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Inheritances of Hunger
"In this collection, Stella Lei brings us visions of hunger with an artist's eye for detail. Every story is vivid, shining, full of power. While the reader is pulled into the characters' hunger and desire, we are left sated by the gift of these cutting, beautiful stories."
- Cathy Ulrich, author of Ghosts of You
"Inheritances of Hunger by Stella Lei is written with the verve of youth, but with the language and resonance of a master. Lei wields her use of white space and staccato rhythms like a maestro guiding the reader through moments of character weakness and triumph. These characters, intimate in voice and the representation of shimmering details, draw the reader close, showing them a new or forgotten world that surrounds us all if we’re willing to look hard enough. These stories linger long after reading!"
- Tommy Dean, Editor in Chief of Fractured Lit
"This is not your average family drama. In five raw, gutting stories, Lei pulls us into a post-apocalyptic girlhood where bloodline means blood spilled, where childhood games have chilling conclusions, where mothers give daughters voice and teeth, teach them to sing and teach them to bite. But Lei’s stories are as universal as they are specific; reading her work, you have the feeling that she is slipping her blade beneath your skin, revealing a world that could exist, or maybe already does. A cutting, thrilling, and delightfully subversive collection.
- Kaya Dierks, Fiction Editor of GASHER Press
- Cathy Ulrich, author of Ghosts of You
"Inheritances of Hunger by Stella Lei is written with the verve of youth, but with the language and resonance of a master. Lei wields her use of white space and staccato rhythms like a maestro guiding the reader through moments of character weakness and triumph. These characters, intimate in voice and the representation of shimmering details, draw the reader close, showing them a new or forgotten world that surrounds us all if we’re willing to look hard enough. These stories linger long after reading!"
- Tommy Dean, Editor in Chief of Fractured Lit
"This is not your average family drama. In five raw, gutting stories, Lei pulls us into a post-apocalyptic girlhood where bloodline means blood spilled, where childhood games have chilling conclusions, where mothers give daughters voice and teeth, teach them to sing and teach them to bite. But Lei’s stories are as universal as they are specific; reading her work, you have the feeling that she is slipping her blade beneath your skin, revealing a world that could exist, or maybe already does. A cutting, thrilling, and delightfully subversive collection.
- Kaya Dierks, Fiction Editor of GASHER Press
32 pages, Unknown Binding
First published April 15, 2022
27 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 30, 2022
Read my interview with Stella wherein she discusses this very book here: https://ottavia.substack.com/p/signif...
August 28, 2023
Gifted with a confident voice, an adroit command of symbolism and imagery, an exquisite precision of detail, and a penchant for the discomfiting, aberrant, and monstrous, Lei writes prose with the intensity of a Cathy Ulrich or a K-Ming Chang, albeit less febrile than Chang and perhaps a touch more grotesque than Ulrich. These troubling stories link blood ties and blood stains, the bondage of family and the baiting of flesh, with a controlled ambiguousness allowing each piece to mean more than it says.
I review the book at greater length on Medium (non-paywalled link).
I review the book at greater length on Medium (non-paywalled link).
April 27, 2022
Loved it, blurbed it, everyone should read it!! (Yes that means you!)
December 22, 2022
Stella is an absolutely breathtaking writer. Every piece in this chapbook is outfitted with gorgeous prose and vicious bloodlines. There's nothing quite like her voice and concise finality.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews