Ruby

by Nina Allan

Named as one of '50 Writers You Should Read Now' by The Guardian. From the award-winning author of The Rift, Nina Allan, this early story-cycle explores the lives touched on by the enigmatic, elusive figure of Ruby Castle.Multi-award-winning author Nina Allan takes us on a journey exploring the elliptical nature of time and place, and in precise and beautiful prose explores the very nature of storytelling.The story of Ruby Castle is told in snapshots and fleeting glimpses and secret histories, in tales repeated and reinvented by those who fall under the horror film actress's her childhood sweetheart; an antiquarian bookseller with a passion for magical artefacts; the mistress of the poet who was once Castle's lover; a young girl in a future Russia who dreams of the stars.As worlds collide, the boundaries between the real and the fantastic begin to break down. Is Ruby Castle a living person or a collective fantasy? By the time the final page of Ruby is turned, the world that Castle created through her films has become dangerously indistinguishable from our own.

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2013

Reviews

[Alex (The Scribe Owl)]

Thanks to Edelweiss for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!

DNF at 23%

No no no. Too scary, too weird, too unnerving, this just wasn't the book for me. Now I'm going to try my best to forget it because I don't want nightmares. Scary is not my thing.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like The Silver Wind, Stardust is a collection of interconnected stories. They revolve around circus performer and actress Ruby Castle. ‘Revolve around’ in the loosest sense – despite the subtitle The Ruby Castle Stories, many contain only a passing reference to the character. Superficially, they seem very different: a tale about a travelling circus in the English countryside, imbued with ancient horror; a story set in a future version of Russia; a little girl going missing in 1930s Germany.

As is often the case with Allan’s fiction, some of the pleasure lies in puzzling out the connections. The references to Ruby Castle are the obvious link, of course, but not the only link. Perhaps they’re even a red herring. In almost every story in Stardust there is an uncanny disappearance/reappearance. The lost come back as ghosts, people wander through time, characters fake their deaths. Fiction bleeds into reality: as the blurb says, ‘by the time the final page of Stardust is turned, the world that Castle created through her films has become dangerously indistinguishable from our own’.

At the same time as putting together this review, I was working on my ‘best books of 2018’ newsletter, and articulating what I love about Allan’s writing in general made me realise what was lacking for me in Stardust. I usually find Allan’s characters instantly relatable, human, really real, but here they’re a little more remote – not least Ruby Castle herself. If The Silver Wind is the definitive history of Martin Newland, told directly by different versions of the character himself, Stardust only skirts around the titular figure, revealing frustratingly brief glimpses.

So, this is by no means my favourite Nina Allan book, but it still has much to recommend it. Its complexity is astounding (as evidenced by the enormous write-up below, which, btw, I don’t expect anyone to read. I just like to record my thoughts about every Nina Allan story so I don’t forget or miss anything). Some of the stories are excellent standalones too: my favourites were ‘The Gateway’ and ‘The Lammas Worm’.

---
‘B-Side’ is about 13-year-old chess prodigy Michael Gomez. In the aftermath of a major loss, consumed by thoughts of failure, he is attacked by bullies, then rescued by a friend of his mentor, only to be given some advice that upsets him further. Later in the story he has an impossible-yet-real meeting with the villains from two of Ruby Castle’s films. Michael escapes this series of frightening encounters only to find that an unsettling ‘gift’ has been left in his bedroom: a wind-up toy which depicts his rescuer, Colin Wilkes, eternally trapped in a losing game of chess. The small, imprisoned figure reminded me of ‘Vivian Guppy and the Brighton Belle’, published the same year as Stardust in the anthology Rustblind and Silverbright.

Ruby Castle connection: Michael has a crush on Ruby; she is the ‘woman of his dreams’. We learn Ruby was a circus performer-turned-actress, and later became infamous for murdering her married lover. Characters from her films The Puppeteer and American Star appear to Michael as he walks across Blackheath Common.

‘The Lammas Worm’ is narrated by Marek, a knife-thrower in a travelling circus, and the story focuses on the addition of a talented runaway, Leonie, to the troupe. Leonie is a strange, feral girl who appears very young: Marek tells people he thinks she's 15 but privately believes she is younger. This makes her sexual relationship with an adult member of the circus, Piet, particularly disturbing – though Piet himself is perceived as childlike by others because of his dwarfism. Marek also desires Leonie, while at the same time feeling repulsed. During sex with his girlfriend, he fantasises about ‘battering [Leonie] so hard with my body that it broke her bones’; one of those strikingly horrible sentences Allan is so good at deploying.

This theme of childish but sexualised girls, often involved in relationships with older men, is a recurrent theme in Allan’s fiction – one that comes up more explicitly, yet less disturbingly, in ‘Stardust’, when Alina narrowly avoids being assaulted by a neighbour. It’s a theme I strongly dislike reading about and would take pains to avoid if not for the fact that it tends to feature in the work of a writer who has become my favourite. I mention this because I was certainly not predisposed to like this story, yet it turned out to be one of the highlights of Stardust.

Of course, Leonie – always portrayed as somewhat animal-like – is not fully human, if we believe Marek’s account. In the thick of his obsession with her, he visits her hometown and learns of the Lammas Worm, ‘a giant mythical land leech’ to which young women would be sacrificed, subsequently giving birth to mutant creatures. Piecing together this myth with news reports of a murder, Marek develops some convictions about Leonie... but is he, and are we, ever quite sure what they are? There is more than a trace of folk horror about ‘The Lammas Worm’ (I thought of the 70s horror film The Blood on Satan’s Claw), giving it a distinctly different texture to the other stories. It is also the most visual, conjuring up images both beguiling and grotesque.

Ruby Castle connection: This is the only story to actually feature Ruby. She performs with Marek – the two of them grew up together – and tells him about her plans to leave the circus and become an actress. Marek and Ruby are ‘astrological twins’, sharing the same birthday.

A circus is also instrumental in ‘The Gateway’, which I loved. Set either side of the Second World War, it follows bookseller Andrew as he reunites with a former friend, Thomas Emmerich. The two men have a complicated history: Andrew had an affair with Thomas’s wife Hermine, and the Emmerichs’ daughter, Claudia, was with Andrew (visiting the circus) when she disappeared. Despite all this, there’s still warmth between the two men, and a large portion of the story is made up of a letter Thomas has written for Andrew: the story of his quest to find out what happened to Claudia.

The circumstances of Claudia’s disappearance are strange, and correspondingly, Thomas’s research is unusual. He seeks out the rare work of the Gelb brothers, carpenters and artists who may have created the hall of mirrors Claudia was last seen in. This is where ‘The Gateway’ really comes into its own – the descriptions of the Gelbs’ otherworldly creations and Andrew’s inexplicable experience are simply so magical. The coda set in London is rather weak in comparison and, I think, unnecessary. Nevertheless, ‘The Gateway’ sticks in the memory as the most complete story in Stardust.

Ruby Castle connection: Her name pops up in Thomas’s research: her grandfather commissioned a carousel from the Gelb brothers. (So we can infer several generations of Castles were circus performers.)

The protagonist of ‘Laburnums’, the shortest story in the book, is Christine. She seems to have wandered out of an Anita Brookner novel: a 40-year-old copy editor who lives with her cantankerous mother; a would-be poet who spends her weekends writing in the North Kensington Library. Christine is haunted by visions of her old friend Amma, though it is unclear whether Amma is in fact dead. At the end, a throwaway remark casts doubt on Christine’s perspective. It’s a subtler version of the twist Allan uses in ‘Orinoco’.

Ruby Castle connection: Christine is in a relationship (of sorts?) with Matthew Cleverly, a poet who interviewed Ruby in prison, was rumoured to have been in love with her, and later wrote a book inspired by her.

‘Stardust’ begins: ‘In my country July the tenth 2029 is remembered by everyone as the date of the Anastasia space disaster.’ The voice belongs to 13-year-old Alina, and her country is, we come to understand, a version of Russia. Yet the date she mentions is significant to her for another reason: it’s the day Sofie, her grandfather’s second wife, was killed by her ex-husband (the family trees in this story are rather tangled). I’m not sure why, but this story reminded me of The Trick is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway. Maybe it’s the setting, the desolate estate that somehow doesn’t quite feel Russian, or the sense of a tight-knit community, a makeshift family.

Like Christy in The Race, Alina knows she is destined to become a writer. This is as much a coming-of-age story as it is science fiction. The twin tragedies of 10 July are defining moments for Alina, and at the end we find her leaving home and family behind, taking a journey that’s symbolic as well as literal. This is only underlined by the fact that, while travelling, she makes a startling discovery – a moment of destabilisation comparable to Christine’s in ‘Laburnums’.

Ruby Castle connection: A film in which Ruby has a minor role, Scaffold Point, briefly appears on TV after news of the Anastasia crash is announced. Alina is reminded that she’s always thought Ruby and Sofie look alike. ‘Stardust’ also has links with two earlier Allan stories, ‘Angelus’ and ‘Flying in the Face of God’.

‘Wreck of the Julia’ is the title of a painting won at auction by Vernon, a widower who isn’t a widower (his wife Eloise is believed to have died in a plane crash; in fact, she never boarded the flight, and used the incident as an excuse to vanish). Through the painting he meets Clarissa, the niece of the artist, and they travel to the Canary Islands to research the story behind it. Vernon has an unusual reason for his interest in ‘Wreck of the Julia’: it appears to depict a vivid recurring dream he had in the aftermath of Eloise’s disappearance.

This is an enjoyable story, culminating in a good weird twist, but for some reason it didn’t stick in my memory at all – I had to reread it to remind myself what it was about. Perhaps this was because it is the most conventional and therefore the least Nina Allan-ish.

Ruby Castle connection: There’s no direct reference here. Instead, there are links to some of the other stories, drawing the narrative even further away from Ruby, spinning out to people who have second- or third-hand connections to her. It may well be the most important story in terms of pulling all the threads of Stardust together. There is an appearance from Mark Cleverly, son of Matthew, the poet from ‘Laburnums’. Martin Foerster, mentioned as a survivor of the real-life incident that inspired the painting, is the man Hermine eventually leaves Thomas for in ‘The Gateway’. Another of the survivors is the grandmother of Michael from ‘B-Side’.

‘Red Queen’ is not a story but a poem, ostensibly taken from The High Wire and Other Transgressions, Matthew Cleverly’s collection of poetry based on Ruby’s life. It references something also mentioned in ‘The Lammas Worm’, a birthday when Ruby was presented with a cake in the shape of a castle. Interestingly, however, Matthew’s book was meant to have been a poem cycle (as Stardust is a story cycle), so the meaning of ‘Red Queen’ is presumably diminished by its isolation. As an epilogue to the stories, it is emblematic of Stardust as a whole: enigmatic, opaque, the meaning just out of reach.

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[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruby is the latest in Titan Books’ reissues of Nina Allan’s earlier work. It was formerly known as Stardust: The Ruby Castle Stories, published as a limited edition hardback by PS Publishing in 2013. As with The Silver Wind, I’ve already written an exhaustive review of the original edition and don’t intend to write in detail about every story all over again. But, in brief: the seven stories loosely (sometimes very loosely) circle the character of Ruby Castle, a circus performer who becomes famous as an actress, then infamous for killing her lover. The perspectives include one of her circus colleagues; a boy who idolises her; and a poet who makes his name with a book inspired by her. Others are more esoteric and rely on distant connections, for example the second-to-last story, in which nobody mentions or encounters Ruby at all, but several familiar names from the earlier stories appear.

The stories have all been lightly edited, their rough edges sanded off. But while the Titan edition of The Silver Wind included three stories that did not appear in the original, I was under the impression this book contained no new material. So imagine my surprise and delight to find there is, in fact, a whole new story – almost. In Stardust, ‘Red Queen’ is a short poem ostensibly written by Matthew Cleverly, a character from the earlier story ‘Laburnums’. In Ruby, it is fleshed out into a story (still intercut with extracts from the poem) in which Matthew visits Ruby Castle in prison. This shifts the focus of whole book considerably, since the original version never allows Ruby to tell her own story. Indeed, ‘Red Queen’ is not framed as her story either – it’s about Matthew, how he finds his ‘muse’ and turns her tragedy into his own success. Like much of Ruby, the story is tricksy, many-sided. It is frustrating to be able to ‘see’ Ruby but to be confined to Matthew’s perspective, in which he believes (apparently baselessly) that they are in love. But she does get to speak, and emerges from the page as a complicated character: cold, guarded, yet unashamed.

I enjoyed revisiting the other stories, too. The eerie and magical ‘The Gateway’ is still the obvious standout. ‘The Lammas Worm’ remains, for me, a disturbing and difficult read, yet ultimately spellbinding, and undeniably memorable. ‘B-Side’, ‘Laburnums’ and ‘Wreck of the Julia’ are all strong, with the latter being key in tying all the threads together. Rereading ‘Stardust’ perhaps diminishes it a little – it’s the weakest link, with too many characters and a slippery setting. My opinion of the book as a whole remains largely unchanged: it isn’t Allan’s best work, but it’s a pleasing piece of the puzzle, and (as always) dazzling in parts.

I received an advance review copy of Ruby from the publisher through Edelweiss.

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[David Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really, really grateful to Titan Books for an advance copy of Ruby to consider for review.

Nina Allan is one of the authors who, when I see they have a new book coming, make me silently shout "YES!" (or sometimes not so silently). Her blending of the mundane and the fantastical, her referencing whole alternate worlds - sometimes bizarrely alien, sometimes only subtly different from ours - makes her books into wonderful, almost holographic puzzles, where the detail and the big picture contain the entirety of each other and every page is a joy to read.

So it is with Ruby. Told as a group of seven stories, this certainly IS the story of horror actress Ruby Castle even though at the same time, many of the stories say every little about her. Or seem to. Actually I think the less that's said, the more she may be present.

For example, I'm reasonably sure - though Allan doesn't say so - that one of the stories is actually one of Castle's films. It is a horror story, and the actress isn't mentioned - where would she be other than in plain sight? Alternatively, it may be that Castle's films are interacting with our world - which is to say, Allan's fictional world - there is a reference in that story to an escaped Nazi war criminal who features obliquely in another story seemingly set in Allan's "real world", one that mentions Castle's grandfather.

The stories can all the enjoyed in their own right and independently of the rest, but the more of them you read, the more links you'll see both in content (persons, events) and themes. Some are naturalistic and some contain (possible) elements of the supernatural - so for example The Lammas Worm is perhaps an (MR) Jamesian sort of horror, with a hinted at monster, but also establishes Castle's background and early years in a travelling show. The carnival life is a recurring theme, as it is in others of Allan's books (which have also I think explored the relationship between reality and films). Other, darker themes include the disappearance of children or young women. Some of these Arte explained or we can easily guess a link to the presence of predatory men, sometimes there may be other, more esoteric reasons.

Even where there is no death or disappearance, or it's hinted that the woman in question turned up again later, Allan often evokes a sense of menace, a feeling that something isn't right, an atmosphere of suspicion and misease. Indeed sometimes the manner of the "turning up" only fuels that unease, which is also underpinned by the timelines of the various pieces. Both between and within the stories there are jump cuts, flashbacks (and, in the case of one story set in 2029 onwards, forwards) and narratives in narratives. The result is, indeed, like a hall of mirrors, with events seen from different perspectives some (or all) of which may be distorted, and characters who keep secrets from each other. How unsettling it is for example to see a reunion between old friends after many years, but to have been told by one, the narrator, that he'd had an affair with the other's wife?

Reading over these last few paragraphs, I think I should emphasise that Allan's writing isn't all - indeed it is hardly at all - weird, shock horror stuff. Even when dealing with the eruption of the grotesque into real life, she writes carefully, restrainedly and, as a result, utterly convincingly. In London, a woman keeps meeting the ghost of her schoolfriend, missing some ten or twenty years. Two tourists witness a horror when stranded one night on a mountain: the next morning they reason it away and go on with their lives. A girl on a train discovers men who ought to be dead: she, too, simply accepts it as one of those things. The stories, even the shortest, tell us enough about what went before and what happens after (and sometimes other stories add to this) to give a sense of their characters' longer lives, of what sort of people they are where they came from, so these moments of strangeness never define the whole life or the person - except, ironically, for Ruby who does commit an act that will frame the rest of her life.

Ruby is simply awesomely, jaw-droppingly good, and will be one of my top reads of 2020. Don't delay, get this on your TBR pile (and right at the top).

[Rozanne Visagie · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Disclaimer: I was kindly gifted a copy of this book by Jonathan Ball Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

♠ PUBLISHED: January 2021 ♠ PAGES: 354 ♠ GENRE: Science Fiction, Horror Fiction, Fantasy Fiction ♠ Paperback ♠



Ruby written by Nina Allan immediately had my attention. I found the cover and synopsis so captivating that I just couldn't leave it on my TBR. This book consists of 7 short stories circling the character of Ruby Castle. We get to know Ruby as a circus performer who later becomes a famous actress who then murders her lover Raymond Latour.

As I started reading this book I couldn't put it down. The first two stories, B-SIDE and The Lammas Worm, had me rooted to the spot. Even though this book is described as Horror fiction, I did not find it scary but somewhat weird, especially The Lammas Worm. But as I read further I felt confused, at some point I felt like "What did I just read?"



I felt trapped inside one of the Gelb brothers' mirror mazes mentioned in The Gateway. It wasn't a bad feeling, I just felt disorientated.

If Ruby Castle was a painting, the 7 short stories are the colours used to paint her. The feeling I experienced while reading this book is different to what I've experienced before, it's an eerie feeling gripping the edges of your mind. The stories are well-written and the characters are interesting. I felt Stardust was a bit hollow compared to the other stories, but it might just be me. The other stories had a mystery to it and Stardust did not quite have the same effect. My absolute favourite is Wreck of the Julia, it kept me guessing and the revelations left me astonished. This is not a story with a traditional plot line, but a maze of different plot lines coming together and forming the picture of Ruby Castle.

This review is posted on my blog
https://willowscornerbook.wordpress.c...

[Jennie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book made no sense to me at all. It felt nothing like a novel with a central story - it was more like a group of unrelated short stories that each mention the title character in passing, pretty much apropos of nothing. Seriously: some sad person happens to say something like “it reminded him of that one movie starring Ruby Castle” and then back to Sad People Sadding Around Sadly. It’s a fast read but a lingering one? No. The only reason I kept reading was because I hoped there would be something that eventually connected the stories, but that never came. This is not, as the back cover promises “the story of Ruby Castle...told in snapshots and fleeting glimpses and secret histories....” Instead it’s lots of unhappy people, missing people, half-truths, and loose ends. It earns a resounding “meh” from me.

[Seregil of Rhiminee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at Risingshadow.

Every once in a while a speculative fiction reviewer finds an author who can immediately be called a quality author. Nina Allan is without a doubt a quality author who stands out as one of the most imaginative and gifted short storytellers of the last decade. She has become one of my favourite speculative fiction authors, because she shows real talent for writing beautiful and fascinatingly weird stories that seem to defy easy categorization. Her stories have plenty of depth and different layers.

Nina Allan is one of the brightest new rising stars of speculative fiction. She writes fascinating and intellectually stimulating stories that appeal to several readers. Her stories will especially appeal to readers who want high quality from their speculative fiction, because they offer a wide range of emotions all the way from sadness to melancholy, and the happenings are intriguing.

I recently read Nina Allan's Spin, which was a beautifully written and interesting novella, so I'm glad that I had a chance to read and review Stardust. Stardust is an excellent short story collection, because it contains strange and hauntingly beautiful stories. (I've always enjoyed reading all kinds of speculative fiction, but I have to admit that I love this kind of hauntingly beautiful fiction above all else.)

Stardust contains the following stories:
- B-Side
- The Lammas Worm
- The Gateway
- Laburnums
- Stardust
- Wreck of the Julia
- Red Queen (poem)

Stardust is a collection of stories about Ruby Castle, who is a bit mysterious movie star who became famous for her roles in horror films and then notorious for murdering her lover in a rage of jealousy. Bits and pieces of Ruby Castle's life are revealed in interesting ways in these stories. Each story shows a different aspect of her and things about her life. These stories also show how people feel about her and what kind of an affect she has had on them.

I think it's intriguing that the author writes about Ruby Castle this way, because it gives the readers a chance to collect the different pieces and try to figure out who Ruby Castle really is and what has happened to her. It was interesting for me to read what kind of a woman she was and how each story revealed a new side of her, because every person, who seemed to be fascinated by her and had fallen under her spell, thought about her in a different way. I loved every page of this collection and at the end I was totally fascinated by how the author had managed to write these stories about Ruby Castle.

In my opinion Stardust can be categorized as speculative fiction, which contains elements of fantasy fiction, science fiction and weird fiction. Nina Allan explores the slightly darker side of fantasy fiction in this collection, because weird things happen to the characters and the line between fantasy and reality begins to blur in dark and unexpected ways.

I think it's best not to reveal too much about the happenings in these stories, so I'll try to avoid spoilers. These stories must be read and experienced personally to understand how beautiful and enchanting they are, but I'll try to do my best to show you how good an author Nina Allan is by writing about my thoughts about the stories.

B-Side is a beautifully written story about Michael Gomez and his fascination in Ruby Castle's films. I admire Nina Allan's ability to create realistic characters, because Michael is a totally believable thirteen year old boy, who has difficulties accepting that he lost the chess tournament. She writes wonderfully about Michael and his problems. In my opinion she handles masterfully the scenes between Michael and Colin Wilkes and also writes perfectly about Michael's feelings about his chess teacher, Lennox. It was interesting to read how Michael's life took a strange turn when he met the evil puppeteer from Ruby Castle's film, because he shouldn't have existed in real life.

The Gateway is an exceptionally beautiful story about Andrew and Thomas who haven't seen each other for a long time. The letter that Thomas has written is the highlight of this story, because the author writes about family history and history in an intriguing way.

The Lammas Worm, Laburnums, Stardust and Wreck of the Julia are also powerful stories.

To be honest, Wreck of the Julia is one of the best and most fascinating stories I've read in a long time, because it's a real masterpiece of storytelling (it develops nicely from a normal story to a subtly weird story). The author writes fantastically about dreams, art, mountains and weird happenings in this story. The combination of dreams and reality creates a haunting atmosphere. Vernon's life and feelings towards Eloise and Clarissa are explored perfectly. When Vernon buys a painting called Wreck of the Julia things become even weirder, because he meets the artist's relative, Clarissa, and finds out several things about the painting and the artist...

Red Queen is an interesting poem about Ruby Castle, because it has been credited to Matthew Cleverly who was mentioned in the story Laburnums. Matthew Cleverly was a man who said to have been in love with Ruby Castle and wrote a cycle of poems about her.

That's all I'll write about these stories, because I don't want to write too many spoilers.

The characters in this collection are interesting, because Nina Allan brings them to life by writing fluently about their feelings, problems and lives. She has the ability to create living and breathing characters that have lives of their own. She lets her readers get to know the characters through the events that happen in the stories.

Stardust is a bit similar to Nina Allan's previous short story collection, The Silver Wind, because these stories are connected together. Everybody who has read The Silver Wind will notice how fluently the author has written these interlinking stories and how well she has created a weird atmosphere that keeps readers turning pages until they've reached the end of the collection. In these stories beauty, grief, weirdness, terror, secret histories and melancholy go hand in hand, so readers who like the author's previous stories will be in for a treat.

The prose in these stories is amazingly beautiful and nuanced, which is great, because it highlights the weirdness of the happenings. The author creates an interesting and seductive atmostphere with her words and sentences, so it's a pleasure to read these well constructed stories.

I'm sure that everybody who begins to read this collection will instantly forget everything else for a while and be transported into a world of literary beauty that's full of tender and cruel moments. There's plenty of seducing weirdness, human tragedies and fascinating darkness in these stories, so there are lots of interesting events in store for fans of speculative fiction.

Although Stardust is clearly a short story collection, it can also be seen as a novel, which has been split into six stories. Each story can be read as a standalone story, but Ruby Castle is the interlinking factor that connects the stories together. She and her movies are almost like ghosts from the past that haunt the characters in different ways.

I can highly recommend Stardust to readers who want to read quality stories and good prose. If you call yourself a fan of speculative fiction, you must read Stardust, because it's one of the best and most captivating and beautifully written collections published during the last couple of years. There's a darkly and strangely appealing nature to these stories, so I hope that as many readers as possible will put this collection to their reading list.

I also highly recommend Nina Allan's stories to readers who have read Christopher Barzak, Livia Llewellyn, Brendan Connell, R. B. Russell, Laird Barron and Richard Gavin. Her stories are totally different from these authors' stories, but she writes similar kind of literary prose that's full of depth and wonders.

If you haven't discovered Nina Allan yet, I urge you to read her stories. You'll love them!

Highly recommended!

[Mr Pink Ink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many thanks to Jonathan Ball Publishers for #Gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

“The problem with having a story is that everyone starts believing they know it by heart.”

Is this a short story collection with an interwoven theme or is this a segmented novel?

Whichever way you choose to look at it, Ruby is a beautifully written, lyrical piece of work binding characters and information from one story into another into yet another, ultimately threading a full-colour tapestry that is Ruby Castle. Each story has its own unique flavour, sometimes creepy, sometimes weird, each told at a different point in time yet it is just magnificent...!

I had absolutely no idea what I was in for, some friends seemed to really enjoy it, and the book itself is very eye-catching, but I was completely blown away. Highly recommend this almost masterpiece.

[The Captain · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ahoy there mateys! I have really enjoyed the author’s writing in the past and was excited for this one. I got a copy of this book in 2020 and have been trying to finish it ever since. After a last ditch attempt this weekend, I have decided to officially abandon it 66%. The book is a series of very loosely interconnected stories dealing with famous actress Ruby Castle. Four of the stories were lovely (the Gateway in particular) so I am super sad that this book didn’t work for me. I found the writing itself compelling in parts but not the overall piece. I think. Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for the review copy.

[Sasha ★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a fan of Nina Allan's work, I picked this book up with high expectations. Though it was enjoyable enough, I didn't feel like it was quite as good as either The Rift or The Race.

The book is a loosely-based collection of short stories, strung together by the recurring element of Ruby Castle, an actress who routinely shows up in small bit parts or gets mentioned by the narrator while they go about their own lives and adventures. None of the stories were outright bad, but I strongly preferred some more than others.

I think Stardust and Laburnum, in particular, were easily the best two and could have been expanded into full-fledged novels. I loved Alina and Christina's voices and was a little disappointed for them to go, replacing them with her less likeable male narrators. (It must be a coincidence but her men always seem to be somewhat selfish and pathetic compared to the lively, brave women - I especially disliked Marek and Andrew.) I feel like the first two stories where perhaps the weakest of all of them. Nina Allan is very skilled at crafting together an intruiging story and painting a picture, which is probably why I liked Stardust so much, Alina's anticipation of the space shuttle, her grandmother's sudden, violent death and her accidental discovery of perhaps a huge conspiracy, was all so good I was sad to see her go. Same with Christine and her constant visions of her dead best friend.

Unfortunately, because this read more like a collection of short stories than a full-fledged novel, I can't give this as many stars as I'd usually give because I never got the time to get properly emotionally invested. The book is supposedly answering a question about Ruby Castle, but she's so peripheral to a lot of the stories that I found myself not really caring about who she really was, because we never really get to see her properly except for small cameos here and there - a horror movie actress mentioned in passing here, a famous murder case there...if the goal was to create a collage of Ruby's life, I don't feel like it was carried off successfully. I wasn't that interested in some girl who may or may not have murdered her lover. The book was quite short so I feel like Red Queen could have stood to be a little longer (and would have benefited from being told from Ruby's perspective instead of another unlikeable male character interviewing her.)

That said, it was still a very enjoyable read and of the excellent quality I expect from Nina Allen, it was just too choppy and disjointed for me to feel a real emotional punch.

[Ace McGee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speculative fiction. Apparently that’s what you call this genre.

Extremely captivating. A half dozen or so ‘independent ‘ tales yet all linked by in some way, usually very minor and insignificant, to Ruby. These links, often as not not based in what the majority of us would call reality, add together to give the reader a brief outline of Ruby’s history. All this leads to the ultimate tale where Ruby herself is featured.

As I read I found myself continuously flipping back to previous chapters, rereading and re-examining names and connections. Not all connections go to Ruby, some flow between characters of the individual stories. Most episodes are given no definite timeframe, but it seems easy to date & chronicle them. Then, one chapter is dated and your timeline is destroyed. This is impossible you say, and back you flip. Yet, there it is.

I tried to read only one chapter at a sitting and finish it without a break. Once the mood was set, each tale progresses rapidly and caught me up. Stay with the flow, keep reading and don’t break the spell.

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was not at all what I was expecting. The titular Ruby figures very little in the book and at times is simply referred to. Initially I was a bit disappointed by this, but Allan writes so beautifully and although it is an odd book, it’s very compelling. I’m so pleased that I have discovered Nina Allan and the book cover is gorgeous.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5! not at all what i was anticipating (a patchwork epistolary novel like the blurb kind of leads you believe it is) but a neat little collection of interconnected short stories that i would mostly classify as horror mixed w a classic english banality

[Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a book of short stories, quite excellent; as the novel it is presented and advertised as, wildly disjointed and disappointing.

[Anaïs Nin's Blk Sis · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5
I learned more about everyone and their mamma than Ruby Castle 🙃.

[Rachel Bridgeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here, for the first time, this revised and updated edition shows Ruby how she is meant to be read...or does it?

This is a brilliant, searching book which takes speculative fiction, rips up the rule books and resets the clock with 7 interwoven tales that will absorb and compel you to keep reading to the last word, no matter how late the hour.

It takes the perception of the reader, from the cover and the title, and completely tramples on them for Ruby moves through the pages of this novel as a concept. Mere glimpses of her are afforded, apart from in one tale, she moves behind the lines as a haunting notion who exists in the minds of those who saw her films and those who read about her.

Each tale is a self contained world which brings first and third person narrators through chess games, funfairs, a travelling circus and so much more. And as you read, you are slwoly absorbed into this world that Ruby inhabits where more is known about her than she herself can say. It makes you think about how people talk about each other, how we perceive those-especially in the public eye-and pick an affinity to some, even as others revile you.

The legend which has grown up around Ruby concerns the murder of her husband, a crime for which she is imprisoned, and which has been speculated against ever since. This much you glean from tale number one, 'B-Side', where a young boy has harsh lessons to learn on his way home from a chess match. He watches all the films she is in and gives the reader their first glimpse of Ruby as a film idol, a beloved horror film actress.

After that, she appears in various guises, glimpsed through the lens of the narrator's perceptions until, by the end, you have your very own idea of who, or what she means to you. It is an incredible feat of story telling with a genius cover design, that turns what you expect on its head whilst giving you so much more. Each story is haunting, lyrical and stranded through with horror in the form of ghosts, folk tales, legends and speculation. Each has a layer to add to Ruby's story and when it is done, you are left bereft for the experience that has now passed into memory. But never fear, there are more stories to be read by Nina if  indeed this is your first. And you can always return to page one and start over again....

[Elska Bee]

This was actually a DNF at 50% but I read enough that I want to count it and provide some thoughts on the stories I managed to get through

First story: 3.5 stars
Very intriguing and weird with some cool moments, maybe a bit too short?

Second Story: 1 stars
It dragged on and on. A lot of my problems stem from personal taste. I hated the main character, I didn't like how it developed and the pacing was all over the place. The end was extremely disappointing. Overall this one felt underdeveloped and honestly a bit too gross on multiple levels.

Third story: 2.5 stars
This might have gotten a higher rating if the pacing wasn't so weird. Some parts felt appropriate that they were out of order, but towards the end I just wanted it to be over instead of going on tangent after tangent.

In the end I decided that this author's style maybe just isn't for me and that I didn't want to sit through another disappointing story. Bigger fans of literary fiction would probably like this a lot more than me.

[Poppy Hobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This reads as a collection of 6 beautiful, strange, eerie short stories until the last one The Red Queen ties them together (slightly!). Each story is perfectly formed in it’s own right - I particularly enjoyed The Lammas Worm and The Wreck of the Julia.

Each has a twist, a mystery, a carnival, and a loose connection to film star Ruby Castle that could either all be linked, or could just be coincidence. They could be supernatural, but could also be explained.
It did leave me wondering whether the separate pieces
were intended to be set in the worlds created in the Ruby Castle films mentioned, perhaps her involvement brings these into reality?

The storytelling is great, as is the world-building. In so few words, Nina Allan manages to show you so much. My favourites books are those which leave you feeling as though there was an undertone that you haven’t quite grasped and this did that brilliantly! It left you with the feeling of smoke and mirrors that you get after visiting the circus.

Fascinating read and thoroughly enjoyed!

Reminds me of: Adverbs by Daniel Handler

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This really is an exceptional collection of short stories, richly layered and dense with portent. Characters are immaculately defined and engaging, and the stories themselves are perfectly formed. What I love about Nina's work is that she pulls no punches with genuine emotions - these characters live and breathe and initially appear to be living in a world recognisable to us, but then there is a 'tilt' and our expectations and the characters lives are so subtly subverted as to be almost nothing at all, yet this tilt affects them deeply. These are stories which resonate with the human condition and are recognisably weird. I can't recommended her work highly enough.

[El Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it's just me but books that defy categorisation by straddling the line between novel and short story collection have become increasingly popular in the past few years.

I enjoy Nina Allan's approach because she really stretches the conceit to its limits. Indeed, the inattentive reader could well miss some of the links between the pieces as connective thread becomes very fine at times. Despite that, the cumulative effect is impressive and by the end it's difficult to think of it as anything other than a whole rather than a disparate collection.

It seems to be obligatory to note when reviewing a short story collection that the quality or enjoyment isn't uniform so here goes! When 'Ruby' is good, which is often, it's very good indeed and the dips in my enjoyment were more down to taste rather than any real issues of quality.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

My expectation going in based on the synopsis was that this was going to be like Meet Me in Another Life where short stories built on each other and ended up leading to a conclusion - but this isn't that. It's just a short story collection where Easter eggs call back to other stories. And the stories are fine! But I just spent so long wondering how it was all going to come together that it felt like a letdown.

[Suzy C · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you’re looking for a collection of short stories that are very loosely related this book may be perfect. This took me a long time to read and felt slow/boring at times making it difficult to finish. It was hard to feel interested in the story since it kept changing - I did not particularly connect or care about the majority of the characters.

[Laura M. P. · Rating 2 out of 5]

C'est toujours aussi bien écrit mais autant "Complications" m'a emmené dans un tourbillon émotionnel, autant ce livre-ci m'a semblé plus esthétique qu'autre chose. C'est beau mais j'ai regardé ça de loin sans me sentir réellement impliquée.

[Gilles Russeil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arrêtez tout et précipitez vous sur les livres de Miss Allan ! 5 novellas somptueuses qui vous baladent du New-York des bas quartiers à la Russie de 2040, d'un cirque intinérant à l'Allemagne des années 30. Lisez je vous dis !!

[Susan Welch]

DNF. I decided to let this one go, I guess I didn't really "get" it and I wasn't having enough fun to keep trying to push my way through it. Plus there kept being icky creepy sexual elements to the stories and I was over it.

[Weez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the interconnected stories in Ruby were definitely better than others. I find it hard to rate because some parts of the book were 4 to 5 star while other parts really seemed to drag.

[Kittin · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting conceit to this book, I loved it. never really got to the titual character which I loved.

[Madeleine Nix · Rating 2 out of 5]

So strange
The weirdest thing I have even laid my eyes upon in my life
Also pedophelia

[Rory Wynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

so very strange, but so very beautiful

[Vika Rion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interseting collection of short stories with brief spill overs from one to the other