Pretty Monsters

There are ten short stories here; most are already in print. It is no surprise that the author references or acknowledges the likes of Diana Wynne Jones, Angela Carter, Joan Aiken and Ursula K Le Guin. This collection is a heady, breathtaking mix of whackiness, fantasy, edgy humour and ancient myth. Even the ones that start off conventionally enough are slotted into another dimension come the end.

In ‘The Wrong Grave’ Miles makes a bodge of digging up his former girlfriend’s grave to retrieve his poems and is cruelly tricked by the dead. In ‘The Cinderella Game’ Peter fares little better at the hands of his despised step-sister, Darcy. Duplicitous myth and magic feature strongly in ‘The Constable of Abal’ and ‘The Specialist’s Hat’ is downright creepy. ‘The Faery Handbag’ engages us with a whole village in a handbag for which a modern young Miss has guardianship.

Most of the tales are very long short stories. ‘Pretty Monsters’ has a dual plot; ‘Magic for Beginners’ blends a TV show into the storyline that then seems to become the storyline. All are brimming with singular observations and arresting takes on everyday lives, characters and situations. It’s an exhausting roller coaster read which will need a switched on, tenacious reader to enjoy... but boy, will they be rewarded!