Pretty Monsters - Hardcover

Kelly Link

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847677835 ISBN 13: 9781847677839

Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd, 2009

Synopsis

Weird, wicked, spooky and delicious, PRETTY MONSTERS is a book of tall tales to keep you up all night. Blending fairytale, fantasy, horror, myth and mischief in a delicious cocktail, Kelly Link creates a world like no other, where ghosts of girlfriends past rub up against Scrabble-loving grandmothers with terrifying magic handbags, wizards sit alongside morbid babysitters, and we encounter a people-eating monster who claims to have a sense of humour. Combining the imaginative brilliance of Borges with the madcap escapades of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and more than a pinch of macabre humour, this is writing to come back from the dead for.

Contents
The Wrong Grave
The Wizards of Perfil
Magic for Beginners
The Faery Handbag
The Specialist's Hat
Monster
The Surfer
The Constable of Abal
Pretty Monsters

About this title

About the Author

Kelly Link lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she and her husband, Gavin J. Grant, run Small Beer Press and publish the zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. She once won a free trip around the world by answering the question, 'Why do you want to go around the world?' ('Because you can't go through it.')

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—In her first collection of stories for young adults, Link upends traditional horror, science fiction, and fantasy motifs, creating original, quirky, and distinctly beautiful literary landscapes. Honed, brilliant language renders blood, werewolves, ghosts, magic, and monsters sublime—at times even funny. Readers will relish uncertainty in these savory, strange stories and never feel quite sure of their footing. They proceed giddily, jumping from one uncanny premise, phrase, or image to the next, eventually stumbling upon a revelation that hits them like the snap of a rubber band. Clever resolutions and tricky plots place teens on delightfully circuitous reading paths. Unexpected endings force them to double back and reconsider each story from the beginning. In this second read, young adults might notice Link's seamless incorporation of their own experiences. Awkward adolescence, uncomfortable first love, frustrating parents, and complicated friendships surface quietly amid wonderfully knotty, twisted plots and incandescent imagery. This compilation of intricate, transfixing selections succeeds in making the weird wonderful and the grotesque absolutely gorgeous.—Shelley Huntington, New York Public Library
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Edition details

• Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1847677835
• ISBN 13: 9781847677839
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 389