From the author of the breakout novel Thistlefoot, a collection of dark fairytales and fractured folklore exploring how our passions can save us--or go monstrously wrong.
The stories in Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart are about the abomination that resides within us all. That churning, clawing, ravenous yearning: the hunger to be held, and seen, and known. And the terror, too: to be loved too well, or not enough, or for long enough. To be laid bare before your sweetheart, to their horror. To be recognized as the monstrous thing you are.
Two teenage girls working at a sinister roadside attraction called the Eternal Staircase explore its secrets--and their own doomed summer love. A zombie rooster plays detective in a missing persons case. A woman moves into a new house with her acclaimed artist boyfriend--and finds her body slowly shifting into something specially constructed to accommodate his needs and whims. A pack of middle schoolers turn to the occult to rid themselves of a hated new classmate. And a pair of outcasts, a vampire and a goat woman, find solace in each other, even as the world's lack of understanding might bring about its own end.
In these lush, strange, beautifully written stories, GennaRose Nethercott explores human longing in all its diamond-dark facets to create a collection that will redefine what you see as a beast, and make you beg to have your heart broken.
Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780593314180
Publisher: Random House USA
"Real magic, real delight, doled out generously in the shape of wistful, ferocious, this-world-but-better stories." – Kelly Link, author of White Cat, Black Dog.
"Fans of Karen Russell will love these bizarre, absurdist stories that feel like twisted versions of the fairytales that dance around the edges of nightmares, and might just worm their way into yours." – Lizz Schumer, Good Housekeeping, "12 Most-Anticipated Books Coming Out in 2024"
"All of you who love that strain of witty, wistful, enigmatic stories that runs from Kafka to Kelly Link: come read this book. GennaRose Nethercott draws from a magic well, bringing us tales that feel as old as time yet marvelously new." – Sofia Samatar, author of Tender and Monster Portraits.