Short stories Her Body & Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado review – powerful debut collection Horror, science fiction and fairytale merge in these short stories from a writer of rare daring Carmen Maria Machado … finalist in the US National Book awards. It’s also the title of the standout story in Carmen Maria Machado’s debut collection, a finalist in last year’s US National Book awards: a tense, seductive fairytale about rumour and silence, sex and power, autonomy and being ignored. “I don’t trust anything that can be incorporeal and isn’t dead,” says one man, recasting the old misogynist joke about menstruation. “Eight Bites” is a neat tale about self-hatred and bariatric surgery, with the fairytale promise of transformation: “It will hurt. Like many of these pieces, it falls somewhere between exercise and inspiration, but it signals a writer of rare daring.

Source: The Guardian January 18, 2018 12:00 UTC