This collection of stories is definitely singular. It is incredibly dark and bizarre, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It is incredibly well written. I really enjoyed the distanced stillness of the writing style. It almost reminded me of Lemony Snicket but for adults. It has all the dreary and dilapidated vibes of those books with an elevated level of horror and tragedy. It feels as though it belongs in a time period that never actually happened and is fantastical. The world building and descriptions are clearly a big strength of the writer.

Unfortunately I think this collection just was not to my taste. Some of the stories did accomplish what I think they were meant to, but many of them seemed aimless and ended abruptly. I often wanted more time with the story to see it fully fleshed out. It feels unfinished at points.

If you’re a reader who enjoys books on vibes and tone and feelings alone and you also love all things weird and macabre, this might really resonate with you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Unnamed Press for the ARC.

Excellent! Camilla Grudova's 'The Coiled Sperpent,' a short story collection of great originality and terrific writing style, stands far above most collections in the market today. The author's storytelling skills in short form and the attitude permeating the tales indicate an amazing talent at work However, the habit of ending the stories ambiguously will not be far and wide appreciated (as the characterization of "bizarre" seems to come up most often with the collection). It's important to have some knowledge of what Grudova aims to achieve: personally, I think she employs elements of horror to get across difficult to articulate insights into the current political and the social scene. Her insights are deep and unconventional, bordering (nay, diving into) the transgressive. Gender, social ostracism, and political unrest seem to stand behind the visceral imagery of body horror and revenge stories. These patterns seem to underlie my favorite stories: "The Surrogates," about surrogate pregnancy gone wrong; "Madam Flora’s," about menstruation, and "The Coiled Serpent," an amazing tale of sexual (non)gratification. In sum, I highly recommend this collection if one's up for some unsettling trips into the unarticulated undercurrents of western society.

This book is not for the faint of heart. The stories in The Coiled Serpent is for a specific type of reader, or for a reader looking for a specific type of thing. That thing being decay, rot, mold, and a whole lot of feces. But if you can stomach all of that, there are also stories of revenge, absurdity, and irony, with some black humor sprinkled in for a nice touch.

One thing I have come to enjoy about horror is how it can serve as social commentary by presenting twisted and warped reflections of reality (that isn’t actually that far-fetched if you stop and think about it.) Camilla Grudova does this so well in this short story collection. Because yes, while there is putrefaction, bodily fluids, and grotesque imagery, there are also the very real horrors of life under uncontrolled capitalism, the far-reaching effects of colonialism, class systems, shitty landlords, horrible employers, exploitation of immigrants and POC, and the audacity of men.

While the stories made me queasy and uncomfortable, Grudova’s writing is also filled with unique turns of phrases that I found so interesting and beautiful. My gripe is that some stories felt like they ended too abruptly. Am I weird for wanting more of this? I also loved how the stories never went in the direction I expected them to, but they always felt right by the end. This is my first time reading Grudova’s work, and hopefully, it won’t be the last.

Thank you to Unnamed Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Here are my favorite stories from the collection:

Ivor - Set in a boarding school where the second sons (even third, fourth, or fifth sons) are sent to live out their lives. The only bright side is the boy Ivor, who never seems to grow old, who remains beautiful and young, who all the boys love and adore.

Green Hat - Green has a history of being a deadly color. A woman plots against the man who caused the death of her daughter by way of a green hat. Hell hath no fury like a grieving mother.

The Poison Garden - “This garden is a woman’s friend.” Except when a man takes advantage of it for his own selfish agenda.

The Surrogates - A couple agrees to become surrogates for a hefty sum. Unfortunately, the would-be parents proved to be too controlling, constantly overstepping boundaries. The ending of this story horrified me.

Madam Flora’s - A girl loses her “monthly flowers” and is prescribed Madam Flora’s tonic, a medicine that tastes suspiciously like bl**d. And when that doesn’t work, she is sent to Madam Flora’s Hotel alongside other girls who have the same predicament.

The Coiled Serpent - Three tech bros find a “spiritual book” that promises enlightenment if they withhold from ej*cul*tion, and these dudebros take it to heart.

The Coiled Serpent is a short story collection of varying strange and eclectic stories, with themes of the human condition.

I thought this collection was very cool! Each story was well written for its subject matter, and I always love reading stories about how weird humans can be when pushed enough or of their own volition or from being nurtured in certain environments. Admittedly one or two stories I didn't entirely get but they were still enjoyable!

My favourite stories were The Poison Garden and Madame Flora's.

Highly recommend if you love a weird tale or two.

Thank you to NetGalley and Unnamed Press for the e-arc in exchange for a free, voluntary and honest review.

"Weird" is a great word for the stories in this collection.
I never knew where any of them were going, and the sheer grotesqueness of some of them really threw me off. As a veteran of horror and the subversive, that's tough to do.

A mixed bag of stories - some I loved, others fell short. Regardless, this was a good one time read.

The short stories in The Coiled Serpent feel like they've been plucked straight from the kind of weird dreams you only get after a night of seriously heavy eating. They're bizarre, unsettling, and yet so incredibly vivid! Each story transports you to a different time and place, yet they're all connected by recurring themes, food being one of them. And anything can qualify food—from custard and white asparagus to human flesh.

My favorites were "Description and History of a British Swimming Pool" (I'll never go to a swimming pool again) and "The Meat Eater", both showcasing the book's skillful blend of the macabre and the mundane.

I gave it 3 stars (it's more like a 3.5) because, unfortunately, more than half of the stories didn’t really grab me. They were often a bit too bizarre and tended to end abruptly, leaving me hanging just as the lengthy setups seemed about to pay off.

A fantastic anthology of the most bizarre tales! If you appreciate the unsettling and the peculiar, you'll find each of these short stories captivating. Each narrative is uniquely distinct from the others, delivering an impressive impact despite their brevity. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and highly recommend it to anyone in search of something truly different!

4.25 stars! I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This was such a great collection of short stories! They were the perfect mix of whimsy and macabre while packing a punch in as few pages as possible.

An enchantingly bizarre collection of stories that I adored! Not a single one of these horrifying short stories disappointed, the writing was weird and wonderful and you should definitely give this a read.

The Coiled Serpent by Camilla Grudova

Did you ever read a book that spoke to you and was exactly what you needed when you needed it? This was that for me. The Coiled Serpent hit me exactly in the right spot. Each of these short stories are bizarre and disturbing. The whole book is deliciously weird and I loved every second of it.

The stories honestly defy description (making my job pretty tricky) but I can tell you that they were surrealism at its finest. They made me uncomfortable, they made me laugh, they made me do a double take. There is a goodreads description on the second slide but if you want to skip that and go in blind you'll have just as much fun, I promise

@unnamedpress (the publisher of A Certain Hunger) is printing and releasing the US debut of this fever dream of a short story collection and even though I got to read it digitally via @netgalley I'm looking into buying this book physically so I can lend it out and to as many of my friends as possible so I have someone to talk to about this insane piece of art I just read.

Ooooof. I loved Children of Paradise, which definitely did have a bit of a crusty aspect to it, but I am not sure how I feel about these stories, which shoot way past crusty into the territory of the grotesque and the disgustingly visceral. A provocative collection of short stories that blends surrealism, body horror, and social commentary, The Coiled Serpent is an incredibly unsettling reading experience in the form of experimental fiction (?) satire of the Great British institutions. I only know this because I read a Guardian article which clued me into that bit. Until that point, I thought I was just reading a series of gross, surreal stories. Now I feel like an idiot. In Grudova's distinct style of writing that is sharp, witty, and unapologetically transgressive, these stories explore themes of class struggle, capitalism, and gender issues, often alongside repulsive imagery and the nastiness of bodily functions. Her matter-of-fact delivery of the absurd and horrific adds to the stories' disquieting atmosphere. The Coiled Serpent shows off Grudova's wild imagination and her commitment to pushing boundaries to create stories that'll stick with you – like so much faecal matter on filthy toilets or spoilt custard crusting to an unruly mustache--even if sometimes you wish they wouldn't.

This book of horror stories was unique from the outset. Grudova's writing is viceral and almost dreamlike in each of these bizarre, strange short stories. I loved the flow and the interconnectedness of the stories, if only in small motifs and reoccuring themes or objects rather than the plots themselves. Many stories had moments reminiscent of Alison Rumfit's work in their disgusting, matter of fact writing and while I definitely favoured some stories over others, I simply couldn't put this book down right from the outset.

Highlights for me include, Ivor - the story of a very strange boarding school and it's star pupil, and The Green Hat - which focuses on the maid working for an infamous chemist. Every story had an eerie and often tense underlying feeling which I absolutely loved. I'm very excited to read more of Grudova's work, and hope to find a horror, longer form story as I do think her writing style would lend itself exceptionally well to a novel. I'd recommend The Coiled Serpent to any fans of unsettling and uncomfortable horror stories as there is bound to be a few stories that will connect with any reader.

This is definitely a short story collection...
Okay let's be serious, what is it with me and short stories? They just don't work for me ever.

I'm the last person to dislike "surreal" and "gross" books. I'm a very big fan of grimdark and weirdfiction but The Coiled Serpent didn't do it for me at all.

A praise from me: Grudova does know how to write disgusting shit. They have a very specific voice that gives you slight goosebumps and a very weird feeling in the back of your throat.

Now to the unkind part of the review.

I was going to write a little review about every story but decided against it after noticing that each story was irritating me just like the one before.

First of all, there's way too much detail and description. Everything gets described, from the grandma we will never see again, to the bedsheets that don't matter, to the chocolate bar that I don't give a fuck about. Texture, look, feel, and so on. Most of the stories are filled with descriptions instead of, y'know, story.

Speaking of chocolate. I don't know if this was on purpose but there is chocolate in every damn story. I can't tell if these things are meant to be or if the author just really likes them and accidentally threw them into each story and was like "I think that sounds fine!"

Another thing that a lot of the stories suffer from is the fact that there is almost no build up at all. Mostly, we sit there and read some 20 pages and at the 19th page it's like "everyone is weird and the house isn't a house btw lol" and we're like "oh... okay, now what?" just to be met with the title of the next story.

Reading this felt like a 500 page long chore that I do not want to repeat again. But I do believe that Grudova has the ability to shape themselves into a well liked author and I think that I'd give them another try if they publish a story that has the room and time to breath and become.

Thank you to Netgalley, the Publisher and Camilla Grudova for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Coiled Serpent is a collection of repulsive and dreadful short stories. Despite that, I was really intrigued! If you're into nauseating stories, you will enjoy this! It reminded me of Ottessa Moshfegh's writing. The Custard Factory, The Poison Garden, and Ivor stood out to me as favorites. The writing is very straightforward which I felt worked well with the unsettling stories.

A collection of sixteen short stories, each with a surreal bent and a snaking sense of social commentary.

‘Through Ceilings and Walls’ is a deeply unsettling portrayal of England (a recurring theme), though its abrupt ending arguably saps some of its impact; ‘Ivor’ takes more specific aim at the oddity of British boarding schools. ‘Banya Banya!’ has plenty of stomach-turning descriptions but not a great deal else. “The Custard Factory’ reiterates Grudova’s interest in age and ageing. ‘The Green Hat’ is a Victorian fable with a sting in the tail, and hints at a more than thematic connection between the stories in the collection. ‘Hoo Hoo’ closes out the collection with a glimpse of a post-apocalyptic world as idiosyncratic as any of the shared spaces in her other stories.

The stories delight in disgust and disconnection. Many of them meander, not quite reaching emotional fulfilment or much in the way of an ending; in some, that’s the point, while others seem constructed around a single detail plucked from a fever dream. Above all there is a strong sense of tone, something as sickly and poisoned and mean-spirited as the culture it satirises.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

A slightly discomforting and unusual read for sure. It’s not just the very raw and visceral description and mention of all kinds of body fluids. You feel slightly dirty after reading, like you need a shower to wash off the grime these stories leave. They are bleak and weird and often feel like a constant train of thought. In parts, they seem borderline ridiculous, which reminded me of watching Monty Python as a way too young kid. The surreal absurdity is sometimes funny, sometimes shocking, sometimes just bleak and makes you wonder. Overall to me, though, many of the stories failed to leave an impression in the long run, some worked better than others, but it’s nothing I will think about for too long as it also started to feel a bit repetitive and monotonous after a while. 2.5-3 stars

Dare I say, this book is the sister to Bora Chung’s cursed bunny!!

This short story collection is distinguished by its unsettling yet compelling narratives, where the bizarre becomes a lens to explore the corrupted side of humanity. Each story features a striking blend of horror and whimsy and delves into themes of revenge, capitalism, and sexism. The prose is straightforward, allowing for easy visualization of the grotesque images that linger long after reading. All in all, "The Coiled Serpent" gave me the chills I have been longing for in a horror book.

Out of the 16 stories, I thoroughly enjoyed the following:
The Custard Factory | The Green Hat | A Novel about Fan, aged 11 years | or the Zoo | Avalon | The Poison Garden | The Surrogates | Madame Floras | The Coiled Serpent | The Meat Eater | The Apartment | Hoo Hoo

I have liked body horror before but this was just not enjoyable, perhaps I just don't want to hear so many references to faeces and vomit. It seemed like the goal was just to be gross at any cost. This may work for some people, but it did not work for me.

Description:
A collection of short stories - mainly weird fiction and body horror. The unifying theme is grossness; they all go out of their way to be as disgusting as possible.

Liked:
Two of my favourites were probably the least gross, and one was gross but in a way that felt more relevant. Hoo Hoo and The Green Hat had tight, emotive arcs which felt satisfyingly complete, and The Meat Eater was a particular perspective I haven’t seen much before, well executed.

Disliked:
So many of these stories’ sole purpose seems to be grossing you out. It becomes pretty monotonous by about a third of the way through, just keeping you in a constant state of ick. I ended up really slogging through it to try and dig the pearls out of the pigshit, and I can’t say it was a particularly enjoyable experience. Moved on to another collection of short horror stories after this one and it felt like a breath of fresh air.

Wouldn’t recommend, I’m afraid.