These short stories felt like they were missing depth and it felt quite jumbled. I really struggled to get into them.

Januaries has 12 different stories inside divided by four seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

I don’t know how to review this book, I have mixed feelings for each story.
I find some of the stories quite interesting
Some are too short that I wished they are developed into a full length novel instead
Some are very thought-provoking
But some are also confusing and too long….

Out of 12 stories, there are only a few that I like such as The Wished Bridge, The Animation Games, To Make a Man, Chaos Theory, The Audit

⚠️ 𝐓𝐖: Death, violence, sexual content, grief, mental illness

Olivie Blake's new short story collection 'Januaries' is a cabinet of curiosities. Stories range from the supernatural with witches and vampires, folklore, Greek myths and strange futures. There is even a speech given at a wedding, comparing matrimony to a house. Many of the stories are clever, witty, and transporting, but one or two require some perseverance. For example I felt that 'Chaos Theory' could have been cut in half, with only the later half kept. Nevertheless, this is a book that will appeal to fans of Angela Carter as well as of the author and genre. It is well written and compelling. Plus, if the illustrations in the proof are anything to judge from, the book will make a very pretty edition to bookcases!

I loved every single story in this collection. All of them.

Olivie Blake has created a suite of work that combines fantasy with dystopia and a good seasoning of fairy tale. We encounter assassins, gods, mortals, watching over hell, bridges and the multiverse. Each story feels like a complete journey, yet they all complement each other. Reading Januaries felt like a warm hug, a bracing wind and a vanilla slice. Perfection.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan and TOR for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Januaries is a hauntingly beautiful collection of short fiction by Olivie Blake, showcasing her mastery at blending the fantastical with the deeply emotional. The book consists of 14 stories, divided into the four seasons, each exploring themes of longing, the fragility of trust, and the inescapable pull of destiny. At its heart, Januaries is about transformation—of people, places, and the intricate web of fate that binds them. Each story carries a shared trace of emotional depth and enchantment.

If you’ve read Blake’s other works, you’ll recognize her gift for creating atmosphere, making every page feel like an invitation into a world of complex emotions and nuanced characters. This book is another testament to her remarkable ability to evoke mood and empathy.

Though each story is relatively short, Blake’s talent for capturing the essence of a moment or a character's inner turmoil is impressive. Her writing moves swiftly, yet never sacrifices the emotional depth that makes these stories resonate, leaving readers wanting more.

If you love emotionally charged stories with a touch of the mystical—ones that explore the complexities of relationships and the human condition through a magical lens—then Januaries is a book you won’t want to miss.

4 stars

Januaries is a collection of shorts stories by Olivie Blake that are most of them amazing written but left you wanting more.
My favorite one was The Wish Bridge, and ugh, I'd love a full-length book about those two. It was amazing.
The rest of the stories are entertaining, and some are fun others, not so much, but overall, it was a nice anthology.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for providing me with the eARC for this book!

The first time I’ve ever picked up a book by Olivie Blake was roughly 3 or 4 years ago — back when she’d still been self-published — and I’ve never truly been disappointed since. ‘Januaries’ is a delightful collection of short stories, front to back, and every single story within packs a punch in one way or another. As you read through the seasons you get to meet very different kinds of love from mystical to obsessive to haunting and you get dragged in close again and again to listen to each character tell their story.
Whether they suffer a mental breakdown after filling out a pricey questionnaire or haunt their fiancé again and again, Olivie’s character work truly gets to shine in this format. Within a handful of pages and sometimes even after just a few paragraphs one can’t help but root if not feel for each story’s main character. Olivie’s visceral and sometimes whimsical writing style only aides this.
Grouping the stories into seasons is not only a nice structural touch it also makes sense narratively — the stories of each season share overarching themes.

Overall, ‘Januaries’ cannot be recommended enough whether you’re already a fan of Olivie’s or brand new here — the stories are a great look into her writing style and her versatility.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - absolutely love Olivie Blake’s writing and these short stories were so much fun to read.

The writing style is so enchanting and engaging leaving me wanting so many more short stories included! The writing flows so well and is

I had so much fun reading these short stories and knew from the first story that I was going to enjoy this.
I went into this book completely blind and was absolutely pleasantly shocked when it was a collection of short stories providing me with an easy and refreshing experience.

I loved reading a collection of short stories as it provided different experiences with each all in one book!! It was full of emotion and provided so so many plot twists and unexpected moments!

Short stories are absolutely for the mood readers and people who love exploring each and every emotion possible whilst reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and Olivie Blake for allowing me to read and review this collection of short stories. It was such a fun experience and I cannot wait to see the beautiful editions of this book when it is published 🖤

Only 2-3 stories I actually enjoyed in this. This is a collection of stories written for each season of the year. Unfortunately I only liked about 3 stories from this. Most of them were too abstract for me to even grasp what was going on. My least favorite olivie Blake book to date. There was some beautiful thought provoking quotes in the midst of the terrible outlandish stories, and that was the only good it had going for it to be honest. Would not recommend especially not for a first olive Blake. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for this arc.

Januaries is an absurdist and fantastical collection of short stories and novellas from the outstanding Olivie Blake. The collection is divided thematically by season and captures the human experience in the form of tales of love, magic and betrayal. Love, loss, motherhood, and mental health are just a few of the things touched upon, and are explored through a variety of genres, ranging from fantastical to mythological to paranormal, featuring witches, goddesses, and the multiverse. I am not usually a fan of short stories but was blown away by this collection. Each story emits a sense of wonder and are unique in their content and form, providing something for everyone. It is difficult to choose a favourite, but Chaos Theory is a standout gem. Olivie Blake has yet again delivered a showstopping 5 star read.

Januaries is a short story collection by one brilliantly creative author, divided into four sections named by four seasons, full of magical and fantasy elements.

Personally, my favourite stories are Sucker for Pain, The Animation Games, Sous Vide and Chaos Theory where Olivie Blake describes and plays with the idea of twisted love through fantasy and clever metaphors for what goes in our everyday lives.

Some stories are not so good, either because of lack of meaning or because they are quite confusing. Also, some of the stories would be excellent if they were written as full-length novels.

Nevertheless, I think there is a story for everyone here because Olivie writes in interesting and unique way, and you could easily see if her ideas intrigue you by not committing yourself to a 500 pages novel and ultimately decide if you should try some of her other books.

My thanks to NetGalley for ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was a little apprehensive committing to this book as my ADHD brain so often struggles with short stories, but I’m so glad I did because I loved reading it so much!
Januaries opens with my favourite story of them all, ‘The Wish Bridge’ and after being so taken with it I had high hopes for the rest… Blake did not disappoint.
There are reinvented fairytales, fantasy elements, vampires, witches, and peculiar roommates discovered on Craigslist… there’s even a future where you’re paid your lifetime’s earnings in youth and spend the rest of your days repaying it to the State.
It really is a varied trove of magical tales and reflections on life and love. Whether gothic fantasy, sci-fi or poetry, Blake has written each story beautifully, her storytelling seemingly coming with ease and certainly with elegance.
Whilst not all of the stories were necessarily my cup of tea, each had a message to take away, and I would absolutely pick up a full-length book based around several of them!

Thank you so much @panmacmillan and @netgalley for the digital ARC, it was a true pleasure to read

[Thank you NetGalley and PanMacmillian for the e-arc!]

- 2.5 stars

After finishing this book, I've learnt that short stories are not for me. I hate not getting a proper ending to a story, I feel like most of the stories in this book are missing something and have no purpose. I enjoyed a few of them, but the majority were messy and didn't have a proper structure and made me feel so stupid because they were too metaphorical and I couldn't understand what the author was trying to say. I'm just sharing my opinion, I don't think the book is bad, despite what my rating might say, and I'm a big fan of Olivie Blake's books. In this case, my disappointment boils down to the content of the stories not being very interesting to me, and also not loving the structure of these stories [I have to point out that the arc I reveiced is badly formatted, and I think that's another factor that made me enjoy it even less. Some stories were very difficult to read].

Although some of the stories lacked feeling and were too cynical for my taste, I enjoyed the writing. I think Blake has a truly unique writing style and it shows in each of these stories. In my opinion, these are tales of love and betrayal, life and death, and although I couldn't appreciate them all, I think they brilliantly showcase Olivie's artistry and versatility as a writer. Each story is different. Some are very weird and strange, and there's one in particular that I hated, but others have an almost fairytale quality to them, I marvelled at how magical some of the stories were. Especially the ones at the beginning, the very first story, The Wish Bridge, had me enthralled, it was very enchanting and I wish each of the stories kept that magical quality. I found that the more contemporary stories were my least favourite.

The book is divided into 4 parts - Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter (I have no idea why). Spring and Summer were the parts I enjoyed the most, the others were mostly disappointing and I admit that I skimmed through some stories and even skipped two because I was so bored. My favourite short story was "to make a man", I can't explain why, it was the only one that evoked feelings and I almost shed a tear. It made me wish it was a full-length novel. Some stories, like I said, I enjoyed, others were really weird and confusing, some I enjoyed certain aspects of but they left me with conflicting thoughts, and others were bad and metaphysical in a way I didn't appreciate. It's as if the author was trying so hard to convey something, but it came across as pretentious writing.

Overall, most of the stories were fine, they didn't stand out to me and I'm sure I'll forget them quickly. And although I liked the writing, it's not as good as the writing in Alone with you in the ether, one for my enemy or masters of death. I think about this book and feel nothing, which isn't what I expected.

If you don't like Blake's writing, or have never read one of her books, I wouldn't recommend this. But if you're a fan of metaphysical stories with very strange elements, it may be something to consider if you want to read a collection of short stories.

Some of these short stories were so interesting that I wanted to read a whole book about them, others were quite strange and there was one that was, I'm sorry to say, boring - however overall it was a good and interesting read and the story that I didn't like may be your cup of tea

This reminded me again of why I love Olivie Blake! The writing is just perfect and somehow goes with every story. The first one chosen, about the guardian of the bridge, is my absolute favorite and such a good fit to hook us in and continue reading. I must admit, I skimmed one or two stories that weren’t exactly my tastes but I loved the rest so much it still counts as a 5 star!

A beautifully written collection of fantasy based short stories.

My favourite story was 'Sucker for Pain', a Bridgerton inspired high society story featuring vampires and revenge.

This book has been on my wishlist for ages and so I'm really grateful to be able to read an early copy of it.

I have somehow got to this stage without having read any of Olivie's books, but I am not immune to the hype around her. I'm also generally not a short story fan but here we are. I have high hopes.

These stories are fantastic and whimsical and magical. I could have read them all day. They're all linked, in theme if not in story.

As in any collection of short stories, there are some I enjoyed more than others and some I enjoyed less, some that spoke to me more or were easier to read. But even so, I don't think there's a story amongst them that I wouldn't' wish was turned into a longer story. For enjoyment purposes, or because I think a longer story would have made it a bit better. Some felt a bit too short or a bit too abstract, and I think they'd work better in a longer form. And some were just so lovely to read that I wanted to red more of it.

I must admit thought, that some of the longer stories lost me a little bit, they went off into weird directions and so I got a bit confused as to what they were on about, but I suppose a positive spin on that is it adds to the whimsical nature of the stories.

A good and bad point is that she uses a lot of floaty language, a lot of metaphors and whatnot, whish is great as it adds to the magical feel, but then it can be difficult to actually stay with what she's trying to say. Some are more prose heavy than others, some more conversations etc. so you get a mixture.

There are a number of illustrations in the book - I'm not sure if they're by Olivie's hand or someone else's - that are beautiful and really help the stories. It's split into sections dedicated to the seasons, but I wasn't too sure why they were split as, for me, I couldn't say the stories in the winter section for instance were overly wintery etc.

I know that a lot of people read short story collections by reading one or two and then going back to it. I read it like a novel, cover to cover. And so I was fully invested and drawn into this magical world of love and lust, betrayal and distrust, magic and wonder.

I think I'll definitely jump on the hype train and be sourcing her other books, now I see what all the fuss was about.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of this collection of short stories, I typically enjoy Blake’s writing, I thoroughly enjoy her style. However I find that it can sometimes go over my head. There is no doubt this is yet another great work from Blake however I often found myself confused and think that perhaps this is not the work for me.

This book is a collection of short stories involving love and magic. This book is beautifully written and would expect no less from olivie, it is the perfect story collection to snuggle up and read on a cosy evening.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one, as I always do with Olivie Blake. Some stories went over my head, but that's usually the case for me with anthologies. Quite a few of the stories didn't click with me until the very end, at which point I felt pleasantly surprised.