(I received a copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

A recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband. An elderly lady with Charles Bonnet’s syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly-formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. A woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire. And a crime committed long-ago is revenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion year old stromatalite.
In these nine tales, Margaret Atwood ventures into the shadowland earlier explored by fabulists and concoctors of dark yarns such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Daphne du Maurier and Arthur Conan Doyle – and also by herself, in her award-winning novel Alias Grace. In Stone Mattress, Margaret Atwood is at the top of her darkly humorous and seriously playful game.

Not a lot needs to be said about Margaret Atwood. I hate using clichés but the truest thing I can think of when describing a new Atwood novel is to expect the unexpected. It's a trite phrase but, truly, when you start into this collection of short stories, it is the best advice I can give.

The stories themselves are rich and varied, crossing from supernatural to gothic horror, from mythology to folk stories. Each story is certainly well worth its inclusion in this collection. I absolutely loved Torching the Dusties (the name alone is awesome, is it not?) - a story of today's youth unhappy with the world that the retirees have left, so they decide to torch the retirement homes - with the inhabitants inside. However, the highlight of that story is Wilma (read it to find out why!)

Why, then, not 5 stars? I am just not sure that the 9 stories all belong together in one book. I didn't get that overwhelming sense of the stories fitting a theme or a concept - just felt like nine stories shoved into a book for the sake of selling another Atwood publication.

However, there is nothing at all wrong with the stories themselves and, on that basis, it is highly recommended.


Paul
ARH