Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Beautiful Sorrows.

Title/Author:  Beautiful Sorrows by Mercedes M. Yardley.

Genre: Short stories, Dark Fiction, Fantasy.

Publisher: Shock Totem Publications.

Source: Purchased.

Favorite Quote: "She thought of how the moon was always alone, never invited to tea, an eerily beautiful voyeur." ~The Girl from She Called Him Sky.

Synopsis: There is a place where sorrows pile up like snow and rest in your hair like cherry blossoms. Boys have wings, monsters fall in love, women fade into nothingness, and the bones of small children snap like twigs. Darkness will surely devour you—but it will be exquisitely lovely while doing so.

Mercedes M. Yardley’s Beautiful Sorrows is an ephemeral collection encompassing twenty-seven short tales full of devastation, death, longing, and the shining ribbon of hope that binds them all together. ~Goodreads.com
My Thoughts:  Take a step into another world with Beautiful Sorrows, a book that I urge everyone to read.  It is a collection of page turning, heart breaking, show stopping stories.  The writing is ethereal and dreamlike.  Unlike anything I've ever enountered. 

In the first few stories, I realized that Yardley is very good at changing her tone.  From urgent and frightening to soft and lyrical.  Yet all the writing has that same thread of mystical prose to make them cohesive.  I definitely have favorites, but there were no weak stories as is usually the case with a collection or anthology. I love her very short pieces that convey so much power and emotion in a few sentences. I love Black Mary, a mystery mixed with sorrow and horror. I love the stories about stars and pixies and broken hearts and love affairs and the one that portrayed The Universe as an unsympathetic and sentient force.

This collection reaches above and beyond genres yet I think readers of dark fiction and horror would love it as there are some very somber themes. 

I also loved the hysterical little drawings that headed each story and the story titles themselves.  The title itself is deep and sublime to me as well.  The two words are at odds with each other, yet sorrow, as well as pain and the hardships people go through are what make them human. 

I know stories can be up to interpretation, but I wanted to know just what was going on in a few of them. I was happy to find an index in the back that explains why Mercedes wrote each story. It doesn't necessarily spell everything out, but it gives the process and I appreciated her journey.

This is a book I'm going to keep on my shelves and I hope Ms. Yardley continues her literary journey so I can follow her path of words.

I want to thank Darkeva's Dark Delights for bringing this book to my attention.  If you're not convinced to try it, check out her thoughts HERE.

All in all: Stunning and beautiful.  Read it!  Read it!  Read it!

Challenges:













4 comments:

Jenny said...

Sounds like a fascinating collection of stories Pam! I love that there's an index in the back that explains a few things about the stories, I always appreciate when authors do that because I'm not a reader who likes things really open. Give me answers or explanations please! Lovely review:)

fakesteph said...

I occasionally like a book of short stories and I've been in the mood to cry.

Mercedes said...

Oh my goodness! I just ran across this review tonight, and it delights me to no end! I'm so happy that you liked Beautiful Sorrows. Your lovely review absolutely made my night. Thank you!

-Mercedes

Penelope Sanchez said...

mazing. I love the way she thinks, completely twisted and fantastic. And the stories are just so INTERESTING that I can't wait to see how they all unravel, but at the same time I end up slowing down and savoring the words because the writing is that spectacular. I enjoyed this tremendously.

Mariz
Get Best Info for Lodge Southeast Alaska

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...