I always find Alix’s writing moving and profound in a completely unpretentious way.
This collection of alternative, could have been histories and might be futures is no different.
I loved the blending and twisting of mythology and folklore with dystopia and speculative cautionary tales. This anthology champions the marginalised, the ordinary and the diverse, rewriting them as the heroes fighting for their place in history, defying the odds and defining their own destinies.
With some stories fans will recognise and plenty of new ones, these tales do some really heavy lifting, through love and grief, the characters are driven by a desire for a better world. There are sad bits, happy bits and bits that encourage you to take a good hard look at the world.
I sped through these quickly but will enjoy rereading them more slowly and can see myself returning to some new favourites again and again.

Having already absolutely devoured The Knight and the Butcherbird earlier this year, I was so excited to be given early access to this collection of stories. Alix has quickly become one of my favourite fantasy writers . Her writing is hauntingly beautiful, and these stories are no exception.

New fave: Mr Death. Heartbreaking in truly the best way

Thank you to Pan Macmillan for a copy of this e-arc!

This short story collection was perfect. Each short story was beautifully written and I was enamoured by every single story within, and enjoyed taking my time and savouring this book as I kept writing down so many paragraphs that meant everything to me. I highly recommend anyone to read this collection, especially fans of Alix E. Harrow like myself, as it was poetic, heartbreaking and very enjoyable.

RATINGS:

The Tale of Two Brothers or the Folklorist Confesses Fatricide! - 5⭐
Mr. Death - 5⭐
A Whisper in the Weld - 4⭐
The Knight and the Butcherbird (re-read!) - 5⭐
The Six Deaths of the Saint (re-read!) 6⭐ (I don't care if it is not a real star rating, this is genuinely my favourite short story to exist)
The Final Voyage of Good Ship Fortune - 5⭐
Do Not Look Back, My Lion - 4⭐
The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly -4⭐
The Long way Up - 5⭐
Up In Flames (Working Title) - 4⭐
A Witches Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies - 5⭐
Dust Baby - 4⭐
The Sycamore and the Sybil - 5⭐
Roadside Attraction - 6⭐
The Last Archive - 5⭐

This collection of stories was supernatural, fantastical, and moving. Alix E. Harrow holds your beating heart in her palm and every emotion experienced is one she has created specifically for you. I think it's been interesting watching Harrow grow as an author and explore themes of the feelings of motherhood, transformation, love, and feminine rage. For a good chunk of this book every chapter was my new favorite short story.

Alix E Harrow is the queen of short stories and has ince again proven that I will read anything she writes. Im not normally a lover of short stories and The Six Deaths of the Saint was the first one I read that made me want to read another.

Alix's writing is so full of emotion its beautiful, lyrical and vaguely unsettling! Mr Death was a standout for me as I dont think I have ever cried that hard at any book let alone one which is only a handful of pages long

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this title.

Every story was told beautifully, broadly covering human connection, love, loss, and growth, with societal and environmental considerations.

Alix has the most lyrical writing which is my main draw to her work. This book has tales inspired by fairy tales, myths and legends, and more original fantasy and sci-fi based tales from time travelling to the haunting of an afterlife. I love that these stories incorporate queer relationships and characters as standard, along with feminist viewpoints, anti-establishment tones, and looking at environmental impacts.

These tales are thought provoking, with much weight in every word and theme chosen.

If you haven't read The Everlasting already you have to go and read that next! It is easily one of my favourite reads of this year and all time.

I’m not a huge fan of short stories but I like Alix E. Harrows writing so I requested this book. I’m so glad I did. I enjoyed this so much. A mixture of folklore, ghosts and fun. Brilliant!
Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was a wonderful collection of short stories. Alix E. Harrow's prose continues to be absolutely gorgeous, and each story was so distinct and beautiful and memorable, setting up vivid worlds and getting me invested within just a few short pages. I'd read the Six Deaths of the Saint and the Knight and the Butcherbird before and adored them, so it was wonderful to revisit those as well.

Some stories hit me harder than others, and it wasn't always the ones I would have predicted from the story titles. In particular, "A Witch's Guide to Escape", "The Sycamore and the Sybil", and "The Last Archive" are going to stick in my mind for a long time.

These are stories about dreamers and liars and lovers and ghosts for people just like you. A collection of beautiful and harrowing short stories.

I’m just grateful to live in a world where I get the privilege of reading books such as this one. I would also like to be able to be a little bee and follow Alix Harrow around for a few days, in the hope of understanding (and bottling up) what it takes to be able to be so full of endless compassion, love and caring for humanity, to embrace it in all its glory and darkness. And once I’ve bottled that up, spread it around the world (how, you might wonder! I would ask Harrow to figure it out because her creativity knows no bounds); maybe this is what will fix this horrible world we live in. Also, when I grow up, I want to be a witch librarian.

At this point, Alix is undoubtedly the queeeeen of short stories 🙌🏼
The stories in this collection average around 20 or so pages each, AND YET, every single one manages to pack an emotional punch in one way or another. Some funny, some gut-wrenchingly sad, heartwarming or heartbreaking, it’s all packed into this collection.
I’d already read ‘The Knight & The Butcherbird’ and ‘The Six Deaths of the Saint’ and adoooored them (obviously) so it was fun to revisit them in this collection. I truly loved and enjoyed all of the stories collected here, however, just for fun - here’s my top 5:
1. Up in Flames (I wanted to sob)
2. The Six Deaths of the Saint (amazing world building, plot and devoted romance with a hopeful ended in 30ish pages… 🤯)
3. The Last Archive (I wanted to sob x 2, with a side of extra sobbing and some anger at the world)
4. Mr Death (adorable and heartwarming)
5. The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly (an excellent and frankly, hilarious twist on a fae kidnapping)
Had a great time, would visit again, 10/10 would recommend 👌🏼
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a truly fantastic anthology of short stories and showcases Harrows writing range spectacularly.

I loved every single story and could easily read full length novels of any of them.

Alix E. Harrow is a phenomenal writer. In this collection of short stories, she manages to produce concise, clever tales that are brimming with emotional impact and humour. I was reading thinking I'd stop at one more, until I accepted that they were too addictive.

Ali’s Harrows writing is like no other - incredible and moving, I feel like I’m personally inside the story.

i truly think alix e harrow is one of the greatest writers of our generation.. her prose is gorgeous, and her ability to build worlds and people in such a short amount of time is astounding. this collection was stunning.

ALMOST

the tale of the two brothers, or, the famous folkorist confesses fratricide!
- 5 stars, made me cry. i love stories about what siblings are willing to do for each other

mr death
- 5 stars, also made me cry. what the fuck

a whisper in the weld
- 4 stars, teared up.

the knight and the butcherbird
- 4 stars. such an interesting setting

ALWAYS

the six deaths of the saint
- 5 stars. perfect. the everlasting is really and truly one of my favourite books of all time and finally getting to read where it began means the world. it’s sad and beautiful i love this story so much

the final voyage of the good ship fortune
- 3.5 stars. i struggled to connect to this one on an emotional level, but the writing was beautiful, i loved the story, and the characters were extremely interesting.

do not look back, my lion
- 3 stars. again, struggled to connect to this one. the world and society was interesting, and the writing was obviously perfect.

the ransom of miss coraline connelly
- 3 stars. short and sweet, didn’t do much for me.

the long way up
- 4 stars. almost cried. gorgeous.

AGAIN

up in flames (working title)
- 5 stars. stunning. what a fucking cool story. such a unique structure. would love a full novel set in this world.

a witch’s guide to escape: a practical compendium of portal fantasies
- 5 stars. beautiful, i cried. i love books about books. this just really fucking got me

dustbaby
- 3 stars. beautifully written obviously, just not for me.

the sycamore and the sybil
- 4 stars. stories about womanhood and what we owe each other <3

roadside attraction
- 5 stars. i always avoid time travel stories because they feel like a guaranteed sob session. this was just lovely. sweet, believable characters. such a strong sense of place and setting.

the last archive
- 5 stars. CRIED. god one thing that will always get me is a story - ABOUT stories, about legacy and people and what we leave behind when we’re gone. gorgeous.

thank you to alix e harrow, pan macmillan and netgalley for the advance copy.

Having just finished The Everlasting, I had high expectations for this collection, and Harrow did not disappoint. Through these stories, readers will experience heartbreak, grief, and most of all, profound and enduring love.

Harrow is a master of storytelling and it is on full display here. She often goes beyond subversion and instead deconstructs a familiar trope or expectation, dissasembles it down to its composite parts, and builds something entirely new and wonderful. Only someone with a true understanding of how a story is composed can do this, and to see it so clearly on the page was a genuinely refreshing experience.

Some stories struck me more deeply than others, but through all of them I appreciated the diversity in the relationships: romantic love is often queer or eschews traditional gender roles, and there are some touching explorations of parenthood—which were again rarely traditional parent-child relationships.

My favourite stories were Dr. Death (which made me absolutely sob), The Last Archive (which made me deeply angry), and The Knight and the Butcherbird (which made me both sad and angry).

This was truly a beautiful collection, in prose and in sentiment. This is my second book by Harrow and it will surely not be the last.

4.75 stars, rounded up (overall, amazing collection, just some that naturally I did gel with as much as others)

FINALLY a physical format for The Six Deaths of the Saint, the best short story I've ever read (and inspired the best fantasy novel I've ever read, Harrow's 'The Everlasting').

I don't normally read short fiction but I absolutely loved this short story collection. I think it's unusual to have this many that were five-star reads (though perhaps not as they're all from the same author, rather than different authors), but this collection blew me away. Harrow manages to get so much emotion across in so few words; I really felt like each story was fleshed out and the characters felt like real, believable people. Loved!

Personal favourites (in order they appear in the book):
The Tale of Two Brothers, or, The Famous Folklorist Confesses Fratricide
Mr Death
The Six Deaths of the Saint
The Ransom of Miss Coraline Connelly
Up in Flames (Working Title)
A Witch's Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies
Roadside Attraction
The Last Archive