Her Body And Other Parties

In this collection of short stories, Carmen Maria Machado takes things that many people are familiar with—love, anxiety, sex, death, marriage, Law & Order: SVU—and adds a backdrop of horror. Like an adult version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, this book is made up of several stories that aren't explicitly terrifying but still have the ability to creep you out. For the most part, each story begins with a pretty mild premise and devolves into surreal body horror.

A lot of reviews on here mention Especially Heinous as being the worst story, but I think it'll be one of those love/hate type things in the long run. I honestly loved it. For me, the first couple entries had me wondering what I was getting myself into. I even thought about skipping the story about halfway through season 1 until the girls with bells for eyes showed up. From then on, the story became one of the most surreal things I've ever read. I don't want to give too much away, but I really loved the way everything played out.

Overall, I really enjoyed Machado's writing style and I'm looking forward to reading more. My only complaints are that she relied on cliches quite a bit and the stories were a little formulaic in that they almost all ended with questioning if anything actually happened. However, this had some of the most unique writing and voice I've experienced in years. Can't wait to read some full-length novels.