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errie's review against another edition
dark
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Miscarriage, and Gore
dhritigupta's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
4.0
“I told her I was sorry for not being better or for not trying harder and she looked at me with eyes that were a haunting all their own”
i really liked the way she writes people, but the endings of most of these fell a bit flat for me
my fave stories were:
- the great awake
- formerly feral
- granite
i really liked the way she writes people, but the endings of most of these fell a bit flat for me
my fave stories were:
- the great awake
- formerly feral
- granite
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Miscarriage
fionag's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I absolutely love Armfield’s writing and her debut collection I think really reflects who she is as a writer and her potential. All of the stories I was captivated by, even if some weren’t my stand out favourites. Her prose is so lyrical and sometimes disgusting and I’m always transported fully into the world in which she writes. I may be bias because I love short stories, but these little flavours of tales all linked by girlhood, the sea, reminiscing and horror are absolutely brilliant. I think my absolute favourites are Salt Slow, Cassandra After, the Collectables, and The Great Awake. I love the imagery of the ocean and all of its weird wonderfulness which Armfield employs. The last story in particular made me even more excited for the upcoming Private Rites.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Miscarriage
eyeowna's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I am a Julia Armfield FAN. Her writing is beautiful and she depicts horrific/creepy things with a kind of understated mundanity that is delicious. I think I might love this collection of short stories even more than her novel Our Wives Under the Sea. Reading this second, I see some of the motifs/themes that she explores in depth (ha) in her novel, such as sapphic love and grief. I just can't get enough of the feminine monstrosity, rage, and yearning in these stories. Also teeth. Drink every time Armfield mentions teeth literally or as a metaphor (it's great).
I will continue to think about "Mantis," "The Great Awake," "Formerly Feral," "Stop your women's ears with wax," and "salt slow" in particular for some time.
Ratings for each story (with summary/themes):
“Mantis” - 5/5⭐
- catholic school girl goes through a different sort of puberty than her peers, following her family’s birthright. themes: body horror, girlhood, becoming.
“The Great Awake” - 5/5⭐
- a woman from a small town moves to a big city. soon after, most of the city has their “Sleep” (a kind of ghostly doppelgänger) step out of them and become sleepless. themes: unsettling, urban life, sapphic yearning.
“The Collectables” - 3.5/5⭐
- three graduate student housemates commiserate about their trouble with dating and men. one of them starts an "interesting" collection.
“Formerly Feral” - 5/5⭐
- preteen acquires a wolf stepsister and becomes more wolf-like than the wolf. themes: imperfect girlhood, inhabiting an animal body despite humanity’s mind/body dualism, growing up, becoming, neglect.
“Stop your women’s ears with wax” - 5/5⭐
- main character films video diary-documentary following wildly successful all-woman band who has a strange, violent affect on its female fans. themes: obsession, fan-hood, girlhood, sapphic, violence against men.
“Granite” - 4/5⭐
- nearly-30 yo woman reflects on her first relationship with a perfect-seeming man. themes: loving someone “too much,” being unlovable, womanhood, catch-22 of heterosexuality for women.
“Smack” - 3/5⭐
- woman newly-divorced hides out in her ex-husband’s beach house while a strange phenomenon of jellyfish mass-death occurs on the beach. the writing is beautiful and I’m fascinated by the helplessness of the main character (is she spoiled, depressed, what’s going on?) but otherwise this story didn’t grab me as much as the others.
“Cassandra After” - 5/5⭐
- woman is visited by her dead ex-girlfriend. themes: loving someone “too much,” being “new” to queerness, grief.
“salt slow” - 5/5⭐
- a pregnant woman and her male partner are adrift on a boat in a flooded, post-apocalyptic world. themes: another story about love, grief, examining heterosexuality, but this time with the body horror (and not) of pregnancy.
I will continue to think about "Mantis," "The Great Awake," "Formerly Feral," "Stop your women's ears with wax," and "salt slow" in particular for some time.
Ratings for each story (with summary/themes):
“Mantis” - 5/5⭐
- catholic school girl goes through a different sort of puberty than her peers, following her family’s birthright. themes: body horror, girlhood, becoming.
“The Great Awake” - 5/5⭐
- a woman from a small town moves to a big city. soon after, most of the city has their “Sleep” (a kind of ghostly doppelgänger) step out of them and become sleepless. themes: unsettling, urban life, sapphic yearning.
“The Collectables” - 3.5/5⭐
- three graduate student housemates commiserate about their trouble with dating and men. one of them starts an "interesting" collection.
“Formerly Feral” - 5/5⭐
- preteen acquires a wolf stepsister and becomes more wolf-like than the wolf. themes: imperfect girlhood, inhabiting an animal body despite humanity’s mind/body dualism, growing up, becoming, neglect.
“Stop your women’s ears with wax” - 5/5⭐
- main character films video diary-documentary following wildly successful all-woman band who has a strange, violent affect on its female fans. themes: obsession, fan-hood, girlhood, sapphic, violence against men.
“Granite” - 4/5⭐
- nearly-30 yo woman reflects on her first relationship with a perfect-seeming man. themes: loving someone “too much,” being unlovable, womanhood, catch-22 of heterosexuality for women.
“Smack” - 3/5⭐
- woman newly-divorced hides out in her ex-husband’s beach house while a strange phenomenon of jellyfish mass-death occurs on the beach. the writing is beautiful and I’m fascinated by the helplessness of the main character (is she spoiled, depressed, what’s going on?) but otherwise this story didn’t grab me as much as the others.
“Cassandra After” - 5/5⭐
- woman is visited by her dead ex-girlfriend. themes: loving someone “too much,” being “new” to queerness, grief.
“salt slow” - 5/5⭐
- a pregnant woman and her male partner are adrift on a boat in a flooded, post-apocalyptic world. themes: another story about love, grief, examining heterosexuality, but this time with the body horror (and not) of pregnancy.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
macncheese_pdf's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror and Gore
avasbookmark's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Death, Lesbophobia, and Miscarriage
yinflower's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Miscarriage and Body horror
sofipitch's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Absolutely beautiful prose, easily the best thing about this collection. These are little weird stories that each one I would be excited for in the beginning and at the end of most I felt weren't as weird, didn't go as hard as they should have. The only one I didn't feel that way about was "Cassandra After". I'll read this author's novel, short stories feeling like they just abruptly stopped rather than ended is not something I feel is unique to this author so maybe I'll like her novel more
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Death, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Gore
inlaraland's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
“Salt Slow” by Julie Armfield is a collection of short stories that explores bodies and the bodily, where the author maps the skin and bones of her characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession, love and revenge.
A couple of my favorites included “Mantis” and “Formerly Feral”. two stories that focus on the shocking changes of a woman’s body. “The Great Awake” which tells a story of how the character’s “sleep” have mutated into their own physical entity. “Granite” is a cautionary love story about living in the moment, and “Smack” depicts a a melancholic woman withering amidst her divorce. Finally, there was “Salt Slow”, a story set in world that has been flooded by water.
I could only read these stories in doses, so I took my time with this book. The pacing is on the slower side, but the writing is beautifully frightening and eerie. There were sentences and paragraphs that struck my core, and I found that each story had it’s own unique narration. I recommend this book if you’re interested in horror (specifically body horror), science fiction and mythical storytelling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
fictionalsarah's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Miscarriage, Death, Blood, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail