Book Review | From the Neck Up and Other Stories

I got my first taste of the weirdness that is Aliya Whiteley when I read Skyward Inn, and I fell in love with her storytelling then.

Her latest short story collection, From the Neck Up and Other Stories, doesn’t disappoint in the weird department either. This collection is a trip into the uncanny and the bizarre through speculative fiction. The stories range from anything from a talking severed head to a city that continuously grows—all of them filled with an underlying strangeness that is utterly captivating.

However, my personal favorites are as follows:

“Many-Eyed Monsters.” An oddball dark comedy about a woman who keeps coughing up little many-eyed creatures and she must wrestle with her growing attachment to them.

“Into Glass.” An introspective story about a woman who has inherited a strange ability from her family. She secretly removes pieces of her husband in order to turn them into glass sculptures at night. However, she begins to questions the effects this might have on him.

“Star in the Spire.” An unnerving and Lovecraftian tale about a girl plagued by memories and dreams who visits an old village filled with scarecrows only to uncover a startling truth.

All in all, Whiteley’s wild imagination and her ability to craft vivid, surreal imagery never ceases to amaze me, and I cannot recommend this collection enough for lovers of the fantastical and the bizarre.

Thank you, NetGalley and Titan Books, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Details:

Publication Date : September 14, 2021

Publisher : Titan Books

ISBN : 1789094755

Pages : 320

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