Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories

GennaRose Nethercott

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From the author of the breakout fantasy novel Thistlefoot : a collection of dark fairytales and fractured folklore exploring all the ways love can save us—or go monstrously wrong. The stories in Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart are about the abomination that resides within us all. That churning, clawing, hungry the desire to be loved, and seen, and known. And the terror of those things to be loved too well, or not enough, or for long enough. To be laid bare before your sweetheart, to their horror. To be known and recognized as the monstrous thing you are.  Two young women working at a sinister roadside attraction called the Eternal Staircase explore its secrets—and their own doomed summer love. A group of witchy teens concoct the perfect plan to induce the hated new girl into their ranks. A woman moves into a new house with her acclaimed artist boyfriend and finds her body slowly shifting into something specially constructed to accommodate his needs and whims. And two outcasts, a vampire and a goat woman, find solace in each other, even as the world's lack of understanding might bring about its own end. In these lush, beautifully written stories, GennaRose Nethercott explores love in all its diamond-dark facets to create a collection that will redefine what you see as a beast, and make you beg to have your heart broken.


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  • wisecraic
    Dec 16, 2024
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    **I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

    GennaRose Nethercott returns with a short story collection, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart and Other Stories. The collection is comprised of stories that lean into the lines between fantasy and horror with a folk story feeling that presides throughout. There are fourteen total tales included.

    If you know GennaRose Nethercott from Thistlefoot, like I did, know that this is not the same vibe. What is the same is Nethercott's beautiful prose that spans each story. This collection leans heavily into the strange, the weird, the wonderful. Unfortunately for me, the sheer oddity of some of the stories makes it hard for me to connect with them. While I recognize the beauty, I believe this is a cade of simply not being for me.

    If you are a Slewfoot fan or a little more into the absurd and odd, this collection is more likely to be toward your wheelhouse.

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  • snowseau
    Jan 02, 2025
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    Beautiful writing, and every story was a hit. I particularly liked A Diviner's Abecedarian, The Plums at the End of the World, and Homebody - though that one made my soul hurt.

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  • mollyannpayge
    Feb 13, 2025
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