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sunnybopeep's review
4.25
I am so glad Wakefield Press decided to translate and publish Jean Ray’s ouvre into English because I might never have known about him otherwise.
Going into this short story collection, I expected a lot more straightforward horror, since I saw that he was regarded as “the Belgian Poe,” but the stories definitely leaned more into unsettling gothic weirdness than horror. I really like it when literary fiction barely creeps into genre fiction territory.
Most of the stories were wonderful, but I was particularly charmed by the frame story that bound everything together. There’s something really tender and personal in the author’s writings about his daughter.
Going into this short story collection, I expected a lot more straightforward horror, since I saw that he was regarded as “the Belgian Poe,” but the stories definitely leaned more into unsettling gothic weirdness than horror. I really like it when literary fiction barely creeps into genre fiction territory.
Most of the stories were wonderful, but I was particularly charmed by the frame story that bound everything together. There’s something really tender and personal in the author’s writings about his daughter.
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