Possibly more like 3.5 stars due to moments in the writing that felt a little Creative Writing 101, but really overall I enjoyed these weird ass stories. They felt like a slightly more serious take on [book:The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria|25362907] (though I suppose it should be the other way around, publication-wise?), and there were more than a few moments that I think will stick with me for a while. I'm mostly familiar with Indian authors writing realistic fiction, so to read Parameswaran's collection definitely made me glad that he's contributing to weird fiction. ( )

The first story is one of the best short stories I have read in a while; unfortunately, few other stories were half as good. The middle dragged on a bit too much for me. ( )

I couldn't even finish this book. The short stories were all wildly depressing and centered on death and destruction and twisted relationships, haunting and eerie without revealing any truth or beauty. If you like startlingly macabre thinking stories, this will probably be just the thing for you, but for me, It just brought on horrible feelings and I figured my life would be better without it. ( )

This is a tough review to write. This collection of short stories is well worth reading, yet inconsistent in quality. There are fabulous characters, including a tiger as narrator, a man masquerading as a physician, an elephant and a boy who speaks "Engliphant", an alienated immigrant, and more. The plots are distinct yet connected by the thread of what it means to be an animal....human or otherwise. Warning...not an uplifting, upbeat collection; rather an intense and thought-provoking collection. This is a debut collection and I am definitely interested to see where this writer goes with his talents from here! ( )

I received this book as part of a lovely surprise collection from Bloomsbury and jumped into it straight away as my daily public transport read. I don’t mind reading short stories in this way as I can generally get a story finished in one or two trips. Some of these stories took a little longer as they are incredibly powerful and demand reflection!

You may be wondering why this book is called I Am an Executioner Love Stories – surely that’s incorrect? But no, that kind of juxtaposition is exactly what you get with these stories – they are stories of love, yet sometimes with death involved. The first story, The Infamous Bengal Ming is about a tiger who suddenly realises his love for his keeper – and kills him. I Am an Executioner deals with the sometimes difficult marriage of the chief executioner. Demons looks at why a wife leaves her dead husband on the floor and goes to a party. The final story, On the Banks of Table River (Planet Lucina, Andromeda Galaxy, AD 2319) deals with sex leading to death in another lifeform. Are the two events so entwined? Parameswaran deals with their linkage in many different situations.

I must admit that sometimes I found these stories overwhelming with the emotions they made me feel and the questions I thought about while reading – in the case of the tiger, is killing your lover the utmost sign of love? Is pretending to be someone you aren’t a betrayal if you do it correctly? In the case of the secret agent, how much do you hide from your partner and how far will you go to break the rules? These stories hide big life questions behind the narrative.

Parameswaran certainly knows how to pack a literary punch in a short amount of words. His use of language to create setting and character makes even faraway planet life sound believable (and I’m normally not one for science fiction). In addition, I really did believe that a tiger and an elephant were telling me their stories! I admire the author for creating the believable from the not so believable. Unique and captivating.

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