Damien Angelica Walters

Just the way fairy tales should be written. All the stories were viscerally unsettling in their own ways, to the point where I wanted to read more but had to stop because I couldn't expect any of the short stories to spare me a gut-punch. More impressive, the stories had diverse narrative style! In particular my favorites were the amazing "Take a Walk in the Night, My Love" and "The Serial Killer's Astronaut Daughter" which were still different enough to be written by two separate show more authors.

That being said, some of the stories missed their nexus of creepy/dark/unsettling for me. I found "Not my Circus, not my Monkeys: The Elephant's Tale" and "Umbilicus" were too obscure. They were well-written though, so consider it a matter of my tastes more than anything else. show less

Creepy, creepy and more creepy. When you were 12 years old did you and your friends huddle under a blanket at a sleepover and tell scary ghost stories... serial killer stories, and "dead girl" stories.? Did you and your friends listen breathlessly believing you heard footsteps from something that wasn't there yet and you hoped would never arrive...but on the other hand, couldn't wait to see? I did....there was 8 of us...and we couldn't get enough. So I could so see myself and my friends show more maybe forming a club like Heather and her friends and scaring the s**t out of each other. Of course we did that without the club title. Unfortunately for these girls "something" did answer their summons. "Something" took Becca and now no one believes Heather or her friends. Becca and Heather were solid friends with very different backgrounds. Heather came from a stable home...while Becca was being abuse in a broken home. I empathized with both girls. Becca was troubled and Heather had a genuine desire to save her friend. Now we meet "Adult Heather" who is a child psychologist. She has a successful career, a stable marriage, a well-ordered life but carries a disturbing childhood secret. Everything in her life runs smoothly until some very odd events occur that threatens her carefully-constructed façade. Somebody mails Dr. Heather Cole one tarnished half of a heart-shaped "best friends" necklace...she panics since the last time she saw this particular bit of jewelry, she was 12 years old and it was hanging around the neck of her dead BFF, Becca Thomas. What's true? Is there something Heather isn't remembering about that night in 1991? Readers will miss sleeping time, perhaps dinner time, who needs to eat anyway when you just have to find out how this ends? You may be very surprised. show less

When Heather was 12-years old, she was best friends with Becca. Rachel and Gia rounded out their group of friends, and the one summer they called themselves the “Dead Girls Club”, as they discussed serial killers and Becca told the other girls the story of the “Red Lady”, a witch who was horribly murdered, but maybe wasn’t actually dead.

Almost 30 years later, Heather begins receiving things in the mail that remind her of that awful summer – the summer she killed her best friend show more (not a spoiler – it is revealed very early on in the book). Who could be sending these things!? Who even knew what happened that night?

I really liked this. It pulled me in and kept me wanting to read. It turned out to be a pretty fast read. It is told alternating between Then and Now, as the reader slowly learns what happened that summer, while at the same time trying to figure out who has contacted Heather now. Yes, I was surprised by a couple of twists at the end. Maybe some will figure it out (at least one of the twists), but it never occurred to me! And, there were a few creepy parts, so fitting for an October read. show less

Walters is at her best when she's playing Frankenstein with fairy tale tropes.

(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewers program. Trigger warning for violence against women and suicide.)

Once upon a time there was a monster. This is how they tell you the story starts. This is a lie.
("Tooth, Tongue, and Claw ")

Don’t be fooled by the breadcrumbs in the forest. This is not a fairy tale.
("A Lie You Give, and Thus I Take")

You won’t show more catch me in my underwear. I sleep in my fucking coveralls.
(“The Serial Killer’s Astronaut Daughter”)

Between the oft-quoted "Once upon a time there was a monster..." line (reproduced above; I just couldn't help myself!), and the deliciously dark story titles, I was practically frothing at the mouth to read an early copy of Cry Your Way Home. Alas, this collection of short stories - an eclectic mix of science fiction, fantasy, fairy tale retellings, and the stray piece of contemporary fiction, all bound by a fierce undercurrent of feminism running throughout - is more of a mixed bag than I'd hoped. There are a few gems here, but also a good many underwhelming and ultimately forgettable stories, too.

The collection opens on a strong note with "Tooth, Tongue, and Claw," easily my favorite of the bunch. A mix of Beauty and the Beast and The Handmaid's Tale (or perhaps "The Lottery"), the story ends with a surprising twist that's as satisfying as it is lurid. A mashup of various fairy tales/spin on the entire genre, "A Lie You Give, and Thus I Take" is equal parts beautiful, chilling, and cautionary. While I think Walters is at her best when writing in this wheelhouse, I also quite enjoyed some of her science fiction; "The Serial Killer’s Astronaut Daughter," "Take a Walk in the Night, My Love," and "The Floating Girls: A Documentary" are all worth a read or two or three.

All of Walters' stories have a strong feminist bent; whether or not you find them preachy most likely hinges on your view of women. (Personally, I thought they were the exact right mix of righteous anger and engaging narrative device.) In "The Serial Killer’s Astronaut Daughter," for example, we see a woman being punished for the transgressions of a man - and one to whom her connection is tenuous at best. She's sure to be punished both for her silence and for speaking out - damned if you do, damned if you don't - and so she settles on a maxim that we'd all do well to adopt: "Be Ripley." (Or Vasquez, as it were.) Elsewhere, "The Floating Girls: A Documentary" is an allegory about sexual assault, rape culture, and the silencing of women that's as ethereal as it is (sadly) mundane.

Of the stories that fell flat for me, "On the Other Side of the Door, Everything Changes" stuck out like a sore thumb because it's the only non-fantastical piece in the collection (and kind of predictable, to boot). The others don't suffer from a lack of imagination; rather, I just found them unsatisfying, either in concept or execution. That said, the standouts more than make up for it. Even though I was considering DNF'in early on, I'm glad I stuck around: the book really starts punching up - and with such gratifying force - in the second half, so much so that you can (almost?) forgive the random misses.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Tooth, Tongue, and Claw - 5/5 stars
Deep Within the Marrow, Hidden in My Smile - 3/5 stars
On the Other Side of the Door, Everything Changes - 2/5 stars
This Is the Way I Die - 3.5/5 stars
The Hands That Hold, the Lies That Bind - 3/5 stars
Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys: The Elephant’s Tale - 3/5 stars
The Judas Child - 3/5 stars
S Is for Soliloquy - 3/5 stars
The Floating Girls: A Documentary - 4/5 stars
Take a Walk in the Night, My Love - 4/5 stars
Falling Under, Through the Dark - 3/5 stars
The Serial Killer’s Astronaut Daughter - 4/5 stars
Umbilicus - 2/5 stars
A Lie You Give, and Thus I Take - 4/5 stars
Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home - 2/5 stars
Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice - 3.5/5 stars
In the Spaces Where You Once Lived - 3/5 stars

http://www.easyvegan.info/2018/01/09/cry-your-way-home-by-damien-angelica-walter... show less