MOST ANTICIPATED: GOOD HOUSEKEEPING • LITERARY HUB • BOOK RIOT • GIZMODO • WBUR
“Real magic, real delight, doled out generously in the shape of wistful, ferocious, this-world-but-better stories.”
—Kelly Link, author of White Cat, Black Dog
“Nethercott is writing with old world style, but creating her own new world order. . . . If you love the richly magical work of Kelly Link, the uncategorizable tales of Helen Oyeyemi, stories by Aimee Bender, Neil Gaiman, Karen Russell—you will likely find much to enjoy here. . . . Nethercott writes briskly but vividly, lingering over her creations but sometimes slipping by the horrors so quickly that they take a moment to register. (They always do catch up.) . . . There’s a playfulness to Nethercott’s style, and especially in her wide use of forms: a venomous letter, a slippery transcribed memoir, a transformative bestiary, a calendar, a dictionary. . . . [These] tales . . . are restless, playful, wise, heartbroken and rich.”
—Molly Templeton, Reactor
“[Nethercott is] a multifaceted master storyteller.”
—Elisa Shoenberger, Chicago Review of Books
“Fans of Karen Russell will love these bizarre, absurdist stories that feel like twisted versions of the fairytales that dance around the edges of nightmares, and might just worm their way into yours.”
—Lizz Schumer, Good Housekeeping, “12 Most-Anticipated Books Coming Out in 2024”
“All of you who love that strain of witty, wistful, enigmatic stories that runs from Kafka to Kelly Link: come read this book. GennaRose Nethercott draws from a magic well, bringing us tales that feel as old as time yet marvelously new.”
—Sofia Samatar, author of Tender and Monster Portraits
"By blending humor, horror, and the fantastical with history and the here and now, GennaRose Nethercott’s Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart induces feelings of love, loneliness, wonderment, fury, and fear. Pure fuel for the imagination, the magic on these pages offers comfort from stories that aren’t always comfortable but which are full of truths and so much beauty."
—Nick Medina, author of Sisters of the Lost Nation
"GennaRose Nethercott's imagination is boundless, her writing emerging from a rich personal folklore of which Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart suggests only the edge. Everything in this book is alive and ready to love you or to wound you."
—Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Ghost Variations
“Nethercott’s writing takes on the tone of timeless folklore, from fairy tales to urban legends to ghost stories. But what makes these stories read as true and familiar isn’t a trick of syntax. Instead, it’s Nethercott’s insightful exploration of the universal themes that classic stories are meant to capture. . . . [These themes] are all explored here with great sensitivity and almost always a surprising twist. . . . [Nethercott] has a great talent for taking personal pains and making them universal. A memorable story collection that makes the supernatural personal.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Nethercott’s . . . prose is transfixing and poetic. . . . Recommend this to readers who enjoy cerebral and unsettling fairy tales.”
—Biz Hyzy, Booklist
“Nethercott continues to build on the successes of her magical debut Thistlefoot with a collection of strange and fantastical tales that bring to mind Neil Gaiman and Kelly Link. Filled with folklore, Americana, and an infectious imagination, every single story is a knockout—but the gorgeously illustrated titular bestiary is a highlight.”
—Literary Hub, “Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2024”
“Beautiful folkloric short stories. . . . The best part is that these mystical characters are a reflection of us—there’s a monstrous, ravenous spirit within us all.”
—Christian Burno, WBUR, “7 Highly Anticipated Books to Read This Winter”
“Delectable dark fairy tales which tend to start in worlds that feel almost comfortable—until the shadows thicken and all at once everything has teeth. . . . Nethercott’s supremely confident prose assists—and indeed demands—the suspension of disbelief. . . . Fantastic.”
—Publishers Weekly
★ 12/01/2023
In this collection, each whimsical yet unsettling tale drags readers into a painful memory. It may be unrequited love, a best friend's betrayal, a lost dream, a callous ex, or simply moving away or growing up, but each story touches on a different universal hurt. And yet, it is a pleasant sort of sorrow, like listening to favorite sad songs and knowing that someone understands and has felt this before. Each story contains a folkloric beauty that somehow feels more solid because of the fantasy elements. Nethercott (Thistlefoot) seems to love playing with language and structure. One story is a bestiary—with illustrations—and another is composed of dictionary entries, but both tuck intriguing narratives inside the format. There's also a calendar and a letter and a handful of fairy tales. Interspersed between these are dream fragments of teeth and foxes and thread. The language may feel too strange for some readers, yet it will likely make them ache wistfully all the same. VERDICT Sometimes a bit Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge, sometimes When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill, but consistently reminiscent of the lush language of Patricia A. McKillip.—Matthew Galloway
The author is joined by an ensemble of four narrators to deliver this collection of 14 short stories. The works are a bit bizarre, but all share the theme of human longing. January LaVoy conveys poignancy in a story about a vampire and a goat woman who find solace in friendship. Gabra Zackman is able to make a woman who transforms into a house to better serve her boyfriend's wants sound ordinary. Max Myers is frantic to protect his sister, who drowns over and over again. Elena Rey explores summer love in the setting of a sinister roadside tourist attraction. The author portrays sixth-grade girls who seek to use the occult to harm a new classmate. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
★ 2023-11-04
Folklorist Nethercott’s collection of original spooky stories is hauntingly familiar.
Workers at a sinister tourist trap become trapped in their own patterns in “Sundown at the Eternal Staircase.” In “A Diviner’s Abecedarian,” a tight-knit group of girls has a sinister way of welcoming new friends. A boy tries to protect his older sister from near-constant drowning in “Drowning Lessons.” In the title story, a group of florists include details of their doomed romances alongside descriptions of mythical creatures. Women lose themselves, sometimes by becoming a house (“Homebody”) and sometimes by becoming a ghost of themselves (“A Lily Is a Lily”), all for men who would happily reduce them to nothing. Nethercott’s writing takes on the tone of timeless folklore, from fairy tales to urban legends to ghost stories. But what makes these stories read as true and familiar isn’t a trick of syntax. Instead, it’s Nethercott’s insightful exploration of the universal themes that classic stories are meant to capture. Teenage (and adult) heartbreak, class anxiety, societal cruelty against those who are different, and the everyday losses of women trying desperately to conform to patriarchal standards are all explored here with great sensitivity and almost always a surprising twist. Nethercott winkingly thanks her exes in the acknowledgments, saying, “If you think it’s about you, it probably is,” but luckily for readers, she has a great talent for taking personal pains and making them universal.
A memorable story collection that makes the supernatural personal.
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