Short stories are usually hit or miss for me, and these were sort of an exception in a way that some were a definite hit, and some others - quite a miss.

I particularly enjoyed "Sundown at the Eternal Staircase", "A Diviner’s Abecedarian" and "A Haunted Calendar". They sort of reminded me of the spooky magic I used to find in "Welcome to Nightwale", skirting the line between mundane and and absurd, written in an atmospheric manner, that tastes of both ordinary and insanity at the same time. Similarly, I loved the passages about the beasts and their illustrations.

Sadly, some of the other stories fell flat. I feel like they lacked the whimsical nature of the other ones, thus taking away from the cohesiveness of the whole book.

Weird and wonderful. GennaRose Nethercott’s writing is full of imagination and dark whimsy. Each fairy-tale-like story is rooted in universal truths. Every story is expertly crafted. If you read Thistlefoot and fell in love with Nethercott’s writing, you will not be disappointed. If you haven’t read any of Nethercott’s previous works, these stories will delight and her words will haunt you.

The stories in Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott are quirky and strange, heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once, thought-provoking, eerie and terrifying; not the kind of terror that results in jump scares and blood-curdling screams, more like the dawning realization you have when you wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, the tendrils of a nightmare licking at your brain that you can't quite remember, but you know you don't want to forget.

If you are looking for a collection of stories with simple characters whose motivations are clear and a linear journey with set direction and a taut red thread leading you from point A, to point B, to destination: happy ending, this is not the book for you. If however, you are willing to get lost in the intricate labyrinth of bizarre worlds and shifting mirrors that these stories contain, then an unsettling, but compelling and worthy journey awaits you indeed.

Providing no easy answers, Nethercott invites the reader to be an active participant in examining the nature of human desire, loss, grief, addiction and obsession, the will to fit in, (and the lines we are willing to cross to get there), even as we feel stifled by others demands and yearn to break free. There's also reflections on history, time, and memory.

To read this book is to discover that you are both the wide-eyed reader, bravely but naively stepping off the cliff into a wild and phantasmagorical world of unpredictabilities, embracing all the hope, beauty and possibility of being human, but also the greedy, ravenous monster whose reflection you see in the mirror.

My favorite read of the year and just in time before we head into the next one: beautiful in its prose and introspection, the reading felt active, visceral. Many of the stories did indeed break my heart. Others left me with a gnawing dread that I still feel, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. The best stories are the ones you carry with you, and these will stay with me for a long time to come.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage for providing an advance copy of this book for me to review.

This book definitely pushes the boundaries of its form and is able to convey themes of longing and heartbreak through a variety of different stories. As is often the case, some stories resonated more with me than others, and some were harder to get through. These aren’t stories that will give you answers or resolution, but they will take you on a journey.

Thank you NetGalley and Vintage Anchor!
I am a huge fan of GennaRose Nethercott and I am so thrilled that I get to read her new book early. This offer is one of my favorite books that I have read this year, and I am so excited to see such a unique book coming from this author. This book is definitely a unique and weird horror anthology. A lot of the stories focus on crazy creatures or ideas that feel almost out of this world. I've seen a lot of people say that the stories are really abstract and I think that's one of the things that really stands out about this book. Many of the stories feel like there is a deeper meaning or deeper story that we are so close as a reader to uncovering. The stories read so well that I am really impressed with the author's writing. The writing style is very powerful and almost lyrical in some sections which amplifies the eeriness of the stories.

It's always difficult to review short story collections because it seems like I always end up hovering somewhere around the middle, in terms of rating. For the most part, I'd say this collection was just fine. There were a few stories I liked, a few I didn't really vibe with, but mostly I just felt ambivalent. The stories I tended to like were the ones with a bit of darker humor laced throughout (ex: Sundown at the Eternal Staircase, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart, A Haunted Calendar). The ones I didn't quite like as much were the ones that seemed a bit heavy-handed with what they were trying to convey and stretched on for longer than I would've liked (Homebody, The Thread Boy). What I appreciated about the stories is that they varied in terms of tone shifting from haunting and eerie to slightly wistful and sad sometimes with an undertone of humor. They were definitely on the weird end, occasionally dipping into surrealist territory.

If you like weird, creepy, slightly humorous stories, maybe give this collection a try. It wasn't entirely to my tastes, but there were a few good things I got out of it.

Thank you NetGalley for a free e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart" by GennaRose Nethercott is a mesmerizing collection of dark fairytales and fractured folklore that delves deep into the complexities of human emotions and desires. Nethercott's writing is lush and evocative, painting vivid pictures of worlds where the lines between reality and fantasy blur, and where the monstrous and the beautiful coexist in haunting harmony.

Each story in this collection explores different facets of longing, love, and the inherent darkness within the human psyche. Nethercott masterfully crafts narratives that are as thought-provoking as they are unsettling, making the reader question the nature of monstrosity and desire. The variety of tales, from the story of teenage girls uncovering the mysteries of a sinister roadside attraction to a zombie rooster solving a missing persons case, demonstrates Nethercott's versatility and creativity as a storyteller.

One of the standout aspects of this collection is the way Nethercott uses fantastical elements to explore real human emotions. The stories are steeped in metaphor, with each beast and mythical creature serving as a representation of deeper, often darker, aspects of the human experience. This approach not only captivates the reader's imagination but also offers profound insights into love, loss, and longing.

The prose is beautifully crafted, with a poetic quality that adds to the ethereal nature of the stories. Nethercott's ability to create atmospheres that are both eerie and enchanting is remarkable. Each tale is a journey into a world that is at once familiar and utterly alien, where the rules of reality are bent and reshaped.

"Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart" is a collection that will appeal to fans of dark fantasy and literary fiction alike. It's a book that challenges and enthralls, inviting readers to look beyond the surface and explore the depths of their own hearts. Nethercott has created a work that is not just a collection of stories but a tapestry of human emotion, woven with threads of the fantastical. This book is a testament to the power of storytelling and the endless possibilities of the imagination.

I absolutely loved every story in this book. I didn't have a favorite because I enjoyed all of them. Good cast of authors as well.

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by GennaRose Nethercott is a collection of short stories by the author of Thistlefoot. Most of the stories have either a scifi, horror, or fairy tale vibe but they are all very unique and completely engrossing.

I absolutely adored everything about this collection. This book is for people who like things that are kind of strange and a little weird. This is one of the only short story collections where I think every story is really strong. It would be impossible for me to pick a favorite because I loved them all for different reasons. This is a book that I can see myself revisiting often.

That being said, this book is not going to work for some people and I can already see what the complaints will be so, as a warning, here are a few reasons you may not like this book. A lot of these stories just throw you in without a lot of explanation and by the end, you still don’t have a lot of answers. If you aren’t the kind of reader who can just enjoy the ride of a strange story, maybe avoid this one.

But if you are the kind of reader who would sit and listen to a bog witch tell a fairy tale or if you would run barefoot through a swamp looking for an adventure or if you like things a little sapphic and a lot atmospheric, this is the book for you. This book has cemented this author as an autobuy author and I cannot wait to see what she writes next.

Scary good scary stories

I first became aware of GennaRose Nethercott through her debut novel Thistlefoot, which was just SO good! So of course when I heard about this book of stories, I got my hands on it as soon as I could. It does not disappoint. The first thing that struck me about her writing was the vividness of her prose. Hers are words to light bonfires by, words to set off rockets, words to move undead spirits to dance.

I don't know quite what to call these stories. They are eerie, but I can't call them horror stories or ghost stories. There are, in fact, some ghosts in Fifty Beasts, but only a few, and they are by and large more benign than scary. In The Fuller Memorandum Charles Stross describes how I feel about most horror fiction

"It’s the sort of tactic that might stand a chance of working if I was a little less cynical, or if they had enough imagination to make it, oh, you know, horrifying, or something. Luckily for me they don’t seem to have grasped the difference between a Sam Raimi movie and standing by your dad’s hospital bed trying to work up the nerve to switch off the ventilator."

Nethercott DOES have the imagination. And she demands that you do, too.

From what I've written so far, you are probably getting the impression that Nethercott's writing is flagrantly over-the-top. It is not. In fact, she has at times an extraordinarily economical story-telling style, reminiscent of those "Tell a story in a sentence" exercises. Often the story just sneaks up on you. My two favorite stories are "A Diviner's Abecedarian" and the book's title story, "Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart". Each of these stories purports to be a reference work, the first an alphabetical list of divination methods, the second an illustrated reference to a collection of fabulous beasts. It is not at all obvious when you begin one of these that the story actually has a story. It just seems to be a list. But as you move along you encounter just a sentence or two in each reference entry that connect up. By the end, the story has slipped into you, like a knife between the ribs.

I don't want to give the wrong impression. Fifty Beasts is not for everyone. I think it's spectacular and Nethercott a unique talent. But it's demanding. You have to have what it demands inside you and be willing to work at it.

I always read the Acknowledgements. One near-universal feature of Acknowledgements is the affecting thanks to the writer's spouse. Even in this, Nethercott is distinctive.

"AS ALWAYS, MY FIRST gratitude goes to my parents, Michael and Helen, and my brother Rustin. I love you— thank you for loving me back. It’s really as simple as that, isn’t it?

...

"Last, let’s give it up for my exes. If you think it’s about you, it probably is. ; )"*

Although many of the stories deal with romantic relationships, readers will notice a pronounced dearth of Happily-Ever-Afters. Hmm...

I thank NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for an advance reader copy of Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories. This review expresses my honest opinions. Release date 6-Feb-2024.

*This quote is from an advance reader copy, whose text may change before publication. It will be corrected if necessary on the release date.

This is a book of short stories. They’re dark stories. One is about a never ending staircase, one about a. Aspire and goat woman, one about a ghost girl and others. I thought these were interesting, they have you make your own conclusions to the story which I enjoyed.

I absolutely adore Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by GennaRose Nethercott! These stories are as witty as they are wonderful, and I'll be thinking about these characters and creatures for a long, long time.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC!

This book was such a disappointment. It was not at all what I was expecting. That being said I am not a huge fan of surrealism or prose and these stories were so vague and open ended. I was too busy trying to understand what was happening to feel any sort of way about the stories.

This was a surprisingly delightful short story collection. I requested this because I loved the idea of Nethercott's "Thistlefoot" novel, and while that book didn't quite work for me, I was intrigued enough to want to try something else by her. This collection of short stories was absolutely perfect for that.

It's hard to review a collection because every story is vastly different and some are inevitably better or worse than others, but I really enjoyed most of these. There are some really interesting worlds within these pages and I liked the tease of being in them for such a short time before being whisked away to the next.

The title story "Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart" reminds me of the Law and Order short story "Especially Heinous" in Her Bodies and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado. It has smart, punky prose in short bursts, but this story is accompanied by horrifying drawings of creatures which makes it all the more enjoyable.

Overall very beautiful writing and I would definitely recommend this collection for people who like a little (or a lot of) weirdness.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Anthologies are always hard to review. Some of the short stories are great, and some are okay. Giving just a single overarching score is hard.
There were some stories I really liked. The very first short story was really fascinating and I liked it quite a lot and the story the whole anthology was named after was also quite good. However, those were the only two that really stood out to me. Everything else was fine. I was hoping the stories would be more queer, but besides the first short story, there really wasn't any others.
I was whelmed.

I fell in love with GennaRose Nethercott’s writing after reading her thrilling novel, Thistlefoot. As an avid reader of weird short stories, I grabbed Nethercott’s debut collection, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart, as soon as I could. Here are my favorites:

Sundown at the Eternal Staircase - The opening story establishes the tone of this collection perfectly. Two teenage girls explore their relationship while working at a weird roadside attraction.

A Diviner's Abecedarian - Fans of The Craft will love this story of female power.

The Thread Boy - This was so moving, with gorgeous imagery. A witch makes his son out of thread, and the son leaves a thread connected to every meaningful person he meets.

The War of Fog - Oh man, this was amazing. If you love stories that play with timelines, this is for you. A war out of time, a daughter trying to make sense of her father’s notes.

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart - This is a beautifully illustrated collection of mythical beasts, intertwined with a story of love gone awry.

Dear Henrietta - I love epistolary stories, and this one was fantastic. The narrator is writing to an old friend, recalling a previous visit, and a strange fleece. So unnerving.

Homebody - A woman molds her life around her new boyfriend in horrifying ways.This made me so sad, and made me think about the various ways women can lose parts of themselves to those we love.

A wonderful collection, and more evidence that Nethercott is a singular, exciting writer.

I am absolutely the target audience for these kinds of surreal short stories, and I loved them so much. Some hit harder than others but they were all so unique and perfectly-crafted. They’re definitely not for readers who want a clear, linear story and defined conclusion. Each one is a little like a puzzle, requiring the reader to find the meaning among the whimsical yet slightly unsettling storytelling. This is my favorite kind of story and I highly enjoyed almost all of them, even the ones I didn’t quite get. The only mark on an otherwise near-perfect collection of weirdly charming short stories is the brief instance of a cat being harmed in the story “Dear Henrietta”. Unnecessary animal cruelty is a huge pet peeve for me personally and it’s so superfluous in the context of that particular story. There are other instances in other stories, but those felt like the crux of the plot or at least a contributing event. It might be nitpicky, but I loved everything else so much that the cat incident really stood out to me and detracted slightly from my reading experience.

Huge thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and author for this Advanced Reader Copy! This review is my honest opinion and offered voluntarily!

Eh, wasn't the worst thing I read but also not the best. Eh, wasn't the worst thing I read but also not the best.

This collection is ideal for readers who enjoy dark fairytale retellings, horror folklore, and spooky stories. I love the feminist twist that several of the stories in this collection had, such as the shapeshifter woman story. This collection is perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno Garcia, Carmen Maria Machado and Melissa Albert. Each story is a fast-paced, all-consuming escape into make believe worlds. Think Grimm's fairytales with modern implications.

I like dark fairytales, but need more structure than these provided. I’m just not a fan of this sort of very abstract story. They were well written, to be sure, but not to my personal taste. People who enjoy a more atmospheric experience may feel differently.