Book Review - Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

Title: Her Body and Other Parties
Author: Carmen Maria Machado
Publication Date: October 3rd, 2017 
Genre: Horror, Short Stories
Pages: 248 pages
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Buy It Now: https://amzn.to/2MGfG98
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Goodreads blurb:  
In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. 

My thoughts: 
As with most short story collections, not all of the stories worked for me. "Especially Heinous" really did nothing for me. It started off as an interesting idea: a supernatural take on every episode of Law and Order: SVU, featuring dopplegangers and creepy ghosts. But it went on for far, far too long and lost steam very early on for me. "Mothers" was also not a winner in my opinion. I have less than no idea what was going on in that particular story, it was way too abstract for my tastes and meandered in a way that made it disorienting (and not in a good way). "The Resident" wasn't a bad story, with a writer slowly losing her mind at an artist's retreat in the woods where she camped as a Girl Scout. I just didn't find myself particularly connected to the story, and again I felt like it went on a bit too long and pulled itself in a few too many directions without resolving anything. 

The stories I liked best in the collection were the ones that fell into the uncanny valley between real life experiences and full-blown horror: "The Husband Stitch," a retelling of "The Green Ribbon" where the protagonist is harassed for years by her husband about the ribbon around her neck until she gives in to his curiosity; "Inventory," where a woman lists her sexual partners while further and further isolating herself from the spread of a mysterious virus; "Real Women Have Bodies," in which another virus is causing women to fade (but not entirely disappear); "Eight Bites," a story about a woman's unhealthy relationship with food and the desperate steps and consequences she faces in trying to lose weight; and finally, probably the strongest story in the collection, "Difficult at Parties," in which the main character is trying to reintegrate with society and act "normal" for her partner's benefit after being attacked in her home. 

Even in the stories that I wasn't especially impressed with, there's no denying that Machado's writing is extremely compelling. Something about her style is completely engrossing, and I found myself absolutely glued to the pages of this book, even when I wasn't all that into the plot itself. Her writing is beautiful, and her ideas are unique. While I can't say that I loved the collection as a whole, there is some incredible talent in these pages, and I very much look forward to seeing what Machado puts out in the future.