The blurb for this book immediately caught my attention. Where else can you find a collection of short stories combining vampires, social media and climate change? With great excitement, I dove in. The first story, The Angel and the Sphinx was actually my least favourite in the collection. Though not without its merits, I found it a little dense and it took me a while to get through. The Prophecies of the Great Mother was better, but again not quite to my personal taste. When the book really took off for me was with the third story, Inside Out, which would have made a memorable episode of Tales of the Unexpected. Roald Dahl couldn’t have done better himself! From there on in, the stories just seemed to get better, with ReGroup, The Girl Who Talked To Death and The Sea Part One and Two being particular highlights.
Sophie is a wonderfully descriptive writer. The subjects she chooses to shine a light on mix the mysterious with the mundane and reveal a lot about the human condition and the world we exist in. The book contains such moments of poignancy, I often had to pause to consider what I’d read or the effect it had on me emotionally. A special mention must be made for the Ira-Rebeca, the designer of the book’s fantastic cover. The imagery used is a perfect partner to the words inside.
I award this fascinating book 5 stars.
