This book is a weird collection of stories. They really are unusual and make you feel unnerved. The writing is so amazing

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

These short stories were beautiful, bizarre and so original. They mix the mundane and the strange artfully, at times falling into near magic. It's beautifully written, uneven at times with some stories being a bit more confused, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Beautifully and lyrically written. A wonderful collection of stories that all weave themes of the sea and nature into them.

I really liked this collection, especially the first half, but I found it quite jarring in places with stories that didn’t make an awful lot of sense to me. Of my favourites ‘Hole’ shows beautiful fragmented glimpses of a story and of a community, ‘Red Market’ gives darkness amongst the ordinary by selling someone off for parts in a market, and a story starts with the excellent line ‘His mother had a choice between keeping the monkey or having the baby’ in a tale of family and grief. Armstrong is definitely a writer to keep an eye on if you like the kind of uncanny stuff that Carmen Maria Machado and Julia Armfield produce.

ughhhh this collection of short stories is so good.

I literally wanted to go back and read each story again. the blend of everyday and bizarre is so delicate and armstrong artfully connects the natural and supernatural, how humans interact and capitalize on nature.

personal standouts were red market and the titular story! I was honestly freaked. definitely a short story collection I'll want to return to.

How to Gut a Fish is vivid, original collection that takes as its main preoccupation the uneasy, troubled relationship between humans and the natural world. Certain themes reappear time and again, like a tongue running over an old wound: bodies, illness, motherhood, decay, fate, sacrifice, and ritual. These strands run throughout the stories, criss-crossing in a complex web of mirrored and repeated images and ideas that echo through the collection, haunting the reader.

Throughout the entire collection, we see people in harmony, but more often at odds, with the natural world. In ‘Star Jelly’, Armstrong comes closest to stating an underlying message that, for all our supposed mastery of the world, humankind have gone too far in their greed and arrogance, and their contributions towards climate change are irreversible. Humans are only transient inhabitants of the earth which is darker, more beautiful and more terrifying than they remember to respect

Not only did I want to start the collection over again immediately upon finishing it, I had that urge after finishing every single story. I wanted to go back to the first page each time to figure out what exactly had just happened and what made each story tick once I wasn’t so caught up in it. However, in many of the stories my awe and admiration kept winning out and I still couldn’t detach myself enough to really study them. The book meets the reader only part-way, demanding not only further examination but reflection and introspection, inviting the reader into a conversation to fill in blanks, by way of the reader’s own emotion or point of view. Armstrong’s writing is clever and exact, the stories are skilfully structured, the natural world is painted beautifully and the characters are carefully drawn. However, the magic of the book is that it takes you out of your head and into the body, into what it feels and smells and tastes and knows, whether that is indescribable wonder at the beauty of the northern lights of the Wicklow mountains, the shock and pleasure of a sea swim, of fierce protectiveness of a mother, a creeping realisation that you feel in the back of the neck before you understand what’s going on, and the knowledge of a world that is beautiful, terrible, powerful, ancient and sacred.

How to Gut a Fish, Sheila Armstrong’s first collection, marks her emergence in the front row of Irish short story writers.

She has created her own space and format. Her “world” is rarely joyful and, in one instance, is devastatingly truthful of how the truly evil gets bound into the mundane day-to-day world of late capitalism. Yet the writing is of a quality that makes the reader appreciate all the more the way she does not opt for predictable plots and delivers such satisfying reading experiences.. Aficionados of the sinister side of William Trevor would have been waiting for a young writer to take all that further, and here she is.

The ability to write arrestingly is rare, but Ms Armstrong fully possesses it, backed up by sharp insights and, at times, images that poets would envy.

The individual stories are outlined briefly in the blurb, so it’s pointless doing so here, but they are outstanding.

I managed to read the first two stories in this collection before unfortunately having to stop. The formatting of this digital arc makes it very difficult to read as it doesn’t include the titles before each story, making it hard to tell where each story begins and ends. There is also an issue of the text repeating itself multiple times. I’m hoping these are just issues in the early copies as I look forward to buying a finished ebook once it’s out and trying again! Really enjoyed the two stories I did manage to read though.

2022 has seen me read more short stories than ever before. I'm really enjoying the short, sharp immersion in different worlds. How to Gut a Fish is the most unusual set I've read. I mean that in a good way - in a lyrical, have-to-take-your-time and digest them, kind of way.

Often ambiguous in tone and hard-hitting in theme, the disturbing elements are presented in such an ethereal way that it sort of transcends. Red Market was a standout for me, but all these stories are still running through my mind a week after reading, always a good sign.

i've been loving short stories atm and this collection didn't disappoint!! they were weird and creepy and unsettling but also a couple of quite heartwarming ones. it's such a good well rounded collection, including a good dose of horror, which i really can't get enough of atm

i loved loved the writing and the settings and yeah, it's a very solid connection

I didn’t connect with any of the stories in this collection and this is probably my fault. I found, with most of them, that right when they were about to become interesting, we were already at the end of the story, and they got interrupted. I felt I didn’t have time to get into the narration, I didn’t get to know any of the characters.

I would save two stories out of fourteen: “Red Market” and “Hold Fast”. I found them a bit more complete, more self-conclusive, compared to the other stories.
In particular, “Red Market” has an eerie edge to it that makes it stand out among the other stories, and “Hold Fast” has a deeper feeling to it, the characters are slightly more three-dimensional.

However, I did enjoy Armstrong’s writing and somehow it reminded me of Rachel Cusk’s style in the Outline trilogy.

I think I had high expectations with this collection of short stories, which weren’t quite met. I will try and give it another go in the future – a different set of mind might bring a different experience and I might be more receptive with this book.

Haunting, lyrical and eerie. The king of short story collection made for me! If you also enjoy the work of Angela Carter, Kirsty Logan, Jen Campbell and Deirdre Sullivan, you'll love this.

This book made me stop many times and just say ‘hang on… what!?’ Both unnerving and unsettling Sheila Armstrong writes a wonderful set of short stories, each with a poetic quality which truly resonates on a stunning level. An author I’ll certainly be keeping my eye on!
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Thank you to Netgalley & Bloomsbury for the ARC

On a sentence level, the stories in How to Gut a Fish were absolutely stunning and Sheila Armstrong is definitely a writer I'll be keeping an eye on in future. There was something cold and distant in the stories that I didn't quite connect with and while I'd like to revisit them again at some point, they didn't quite resonate with me and I was left wanting more from some of the endings. For me "red market" was the real stand out.

Shelia Armstrong’s How To Gut A Fish is undoubtedly an exceptionally well written set of short stories. Throughout these stories Armstrong masterfully weaves the seemingly mundane of her characters everyday lives with the unusual, surreal and even macabre. The way these stories twist and turn is startling, where in which darkness weaves its murky undercurrents. Though masterful these stories are certainly not for the faint hearted; where they might be called unsettling you might also find them uncomfortable.

All this being said I found that these stories weren’t for me, however this is of course down to personal preference. I found them impressive, but I didn’t exactly enjoy reading them. I’m sure that many others will very much enjoy them as they certainly very well crafted.

It is worth noting that there are trigger warnings for these stories including abortion, drugs, human trafficking, hit and run, allusions to sexual assault and domestic violence.

As can sometimes happen with short stories I felt that they often raised more questions than they answered, leaving much to interpretation. I feel like these stories would lend themselves to very interesting discussions at book clubs.

I appreciate the opportunity to have read these stories and thank both Bloomsbury and Netgally for the opportunity to do so.

3.5/5

I really hope that Shiela Armstrong realises what a truly great talent she is. This collection of short stories was so beautifully written, every sentence felt like a poem, it was rich with lyrical prose and rich imagery. Armstrong combined this beuatifully lyrical prose with strange story matter and it was a marraige made in heaven. I adored it