Reviews

Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy by Hailey Piper

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arockinsamsara's review

5.0

What an incredible collection of short stories. Dark, often relentless, atmospheric horror, with flavors of Lovecraft and incomprehensible fears and loss beyond mortal comprehension. If there is any theme going through the collection, it is that the vampires, demons, witches, and others that go bump in the night are not the real horrors; the real horrors are the expectations and demands, some silent and some shouted, of a patriarchal society that polices gender and identity, and silently accepts ownership, physical and emotional, of others. Yes, these stories contain supernatural entities, but they don't frighten me. The overwhelming, indifferent violence of the status quo is the real monster, here.

Piper has masterfully crafted a collection of stories, most of which were previously published elsewhere but some of which debut in this collection, that get to the point, cut deep, don't go where you expect, and leave a devilish taste in your mouth, somewhere between exquisite and rancid, depending on how long it takes your heart to slow down. I devoured this collection in a single, rainy day, and I look forward to revisiting it again and again.

corsetedfeminist's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I enjoyed this, and it was a very light, atmospheric read. Some of the stories really captured my attention and made me want more from that world, and some of them were enjoyable but not quite as thrilling, but I enjoyed all of them on some level.
My favorite of these stories by far is CandyLand, which I don’t know how to describe except that it somehow married Twilight and Alice in Wonderland and came out with a story that described women’s jealousy over men’s attention in a starkly unnerving way.
The worldbuilding was fantastic for short stories, I will give them that, and the character arcs for each story were very well done.
One thing I did appreciate was that the stories in this book aren’t afraid to be weird, and to end not just without a happy ending, but sometimes with an ending that’s just befuddling.

vererito's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

Content Warnings

musclelf's review against another edition

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5.0

This collection is worth reading for just the final story alone, which the title of the book comes from. However, every single story is actually perfect or close to it, and I'm astonished at how imaginative the author is. She rides that weird horror line well, and doesn't cross into too weird or annoying territory. The ice cream man story could have easily been too weird in a bad way, but she masterfully navigated it. Horror is a perfect venue in which to explore otherness and boy golly does she!