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Angel Caging
'It rapes carpets. Nice pedal, ' said Mags. It wasn't what she was trying to say. Not nearly. Not again, she thought.
How do we get out when the world traps us inside? There is no single escape for the characters in these twenty-nine short and very short stories. Some of them break, some unwind, some rewind, some leave the planet, some scream at the wind, others lock themselves away and forget they were ever here. One or two simply ascend. It's often the only practical way out of the cage.
Martin Reed's short fiction has been published widely in print and online. This is his first collection.
How do we get out when the world traps us inside? There is no single escape for the characters in these twenty-nine short and very short stories. Some of them break, some unwind, some rewind, some leave the planet, some scream at the wind, others lock themselves away and forget they were ever here. One or two simply ascend. It's often the only practical way out of the cage.
Martin Reed's short fiction has been published widely in print and online. This is his first collection.
- GenresFictionAnthologies
136 pages, Paperback
Published December 30, 2016
About the author
Martin Reed
1 book32 followersMartin Reed's short fiction has been published widely in print and online. His debut story collection, ANGEL CAGING, is published by Proximate Dawn.
Martin lives in London with his partner and two children, where he works for UK authors' union The Society of Authors and is currently editing his first novel and drafting a second.
Martin lives in London with his partner and two children, where he works for UK authors' union The Society of Authors and is currently editing his first novel and drafting a second.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 30, 2017
“Angel Caging” by Martin Reed is a splendid assortment of 29 short stories. I was lucky enough to have won a signed print copy of this book on Goodreads and want to take a moment to thank Martin for that pleasure. Oft-times anthologies will follow the same genre from one story to the next, but this was not the case in this reading. Martin was able to change from one genre to another throughout this book. From satire to macabre, from science fiction to contemporary literature Martin does not miss a beat. This book was such a pleasure to read and was quite entertaining from start to finish. There were a couple of stories that really stood out for me, “Inbetweening” and “The Dust Vault” are brilliant in my opinion. A debut well worth your time. I look forward to reading much more by Martin Reed in the future.
(From back cover):
A stand-up comic searches for the funny side of childhood depression, an interstellar poet learns the hard way about time dilation, a father and son bond through pig abuse, fruit flies get organised while turkeys celebrate the fall of man, and somewhere in England a woman loses her words while her husband watches X Factor.
These short stories are by turns haunting, evocative, absurd and human.
Martin Reed’s short fiction has been published widely in print and online. This is his first collection.
(From back cover):
A stand-up comic searches for the funny side of childhood depression, an interstellar poet learns the hard way about time dilation, a father and son bond through pig abuse, fruit flies get organised while turkeys celebrate the fall of man, and somewhere in England a woman loses her words while her husband watches X Factor.
These short stories are by turns haunting, evocative, absurd and human.
Martin Reed’s short fiction has been published widely in print and online. This is his first collection.
June 27, 2017
This is a great little book of stories! It's a perfect beach read..or anywhere read!
August 1, 2022
An eclectic collection
I think the author puts it best when he describes this book as similar to a music album.
There are some you want to read again, that just resonate with you. There are some that are interesting, you wouldn’t hate to read again but you wouldn’t read the book for them. Then there are those that if it was a music album you use the skip function.
Lots of different styles some super short others a few pages but probably at least a few stories that most people will enjoy. I know I did.
I think the author puts it best when he describes this book as similar to a music album.
There are some you want to read again, that just resonate with you. There are some that are interesting, you wouldn’t hate to read again but you wouldn’t read the book for them. Then there are those that if it was a music album you use the skip function.
Lots of different styles some super short others a few pages but probably at least a few stories that most people will enjoy. I know I did.
May 8, 2017
I won this in a Goodreads giveaway. What a fun piece of literature this was. Twenty- nine short stories crammed into 123 pages. As with most short story collections, not everything hit the bulls eye, but the majority were well written and on the mark. Martin Reed is from the United Kingdom and wanted a hint of how the stories would be perceived here. In my humble opinion he gets a high grade and a pat on the back for a job well done.
August 2, 2019
So so so happy I bought this book.
Really quick and easy to read, which is exactly what I was looking for.
Such a variety of stories that kept surprising me as I read on. Some of them creeped me out, some of them amazed me, some of them made me tear up and cry and some warmed my heart.
Really, really good stories and so different from what I'm used to reading.
Really quick and easy to read, which is exactly what I was looking for.
Such a variety of stories that kept surprising me as I read on. Some of them creeped me out, some of them amazed me, some of them made me tear up and cry and some warmed my heart.
Really, really good stories and so different from what I'm used to reading.
March 26, 2018
Short stories are not for me.
It's not that I didn't enjoy some of the stories throughout this, but I think this type of short stories don't do enough for me. Some felt like obscure writings with nothing but nonsense.
I tried, but not my type of book.
It's not that I didn't enjoy some of the stories throughout this, but I think this type of short stories don't do enough for me. Some felt like obscure writings with nothing but nonsense.
I tried, but not my type of book.
March 10, 2018
Off kilter short stories
April 18, 2018
I loved about 2/3 of this book
It's premise and line of movement was jittery but the feeling put into the words kept me reading this collection
It's premise and line of movement was jittery but the feeling put into the words kept me reading this collection
May 31, 2018
I liked a few of these short stories, but mostly they just didn't draw me in or "click" with me.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews