If you liked Broken Monsters, you should try Nova Ren Suma’s The Walls Around Us and Kelly

If you liked Broken Monsters, you should try Nova Ren Suma’s The Walls Around Us and Kelly Link’s Get in Trouble.None of these authors are new to the literary horror/supernatural scene, but I found the parallels between their work to be so strong that I needed to discuss.When I heard Link speak a few weeks ago at Word Bookstore in Jersey City, she said that she likes to make sure that the supernatural element in her stories doesn’t ‘stand for anything.’ She said, essentially, that she doesn’t want there to be an element that “obviously stands for the character’s dead mother”, but instead adds the unexpected to the story and lets the reader take her own meaning out of the addition. I find this to be true for Beukes and Suma, too, although I do find that the supernatural element in theirs is a bit more pointed. Ultimately, all three find their similarity in the addition of the supernatural in their tales, interwoven seamlessly in a successful attempt to elevate the narrative.Both Beukes and Suma deal with the demons we find and fight within ourselves, and how our relationships with others affect that. Beukes writes with a heavily feminist hand, unafraid of calling out present trends and injustices in her work. Broken Monsters in particular is unafraid to acknowledge the recent attacks against minorities, especially children, forcing the issue to light here in a way that reminds us of what true monstrosity is. Suma, writing in the young adult vein, focuses more on the relationships between teenage girls and their ability to destroy each other in so many ways. These characters, in Beukes’ and Suma’s works, are gritty, hard, and unapologetic - and yet, still so human. These are girls and women not written to stereotype, but to strength and intensity. Link tends to write a broader spectrum of characters, as you can do in short stories, but is also not up for any shenanigans.There’s no possible way such a short recommendation could get into the depths of love I have for all three of these authors, but I wholeheartedly recommend all three of these. Broken Monsters is likely in the top three books I read last year, and both Get in Trouble and The Walls Around Us, out in 2015, give me that same rush of thrilling feeling. -- source link
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