The Coiled Serpent

A wonderful collection of the weirdest stories! If you like anything disturbing and weird then you will enjoy every one of these short stories. Each one was completely different from the last, and packed such a punch considering their length. I highly enjoyed this collection and recommend it to anyone seeking out something completely different!

What a book! I went in expecting something unusual, and that is exactly what I got, fifteen short stories full of a mix of gross, horror, dystopia and whimsy.
Most of the stories are set in sort of surreal locations, although there are clues to tell us they are set in the UK. The world presented here is such a unique, grim one. Crumbling mouldy houses and apartments, antique books and fine biscuits, greedy decadent and decaying rich overlords. Things are archaic, full of black mould, bodily fluids, depraved people, and for some reason, eggs and custard!
Each story is incredibly descriptive and presents slices of life in a particular place populated with quirky characters, some endearingly naive, and some controlling and unpleasant people. We get to visit a bathhouse, a boarding school, a custard factory, we encounter a pre-Raphaelite artist and his models, girls who struggle to menstruate, awful landlords, a maid seeking revenge, programmers who become obsessed with an occult book, and many others.
A clear love for history and art permeates the book and being an art history graduate myself, I really appreciated that. I particularly liked the stories “Ivor”, “The green hat “, “Novel about Fan “ and “madame Floras” which had a more historical, Victorian setting.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Camilla Grudova's The Coiled Serpent is a collection of enchantingly bizarre short stories that encompass horror, dystopia and gothic fiction.

Each story stands alone, linked to the others only by a handful of recurring motifs - such as custard, boarding school, eggs, the colour green and Rupert Bear - which have a central role in some stories and are mentioned in passing in others. Like all the best horror, much of Grudova's writing is an arched commentary on contemporary society, exploring themes such as misogyny and the plight of the working poor.

Each story in the collection juxtaposes the utterly mundane and the fantastical, used to marvellous effect in Ivor, which takes the tropes of a vintage school story and plays with them with hilarious, horrifying results. Many are unsettling but are described with a light, whimsical touch; others have all the visceral gore, body horror and offhand violence of a splatter picture. I found the former much more enjoyable, though admittedly that is very much a personal preference.

I found Grudova's writing to be sharp, witty and irreverent, and I will certainly be seeking out her previous work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

This collection of short stories delves into the macabre, the startling and the strange; conjuring up visceral imagery and strikingly lasting emotional responses to the absurd and odd scenes that lay ahead.

From cursed hotels, to gardens of poisons, to a custard factory after an explosion, Grudova takes us on a journey to the uncanny valley where things are uncomfortably similar to modern day Britain but something is always just not quite right. Underneath the disturbing visuals and gothic storytelling is a scathing and incisive exploration into contemporary life, the anxieties and fears of the modern person and the terrifying oppression that power can deliver from above.

Every story has its own uniqueness, some with narrative structure, some feeling more like a string of thoughts or a moment in time - but all of them have that odd charm that makes this book to undeniably intriguing. It spans genres from fantasy, to gore, to social realism but they’re all tied together with that mesmerising voice.

I haven’t had the pleasure … or the discomfort of reading this author before, but I will definitely be doing so in the future.