collection from a talented writer that brings you confidently through the lands of fairy tale and myth. A solid collection worth thinking about

Perfect read for fans of folklore. This story collection is filled with odd tales. Beautiful writing style. Read this is you enjoy old folklore and anthology collections.

Each story is beautifully written, dark and feels like a fever dream. The abstract nature of the stories might not appeal to some readers, but on the whole, I loved it. I will say a couple of the stories were a little abstract even for me, but I wouldn’t expect to enjoy every single story in a collection, so I didn’t mind too much.

Particular favourites were A Diviner’s Abecedarian, The Autumn Kill, and the titular Fifty Beasts to Break your Heart (complete with pictures!!!)

Some of these stories were such a hit and then some of them were such misses that I struggled to finish the book. The story about the stairs and the other about the red string were great, I really liked them. I stalled out on the one about the war.

What an absolute delight! Perfect, twisted stories for Valentines day! Short, small treats that are beautifully, darkly written.

The prose in Fifty Beasts... is absolutely beautiful. The stories themselves are inconsistent and occasionally obtuse; my favorites were "Sundown at the Eternal Staircase" (I want to go there, even though the story warns against it), "A Diviner's Abecedarian", and "Homebody". I'm excited to read more from Nethercott!

This is a book that requires an imagination which hopefully, you have. As Einstein once said, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” In this book of short stories, there is the son of a witch who is made of thread. His thread makes connections with people he meets. In The War of Fog, a daughter tries to make sense of her father’s written notes during his time in war. Don’t expect these stories to be straightforward and clear. They go this way and that and sometimes appear to be a puzzle. That’s where your imagination comes into play. Make good use of it.

I love this author so much. I loved Thistlefoot. It was my favorite read of 2023 and this book did not disappoint either. It was very fun and whimsical at parts. It’s worth the read.

Stories full of nebulous yearnings, be they hungers, inhibitions, vices, or regrets. At times I seriously wondered if the author is taking some sort of psychotropic drug or just browsing off of fungi in the wood.

Thought provoking stories full of love, loss, regret and the making of oneself ‘other’ in a vain attempt to belong, to form or hold a connection.

Not a bouquet for everyone, but there is sure to be at least ONE story or creature that hits uncomfortably close to a hidden place in the reader if they brave a journey alongside 50 beasts.

This collection of stories is so deliciously horrific and fascinating. I loved every one of them in their twisted glory. This Isn't your typical set of stories, many of them have no real direction or purpose but maybe shock and awe. Some of them are a tad confusing, like waking from a dream that you can't quite remember. There were definitely a few of them that stood out above the rest but over all there wasn't a single one that I wasn't completely captivated by. This book is definitely not for everyone. But for those that it is it will definitely become a favorite!

I have said this before as well but now I'm saying it again coz this book is the perfect example of hate Love relationship.

When I started it ,I just couldn't make a head or tail of the stories. It annoys the hell out of me when a book makes me think I'm dumb. I think that must happen with most people but okay. So this book is so absurd, I don't know what author wanted to convey but I didn't understand many stories in the start. Then at 60% I thought I will leave it and read it later on and surprise, the best next story was terrific. And the next to that one was even better, must be my favourite from the whole series of short stories.

I will give a short account of each story to best of my grasp, hope it helps.

* Sundown at the Eternal Staircase - This first short story of the collection has eerie vibes. Two girls, lesbian who are in love work at eternal staircase and I could not understand much of the story.

* A Diviner’s Abecedarian - Sometimes girls can be mean as hell and once they set their eyes on someone new, nobody can stop them. I feel the whole witch thing is allegorical to bullying.

* The Thread Boy - The story of a witch and thread he buys. The thread boy has some Pinocchio vibes. Metaphorical and allegorical story of this thread boy is definitely poignant as well as magical. A heartbreaking life and lessons learnt from it. One of my favorite.

* Fox jaw - I'm not sure what and how to interpret this story so I will keep it by saying it is absurd and totally purposeless or atleast i couldn't figure out if there was any.

* The War of Fog - A daughter trying to make sense of what her father's notes mean.

* Drowning Lessons - I dont know what to make of this one. Hard to understand really.

* The Autumn Kill - This one too was a miss for me

* Fifty Beasts To Break Your Heart - This was oddly long about different animals and it gave me feels of fantastic beasts and where to find them. Only thing was different from fantastic beasts was that I knew animals from HP world and here I didn't. It was good but not that great.

* A Lily is a Lily - There's a boy who likes a girl named Lily. Sometimes love takes so much of one's existence that there might not be anything of them left anymore, or that's what it is about. It has haunting vibes and I loved it. This story kind of saved the book for me or I was definitely going to DNF it.

* Dear Henrietta - Wow, this was so good. So a friend is writing to her best friend - Dearest Henrietta and as the story unfolds it will give away what happened with the writer and it was shocking and awe-strucking both at the same time.

* Possessions - not sure about this one as well but one thing is I wouldn't mess with some sketchy books I found at thrift stores or better yet I wouldn't touch anything sketchy at all. Written well but still difficult to understand.

* Homebody - A woman moves with a nice man in a house. All through my life I have seen women turning into a no body but their family. Their identity limited to their husband's name and then children. Sad but reality so it hits harder to home. But it is traumatic as well.

* A Haunted Calendar - No idea what was this about.

* The Plums at the End of the World - this one was an okay read too.

Overall I enjoyed only few stories, so I would say this wasn't really a collection for me. Lot many stories did not make any sense to me and writing although beautiful to enjoy the stories you need make head or tail of what authors trying to say which was so hard with this collection that all my concentration was on what am I missing rather than enjoying reading.

Thank you Netgally and vintage anchor for ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by GennaRose Nethercott
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This is a collection of short stories about various beasts.
I read Thislefoot awhile back and absolutely adored the story. I was really excited to read Fifty Beasts and went into it blind. I usually prefer books to short stories and so this was just 3⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me. A couple of the stories I got invested in, but there were a few that were not really for me.
Also of note that the “break your heart” part of the title was very true. I don’t think there was a happy ending in the bunch.
I still love this author and look forward to their next full-length story!

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart was a joy of a read. I loved the encyclopedia of beasts chapter, it was long but I loved the illustrations and creative stories. I thought the stories were fantastical but kept me engaged.

I like to change it up now and again and read something outside of the norm and this short story collection turned out to be just the thing!

These stories are all so weirdly wonderful (and more than a little eerie!), with a lot of symbolism and ambiguity. And I just so happen to enjoy those things!

My favorite stories were The Thread Boy, A Lily is a Lily, Dear Henrietta, and Homebody. Those will stick with me for quite a while!

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for providing this ARC in exchange for my review!

This reminded me of The Hazel Wood stories; I like dark tales so this collection was fun to read, even if some things were kind of disturbing. It goes quickly and you can put it down and start again at your leisure.

I always adore GennaRose's ideas and atmosphere. As a self-proclaimed horror wimp, a lot of stuff can be too scary or too creepy for me. But GennaRose strikes the perfect balance for me. Weird, explorative, and a bit creepy, the stories in 50 Beasts to Break Your Heart were very enjoyable to read. As with all short story collections, there are some stories I absolutely loved - Drowning Lessons and A Lily is a Lily - and some I liked less. The ones I didn't love as much, including the eponymous story, still intrigued me, but the execution didn't quite work. Some of them I think could have benefitted from a longer format as the ideas were cool, but things just didn't quite gel for me. Overall though, I recommend 50 Beasts to Break Your Heart for those who like light horror, mythology/folklore horror, and dark, twisty stories. I also think readers who enjoy T. Kingfisher's horror would enjoy a lot of these stories. I look forward to trying more by GennaRose in the future.

Thanks to Vintage Anchor and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I started reading this as an ebook and really enjoyed the first story with the endless spiralling staircase. I thought it was creepy but loved the weirdness of it. Some stories definitely had more of an appeal than others. The 50 beasts chapter took a little too long to get interesting so it seemed really repetitive.

After a few stories I stopped coming back to it. Eventually Libby told me my audiobook hold from months ago arrived so I read it that way instead. I finished it pretty quickly as it is short.

Nothing against this book, I just think I finally realised I don't like anthologies. I love short stories. But after reading a few of them in an anthology, they all blend together and I lose interest.

Rating: Like = 3.5 stars rounded up.

Free eARC provided via NetGalley from Vintage Anchor | Vintage. This review is written voluntarily.

Thank you NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for this review copy.

This was such a lovely collection of odd short stories. I'm not usually a fan of short stories, but I absolutely loved Thistlefoot and wanted to give this collection a chance. I was not disappointed! I will absolutely read anything and everything GennaRose Nethercott puts out in the future.

I requested this book because I LOVED Thistlefoot. Loved the cover. Loved the story. So I couldn’t wait to read something else from that author.

But this one was almost an immediate DNF for me. I even tried to listen to it on audio but the stories are just so far fetched and out there that I can’t concentrate. I am all for a magical tale but with the short stories I can’t quite get invested.

Thank you anyway to Netgalley, Vintage Anchor Publishing, and the author for the ARC. And thank you to @PRHAudio for the gifted audiobook.