This book blindsided me with how unsettling and absorbing and downright excellent it is. I’m not usually a huge fan of short stories, but each of the stories here sucked me right in and spat me out, leaving me feeling like “whoa, what just happened?”—in a very good way, mind you. Julia Armfield has a way of producing sentences that provoke you to read them over and over again, rolling them around in your mind as you revel in the unique language and unusual imagery.

This is a work of speculative fiction, but in the vein of magical realism, not space opera (though body horror isn’t in short supply). Having just re-read Doggerland, I was pleased to find a story here that aligned nicely with that tale. And just as I felt Doggerland was a kind of companion piece to The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again, I found myself thinking of that latter book as I read this one. There’s something about the disturbing isolation of all the characters here that brought to mind the strange atmosphere of The Sunken Land. Everything here is slightly (or massively) off-kilter and uncanny. You’re not always sure if what’s being described is actually what’s happening, or if these are flights of metaphorical fancy, or hallucinations, or dreams. The hallucinatory quality of the stories is very compelling, and these tales are going to stick with me for a good while to come. A really outstanding book.

Further reading…