(Note: This is a review based on the first quarter of the book. This is just a first impression and not a general evaluation.)
Nice world-building and intriguing characters, although I found the protagonist too obscure and I couldn't identify with her wishes and desires. I didn't enjoy much the frequent switching of pov at the beginning; I would have preferred the narrator to stay on the protagonist instead, bring her more into focus. This switching honestly disoriented me and discouraged me from keeping on reading, because I couldn't tell straight away who the new narrator was; sure, the symbols gave me a hint, but uncertainty and frustration arose nonetheless. I appreciated the writing style and the words choices though: the phonetic sounds resonate completely with the world depicted. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

This dark fairytale was a fun and interesting read with a mystery in its core. The characters were fascinating with their own motives and goals. A nice read for a cozy evening.

Thank you to Psychopomp and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Do you want a quirky and queer but dystopian take on those classic fairytales you grew up on? Well, then I've got the book for you!

In Lovely Creatures we meet a girl on a search for her sister, a woman taking a really long nap, a wolf who's big but certainly not bad, a swan who is sometimes a lady, a desert-traversing whale, and their ringmaster with a silver tongue who's on the run from the Devil herself.

The dying and dust-choked world of this novella is super atmospheric, and even if the characters have found a home with each other within the Whale, you can really feel the tragedy of the characters, even if some of them hide behind a thin veneer of cheer. Thankfully, Bryony's arrival shakes things up a bit, and through her stubbornness and grit, the shackles of hopelessness are finally shaken off.

While all the fairytale references were fairly obvious, it was still interesting to see all the ways in which Bryski was inspired and how she made her own twists. It was also really cool how the POVs and narrators didn't match up - it was a fun puzzle to figure out who exactly each narrator was for each part, since they never matched up with the character POV for that section.

I had a really good time reading this novella, and I can think of several people who I'd personally recommend this to. If you can get your hands on this book, I'd definitely say it's worth your time!

A very intriguing novella. Multiple POVs weave together to tell this fascinatingly strange story about dust storms and the Devil and a shack by an apple orchard and a giant wooden whale gliding through the dust. There's a wolf and a swan lady and a sleeping girl in a casket and a sad, angry woman who's trying to save her sister. There are stories within stories, shifting narratives, beautiful imagery, and fairy tales all knotted together in a surprisingly effective way.

This whole novella is slightly off-kilter in a way that I'm still trying to figure out, but which had an unsettling and intriguing effect. The Gothic western carnie vibes are odd but immaculate.

The narrative style is fascinating, shifting from tall tale to fairy tale and back again throughout the book. The prose is fanciful and dreamy, but also jagged and gritty. Sometimes the narration is cynical, sometimes it's philosophical. The shifts in tone make the story feel less free flowing than I associate with most fairy tales, but it definitely works. I found the style so interesting that I'll likely read it again in order to study it. I don't think everything about this book worked, but what did work worked extremely well.

I thought the shifting POVs and perspectives worked very effectively to tell the story, but they did require close attention as a reader. This didn't bother me, but I can see some readers being frustrated by it. For me, I enjoyed it the most when I stopped trying to figure everything out and just went with the flow.

I liked the cast of characters. It wasn't the primary focus in the story, but there were several crucial sapphic relationships, and the whole book was very queer. I also enjoyed the themes, which included found family, friendship, love, recovering from trauma, and processing grief.

It's hard to compare this to other books, because it's really doing its own thing. Stylistically the writing was reminiscent of Cat Valente or maybe Seanan McGuire, though a little less polished. KT Bryski is definitely a writer to watch and I will be on the lookout for more of their work.

Huge thanks to KT Bryski, Psychopomp, and NetGalley for generously providing me with an ARC for review.

Lovely Creatures
By K.T. Bryski

This was… interesting. I enjoyed the weaving of different fairy tales into an apocalyptic wasteland. I wasn’t a fan of all the narration jumping and maybe it was a bit too weird for me? I’m torn.

Thanks to @netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly thank you to NetGalley and psychopomp for this opportunity! This book is available TODAY!

Holy mother of Pearl but this book to me is 20 billion stars. It is unique, strange, lush and dark. It’s a weird dystopian fantasy with memorable characters in a wooden whale. Bryony was the perfect narrator for this story. I am actually buying it.

Lovely Creatures wrestles with grief and loss of love, independence, and freedom, the dissonance between outer appearances and inner feelings, and the desire for reunions. It is filtered through first and third-person POVs that has you questioning who is narrating and when in time. We are confronted with death throughout the story, most particularly the residues of the past and having to leave it behind to move forth. A fine novella.

Thanks to Netgalley and Psychopomp for providing me with the e-ARC/DRC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this story! This novella has a unique style that mixes fairytale retelling and dark themes with a dust storm ridden land and a traveling circus act. I enjoyed the prose, as well as how it changed slightly between the different narrators. I also enjoyed how the pov shifted with symbols — it was a unique and fun way to keep the readers on their toes as to who was narrating. The cast of characters was interesting and their stories kept me reading until the end in one go. The story is sad and dark but ultimately bittersweet and wholesome, about grieving and moving on and finding a family of your own. Overall I definitely recommend this quick and enjoyable read! Thank you to NetGalley and Psychopomp for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Lovely Creatures by K.T Bryski is a unique novella, unlike anything I’ve ever consumed prior.

Written during the pandemic, Bryski’s piece feels like a psychedelic fever dream. I do think there is an audience that will relish in this creation. I enjoyed the zany cast of characters we meet in this twisted fairy tale.

I applaud the author for putting their energy and effort into such a peculiar piece of literature during a time of collective isolation and despair.

Thank you to Psychopomp & NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

LOVELY CREATURES is gritty, surreal, and spectacularly whimsical novella that interweaves fairytales, deliciously twisted, yet recognizable, in a warped wonderland, unravelling how all the stories and characters are all interconnected by the thread of death.

Bryski explores how death becomes a spectacle, how desire interweaves with grief, about who controls the story of the characters' lives and the difficulties in reclaiming themselves.

This was a really unique and well written novella, however it wasn’t necessarily the sort of writing style that I prefer. It definitely had an interesting cast of characters and I enjoyed the fairytale retelling aspects and the surprising reveals. Bryony’s search for her missing sister was quite sad and a little dark but there were bright spots as well - Bryony’s refusal to let someone else decide her story and the found family she gains along the way. Overall not something I would revisit, but I can appreciate what the author did with it.

Thank you to Psychopomp for the ARC!

A gorgeously wrought, dark, and unsettling twist on fairytales where the Devil stalks a storm-whittled landscape, and where Bryony searches for her long-lost sister. It's written as a weave of tales, and Bryski's prose has a magic all its own. A woman finds her sister sleeping in a glass coffin. There's a wolf and swan-maiden, and a man who holds everyone in thrall with his stories. Bryski delves deep in heartache and guilt, love and friendship, and the landscape of the story is tightly intertwined with the people traveling through it. Beautiful, strange, and profoundly moving.