amalia1985's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
‘’Some books come to feel as if they belong to you alone. And then you find yourself face to face with the person who made them, and what are you supposed to do?’’
Another beautiful stop to the exciting universe of the British Short Story.
These are my favourite stories in another fascinating collection edited by Nicholas Royle:
The Husband and the Wife Go to the Seaside (Melissa Wan): A married couple needs a change. But from what and to what end? This is for the reader to decide…
Cuts (Stephen Sharp): An almost surreal nightmare that makes much more sense than it seems, terrifying in its reality. Seven pages of scattered facts and stream-of-consciousness and pure literary brilliance.
The Heights of Sleep (Sam Thompson): A moving account of the unique ‘bond’ between readers and their favourite writers.
Nude and Seascape (Ann Quin): I am sure most readers would react quite dramatically when faced with this story's utter cruelty and perversion. I loved it.
And I don’t know what this shows about me…
On the Way to Church (Vicky Grut): A couple arrives in the husband’s hometown for the christening of their son. A tender story about the secrets that lurk within a household and the impact of unexpected news.
‘’The man two doors down pursues a secret hobby in the dead of night. This is one of your first discoveries.’’
Cluster (Naomi Booth): A sleep-deprived mother witnesses the shady actions that take place in the hours before dawn, hidden in the dark alleys of Leeds.
Smack (Julia Armfield): A jellyfish becomes a telling metaphor for a marriage that has fallen apart and a woman that has decided to chase shadows in her loneliness.
Badgerface (Lucie McKnight Hardy): The moving, haunting story of a return and a wound that can’t be healed.
‘’She remembers her mother showing her how to make paper dolls, but they always ended up separate instead of joining together.’’
Optics (Ren Watson): In a wonderfully eerie and cryptic story, a young mother thinks that her daughter is slowly fading away. Is it a matter of optics? Is it her wild imagination? Or is there something sinister at play?
A Gift of Tongues (Paul McQuade): A woman has to put up with the strange gift of her German boyfriend. She has accepted a new tongue as a loving present. Literally. He doesn’t want to communicate in English so she HAS TO change. But things don’t go as they’ve planned and her identity is destroyed. A story with hundreds of metaphors and underlying themes for discussion.
New Dawn Fades (Sophie Mackintosh): A haunting story about our compulsive need to summon the most terrible ghosts once the night has fallen…
‘’You are being haunted by yourself, you think half-seriously, considering the mystery of the screen. You are your own worst ghost.’’
katheryn's review
4.0
I'm on a run of great books at the moment.
Best British Short Stories 2019 is an excellent collection of imaginative short stories, shining a light on the darker side of everyday life. The stories which stand out as my favourites are 'Smack' by Julia Armfield, and 'Reality' by John Lanchester. While there were obviously some stories I enjoyed more than others (my least favourites being slightly too cryptic), there were none I didn't enjoy. I liked that there was only really one story written in an unconventional style, but that there were more than a few stories whose writing style I admired.
This one comes highly recommended.
Best British Short Stories 2019 is an excellent collection of imaginative short stories, shining a light on the darker side of everyday life. The stories which stand out as my favourites are 'Smack' by Julia Armfield, and 'Reality' by John Lanchester. While there were obviously some stories I enjoyed more than others (my least favourites being slightly too cryptic), there were none I didn't enjoy. I liked that there was only really one story written in an unconventional style, but that there were more than a few stories whose writing style I admired.
This one comes highly recommended.
thebobsphere's review
4.0
The short story is an odd thing. Due to the brevity, one cannot go into a lot of detail, yet a well crafted short story can have a punch that will stay with you. Thus, technically speaking publishing an anthology with the word ‘best’ in it, should contain a ton of punchy stories.
Spoiler it does.
The 20 short pieces in this collection are excellent. There’s a great range as well. Ranging from the weird (Paul McQuade’s A Gift of Tongues, Sally Jubb’s The Arrangement) , some ‘slice of life’ stories Lucie McKnight Hardy’s Badgerface and Sally Booth’s Cluster) and eyebrow raising (Ann Quin – Nude and Seascape, Vesna Main’s A hair Clasp). I can guarantee that there isn’t a dull moment.
Did I have favourites? Although the quality is high, there were quite a few I felt stood out. John Lanchester’s reality, which delves into the psyche of reality tv show participants is clever. Melissa Wan’s The Husband and the Wife go to the Seaside is a perfect opener and Adam Welch’s Toxic satirises youth culture and internet fads made me laugh guiltily.
An amazing short story can make one appreciate the amount of craft that goes into creating a tiny contained world. In this anthology you’ll see how it is an art form. 20 times over.
Spoiler it does.
The 20 short pieces in this collection are excellent. There’s a great range as well. Ranging from the weird (Paul McQuade’s A Gift of Tongues, Sally Jubb’s The Arrangement) , some ‘slice of life’ stories Lucie McKnight Hardy’s Badgerface and Sally Booth’s Cluster) and eyebrow raising (Ann Quin – Nude and Seascape, Vesna Main’s A hair Clasp). I can guarantee that there isn’t a dull moment.
Did I have favourites? Although the quality is high, there were quite a few I felt stood out. John Lanchester’s reality, which delves into the psyche of reality tv show participants is clever. Melissa Wan’s The Husband and the Wife go to the Seaside is a perfect opener and Adam Welch’s Toxic satirises youth culture and internet fads made me laugh guiltily.
An amazing short story can make one appreciate the amount of craft that goes into creating a tiny contained world. In this anthology you’ll see how it is an art form. 20 times over.
arirang's review
3.0
This is the 11th edition of the annual anthology of Best British Short Stories edited by Nicholas Royle - no not that [a:Nicholas Royle|6922827|Nicholas Royle|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], but this [a:Nicholas Royle|20435|Nicholas Royle|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png], and indeed the other Nicholas Royle built a highly-inventive novel around the confusion: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2106688465 - and published by the wonderful Salt Publishing.
The collection comes with an interesting introduction from Royle, which gives a great overview of the wider short story scene in the UK in 2018. Indeed so wide is his overview that perhaps the one negative is that the stories actually featured here get a little lost in the many mentioned, and some of the most intriguing sounding stories (e.g. Your Neighbour's Packages by Megan Taylor) don't feature.
Date aside, the collection very much passes the Ronseal test: all the stories are of a consistently good quality. It is difficult to pick any particular standouts although I did particularly enjoy John Lanchester's satire of reality shows, Reality (much more than his novel The Wall), the brilliant Vesna Main contributes the shortest (2 pages) story but one of the most powerful, the inclusion of one of Ann Quin's oeuvre is great to see, Sam Thompson's The Height of Sleep was nicely literary, and Robert Mason's Curtilage a satisfyingly disturbing take on house viewing.
3.5 stars - rounded to 3 more because I am not a huge fan of the form, and if there was a gap it was perhaps some of the more cutting-edge innovative short stories (e.g. Eley Williams, David Hayden etc).
The collection comes with an interesting introduction from Royle, which gives a great overview of the wider short story scene in the UK in 2018. Indeed so wide is his overview that perhaps the one negative is that the stories actually featured here get a little lost in the many mentioned, and some of the most intriguing sounding stories (e.g. Your Neighbour's Packages by Megan Taylor) don't feature.
Date aside, the collection very much passes the Ronseal test: all the stories are of a consistently good quality. It is difficult to pick any particular standouts although I did particularly enjoy John Lanchester's satire of reality shows, Reality (much more than his novel The Wall), the brilliant Vesna Main contributes the shortest (2 pages) story but one of the most powerful, the inclusion of one of Ann Quin's oeuvre is great to see, Sam Thompson's The Height of Sleep was nicely literary, and Robert Mason's Curtilage a satisfyingly disturbing take on house viewing.
3.5 stars - rounded to 3 more because I am not a huge fan of the form, and if there was a gap it was perhaps some of the more cutting-edge innovative short stories (e.g. Eley Williams, David Hayden etc).
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