Camilla Grudova
Coffee House Press
2017
Ms. Hen picked this book up because it was recommended to her online. She got it from the library she patrons. She thinks this is a very strange book, but she liked it a lot.
One of the blurbs on the back of this book said something like, if fairy tales had dreams, these nightmarish stories are what you would come up with. Ms. Hen agrees. All these stories are creepy, and haunted Ms. Hen. But she loved them. She wished this book would have gone on longer.
In "Waxy," an alternate past, a woman works in a factory, but does not find a man who takes exams; they have a baby they have to hide. "The Sad Tale of the Sconce," is about a sconce that is the product of an affair between an octopus and a mermaid figurehead on a ship, and how the sconce is passed around, going from place to place. "The Moth Emporium," is a story about a young woman who starts to work at a used clothing store where she and her sister broke a mask years before; the store is filled with strange things from all over the world.
This collection reminds Ms. Hen of a few books she has read: ST. LUCY'S HOME FOR GIRLS RAISED BY WOLVES, A SPINDLE SPLINTERED, and STRANGER THINGS HAPPEN. This is Ms. Hen's favorite kind of book to read, about alternate messed up worlds. Ms. Hen thinks this world is dysfunctional enough, and she does not like to spend time in it, or reading about reality, because it can be too hard.
Ms. Hen says that if you want to be transported to strange worlds for a little while, read this book! It's very short, but should be longer. Ms. Hen loves weird things, and this book is full of them, things like buttons, dolls, tinned meat, octopuses, sewing machines, and women who do what they want, or what they don't want. Ms. Hen is a weird hen, and she admires other weird things in the world.
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