I read this one in one sitting while on a pre-planned 'sick day' from work. 
Fantastically beautiful prose from a uniquely beautiful mind. Jen's stories are magic.

I ordered this to read as an ARC as I loved the synopsis and the cover was interesting.  I didn't realise they were short stories.  All the stories are fantastic, I just wished I had read them singularly, so that I could absorb each one, instead of back to back at times.  Loved losing myself in the fairy tales!  Very different to the type of books I would normally read, and great to have experienced a new style of genre

DNF at 68%

The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night is a truly creative collection of short stories. Each tale was peculiar in it's own way, but unfortunately they were not for me. The language of the stories didn't absorb me, and they lacked characters for me to care about or connect to. Short stories are often very hit-or-miss with me, and it seems this time it was a miss. But I'm sure plenty of others will find the magic in this collection that I couldn't.

Creative and quirky, these stories examine the grotesque and fairy tale like in the everyday. Compelling writing.

I quite liked these short stories, they were quite strange and different but very enjoyable! Really unique and imaginative they were fab! 😊

A collection of thought provoking short stories. They all have an element of the fantastical about them (either real or fabricated) and many of them are ambiguous, dropping you right into the middle of the scene. Dealing with topics like grief, love, death, divorce and sex, not fairy stories to share with your kids, but quick reads for a more mature audience.

This was a quick read for me as I really enjoy short stories. I enjoyed a few of the stories but overall had some issues with the writting.

As a longtime fairy tale fan, I knew as soon as I heard of this that I needed to read it. For context, I am unfamiliar with Jen Campbell YouTube channel or other books, although this has made me want to explore them. Simultaneously gruesome and touching, these stories build on themes such as coming of age, death, family, and guilt. I was initially unsure if they were retellings, and soon found that they are completely original. Campbell uses dark mystical themes (magic, ghosts, etc.) to relate real life topics such as relationships and growing up. A lot of these stories are on the topic, be it romantic or familial or love if one's self. A thrilling read, would highly recommend.

This short story collection is pretty short at just over 200 pages, but I found that it dragged as though it was four times as long, and I couldn't get into the stories, none of which I felt had enough plot or characterisation to be a story in their own right: even the longer pieces felt more like snapshots pulled out of a longer novel and every time I reached the end of a story, I found myself thinking ... that's it? None of them seemed complete to me, so I was thoroughly disappointed by the collection. The writing itself has potential, but the stories just didn't work for me.

The writing in this short story collection is amazing and the stories are fantastically inventive. Unfortunately, I do not respond to this format at all and did not enjoy my reading experience. I can appreciate it's quality however and would suggest that lovers of short stories explore it to decide for themselves.

The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night is a collection of twelve magical, mysterious and unusual short stories, featuring a coffin hotel, spirits in jars, and replacement hearts.

Now, I liked this book. I’ve never read a book of short stories before (and to be honest, I’m not really sure it’s my thing) but this was a good first experience. ‘Short stories’ felt like a bit of a stretch; the twelves in this book are actually more like snippets – short chapters of something bigger. The open-ended nature of the stories added to this, because they felt sort of unfinished. In some cases this was frustrating, but in all cases it made me want to read more.

Each story was weird and whimsical, with a dark and slightly sinister vibe. I enjoyed some more than others, (my favourites were Jacob and Aunt Libby’s Coffin Hotel) but they were all good.

Interesting, snappy, and thought-provoking, I would definitely recommend this one.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As with a lot of short story collections I've read, this was a very mixed bunch of good and bad. While I really appreciated the concept of 2 (Jacob and Animal), the rest of the stories didn't quite work for me. They are all strange and could be good ideas to develop on, they just didn't make me feel anything. I think I'm probably just too uneducated literature wise to be able to appreciate this more.

Dark, satisfying and right up my street. Possibly one of the best books I've read this year!

Jen Campbell’s new book, The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night, is a collect of 12 short stories. These are not just any short stories, though, they are very weird, yet surprisingly addictive. They also contain lots folklores and facts thrown in for good measure, like the first story telling you about the different types of swans there are.

I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to actually get on with the book, as the first story was completely strange. It is about a woman who orders a heart, a swan heart, that arrives via the post. The world isn’t loving enough so people’s hearts are dying, and they need to have them replaced; animal hearts are the new heart replacements. As I sad, baffling, though I did understand the concept behind the story.

I like short stories, I like the fact that I can pick up a book and within a short space of time I have read a full story. They are also quite fast paced as the stories don’t have the word count to ebb and flow.

Apart from being strange, the stories are all quite dark too. They are thought-provoking and at times take some concentration. The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night is a fantastic read, one that I would highly recommend.

I was sent a copy of The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night by Jen Campbell to read and review by NetGalley.
Firstly, I didn’t realize that this was a book of short stories and not a novel!  Having said that I loved the stories, they were really well written and many of them had great philosophical ideas.  I did read them one after the other but with hindsight I think I should have left more breathing space between each story to properly digest them.  
My only disappointment was that the kindle version I was sent did not have the illustrations showing, only the word ‘Illustration’ at the beginning of each story to denote there should be one there.  I found this to be very frustrating!  I will just have to treat myself to a physical copy of the book to complete the picture, as it were!
This is a great book for anyone who enjoys the mystical, magical or theories of alternative worlds, just remember to take your time over each short piece to enjoy them to the full.

It's been a while since I read this book and I've been meaning to review it but sadly I've been really busy and have fallen behind with both reviews and blogging. I've been following Jen's youtube channel for roughly 2 years and I am definitely a huge fan so the second I saw her book available on Netgalley I jumped at the opportunity to read and review it. Since then I've kept trying to write a review but I just can't figure out what to say! Before reading the book I must admit I was somewhat worried that it wouldn't be my kind of book. I'm not a huge fan of poetry, primarily because I find it incredibly intimidating and hard to understand and I was worried that would be an issue but I was pleasantly surprised. This is the kind of book that I just read and think about how beautifully written it is and how much I wish I could write like that. The one regret I do have is reading it all in one go, while the stories fit together really well I feel like I would have enjoyed it more had I read a single story per seating, as there were stories I absolutely adored and some that I liked but would have enjoyed more had I not been comparing them to the ones I'd just read. Overall I highly recommend the book to any Jen fans as well as people who love fairytales and folklore dipped in a little darkness here and there. 

I received a copy of the book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Having bought Jen Campbell's The Bookshop Book and used it to plan my dream round-the-world trip, I was keen to read some of her fiction work too. 

The Beginning of the World is a collection of short, modern-day fairy tales, of various lengths and subject matter. I haven't read a fairy tale since my age was in single digits, and this kind of book isn't something I would habitually read; so I wasn't really sure what to expect. 

I was pleasantly surprised - the stories in Beginning of the World maintain just enough of a semblance to recognisable, everyday life for them to be eerily familiar, whilst at the same time completely alien. The opening story sets the tone, depicting a world in which companies are doing a roaring trade in the sale of animal hearts, as a way of growing and nurturing love. I found it chilling in its mixture of banal and bizarre. 

If you're open to fantastical stories, give this book a read! 

Full review will be published on earlgreyandcupcakes.wordpress.com.

Tries hard to be quirky but is just plain weird. Not enjoyable

Very random and just couldn't get into this at all Maybe one for the alternative reader!