This is a collection of short stories by Kelley
Armstrong, drawing upon her various worlds as well as several stand alones.
There are a lot of stories that draw from Kelley
Armstrong’s various world series – and some of these I haven’t read. For me
this was particularly a problem for the short stories based on the Cainsville series since I hadn’t read
them. In some ways I think the order of the stories was off, if Devil May Care had come first rather
than last, the world would have been much more explained and developed and,
with that, I would have had more investment and understanding when reading The Screams of Dragons, Gabriel’s Gargoyles and
The Hunt. But, if I had read Devil May Care first, I don’t think the same sense of mystery and alienness
would have pervaded these books.
Thematically and in terms of tone all of these are very
good at invoke the other, the very otherworldy feel of the fae but all with a
strong sense of subtlety. They are unseen and mysterious and it’s all a lot of
look-out-the-corner-of-your-eye-or-you’ll miss it etherealness that really real
worked. They were creepy, they were low key, they were subtle and they were
about normal or seemingly normal people caught up in this mysterious place with
its mysterious people who are just ever-so-slightly off. I think that wouldn’t
have carried the same weight if I’d read Devil
May Care first even though I enjoyed it more, since that book is very up
front and clear about what Cainsville is and why. It would have destroyed the
mystery and the eeriness. I do think I am missing out a lot by not recognising
any of these characters and not appreciating any new angles it my bring
I also haven’t reads the Darkes Powers/Darkness Rising universe and I’m now both eager to
read them and quite frustrated by having read this first. Kat and Branded both seem to take familiar themes from The Otherworld universe but the world
building goes in a very different direction – with the same supernatural
creatures I know so well eventually leading to a complex and rich dystopia. In Kat we see the beginnings of this and Branded takes the extreme several years,
perhaps centuries, afterwards. I’m a little frustrated in fact because I think
I’d love to read this series but now I know where it’s heading I think I will
miss much of the suspense of the characters facing the pending dystopia. I
loved both stories not just for the world setting but also for the characters
with Kat we saw strong female
friendships, family and dedication and Branded
showed a level of cunning and ruthlessness from a female protagonist that was absolutely
applause worthy. It’s a terrible, dark, lethal world – and she does what she
must to survive and thrive in excellent, terrifying fashion.
The main reason I was interested in this book was for
those stories set in the Otherworld
universe – I’ve read them all, I love this series and miss it now it was over,
so it was nice to hark back to it. Though I have to say, in some ways, they
clashed badly with the other stories in this book. The other stories have
desperate, abused children, alien, cruel and downright creepy fae, several
brutal dystopias and some downright disturbing standalones. Then we have the Otherworld stories which are a bit silly
and great fun. I like them, but they’re theme bombs and derail the overall feel
of the book
Learning Curve
and The List are told from Zoe’s
point of view. I’ve always liked Zoe, firstly for being an Asian lesbian
vampire in a series that needed more POC and LGBT people, but also because she
had so much fun. She’s ideal for short stories because so many of the other Otherworld characters are involved in
such epicness all the time while she never has been. This is her life and the
enjoyment she gets out of it – whether it’s having an amazingly fun time
educating a terrible Britanny the inept vampire slayer or tackling some
vampire-wannabes, she has a good time and I love her stories.
Another excellent one from the Otherworld Series was Bamboozled
going back to werewolves of the old west with an excellent female protagonist.
It was a great display of portraying prejudice, the misogyny of the time and
the contempt against her as an actress while at the same time challenging it
marvellously. It also works well at challenging the single-special-woman
syndrome that has plagued some of the Otherworld
Series (yes, cryptic for spoilers).
I was as big a lover of the zombie, brothel werewolf story
with Nick and the young wolves in VPlates.
Partly because it reminds me how frustrated I am that this series ended and I’ll
never get to see this rebuilt pack. Seeing Nick who has both grown a lot but is
still not-all-that wise (hence taking new werewolves to a brothel to lose their
virginity) but is trying. The whole story could have been terrible, but in it
way it nicely shredded the ineptitude of the extremely male-dominated,
uber-masculine, sex-driven, testosterone world of the werewolves and, even
without zombies, how it was all a little silly and wrong headed, which was
definitely needed.
Next to them I didn’t think over much of Young Bloods it seemed kind of obvious
and clichéd – young vampires bite off more than they can chew. Life Sentence was curious in that it was
the only one of the Otherworld
stories of this book that returned to the creepy theme of horror with
interesting twists and utterly terrible, terrifying endings. I liked it because
of that and because the horror of it was perfect but since it was set in the Otherworld series but didn’t really
connect to any of the characters from that world it didn’t resonate with me
While I loved the Otherworld
series, I actually think the gems of this book are the stand alones. These
were some the creepiest, twistiest, unexpected short stories all with a very
dark edge that I’ve read in a long time. There’s a lot of tragedy, a lot of
terrible things and a whole lot of new perspectives that made me truly love
them. All the twists also makes it very hard for me to talk about them without
spoilers so vagueness ahoy!
Some of them are very simple – Dead Flowers by the Roadside is as very simple narrative, but it
doesn’t make this story of grief or loss any more devastatingly sad. Plan B comes at the over end of the
spectrum, a multi-sided bisexual murder plot between a whole lot of terrible
people which shouldn’t be nearly as much fun to read. Dead To Me is a story I still don’t entirely understand but I don’t
think I need to – because even without fully understanding the sheer horror of
it is intense. A Haunted House of Her Own
has an excellent twist I can’t spoil but is so immensely creepy I was on edge
the entire time I was reading it – it’s rare to have a book have the same sense
of suspense as a good ghost film. Last
Stand takes on the traditional zombie apocalypse and turns it awesomely on
its head with extra ethical and moral dilemmas of civilians forced into intense
military roles and forced to make terrible choices for survival.
I really liked Rakshasi
with its innovative concept, drawing on Indian mythology and creating,
again, a very edgy story with not-exactly-good characters still doing what they
can. With the lure of freedom driving the character to do terrible things and some
very nice conversations about the nice euphemisms we use to pretend we’re not
doing what we’re doing (I really liked how different generations of her
controllers used different terminologies to distance themselves from,
effectively, enslaving her). The Door
is another dystopia and so beautifully tragic as subsequent family members take
up the responsibility of helping them survive – and preserving the innocence of
the others, until each one must step in the role and there’s no innocence left.
Suffer the Children was another dark,
edgy story of grief and tragedy and, again, the terrible things people are
driven to, even when they know they are wrong, for the sake of those they love.
Harbinger continued the edginess and
the darkness with a horrible omen of rape and murder – averted because of the
warning and a terrible, tragic (but subtly foreshadowed) twist at end. The
standalones are the most powerful of the stories in this book – and the ones
that impressed me the most, and I generally don’t care for short stories, especially
ones disconnected from a greater series.
I have to say that this book isn’t an easy read. It
contains stories containing child abuse, rape, suicide and lots of terrible
grief and tragedy. It’s not an easy read, but it is a powerful one which is
truly excellently written. I can’t emphasise this enough, the writing is
excellent and the emotional impact of the stories because of that is, at times,
gut wrenching. Coming from the Otherworld
series I never expected something so dark or a book that would throw in so
many emotional gut punches – but I have to say I’m impressed, deeply impressed
by almost every story in this book.
