Book Review-salt slow

Title: salt slow

Author: Julia Armfield

Published: 30th May 2019

Pages: 208

Genre: Short stories, Fiction, Women

This collection of stories is about women and their experiences in society, about bodies and the bodily, mapping the skin and bones of its characters through their experiences of isolation, obsession and love. Throughout the collection, women become insects, men turn to stone, a city becomes insomniac and bodies are picked apart to make up better ones. The mundane worlds of schools and sea side towns are invaded and transformed by the physical, creating a landscape which is constantly shifting to hold on to the bodies of its inhabitants. Blending the mythic and the fantastic, the collection considers characters in motion – turning away, turning back or simply turning into something new.

From the winner of The White Review Short Story Prize 2018, salt slow is an extraordinary collection of short stories that are sure to dazzle and shock. -Goodreads

I received a proof copy of this book from Picador in return for an honest review.

I don’t read a lot of short stories, so it was a nice refreshing change for me to pick up something that could be absorbed in small chunks. 

This is the debut piece of work from Armfield, and it is obvious. She shows a lot of promise, and some of the short stories are incredible, but some of them were disappointing. Some of the stories just felt a little disjointed and rushed, and they didn’t feel like a whole completed story, rather a partial one. But overall I was very impressed by the collection, some of the short stories were just astounding. 

All the stories focus on women and women’s bodies in particular. Some of the stories were quite gross and feature some pretty graphic descriptions, so if you are squeamish bear this in mind when deciding whether to pick up the book or not. 

The stories themselves were bizarre and eccentric and brilliant. My personal favourites were the first story Mantis and the last story salt slow, both were completely different from each other but both have incredible feeling and emotions in them.

Armfield’s use of language and her descriptions of setting and scenery is breath-taking, and I am very excited to read more from her! If you’re looking for a quick collection of short stories with a female-centred narrative this is a good book to pick up.

You can buy the book from The Book Depository here (affiliate link)

Happy reading!