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The Coiled Serpent
The Coiled Serpent
Grudova, Camilla
0 pp
3.77
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars[ 4 of 5 stars ]5 of 5 stars
read, 2024
[edit]
Something weird and gross but it was so much fun.

Oh yes, it definitely is a nasty, disgusting experience and everything in it is very vivid. It was a collection of the most... colourful...? descriptions of all the shades of crustiness. It was such a wild and funny ride, I was grossed out but also laughed out loud several times. My favourite stories weren't actually following a specific plot, rather setting an atmosphere and they just did it so well. I could, and would love to, see these scenes turned into short stop-motions films as they conveyed a similar uneasiness to them. Things felt cartoonish and distorted in a unique and exhilarating way.
I loved how they offered nods to real-life events like in the custard factory but the whole book felt out of time, although several stories were giving caricatural victorian era vibes -which I deeply enjoyed. This feeling was strengthen by the way some stories were referencing one another, as if everything was part of the same, self sufficent, wonky society.

Through Ceilings and Walls - 3,5
Ivor - 4/5
Description of a British Swimming Pool : 3,75/5
The Custard Factory - 4/5
The Green Hat - 5/5
A novel (or Poem) about Fan - 3,5/5
Mr Elephant - 3,25
Avalon - 3,5
The Poison Garden - 3/5
The Surrogates - 3+/5
Madame Flora's- 4,5/5
The Coiled Serpent- 4/5
The Meat Eater - 2/5
White Asparagus - 3/5

3,75/5
ARC provided by the publisher through Netgalley.

The Coiled Serpent is a unique and intriguing read. Grudova's writing style is distinct and often mesmerizing, weaving a tapestry of strange and fantastical elements. The story pulls you into a world that feels both surreal and oddly familiar. However, while the plot is engaging, it sometimes meanders, leaving some parts feeling a bit disjointed. Overall, it's a fascinating book for those who enjoy a touch of the bizarre in their literature, but it might not be for everyone.

I am a fan of the body horror genre, but The Coiled Serpent short story collection was too grotesque for me. I was in a constant state of disgust (which some people may enjoy?) and it felt as if the excessive inclusion of faeces, vomit, semen and general disgusting factors were only included for shock factor. A few of these stories had potential, most clearly when the author had some social commentary or overarching purpose. Standouts for me were the titular 'Coiled Serpent', 'The Meat Eater', and 'The Poison Garden'. I think this collection has great potential and will hopefully find the right readers.

3.75. I especially appreciated how creative and grotesque this collection was. It also commented on wretched poverty and misogyny really thoughtfully. Surreal and nightmarish horror throughout. However, sometimes it felt a bit too repetitive in its themes and descriptions.

I really enjoyed this book of short stories. I found them to be horrific but amazing. They were well written and better than I would have expected. I am excited to read more from this author.

This is a great collection of gruesome and horrifying short stories. I enjoyed the way this was written with some of the stories interconnecting even if some of them turned my stomach. I feel this collection has something for everyone from dystopia, gore, to straight up horrifying. Will definitely be checking out more from this author.

The first story almost turned me off away from reading the rest but then it just clicked. These stories are bizarre but in a great way. I liked how some just are here for shock value, while some due provide some commentary to todays culture. They do stay gross and remind me of Wes Anderson but make it shocking.
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I would defiantly be getting a physical copy of this book.
This are the type of stories you share with your friends in middle school or share with your friend mid blunt rotation.

I was a huge fan of Grudova's The Doll's Alphabet and this continues in the same vein.

Eerie and grotesque short stories. The titular one was my favourite but I also enjoyed Ivor and Fan.

Only thing keeping this from being 5 stars was a few stories were more plotless and vibes based then I tend to like. Still Grudova is an extreme talent and I will keep reading anything she writes.

This collection of stories is definitely singular. It is incredibly dark and bizarre, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It is incredibly well written. I really enjoyed the distanced stillness of the writing style. It almost reminded me of Lemony Snicket but for adults. It has all the dreary and dilapidated vibes of those books with an elevated level of horror and tragedy. It feels as though it belongs in a time period that never actually happened and is fantastical. The world building and descriptions are clearly a big strength of the writer.

Unfortunately I think this collection just was not to my taste. Some of the stories did accomplish what I think they were meant to, but many of them seemed aimless and ended abruptly. I often wanted more time with the story to see it fully fleshed out. It feels unfinished at points.

If you’re a reader who enjoys books on vibes and tone and feelings alone and you also love all things weird and macabre, this might really resonate with you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Unnamed Press for the ARC.

Excellent! Camilla Grudova's 'The Coiled Sperpent,' a short story collection of great originality and terrific writing style, stands far above most collections in the market today. The author's storytelling skills in short form and the attitude permeating the tales indicate an amazing talent at work However, the habit of ending the stories ambiguously will not be far and wide appreciated (as the characterization of "bizarre" seems to come up most often with the collection). It's important to have some knowledge of what Grudova aims to achieve: personally, I think she employs elements of horror to get across difficult to articulate insights into the current political and the social scene. Her insights are deep and unconventional, bordering (nay, diving into) the transgressive. Gender, social ostracism, and political unrest seem to stand behind the visceral imagery of body horror and revenge stories. These patterns seem to underlie my favorite stories: "The Surrogates," about surrogate pregnancy gone wrong; "Madam Flora’s," about menstruation, and "The Coiled Serpent," an amazing tale of sexual (non)gratification. In sum, I highly recommend this collection if one's up for some unsettling trips into the unarticulated undercurrents of western society.

This book is not for the faint of heart. The stories in The Coiled Serpent is for a specific type of reader, or for a reader looking for a specific type of thing. That thing being decay, rot, mold, and a whole lot of feces. But if you can stomach all of that, there are also stories of revenge, absurdity, and irony, with some black humor sprinkled in for a nice touch.

One thing I have come to enjoy about horror is how it can serve as social commentary by presenting twisted and warped reflections of reality (that isn’t actually that far-fetched if you stop and think about it.) Camilla Grudova does this so well in this short story collection. Because yes, while there is putrefaction, bodily fluids, and grotesque imagery, there are also the very real horrors of life under uncontrolled capitalism, the far-reaching effects of colonialism, class systems, shitty landlords, horrible employers, exploitation of immigrants and POC, and the audacity of men.

While the stories made me queasy and uncomfortable, Grudova’s writing is also filled with unique turns of phrases that I found so interesting and beautiful. My gripe is that some stories felt like they ended too abruptly. Am I weird for wanting more of this? I also loved how the stories never went in the direction I expected them to, but they always felt right by the end. This is my first time reading Grudova’s work, and hopefully, it won’t be the last.

Thank you to Unnamed Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Here are my favorite stories from the collection:

Ivor - Set in a boarding school where the second sons (even third, fourth, or fifth sons) are sent to live out their lives. The only bright side is the boy Ivor, who never seems to grow old, who remains beautiful and young, who all the boys love and adore.

Green Hat - Green has a history of being a deadly color. A woman plots against the man who caused the death of her daughter by way of a green hat. Hell hath no fury like a grieving mother.

The Poison Garden - “This garden is a woman’s friend.” Except when a man takes advantage of it for his own selfish agenda.

The Surrogates - A couple agrees to become surrogates for a hefty sum. Unfortunately, the would-be parents proved to be too controlling, constantly overstepping boundaries. The ending of this story horrified me.

Madam Flora’s - A girl loses her “monthly flowers” and is prescribed Madam Flora’s tonic, a medicine that tastes suspiciously like bl**d. And when that doesn’t work, she is sent to Madam Flora’s Hotel alongside other girls who have the same predicament.

The Coiled Serpent - Three tech bros find a “spiritual book” that promises enlightenment if they withhold from ej*cul*tion, and these dudebros take it to heart.

The Coiled Serpent is a short story collection of varying strange and eclectic stories, with themes of the human condition.

I thought this collection was very cool! Each story was well written for its subject matter, and I always love reading stories about how weird humans can be when pushed enough or of their own volition or from being nurtured in certain environments. Admittedly one or two stories I didn't entirely get but they were still enjoyable!

My favourite stories were The Poison Garden and Madame Flora's.

Highly recommend if you love a weird tale or two.

Thank you to NetGalley and Unnamed Press for the e-arc in exchange for a free, voluntary and honest review.

"Weird" is a great word for the stories in this collection.
I never knew where any of them were going, and the sheer grotesqueness of some of them really threw me off. As a veteran of horror and the subversive, that's tough to do.

A mixed bag of stories - some I loved, others fell short. Regardless, this was a good one time read.

The short stories in The Coiled Serpent feel like they've been plucked straight from the kind of weird dreams you only get after a night of seriously heavy eating. They're bizarre, unsettling, and yet so incredibly vivid! Each story transports you to a different time and place, yet they're all connected by recurring themes, food being one of them. And anything can qualify food—from custard and white asparagus to human flesh.

My favorites were "Description and History of a British Swimming Pool" (I'll never go to a swimming pool again) and "The Meat Eater", both showcasing the book's skillful blend of the macabre and the mundane.

I gave it 3 stars (it's more like a 3.5) because, unfortunately, more than half of the stories didn’t really grab me. They were often a bit too bizarre and tended to end abruptly, leaving me hanging just as the lengthy setups seemed about to pay off.

A fantastic anthology of the most bizarre tales! If you appreciate the unsettling and the peculiar, you'll find each of these short stories captivating. Each narrative is uniquely distinct from the others, delivering an impressive impact despite their brevity. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and highly recommend it to anyone in search of something truly different!

4.25 stars! I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This was such a great collection of short stories! They were the perfect mix of whimsy and macabre while packing a punch in as few pages as possible.

An enchantingly bizarre collection of stories that I adored! Not a single one of these horrifying short stories disappointed, the writing was weird and wonderful and you should definitely give this a read.

The Coiled Serpent by Camilla Grudova

Did you ever read a book that spoke to you and was exactly what you needed when you needed it? This was that for me. The Coiled Serpent hit me exactly in the right spot. Each of these short stories are bizarre and disturbing. The whole book is deliciously weird and I loved every second of it.

The stories honestly defy description (making my job pretty tricky) but I can tell you that they were surrealism at its finest. They made me uncomfortable, they made me laugh, they made me do a double take. There is a goodreads description on the second slide but if you want to skip that and go in blind you'll have just as much fun, I promise

@unnamedpress (the publisher of A Certain Hunger) is printing and releasing the US debut of this fever dream of a short story collection and even though I got to read it digitally via @netgalley I'm looking into buying this book physically so I can lend it out and to as many of my friends as possible so I have someone to talk to about this insane piece of art I just read.

Ooooof. I loved Children of Paradise, which definitely did have a bit of a crusty aspect to it, but I am not sure how I feel about these stories, which shoot way past crusty into the territory of the grotesque and the disgustingly visceral. A provocative collection of short stories that blends surrealism, body horror, and social commentary, The Coiled Serpent is an incredibly unsettling reading experience in the form of experimental fiction (?) satire of the Great British institutions. I only know this because I read a Guardian article which clued me into that bit. Until that point, I thought I was just reading a series of gross, surreal stories. Now I feel like an idiot. In Grudova's distinct style of writing that is sharp, witty, and unapologetically transgressive, these stories explore themes of class struggle, capitalism, and gender issues, often alongside repulsive imagery and the nastiness of bodily functions. Her matter-of-fact delivery of the absurd and horrific adds to the stories' disquieting atmosphere. The Coiled Serpent shows off Grudova's wild imagination and her commitment to pushing boundaries to create stories that'll stick with you – like so much faecal matter on filthy toilets or spoilt custard crusting to an unruly mustache--even if sometimes you wish they wouldn't.