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A review by notlikethebeer
Large Animals by Jess Arndt
4.0
I always find it harder to review short story collections as each individual one can differ so greatly. Large Animals is the same, which isn't a reflection on the author whatsoever, it's just a feature of short story collections I think!
My own favourite was the first story (I've forgotten the name!)- I would looove a whole novel based around the same characters and setting, but equally felt it was perfect in itself. There were some other particularly fantastic stories, but that one was my stand-out!
Regardless of my personal interest or enjoyment of each story, every single one was incredibly well-written, a massive testament to Arendt's skill. In addition, I found all of the characters to be really compelling, and I wanted to know more about all of them.
Given the nature of the work as a whole, being about bodies, and particularly about queer/trans bodies, I kind of liked that not all of them felt relevant or understandable to me. I think twelve people could really easily read this and each connect with a different story, and see their particular favourite as being highly important to them. It feels like an apt metaphor for bodies as a whole, in it's own way, which feels highly fitting for the themes.
Large Animals draws heavily on metaphor and imagery, which was great in itself, and particularly good in relation to the theme of bodies. I also really liked that almost all (if not all?) were portrayed as queer in some way, it was great to read a collection of stories like that!
I think what Arendt does, more than anything, is queers the short story form. This is a new and exciting collection, and it's made me eager to go out and seek more queer fiction that queers fiction. I'm super excited to see what else Arendt writes!!
My own favourite was the first story (I've forgotten the name!)- I would looove a whole novel based around the same characters and setting, but equally felt it was perfect in itself. There were some other particularly fantastic stories, but that one was my stand-out!
Regardless of my personal interest or enjoyment of each story, every single one was incredibly well-written, a massive testament to Arendt's skill. In addition, I found all of the characters to be really compelling, and I wanted to know more about all of them.
Given the nature of the work as a whole, being about bodies, and particularly about queer/trans bodies, I kind of liked that not all of them felt relevant or understandable to me. I think twelve people could really easily read this and each connect with a different story, and see their particular favourite as being highly important to them. It feels like an apt metaphor for bodies as a whole, in it's own way, which feels highly fitting for the themes.
Large Animals draws heavily on metaphor and imagery, which was great in itself, and particularly good in relation to the theme of bodies. I also really liked that almost all (if not all?) were portrayed as queer in some way, it was great to read a collection of stories like that!
I think what Arendt does, more than anything, is queers the short story form. This is a new and exciting collection, and it's made me eager to go out and seek more queer fiction that queers fiction. I'm super excited to see what else Arendt writes!!