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A Cathedral of Myth and Bone: Stories
From the acclaimed author of Roses and Rot— a “Brothers Grimm tale for the contemporary reader” (School Library Journal, starred review)—Kat Howard’s exquisite shorter works, nominated for the World Fantasy Award, and performed on WNYC's Selected Shorts.
Kat Howard has already been called a “remarkable writer” by Neil Gaiman and her “dark and enticing” (Publishers Weekly) debut novel, Roses and Rot, was beloved by critics and fans alike.
Now, you can experience her collected shorter works, including two new stories, in A Cathedral of Myth and Bone. In these stories, equally as beguiling and spellbinding as her novels, Howard expands into the enchanted territory of myths and saints, as well as an Arthurian novella set upon a college campus, “Once, Future,” which retells the story of King Arthur—through the women’s eyes.
Captivating and engrossing, and adorned in gorgeous prose, Kat Howard’s stories are a fresh and stylish take on fantasy. “Kat Howard seems to possess a magic of her own, of making characters come alive and scenery so vivid, you forget it exists only on the page” (Anton Bogomazov, Politics and Prose).
Kat Howard has already been called a “remarkable writer” by Neil Gaiman and her “dark and enticing” (Publishers Weekly) debut novel, Roses and Rot, was beloved by critics and fans alike.
Now, you can experience her collected shorter works, including two new stories, in A Cathedral of Myth and Bone. In these stories, equally as beguiling and spellbinding as her novels, Howard expands into the enchanted territory of myths and saints, as well as an Arthurian novella set upon a college campus, “Once, Future,” which retells the story of King Arthur—through the women’s eyes.
Captivating and engrossing, and adorned in gorgeous prose, Kat Howard’s stories are a fresh and stylish take on fantasy. “Kat Howard seems to possess a magic of her own, of making characters come alive and scenery so vivid, you forget it exists only on the page” (Anton Bogomazov, Politics and Prose).
369 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 8, 2019
83 people are currently reading
3724 people want to read
About the author
Kat Howard
115 books805 followersKat Howard is a writer of fantasy, science fiction, and horror who lives and writes in Minnesota.
Her novella, The End of the Sentence, co-written with Maria Dahvana Headley, was one of NPR's best books of 2014, and her debut novel, Roses and Rot was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best First Novel. An Unkindness of Magicians was named a best book of 2017 by NPR, and won a 2018 Alex Award. Her short fiction collection, A Cathedral of Myth and Bone, collects work that has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, performed as part of Selected Shorts, and anthologized in year’s best and best of volumes, as well as new pieces original to the collection. She was the writer for the first 18 issues of The Books of Magic, part of DC Comics' Sandman Universe. Her next novel, A Sleight of Shadows, the sequel to An Unkindness of Magicians, is coming April 25, 2023. In the past, she’s been a competitive fencer and a college professor.
You can find her @KatwithSword on Twitter and on Instagram. She talks about books at Epigraph to Epilogue.
Her novella, The End of the Sentence, co-written with Maria Dahvana Headley, was one of NPR's best books of 2014, and her debut novel, Roses and Rot was a finalist for the Locus Award for Best First Novel. An Unkindness of Magicians was named a best book of 2017 by NPR, and won a 2018 Alex Award. Her short fiction collection, A Cathedral of Myth and Bone, collects work that has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award, performed as part of Selected Shorts, and anthologized in year’s best and best of volumes, as well as new pieces original to the collection. She was the writer for the first 18 issues of The Books of Magic, part of DC Comics' Sandman Universe. Her next novel, A Sleight of Shadows, the sequel to An Unkindness of Magicians, is coming April 25, 2023. In the past, she’s been a competitive fencer and a college professor.
You can find her @KatwithSword on Twitter and on Instagram. She talks about books at Epigraph to Epilogue.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 166 reviews
February 1, 2022
I was so sure I was going to love this short story collection—modernized mythology is a conceit that excites me—but ultimately found it pretty one-note and heavy-handed. This is a YA collection in adult clothing, and I think it’s a shame that it wasn’t edited with a young adult audience in mind (characters are all adults but feel like teenagers, and a few passing references to sex are clearly made to age it up; it doesn’t work). Anyway, it leaves me in this awkward place where I don't like to criticize YA books for being YA (they just weren't written for me, and that is a-okay!), but this book was explicitly marketed as adult and I did go into it expecting that it had been written for me so here we are.
I pretty much knew I wasn't going to get on with this from the author's forward, which ends with the words: ‘Turn the page. I have miracles to offer you.’ If that isn't the most self-aggrandizing way to begin a book, I don't know what is. I was just at odds with Kat Howard's style prose style the whole time, with lines like that as well as 'There had been a woman, Madeleine, he thought her name was, who smelled of paper and stories.'
This whole collection can pretty much be summed up in this line, from the story The Green Knight's Wife (hey, I like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, maybe that story will finally be the one for me... never mind):
This collection is just a mindless chorus of similar female voices lamenting being overshadowed by men; a theme I can absolutely love when done well, but here it isn't executed with particular craft or purpose. I could pretty much hear Howard's internal monologue as she was writing: "What if The Green Knight... but feminist? What if Orpheus and Eurydice... but feminist? What if Macbeth (kind of)... but feminist?" Like... ok, great, good start—and then what? Feminism is just an idea, an ideology, not a fully-constructed narrative. Each story just felt like a rough sketch of something and each ended in an anticlimax.
Thankfully the story that I enjoyed the most was the longest one—the novella-length Once, Future, a meta retelling of Le Morte D’Arthur. I thought this one was fun, at least: I think Howard's strength is plot, which is why it was frustrating to see so little of it across these stories. I don't think she excels at theme, atmosphere, or descriptive writing, and that's pretty much all these stories purportedly have going for them.
This just wasn't at all what I expected it to be. It clearly works well for the right reader, so if it interests you at all I'd absolutely encourage you to read a sample and see what you make of the writing style, but I just didn't get on with it at all and I hope Marija forgives me.
I pretty much knew I wasn't going to get on with this from the author's forward, which ends with the words: ‘Turn the page. I have miracles to offer you.’ If that isn't the most self-aggrandizing way to begin a book, I don't know what is. I was just at odds with Kat Howard's style prose style the whole time, with lines like that as well as 'There had been a woman, Madeleine, he thought her name was, who smelled of paper and stories.'
This whole collection can pretty much be summed up in this line, from the story The Green Knight's Wife (hey, I like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, maybe that story will finally be the one for me... never mind):
He feels more comfortable in a place that is like him: forest, secret, overgrown.
No one ever asked me what my comforts were[...]
This collection is just a mindless chorus of similar female voices lamenting being overshadowed by men; a theme I can absolutely love when done well, but here it isn't executed with particular craft or purpose. I could pretty much hear Howard's internal monologue as she was writing: "What if The Green Knight... but feminist? What if Orpheus and Eurydice... but feminist? What if Macbeth (kind of)... but feminist?" Like... ok, great, good start—and then what? Feminism is just an idea, an ideology, not a fully-constructed narrative. Each story just felt like a rough sketch of something and each ended in an anticlimax.
Thankfully the story that I enjoyed the most was the longest one—the novella-length Once, Future, a meta retelling of Le Morte D’Arthur. I thought this one was fun, at least: I think Howard's strength is plot, which is why it was frustrating to see so little of it across these stories. I don't think she excels at theme, atmosphere, or descriptive writing, and that's pretty much all these stories purportedly have going for them.
This just wasn't at all what I expected it to be. It clearly works well for the right reader, so if it interests you at all I'd absolutely encourage you to read a sample and see what you make of the writing style, but I just didn't get on with it at all and I hope Marija forgives me.
May 14, 2020
This collection is incredible. Inspired by myth and fairytales and often focusing on women who redefine their tales, I haven’t read something this beautiful since Angela Carter’s collection THE BLOODY CHAMBER. It reminds me why I love short stories. Each one here was perfect; I never skipped any of them, and they were always a length that meant I stayed engaged.
The very final line - “The tree is split, and she stepping out of it” - is very clever, I feel. It summarises the whole collection. These stories are cracked open, and all these heroines are stepping out of the old restricting confines and into a new space.
Furthermore, for these lines in the intro I would give this collection 5 stars alone. It perfectly encapsulates why I love short fiction:
"I am drawn to short fiction because it distills the beauty and the darkness that are possible in fiction, and particularly in the fantastic. It allows stories to be more intense, more dreamlike, for me as a writer to hang a skin of myth on the skeleton of the strange."
*
Individual reviews of each story below:
> A Life in Fictions (5 stars)
A perfect start for this collection, setting the tone deftly. It was exactly the right length (not too short, not too long), and it reeled me in. I loved the narrative voice and the concept. A woman who is written into so many different stories that she starts to lose sense of what is hers and what is fictional? Yes.
> The Saint of the Sidewalks (4 stars)
A miracle turns a girl into a saint, but it’s not what she asked for. I really liked how this short story grappled with pressure and how fame can be claustrophobic.
> Maiden, Hunter, Beast (4 stars)
This one engages with unicorn mythology, and how they can be trapped if they lay their heads in the lap of a virgin lady-maiden. I loved the narrative voice once again, but the ending was a little too ambiguous for me - I think I understood but I’m not totally sure.
> Once, Future (4 stars)
This is the longest story in the collection, stretching over almost 100 pages. It’s broken into chapters and is an Arthurian retelling on a modern-day college campus. It follows, to my delight, Morgan le Fay! My fave.
> Translatio Corporis (4 stars)
A girl dreams up a city of beauty, but it slowly destroys herself in the process. It was sweet and I enjoyed the feature of Lena & Catherine’s friendship. There’s nothing overly special about it, but there is a strange and quiet loveliness.
> Dreaming Like a Ghost (4 stars)
Beautifully written, this one intersects ghost stories with wronged women and revenge. There’s not much to it but evocative nevertheless.
> Murdered Sleep (4.5 stars)
WOW, I totally misread this title as murdered SHEEP first ;-; no wonder I was confused. Regardless, a stunning story about a mystical party with influences from the wild hunt.
> The Speaking Bone (5 stars)
One of the shortest in the collection, this story follows an island scattered with bones, the three strange women who live there, and the pilgrims who come seeking answers.
> Those Are Pearls (4 stars)
Sisters and curses and the bad luck of broken mirrors. I did love how it mentioned the common curse for girls was silence, and boys monstrousness; there’s certainly commentary in there.
>All of Our Past Places (4 stars)
A girl obsessed with maps disappears through one, and her best friend must create a new map in the hope of bringing her back.
> Saints' Tide (5 stars)
The worldbuilding for this one enchanted me. I would love a full novel based around the Saints of the sea and the Sisters of Glass and Tide. Really beautiful.
>Painted Birds and Shivered Bones (4.5 stars)
An artist in New York sees a bird turn into a man and paints him into his art, pulling him - and his curse - into her atmosphere. Strange and beautifully done, and I enjoyed the depiction of Maeve’s anxiety.
> Returned (5 stars)
This story is very clearly about domestic abuse; a woman is pulled back from the dead by the boyfriend who killed her, and everyone praises him for performing such a miracle. I loved the dark ending.
> The Calendar of Saints (4.2 stars)
I’ve come to the realisation that I am obsessed with sainthood and how people become Saints. Which is great because that’s what this short story is about. It also has serious flavours of Julie d’Aubigny. Which is excellent.
> The Green Knight's Wife (4 stars)
I actually don’t know a lot about the story of the Green Knight besides what came up in the earlier story ‘Once & Future’. This one is liminal, blending Arthurian tradition with modern entertainment, and an ending I didn’t expect.
> Breaking the Frame (5 stars)
This story is an excellent end. A model reinterprets fairytales by giving power to the women, similar to the way this book has done. It’s gorgeous.
The very final line - “The tree is split, and she stepping out of it” - is very clever, I feel. It summarises the whole collection. These stories are cracked open, and all these heroines are stepping out of the old restricting confines and into a new space.
Furthermore, for these lines in the intro I would give this collection 5 stars alone. It perfectly encapsulates why I love short fiction:
"I am drawn to short fiction because it distills the beauty and the darkness that are possible in fiction, and particularly in the fantastic. It allows stories to be more intense, more dreamlike, for me as a writer to hang a skin of myth on the skeleton of the strange."
*
Individual reviews of each story below:
> A Life in Fictions (5 stars)
A perfect start for this collection, setting the tone deftly. It was exactly the right length (not too short, not too long), and it reeled me in. I loved the narrative voice and the concept. A woman who is written into so many different stories that she starts to lose sense of what is hers and what is fictional? Yes.
> The Saint of the Sidewalks (4 stars)
A miracle turns a girl into a saint, but it’s not what she asked for. I really liked how this short story grappled with pressure and how fame can be claustrophobic.
> Maiden, Hunter, Beast (4 stars)
This one engages with unicorn mythology, and how they can be trapped if they lay their heads in the lap of a virgin lady-maiden. I loved the narrative voice once again, but the ending was a little too ambiguous for me - I think I understood but I’m not totally sure.
> Once, Future (4 stars)
This is the longest story in the collection, stretching over almost 100 pages. It’s broken into chapters and is an Arthurian retelling on a modern-day college campus. It follows, to my delight, Morgan le Fay! My fave.
> Translatio Corporis (4 stars)
A girl dreams up a city of beauty, but it slowly destroys herself in the process. It was sweet and I enjoyed the feature of Lena & Catherine’s friendship. There’s nothing overly special about it, but there is a strange and quiet loveliness.
> Dreaming Like a Ghost (4 stars)
Beautifully written, this one intersects ghost stories with wronged women and revenge. There’s not much to it but evocative nevertheless.
> Murdered Sleep (4.5 stars)
WOW, I totally misread this title as murdered SHEEP first ;-; no wonder I was confused. Regardless, a stunning story about a mystical party with influences from the wild hunt.
> The Speaking Bone (5 stars)
One of the shortest in the collection, this story follows an island scattered with bones, the three strange women who live there, and the pilgrims who come seeking answers.
> Those Are Pearls (4 stars)
Sisters and curses and the bad luck of broken mirrors. I did love how it mentioned the common curse for girls was silence, and boys monstrousness; there’s certainly commentary in there.
>All of Our Past Places (4 stars)
A girl obsessed with maps disappears through one, and her best friend must create a new map in the hope of bringing her back.
> Saints' Tide (5 stars)
The worldbuilding for this one enchanted me. I would love a full novel based around the Saints of the sea and the Sisters of Glass and Tide. Really beautiful.
>Painted Birds and Shivered Bones (4.5 stars)
An artist in New York sees a bird turn into a man and paints him into his art, pulling him - and his curse - into her atmosphere. Strange and beautifully done, and I enjoyed the depiction of Maeve’s anxiety.
> Returned (5 stars)
This story is very clearly about domestic abuse; a woman is pulled back from the dead by the boyfriend who killed her, and everyone praises him for performing such a miracle. I loved the dark ending.
> The Calendar of Saints (4.2 stars)
I’ve come to the realisation that I am obsessed with sainthood and how people become Saints. Which is great because that’s what this short story is about. It also has serious flavours of Julie d’Aubigny. Which is excellent.
> The Green Knight's Wife (4 stars)
I actually don’t know a lot about the story of the Green Knight besides what came up in the earlier story ‘Once & Future’. This one is liminal, blending Arthurian tradition with modern entertainment, and an ending I didn’t expect.
> Breaking the Frame (5 stars)
This story is an excellent end. A model reinterprets fairytales by giving power to the women, similar to the way this book has done. It’s gorgeous.
June 19, 2019
4.5 STARS
This quickly became one of my favorite short story collections with it's dark atmosphere and poetic nature. I loved the dark and modern twists on stories we've seen before in history and fairytales. I was in awe of Kat Howard's writing style and she has quickly become one of my favorites.
This quickly became one of my favorite short story collections with it's dark atmosphere and poetic nature. I loved the dark and modern twists on stories we've seen before in history and fairytales. I was in awe of Kat Howard's writing style and she has quickly become one of my favorites.
January 8, 2019
More reviews up on my blog Inside My Library Mind
As a Whole...
All of these stories revolve around myths and legends and thus have a common theme of storytelling interwoven throughout all of them. Every story is set in our world, but not quite. It’s our world but deconstructed and mixed with symbols and aspects of different stories.
There’s also a common theme of a story being retold through time – always being the same, but also always changing and evolving and I loved that. All of these stories have women in the center and all of them involve women losing and reclaiming agency in some form or the other. And this is sort of a linear trend – the first couple of stories women lose themselves and their narrative, and as the collection progresses forward, we see them reclaiming their place. It’s incredibly clever and incredibly well done. I was in awe with some of the stuff that Kat Howard managed to pull in these stories and I was so impressed by her craft and the way she constructs these narratives.
On top of all that there’s also a sense of grandeur and urgency in these stories. They feel epic and otherworldly, but also really well grounded in our world and they have meaning that surpasses the stories themselves. I just cannot praise the subtlety of the storytelling in A Cathedral of Myth and Bones. Moreover, there isn’t a single “bad” story in here. None of them felt like fillers. Sure, I did like some less and some more, but there wasn’t a single one I did not like, which is saying a lot.
Some Highlights
A Life in Fictions – 5 stars
A girl keeps getting written into stories by her ex-boyfriend – but she lives in them and starts losing herself and her real life for the stories.
It’s scary and also captivating at the same time. Loved this one and it’s a great opener for the collection because it really sets the tone and highlights the central themes of the collection.
The Saint of the Sidewalks – 4.5 stars
A girl, desperate for help, prays to the saint of the sidewalks, only to be made into a saint herself.
A really intriguing concept that manages to explore being put to a really high standard, having power you did not want and not knowing how to really use it. It’s such a great and clever story.
Once, Future – 5 stars
A retelling of the King Arthur legend, where students take on the roles of people from the myth, only for real life to start mirroring the story and vice versa.
This is my absolute favorite story in the collection and I think the main one that inspires and grounds all others. It’s unbelievably smart and unique, and goes above and beyond the myth itself and manages to deconstruct it in really clever ways. It’s a fantastic exploration of human nature, the way we experience stories and how they manage to track and follow us through time. And I would easily read a whole book based on this story.
Those are Pearls – 4.5 stars
A story which is based on the fact that everyone carries their own curse and what happens when those curses are broken.
This one is gorgeously written and is so clever in dissecting what a curse can mean for someone and also tackles gender norms in a really interesting way. Really enjoyed this one.
Returned – 4.5 stars
A woman gets unwillingly brought back to life by her lover, and her memories of how she died are hazy.
Again, a super smart story that puts women and violence in the center and gives said woman her agency back. I really adored this one and I love that this is a running theme of the collection.
The Calendar of Saints – 5 stars
A story that revolves around a sword-for-hire that settles disputes between people with her sword in duels.
I think this would make a great full length novel, and it’s my second favorite story in the collection. It does some really interesting things with saints and sainthood again, but also tackles subjects of science and religion and it’s beyond amazing. Truly.
Breaking the Frame – 5 stars
A woman becomes a model for a photographer in his fairy tale shoots, only to start changing the stories.
Again a really interesting way to handle women reclaiming agency and the way we can change the existing narratives. It’s a fantastic end to a fantastic collection.
Quotes
And just because I cannot highlight how brilliant this is, here are some quotes:
To Sum Up
I cannot recommend this more. It speaks volumes that I loved so many stories in this one and that I haven’t shut up about this collection. Please get it as soon as it hits shelves in January. You won’t regret it!
“The story knows the way of its telling.”
As a Whole...
All of these stories revolve around myths and legends and thus have a common theme of storytelling interwoven throughout all of them. Every story is set in our world, but not quite. It’s our world but deconstructed and mixed with symbols and aspects of different stories.
There’s also a common theme of a story being retold through time – always being the same, but also always changing and evolving and I loved that. All of these stories have women in the center and all of them involve women losing and reclaiming agency in some form or the other. And this is sort of a linear trend – the first couple of stories women lose themselves and their narrative, and as the collection progresses forward, we see them reclaiming their place. It’s incredibly clever and incredibly well done. I was in awe with some of the stuff that Kat Howard managed to pull in these stories and I was so impressed by her craft and the way she constructs these narratives.
On top of all that there’s also a sense of grandeur and urgency in these stories. They feel epic and otherworldly, but also really well grounded in our world and they have meaning that surpasses the stories themselves. I just cannot praise the subtlety of the storytelling in A Cathedral of Myth and Bones. Moreover, there isn’t a single “bad” story in here. None of them felt like fillers. Sure, I did like some less and some more, but there wasn’t a single one I did not like, which is saying a lot.
Some Highlights
A Life in Fictions – 5 stars
A girl keeps getting written into stories by her ex-boyfriend – but she lives in them and starts losing herself and her real life for the stories.
It’s scary and also captivating at the same time. Loved this one and it’s a great opener for the collection because it really sets the tone and highlights the central themes of the collection.
The Saint of the Sidewalks – 4.5 stars
A girl, desperate for help, prays to the saint of the sidewalks, only to be made into a saint herself.
A really intriguing concept that manages to explore being put to a really high standard, having power you did not want and not knowing how to really use it. It’s such a great and clever story.
Once, Future – 5 stars
A retelling of the King Arthur legend, where students take on the roles of people from the myth, only for real life to start mirroring the story and vice versa.
This is my absolute favorite story in the collection and I think the main one that inspires and grounds all others. It’s unbelievably smart and unique, and goes above and beyond the myth itself and manages to deconstruct it in really clever ways. It’s a fantastic exploration of human nature, the way we experience stories and how they manage to track and follow us through time. And I would easily read a whole book based on this story.
Those are Pearls – 4.5 stars
A story which is based on the fact that everyone carries their own curse and what happens when those curses are broken.
This one is gorgeously written and is so clever in dissecting what a curse can mean for someone and also tackles gender norms in a really interesting way. Really enjoyed this one.
Returned – 4.5 stars
A woman gets unwillingly brought back to life by her lover, and her memories of how she died are hazy.
Again, a super smart story that puts women and violence in the center and gives said woman her agency back. I really adored this one and I love that this is a running theme of the collection.
The Calendar of Saints – 5 stars
A story that revolves around a sword-for-hire that settles disputes between people with her sword in duels.
I think this would make a great full length novel, and it’s my second favorite story in the collection. It does some really interesting things with saints and sainthood again, but also tackles subjects of science and religion and it’s beyond amazing. Truly.
Breaking the Frame – 5 stars
A woman becomes a model for a photographer in his fairy tale shoots, only to start changing the stories.
Again a really interesting way to handle women reclaiming agency and the way we can change the existing narratives. It’s a fantastic end to a fantastic collection.
Quotes
And just because I cannot highlight how brilliant this is, here are some quotes:
“That was how saints were made. Some piece of strangeness happened, and it hooked itself in the heart of someone who saw it and called it a miracle.”
“Sleep is dying, and has been for a long time now, through uncounted ticks of clocks and the flickers of thousands of too-brief candles. Sleep is dying, a slow exsanguination of dreams, a storm-tossed suffocation of nightmares. Sleep is dying and she is not alone in her throes.”
“We don’t talk about how the curses happen. We grow up knowing that certain curses run in families, that boys get cursed into monstrosity and girls into sleep, and we leave it at that.”
To Sum Up
I cannot recommend this more. It speaks volumes that I loved so many stories in this one and that I haven’t shut up about this collection. Please get it as soon as it hits shelves in January. You won’t regret it!
January 12, 2020
My first book of the year a five star? Love that for me.
October 17, 2019
Turn the page. I have miracles to offer you.I don't often say this, but... you can probably skip the Introduction of A Cathedral of Myth and Bone, at least if you find that concluding sentence as pretentious as I did.
—Introduction, p.xi
However, the stories are a different matter—the 16 tales collected in Kat Howard's A Cathedral of Myth and Bone are diverse, deliciously off-kilter and delightfully written, whether she's reimagining Camelot on a college campus (in the novella "Once, Future") or picturing the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice from Eurydice's point of view (in "Returned").
She said yes. Of course she said yes. There are no stories when people say no.
—"Breaking the Frame," p.342
A Cathedral of Myth and Bone is bookended by very different tales of women who have to contend with being some male artist's muse. In "A Life in Fictions," that muse finds her ex-boyfriend's stories literally overwriting her life—like the film Stranger than Fiction, but the intimacy and reversal of rôles adds a level of vertiginous dread to the mix. "Breaking the Frame," that final story, uses the form of a gallery catalog to scrutinize the synergy between a photographer and his favorite model, flipping the script in a most satisfying conclusion.
And, in between, unflinching beauty. I found it hard to forget "The Saint of the Sidewalks," for example, an urban fantasy which gets right down into the grit to pull out a wholly unexpected—and unwanted—benediction.
Saints show up often, and powerfully, in Howard's titles—there's also "Saints' Tide," with its admixture of Lovecraftian imagery and religious iconography, and "The Calendar of Saints," from an alternative universe where the saints in question include Hildegard von Bingen, and their defenders fence with swords rather than words.
Sweeney closed his eyes. "This is just another kind of flight."
—"Painted Birds and Shivered Bones," p.306
Kat Howard writes complex and allusive tales that, without exception, hang together beautifully—each one remains internally consistent, however different it is from its neighbors, however far its premises diverge from consensus reality. That's no common feat.
So... who knows? Maybe these are miracles she's offering, after all....
February 24, 2019
Be skeptical when a writer writers her own introduction to her short stories, especially when she uses the word "hagiography" in it and its last sentences are "Turn the page. I have miracles to offer you." I was skeptical, and for good reason. I was really shocked at the praises sung of this pretentious metafictive collection of short stories that explore faith and myth. I was alternately bored and annoyed with all of them. I'll just mention the opening story as an example. In "A Life in Fictions," an unnamed woman (literally) disappears into the fictional stories of her boyfriend. She laments, "the more I lived in his writing, the less I lived in the real world." She loses time; she forgets details about herself. Eventually, she is trapped inside one story for a long time while he experiences "writer's block." Annoyed, she breaks up with him. He becomes famous. She misses the attention. She agrees to be written about again but gives him one condition: "I wanted him to leave me in the story when he was finished." She never learns her name. That's it. That's all of it. This book is full of stories like this--pretending to be profound, but very obvious and heavy-handed. Pass on this one!
February 21, 2025
I love this book. Every single one of the stories within this collection pulls you in and doesn't let go. The stories leave you wanting more but I also think some of their power lies in the format. When I try to pick out my favorites I end up just naming almost all of them. It is a collection I find myself revisiting time and time again.
EDIT: if i had to choose my favorites they would probably be The Saint of the Sidewalks, Translatio Corporis, Murdered Sleep, and Once, Future (of course)
2025 reread - still one of the best fantasy collections I've ever read.
EDIT: if i had to choose my favorites they would probably be The Saint of the Sidewalks, Translatio Corporis, Murdered Sleep, and Once, Future (of course)
2025 reread - still one of the best fantasy collections I've ever read.
February 27, 2020
This was actually pretty close to 5 stars for me, but not quite. All of my top favorites are actually available to read online, so I recommend:
"The Saint of the Sidewalks": http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/howar...
"Translatio Corporis": https://uncannymagazine.com/article/t...
"All of Our Past Places": http://www.unlikely-story.com/stories...
"Painted Birds and Shivered Bones": https://subterraneanpress.com/magazin...
"The Saint of the Sidewalks": http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/howar...
"Translatio Corporis": https://uncannymagazine.com/article/t...
"All of Our Past Places": http://www.unlikely-story.com/stories...
"Painted Birds and Shivered Bones": https://subterraneanpress.com/magazin...
March 31, 2020
“The tree is split, and she is stepping out of it”
A Cathedral of Myth and Bone is a collection of short stories that deal with faith and spirituality, myth and legend and women reclaiming agency or carving their own path. Most of these are quite short (besides Once, Future and Painted Birds and Shivered Stones, respectively 100+ and 30~ pages), but they come together coherently to highlight a strong theme, as we see women redefine the same tales they have been trapped by before. In the first story a woman loses herself in someone’s else tale. In the last story a woman redefines the tales that “trapped” women for centuries. The recurrent themes (re-imagined myths and legends, sainthood, faith, magic) and the unique spin on some of them make for a quite interesting read. Some stories stand out more than others, and some were frankly too short for my taste or just a bit too disjointed, but overall A Cathedral of Myth and Bone is a solid effort.
A life in fictions: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Saint of the Sidewalks: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Maiden, Hunter, Beast: ⭐️⭐️
Once, Future: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Translatio Corporis: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dreaming like a Ghost: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Murdered sleep: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Speaking Bone: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Those Are Pearls: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
All of our past places: ⭐️⭐️
Saints’ Tide: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Painted Birds and Shivered Stones: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Returned: ⭐️⭐️.5
The Calendar of Saints: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The Green Knight’s Wife: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Breaking the Frame: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Average rating: 3,6 but gladly rounded up to 4.
A Cathedral of Myth and Bone is a collection of short stories that deal with faith and spirituality, myth and legend and women reclaiming agency or carving their own path. Most of these are quite short (besides Once, Future and Painted Birds and Shivered Stones, respectively 100+ and 30~ pages), but they come together coherently to highlight a strong theme, as we see women redefine the same tales they have been trapped by before. In the first story a woman loses herself in someone’s else tale. In the last story a woman redefines the tales that “trapped” women for centuries. The recurrent themes (re-imagined myths and legends, sainthood, faith, magic) and the unique spin on some of them make for a quite interesting read. Some stories stand out more than others, and some were frankly too short for my taste or just a bit too disjointed, but overall A Cathedral of Myth and Bone is a solid effort.
A life in fictions: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Saint of the Sidewalks: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Maiden, Hunter, Beast: ⭐️⭐️
Once, Future: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Translatio Corporis: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dreaming like a Ghost: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Murdered sleep: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Speaking Bone: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Those Are Pearls: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
All of our past places: ⭐️⭐️
Saints’ Tide: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Painted Birds and Shivered Stones: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Returned: ⭐️⭐️.5
The Calendar of Saints: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
The Green Knight’s Wife: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Breaking the Frame: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Average rating: 3,6 but gladly rounded up to 4.
February 21, 2019
I love Kat Howard's short stories, so of course I also love this collection. I'd read many of the stories before, but a stand out new one for me was Once, Future, and Authurian retelling set on a modern college campus. It's so excellent. And then a favorite of mine that I'd already read is The Saint of the Sidewalks. I actually enjoyed it even more this time than the first.
Kat Howard's stories are steeped in Catholicism, fairy tales, and female empowerment. You can tell she treats each story with such care.
Kat Howard's stories are steeped in Catholicism, fairy tales, and female empowerment. You can tell she treats each story with such care.
January 15, 2019
Kat Howard has constantly shown that she can ground fantastical elements in contemporary storytelling. This, along with wonderful prose and sharp characterization, is why her novels ROSES AND ROT and AN UNKINDNESS OF MAGICIANS work so well -- they blend those elements together without ever collapsing under the weight of either side. A CATHEDRAL OF MYTH AND BONE is a collection of stories -- myth retellings, essentially -- that follow suit. Most of these were previously published, but the biggest star here is Once, Future, a novella length (about 115 pages) story that not only brings the Arthur myth into the modern age, it also turns it on its side and weaves a jumping mythological timeline into the tale. It's clever and funny and intense and meta -- but meta in an "oh that's cool" way, not a "look at me" way. Though that only takes up about 1/3 of the entire book, the novella is worth the price of admission; the fact that the rest of the stories are great is a wonderful bonus.
April 28, 2025
I’ve had this book for 4 years, forgotten on a bookshelf, until I moved recently and purged half my books. I read An Unkindness of Magicians in 2021 and loved it, so you’d think I would’ve prioritized reading this one. In a way I’m glad I waited, because I was really in the mood for a short story collection and this one hit the spot.
I rated each story as I read it, but know that after a banger first story, I just rated each one after that against the first one instead of as a story on its own. Otherwise they all would’ve been rated highly and had no distinction. Also, usually with collections like this I’d say something about each story, why I liked it or a general short summary. I didn’t do that this time because I’ve been really sick and didn’t feel like it. I wrote a word or sentence here and there to remind me of what each story was about or how I felt.
1. A Life in Fictions: 5 stars. Like Inkheart (the movie, I never read the book).
2. The Saint of the Sidewalks: 4.5 stars.
3. Maiden, Hunter, Beast: 3 stars. Unicorn.
4. Once Future: 4 stars. King Arthur pattern. Long.
5. Translatio Corporis: 3.5 stars. Her city. I liked the ending, but not the journey to get there.
6. Dreaming Like a Ghost: 3.5 stars. Men and ghosts. (Actually, it’s been a day since I read this story and I think about it more than I thought I would. Upping my rating to 4 stars.)
7. Murdered Sleep: 3 stars. Not sure I got what I was meant to, but it was beautiful imagery.
8. The Speaking Bone: 3 stars. Again, beautiful imagery, but not my favorite story.
9. Those Are Pearls: 4 stars. Curses.
10. All of Our Past Places: 5 stars. Maps and friendship 😢
11. Saints’ Tide: 4.5 stars. Glass.
12. Painted Birds and Shivered Bones: 3.5 stars. I liked the first half more than the second half. The second longest story in the collection.
13. Returned: 5 stars. Maybe an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling.
14. The Calendar of Saints: 3.5 stars. Swords. This was a three star until the very end.
15. The Green Knight’s Wife: 4 stars. I initially wanted to rate this lower but I stopped to think about it in the context of the original, and changed my mind.
16. Breaking the Frame: 3 stars. “She said yes. Of course she said yes. There are no stories when people say no.”
I rated each story as I read it, but know that after a banger first story, I just rated each one after that against the first one instead of as a story on its own. Otherwise they all would’ve been rated highly and had no distinction. Also, usually with collections like this I’d say something about each story, why I liked it or a general short summary. I didn’t do that this time because I’ve been really sick and didn’t feel like it. I wrote a word or sentence here and there to remind me of what each story was about or how I felt.
1. A Life in Fictions: 5 stars. Like Inkheart (the movie, I never read the book).
2. The Saint of the Sidewalks: 4.5 stars.
3. Maiden, Hunter, Beast: 3 stars. Unicorn.
4. Once Future: 4 stars. King Arthur pattern. Long.
5. Translatio Corporis: 3.5 stars. Her city. I liked the ending, but not the journey to get there.
6. Dreaming Like a Ghost: 3.5 stars. Men and ghosts. (Actually, it’s been a day since I read this story and I think about it more than I thought I would. Upping my rating to 4 stars.)
7. Murdered Sleep: 3 stars. Not sure I got what I was meant to, but it was beautiful imagery.
8. The Speaking Bone: 3 stars. Again, beautiful imagery, but not my favorite story.
9. Those Are Pearls: 4 stars. Curses.
10. All of Our Past Places: 5 stars. Maps and friendship 😢
11. Saints’ Tide: 4.5 stars. Glass.
12. Painted Birds and Shivered Bones: 3.5 stars. I liked the first half more than the second half. The second longest story in the collection.
13. Returned: 5 stars. Maybe an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling.
14. The Calendar of Saints: 3.5 stars. Swords. This was a three star until the very end.
15. The Green Knight’s Wife: 4 stars. I initially wanted to rate this lower but I stopped to think about it in the context of the original, and changed my mind.
16. Breaking the Frame: 3 stars. “She said yes. Of course she said yes. There are no stories when people say no.”
November 22, 2021
a great collection ! lots of common themes; the author is def very concerned with and focused on mythology and retelling in the act of storytelling and furthering of narratives, enjoys playing with Arthurian legend, and explores the role women play in literature and life. Lots of stuff about creating and being art and what that means for women and mythological and religious and magical creatures. Reminds me of the lauded collection her body and other parties by machado except a little more juvenile, more elements of meta narrative and thematic consistency throughout the stories, less queer, more focused on specific topics throughout all the stories, but equally as dark, fierce, and feminist! I thought the stories towards the beginning and end were stronger than the ones in the middle but I enjoyed this all in all
October 11, 2019
I'm not generally a fan of fairy tales and their retellings. However, Howard's prose is alluring, enchanting, sometimes harsh. There were times I would pause on a particular image or phrase or line of dialogue and just let it sink in and dissolve. Each of these stories is its own tale of reclamation, of freedom, of magic - but they weave together so brilliantly, twisting each individual narrative into a gleaming whole that leaves you immediately wanting whatever is next. Some of these are a little weird, some rather abrupt to the point of feeling almost unfinished, and some are very distant from the characters and situations that should draw you in. But if you love fairy tales or myths or (urban) fantasy or feminist writing or simply beautiful prose, I highly recommend this one!
May 21, 2019
I loved the breadth of short stories in this collection, but I think my favorite has to be the Arthurian cycle. Kat Howard has an incredibly clever mind, and I'm glad we got to see her flex her skills in these stories.
December 29, 2019
An interesting collection of stories featuring twisted fairytales and the agency women have in their own lives. I would love to read more of Kat Howard in the future!
December 13, 2020
sapphic arthuriana, godbless,
Rep: wlw characters, nonbinary side characters
Rep: wlw characters, nonbinary side characters
December 14, 2019
This is an excellent collection of dark fantasy. If you want a sample of what this collection has in store for you, two of these stories are available for free over at PodCastle.
http://podcastle.org/2016/04/05/podca...
http://podcastle.org/2013/11/15/podca...
A number of these stories wrestle with faith and spirituality in a manner that feels honest and exploratory, which is a refreshing change from the didacticism we regularly experience with these journeys. I particularly enjoyed “The Calendar of Saints” and its delightfully ambiguous story in which neither the church nor science is presented in black or white hats.
“Dreaming Like a Ghost” is a brutal exploration of the grief of infidelity. “The Green Knight's Wife” explores the injustices of this classic tale with new Sir Gawains. “Breaking the Frame” is a nice postmodern story about engaging tropes and traditions and telling your own story. It is the perfect closer for this collection. If there is any story that embodies the spirit of this collection, “Breaking the Frame” is the one I would point to.
http://podcastle.org/2016/04/05/podca...
http://podcastle.org/2013/11/15/podca...
A number of these stories wrestle with faith and spirituality in a manner that feels honest and exploratory, which is a refreshing change from the didacticism we regularly experience with these journeys. I particularly enjoyed “The Calendar of Saints” and its delightfully ambiguous story in which neither the church nor science is presented in black or white hats.
“Dreaming Like a Ghost” is a brutal exploration of the grief of infidelity. “The Green Knight's Wife” explores the injustices of this classic tale with new Sir Gawains. “Breaking the Frame” is a nice postmodern story about engaging tropes and traditions and telling your own story. It is the perfect closer for this collection. If there is any story that embodies the spirit of this collection, “Breaking the Frame” is the one I would point to.
August 7, 2019
Short story collections are tricky. These are all written beautifully--Kat Howard's prose is gripping and evocative. She's great at setting a mood and a tone in her novels, and that didn't change here. The quality of her writing kept me reading to the end of the book. Unfortunately, this collection just didn't do it for me. Either the stories ended too abruptly, or there wasn't enough substance for me to sink my teeth into.
January 3, 2021
En del böcker är det nått speciellt med. Det här var en sådan bok. Om det var det poetiska sättet den var skriven, hur lätt man föll in i berättelse efter berättelse, hur vissa historier slog ann ackord i mig som jag inte hört tidigare eller det att den passade så himla bra till hösten vet jag inte. Men nått var det.
June 28, 2019
I read this because Neil Gaiman complimented the author and he was deeply correct about her. These were stories of women and magic, sometimes with weird religious stuff thrown in that I also liked. I’d read her work again.
July 10, 2021
what if feminism... but with grimdark fairy tales... and let's steal some catholic imagery and do some casual vivid reimagining of the church, they won't care right?
really did love a couple of the stories, but the heavy-handedness of the rest of them got to me
really did love a couple of the stories, but the heavy-handedness of the rest of them got to me
July 18, 2022
Kat Howard is becoming one of my favorite authors. This collection of short stories really made me think—my favorite being “Once, Future” (one of my favorite short stories I have ever read)
December 9, 2020
From the Introduction: (unnumbered)
"Writing, for me, is an act of faith. When I sit down to write, I have to believe in what I am writing. Any hesitation, any loss of faith, and the story breaks down, falls apart. I have words scribbled on pages - maybe even beautiful words - but without belief, they're not a story. And the faith doesn't end there. I have to believe that the story will find an audience. That somewhere out in the world, there is a reader who will also believe in that story, and in that act of belief is where the miracle occurs: the story becomes real."
I bought Kat Howard's book Roses and Rot (my review) on a whim, because of the cover quote from Neil Gaiman, who is an author I love. I also really enjoyed her An Unkindness of Magicians (my review) too.
With this collection, Howard has officially become an Author I Love 💕
One of the best single-author short story anthologies I've ever come across, an absolute delight to read! I couldn't put this book down and devoured it in a single day, despite deliberately trying to slow down and savour the stories!.
Her work is creative and clever, obviously rooted in an academic view of fairy tales, mythology and religious history (or, as she calls it, "hagiography", or interest in the lives of saints) and yet they aren't dismissive of the wonder and belief in the numinous as so many feminist retellings are.
There is not a weak story in this collection. All the stories (16 total, 14 reprints and 2 original) were either 5 ⭐ (11) or 4⭐ (5) reads for me, which is extremely rare. Generally the 4⭐ stories felt a little unfinished and I wished that they were more developed.
Kat Howard has an amazing eye for imagery and a knack for urban fantasy.
Stories I will gladly re-read in the future, and a book to treasure! Highly recommended.
Spoiler-free story descriptions:
1. "A Life in Fictions" (read previously in Stories: All-New Tales) 5⭐
A muse disappears into her lover's writings.
2. "The Saint of the Sidewalks" 5⭐
A miracle with unexpected consequences.
3. "Maiden, Hunter, Beast" 4⭐
An old hunt plays out, the pattern of a tale.
4. "Once, Future" Novella 5⭐
Excellent! A graduate class in Arthurian legend gets caught up in the story's cycle.
5. Translatio Corporis (italics original) 5⭐
A girl loses pieces of herself to a growing city otherwhere.
6. "Dreaming Like a Ghost" 4⭐
Spooky tale of vengeance.
7. "Murdered Sleep" 5⭐
A dream-like endless masquerade, and a memorable octopus!
8. "The Speaking Bone" 4⭐
A bone island of strange rituals.
9. "Those Are Pearls" 4⭐
Two sisters try to break their fairy tale curses.
10. "All of Our Past Places" 5⭐
A girl makes an imaginary map to bring her lost best friend home.
11. "Saints' Tide" 5⭐
Beautiful and melancholic. An seaside community worships saints transformed by the tide into otherworldly beings. When a non-believer's niece needs a miracle, she unexpectedly receives one. Gorgeous imagery, especially the glass saints of fused sand, with pearls for eyes.
12. "Painted Birds and Shivered Bones" 5⭐
A bittersweet and lovely romance. A man cursed into a white bird for over 1000 years finds a young female painter in New York who may free him. Subtle and convincing portrayal of social anxiety. Would be a wonderful basis for an urban fantasy book!
13. "Returned" 5⭐
Dark retelling of the myth of Orpheus & Eurydice. When a man journeys into the underworld to retrieve his lover, no one asks her if she wants to leave.
14. "The Calendar of Saints" 4⭐
A duelist defends against heresy.
15. "The Green Knight's Wife" 5⭐ (Re-read, bonus for An Unkindness of Magicians)
Striking and fierce retelling featuring the Arthurian character.
15. "Breaking the Frame" 5⭐
"The thing about changing into someone else, inhabiting their life, even if only briefly, is that each time it takes a heartbeat longer to remember who you were. One more breath before your soul returns to yourself. You are never quite the person you were before. Perhaps not pearl-eyed, but sea-changed. Something strange." (344)
A photographer's muse finds new feminist interpretations of old myths and fairy tales in her transformations for his camera, until she learns to wield her own. Powerful.
"Writing, for me, is an act of faith. When I sit down to write, I have to believe in what I am writing. Any hesitation, any loss of faith, and the story breaks down, falls apart. I have words scribbled on pages - maybe even beautiful words - but without belief, they're not a story. And the faith doesn't end there. I have to believe that the story will find an audience. That somewhere out in the world, there is a reader who will also believe in that story, and in that act of belief is where the miracle occurs: the story becomes real."
I bought Kat Howard's book Roses and Rot (my review) on a whim, because of the cover quote from Neil Gaiman, who is an author I love. I also really enjoyed her An Unkindness of Magicians (my review) too.
With this collection, Howard has officially become an Author I Love 💕
One of the best single-author short story anthologies I've ever come across, an absolute delight to read! I couldn't put this book down and devoured it in a single day, despite deliberately trying to slow down and savour the stories!.
Her work is creative and clever, obviously rooted in an academic view of fairy tales, mythology and religious history (or, as she calls it, "hagiography", or interest in the lives of saints) and yet they aren't dismissive of the wonder and belief in the numinous as so many feminist retellings are.
There is not a weak story in this collection. All the stories (16 total, 14 reprints and 2 original) were either 5 ⭐ (11) or 4⭐ (5) reads for me, which is extremely rare. Generally the 4⭐ stories felt a little unfinished and I wished that they were more developed.
Kat Howard has an amazing eye for imagery and a knack for urban fantasy.
Stories I will gladly re-read in the future, and a book to treasure! Highly recommended.
Spoiler-free story descriptions:
1. "A Life in Fictions" (read previously in Stories: All-New Tales) 5⭐
A muse disappears into her lover's writings.
2. "The Saint of the Sidewalks" 5⭐
A miracle with unexpected consequences.
3. "Maiden, Hunter, Beast" 4⭐
An old hunt plays out, the pattern of a tale.
4. "Once, Future" Novella 5⭐
Excellent! A graduate class in Arthurian legend gets caught up in the story's cycle.
5. Translatio Corporis (italics original) 5⭐
A girl loses pieces of herself to a growing city otherwhere.
6. "Dreaming Like a Ghost" 4⭐
Spooky tale of vengeance.
7. "Murdered Sleep" 5⭐
A dream-like endless masquerade, and a memorable octopus!
8. "The Speaking Bone" 4⭐
A bone island of strange rituals.
9. "Those Are Pearls" 4⭐
Two sisters try to break their fairy tale curses.
10. "All of Our Past Places" 5⭐
A girl makes an imaginary map to bring her lost best friend home.
11. "Saints' Tide" 5⭐
Beautiful and melancholic. An seaside community worships saints transformed by the tide into otherworldly beings. When a non-believer's niece needs a miracle, she unexpectedly receives one. Gorgeous imagery, especially the glass saints of fused sand, with pearls for eyes.
12. "Painted Birds and Shivered Bones" 5⭐
A bittersweet and lovely romance. A man cursed into a white bird for over 1000 years finds a young female painter in New York who may free him. Subtle and convincing portrayal of social anxiety. Would be a wonderful basis for an urban fantasy book!
13. "Returned" 5⭐
Dark retelling of the myth of Orpheus & Eurydice. When a man journeys into the underworld to retrieve his lover, no one asks her if she wants to leave.
14. "The Calendar of Saints" 4⭐
A duelist defends against heresy.
15. "The Green Knight's Wife" 5⭐ (Re-read, bonus for An Unkindness of Magicians)
Striking and fierce retelling featuring the Arthurian character.
15. "Breaking the Frame" 5⭐
"The thing about changing into someone else, inhabiting their life, even if only briefly, is that each time it takes a heartbeat longer to remember who you were. One more breath before your soul returns to yourself. You are never quite the person you were before. Perhaps not pearl-eyed, but sea-changed. Something strange." (344)
A photographer's muse finds new feminist interpretations of old myths and fairy tales in her transformations for his camera, until she learns to wield her own. Powerful.
Read
February 2, 2021Some of these stories I enjoyed, some of them I felt I didn’t have enough context to appreciate fully (King Arthur stories are not something I know well), and some left me wanting a little more from their endings.
But one of them, an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling that is twisted around and set in modern times, was perhaps the best short story I’ve ever read. It helps that it’s inspired by one of my very favourite myths, but it’s also written so beautifully - as all these stories are - that I found myself completely captivated by it. There are other stories in the collection that had hooks that might stay with me, but this story (called “Returned”) is now burned into my brain and will inevitably become the only thing I remember about this collection.
That might be a bit sad because the collection is a glorious mix of dark and magical stories that put women at their centre. Most of them are concerned with retelling well-known myths from the perspective of female characters, whose thoughts often have surprising twists that cause you to rethink entire scenarios. It’s something the author does really well.
But either way, this collection is a new favourite simply because it contained one ten-page story that left me breathless. It’s worth reading the entire book for that alone, though other people will doubtless find different favourites here.
But one of them, an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling that is twisted around and set in modern times, was perhaps the best short story I’ve ever read. It helps that it’s inspired by one of my very favourite myths, but it’s also written so beautifully - as all these stories are - that I found myself completely captivated by it. There are other stories in the collection that had hooks that might stay with me, but this story (called “Returned”) is now burned into my brain and will inevitably become the only thing I remember about this collection.
That might be a bit sad because the collection is a glorious mix of dark and magical stories that put women at their centre. Most of them are concerned with retelling well-known myths from the perspective of female characters, whose thoughts often have surprising twists that cause you to rethink entire scenarios. It’s something the author does really well.
But either way, this collection is a new favourite simply because it contained one ten-page story that left me breathless. It’s worth reading the entire book for that alone, though other people will doubtless find different favourites here.
January 8, 2019
This fascinating and varied collection of short stories (and in one case a series of vignettes that form a novelette) by Kat Howard is actually the first time I've read a good bit of this author's work. Many of these tales are memorable re-envisionings of stories from literature or history, such as Arthurian legends (what's in a name?) or a modern Joan of Arc (looking for miracles in an urban setting, with the aid of Chanel Vamp and the back of a Stoli box). While I felt varying levels of engagement, some like "Maiden, Hunter, Beast" took my breath away, and others like "Murdered Sleep" haunted my thoughts, while "The Green Knight's Wife" had me shivering.
This anthology has certainly whetted my appetite for reading more of Howard's fiction!
I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from Saga Press via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.
This anthology has certainly whetted my appetite for reading more of Howard's fiction!
I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from Saga Press via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.
March 28, 2019
This could have been a 4 stars collection but for some reason I hit a wall with it and it took me weeks to feel like coming back to it. Something along the way made me lose interest, but I can't say what--it might not have been the book itself. I'm also realising that I dislike novellas/novelettes in my short stories collections. To me, they cut the flow. I skipped both of them, though I know I'll come back later to read them. I did love several of the stories, especially the ones about saints.
Faves:
A Life in Fictions
The Saint of the Sidewalks
All of Our Past Places
Saints' Tide
Returned
The Calendar of Saints
The Green Knight's Wife.
Faves:
A Life in Fictions
The Saint of the Sidewalks
All of Our Past Places
Saints' Tide
Returned
The Calendar of Saints
The Green Knight's Wife.
January 31, 2019
3.5 stars
My favorite stories were probably A Life in Fictions, Saints' Tide, and The Saint of the Sidewalk.
My favorite stories were probably A Life in Fictions, Saints' Tide, and The Saint of the Sidewalk.
March 5, 2019
Favorite stories:
Maiden, Hunter, Beast
Once, Future
Saints' Tide
Painted Birds and Shivered Bones
The Calendar of Saints
Maiden, Hunter, Beast
Once, Future
Saints' Tide
Painted Birds and Shivered Bones
The Calendar of Saints
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