For a book that’s not actually out yet, The Wrong Girl & Other Warnings is getting read a lot! Brain Jar Press get their pre-orders out ahead of time – and because they print in-the-country-of-your-ordering, it’s not super expensive to go for a print copy over an ebook. Just saying. So, you know, clicky-clicky.
Some kind words from the clever Dr Damon Young:
“There’s a famous scene in “American Hustle” (2013) that has Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) talking about her nail polish:
‘There’s something, the topcoat. It’s like, perfumey, but there’s also something, rotten. And I know that sounds crazy, but I can’t get enough of it.’
This is how I feel about Slatter’s excellent collection. The stories are full of sweetness: the prose style, the banter, the glimpses of kindness or liberation. But there’s a nasty, rotten aroma that permeates every tale. And this gives the stories such depth.
Many concern revenge of a stripe, typically poetic: a nasty man getting what he deserves. Or a woman getting what she deserves, and should’ve had long before (were not for said nasty man).
This sounds glib, but all themes do in abstract. Slatter is never abstract. She offers palpable characters and settings; makes us feel the reasonableness in her protagonists’ (often homicidal) urges.
Aside from the (unstuffy) elegance of her writing, I was most struck by Slatter’s immediacy. There’s no gentle introduction. No dallying. Each world opens up and claims you—but briefly, then another begins.
If you like short stories, seek Slatter out. And if you don’t: seek therapy.”
Original post is here.