Review: The Slantwise Histories by Alix E Harrow

Rating: /10

Synopsis:

These tales tell a different truth:
slantwise and by starlight.

Award-winning and internationally bestselling author Alix E. Harrow delivers a fantastical collection of stories old and new: tales about tricksters and ghosts, ordinary magic and mundane spectacle, all in the tradition of Angela Carter, Anne Sexton and Carmen Maria Machado.

Stretching from ancient battlefields to the American freeway’s neon-lit attractions, these stories are filled with tricksters, ghosts and ordinary magic. They honour the people caught in the jaws of history; women, workers, soldiers and mothers – everyone who’s been shoved into the margins of the world.

Whether exploring the airless, unchanging dark of an underworld, tracking werewolves through snow-crusted mountain passes or watching a steel mill grind a community into ash, these narratives dive into mysteries that might have been. But these tales aren’t tragedies. They are the triumphant stories of the ones who got away: the dissenters and rule-breakers who ran – and tossed a match behind them as they left.

This collection includes Alix’s acclaimed novelette The Six Deaths of the Saint and the Hugo-Award winning story that started her career, A Witch’s Guide to Escape.

Review:

My favourite collection of short stories this year. 

Alix E Harrow is able to change her writing style, tone, and aesthetic to match the story she wants to tell. 
From fairytales to dystopian, to resistance and hopelessness, from love to hate.  

But what’s a legend, except a history told slantwise?

Some of these stories were five stars, most were strong four stars. 
My favourites include: 

The Tale of the Two Brothers, Or, The Famous Folklorist Confesses Fratricide!
My favourite overall. This has a satisfying plot, interesting characters with strong voices, and a heartbreaking arc.

“Why not men?” Jack asked, stung. “Because men are so often the reason we need teeth in the first place.”

Mr. Death
I recently read Grim Tidings by BK Borison, and this reminded me of that. Despite its title, this might be one of the more hopeful ones.

The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly
The tongue in cheek tone reminded me of Lemony Snicket. Funny, sweet, and short told in epistolary form.

Miss Connelly is toddling through the obsidian halls of my palace in the world-below like a misplaced sunbeam, all golden curls and freckles, pestering the troll-guard and chattering with the ravens.

Shout out to two short stories I have read and reviewed previously:
The Knight and the Butcherbird – a gritty dystopian tale with a demon and her wife. 

“Everyone thinks you get sick because you begin to change, but it’s the opposite: You change because you get sick. Because you have to.”

The Six Deaths of the Saint which inspired The Everlasting. Heartbreaking and timey-whimey (gotta get that Doctor Who reference in).

The Final Voyage of The Good Ship Fortune

I, too, had been angry. I, too, had wanted to bully the world into better behavior. But it isn’t the world that changes when you throw yourself against it.

The Long Way Up
A Orpheus and Eurydice retelling. I watched Hadestown last month and I love seeing all the different adaptions. 

A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies
This is a love letter to libraries and reading. For all the readers who rely on escapism. 

Anyone could see that kid needed to run and keep running until he shed his own skin, until he clawed out of the choking darkness and unfurled his wings, precious and prisming in the light of some other world. His caseworker was one of those people who say the word escapism as if it’s a moral failing, a regrettable hobby, a mental health diagnosis. As if escape is not, in itself, one of the highest orders of magics they’ll ever see in their miserable mortal lives, right up there with true love and prophetic dreams and fireflies blinking in synchrony on a June evening.

My least favourite was Dustbaby which was also the shortest and most unsatisfying. 

Overall, I love how Harrow can comment on our society and culture through all her stories. She isn’t heavy-handed, but her stories carry motifs, messages, lessons.

Resistance, reclaiming power, and being brave to go against the grain and repeating themes.