The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night is a collection of short stories based around the concept of fairy tales and magical realism in the contemporary world. We have people who use animal hearts to gain love and affection, a mermaid living in a local aquarium and and a sister with two souls.

It's obvious that the author has a strong fondness for fairy tales that shines through in each of the tales. The stories are all relatively short and succinct (like a classic fairy tale), and are often left open ended - which at times made them feel unfinished or disjointed as they stop rather abruptly. And most of the stories are really weird. Some in a good way (I loved Bright White Hearts and Aunt Libby's Coffin Hotel) and some I felt didn't really work (Animal Hearts in particular I found very confusing with little world building to support what was going on).

As with most short story collections I've read, this was hit and miss. But all the stories were definitely a little bit different.

I’m a fan of fairytales and strange stories so was interested in trying this book.
It’s short stories and some are sweet yet melancholy and others are scary and filled with twisted things.
Some I enjoyed and some I was lost in the word play.

This is perhaps the strangest and most beautiful anthology I have ever read. Strange and beautiful in equal measure, as the two battle each other for dominance in this expertly delivered series of short tales.

Each of the stories, contained within, had a bizarre focus and a whimsical vibe that made this an abstract and surreal insight to life. This crooked view of the world somehow made the everyday chaos of our own reality make a little more sense and provided an alternative approach to dealing with the truth by approaching it through the fanciful. This felt akin to many traditional fairy tales I have read, in that respect, and this made for a nostalgic return to my childhood so surely did it envelop the feelings of these classic pieces.

I found the open-ended nature of these pieces to be, on times, a little disconcerting. This is purely a personal preference, but I tend to adore full-length novels that feature such abstract endings but yearn for more concrete foundations in my short fiction. Here, this approach worked, however, and once I got used to this style of narrative permeating the entire body of work could I begin to appreciate how I, the reader, became drawn into the telling of these tales. It is often left up to individual interpretation on how these will be received and understood, which a reading of any collection of reviews will tell you. Each reader will find their own story within these stories, and that is what makes this a truly wonderful collection as there really is something for everyone, here.

A breakdown of my ratings for each individual story:
Animals - 4/5 stars
Jacob - 4/5 stars
Plum Pie. Zombie Green. Yellow Bee. Purple Monster - 4/5 stars
In the Dark - 3/5 stars
Margaret and Mary and the End of the World - 3.5/5 stars
Little Deaths 3/5 stars
The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night - 4/5 stars
Pebbles - 3.5/5 stars
Aunt Libby's Coffin Hotel - 3/5 stars
Sea Devils - 3.5/5 stars
Human Satellites - 3/5 stars
Bright White Hearts - 5/5 stars

Tender subversion

Jen Campbell’s collection of short stories is magnificent. Somewhere between myth, magic, philosophy and let’s pretend she re-conjures exactly why the short story is a perfect ‘Once Upon A Time’ perhaps a hark back to being read aloud to, or reading aloud to.

Campbell has a wondrous, unique imagination at play here. She takes the stuff of fairy stories, the stuff of reality, and mixes them together, playfully but deeply.

As an example, the title story ‘The Beginning of The World In The Middle of the Night’ is presented like a short play script. A man and a woman, talking, in bed. On one level, what is happening is something about their relationship. On another level, the conversation is about a tree which is due to be cut down by their local council. But…….it might just be a conversation about how the universe came into being. It is all delivered with a light and beautifully balanced wit. And yet…simultaneously, Campbell was making me cry, smile, aching my heart, breathless at the fragile delicacy she creates out of moments ending before we can grasp them. She is like some sculptor of something made out of fine, iridescent glass

Forgive the not-really-saying-anything-about-what-the-collection-of stories-is-really about, but no prospective reader should have the magic of their own discovery spoiled

Contrary to my usual habit, I post no excerpts of her writing, as each story needs to be read in entirety. Obviously, this can be done on Look Inside, (or hanging around in a bookshop, even better) to get a flavour. The first, very dark story perfectly illustrates the quote from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which Campbell has used to preface this collection

“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attracted to one another”

Animals, that first story, is horribly dark, mesmeric and also, incredibly moving

A final high five must go to the publishers, Two Roads. The book itself is a thing of beauty, and each story has a lovely line drawing to illustrate it. As no artist is credited I can only assume the illustrations are by Campbell herself

My only advice to a reader is : do not rush and race through these stories. Each is perfectly satisfying and tasty, and if you eat too many at a sitting, you will miss a lot. I rationed myself to one a day, and let the stories settle and unfold

I’m certainly going to be keeping an eye out for future writing by Jen Campbell. She is a poet and author for children, and created a series of books about ‘Weird things people say in bookshops’ having worked in bookshops for ten years, but this, highly assured book is her first adult fiction foray. Perfectly done

I’ve been excited for this book for a long time – Jen Campbell’s first collection of adult fiction. Up until now, she’s written non-fiction, poetry and this year she released her first children’s picture book (it’s fab) so I couldn’t wait to dive into this collection of short stories. I wasn’t disappointed!

Jen shares with us 12 tales which draw upon her love of myths, fairytales and their histories. Her writing is captivating as she weaves stories that are all individual and highly memorable. It’s dark at times, strange and whimsical too – and you’ll find it impossible to put it down after each story. I intended to savour this book but I devoured it, I didn’t want to leave Jen’s writing. The perfect mixture of fantasy and magical realism, this book is not to be missed.

I’ve been a fan of watching Jen Campbell’s histories of fairy tales on her YouTube channel for some time. She gives fascinating descriptions of the dark content and themes of these stories which have been passed down through generations and illuminates how the original tale is often far different from a Disney interpretation. So I was incredibly eager to read this series of original modern-day fairy tales she’s written in her first collection of short fiction “The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night”. These are stories about fantastical situations such as purchasing hearts online, capturing ghosts to sell on the black market, a hotel where the guests sleep in coffins and a far away planet that acts as a time capsule. These distorted versions of the world often inventively shed new light on our emotional reality by ruminating on conditions such as love, jealousy, greed and the origin of existence. It makes this book such a richly rewarding and pleasurable reading experience.

Integral to these tales is the compulsion for storytelling itself. Characters read about stories, tell each other stories or make up stories themselves. Some are riffs on established fairy tales, bible tales or mythology that poignantly comment on the central thread of story. So a story about teenage pregnancy recounts a version of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ that creates a powerful connection to ideas about food and nourishment. Another story incorporates aspects of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ to comment upon a lost friend and a sense of freedom. Others invent whole new kinds of tall tales to bring chaotic emotions and unwieldy feelings into some sort of order. These beautifully show the way classic stories can be incorporated into and made relevant to our everyday life and how we can write ourselves into the myths we inherit. Campbell also often incorporates snippets of oddball history like the ritualized consumption of hearts or unusual natural science like an icefish with transparent blood. The real and unreal mingle on the page to show the complex way in which we perceive, interpret and make sense of the world around us.

The visual arts also provide another portal of understanding for some characters. The endearing story ‘Jacob’ is composed in the form of a letter a boy writes to a weather woman looking for special insight and he recounts a trip to a museum where he was overwhelmed by a painting that depicts when God flooded the earth. The deeply moving story 'Margaret and mary and the end of the world' describes how a pregnant girl goes to view Dante Rossetti’s Ecce Ancilla Domini and meditates on the condition of womanhood. In that painting the angel Gabriel is strikingly depicted as having his feet on fire and the artist modelled the ambivalent figure of Mary on his own sister, the writer Christina Rossetti whose extended poem ‘Goblin Market’ is such a wondrous joy.

Quite often when artwork is depicted in novels I feel a compulsion to actually go view that piece of art as I did reading Ali Smith’s “How to Be Both” and Neil Hegarty’s “Inch Levels”. So I felt the same in this instance wanting to see Rossetti’s painting in person. I took the bus to Trafalgar Square to see it at the National Gallery (since it’s currently on loan there from the Tate). Something quite randomly wonderful happened on my journey where I was listening to Rebekah Del Rio’s song ‘No Stars’ on a loop. This track has been frequently drifting through my mind since I saw it performed in Twin Peaks The Return. While listening to this I read Campbell’s title story ‘The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night’ about a couple speculating on both the creation of the universe and the start of their relationship at 3AM. When Evelyn asserts that in the beginning there was nothing but stars Julian critiques her by replying that stars aren’t nothing. Evelyn corrects herself saying there were no stars. This fit so perfectly with my listening not only in the repetition of there being “no stars”, but in the way both the song and story solemnly consider the meaning of a relationship. It was a fun little coincidence.

The imaginative exuberance of this collection makes it such an enjoyable and stunningly fascinating book. Some of the stories like ‘Animals’ or ‘Aunt Libby’s Coffin Hotel’ revel in gothic delights and build plots of dramatic tension. Others such as ‘Plum Pie. Zombie Green. Yellow Bee. Purple Monster.’ and ‘Human Satellites’ more abstractly provoke you to consider new ideas and perspectives. Then others make arresting points about the nature of war or the stigma surrounding deformity while immersing the reader in a trip to a gay pride celebration in Brighton or a tour around an aquarium. Jen Campbell’s writing sits snugly alongside such excitingly inventive modern short story writers such as Kirsty Logan, Jackie Kay, Daisy Johnson or Ali Smith.