Status Updates From Furies: Stories of the wick...

"'god, she was brave.'
did she have any choice?
the way these women almost killed themselves to make it all right for everyone. to soften the blow. did men who were dying have to do that?"

"something has happened to her in that she has stopped being herself and does not know how to get back to that person."

I guess that is what happens with short stories - there are so many different themes they cannot all be the right taste. I of course loved the focus on women in each one though as I am really interested in discussions around gender. I think the premise of each story reinventing a term used to negatively describe women was really interesting as well.

I really enjoyed the focus on the menopause in this one and so many different women's experiences with it although there was a lot of switching between them which was slightly confusing. Clearly there were a few which I really liked (particularly Hussy and Harridan), a lot that I liked but had slight drawbacks and many that I didn't have much interest in.

Tygress reminded me slightly of Mrs Fox which I read last year - like I didn't expect it to be about a person who literally turned into a tiger. I thought this was done better though as the symbolism and reason for her being a tiger specifically based on racial stereotypes was really interesting; and finally Dragon.

Spitfire was very well written and I liked the idea of the woman wanting to know more about her mother (I also liked the way real facts were integrated as they were interesting); Fury was the final one I read as I didn't do them in order and although not interesting to begin with the women throwing stones at the Germans was so iconic and I can't believe that actually happened!

I liked Banshee and the fact that the girl killed her dad was literally insane; She-devil was a comic strip which I enjoyed for a change although the story was slightly confusing and I am not entirely sure what was actually happening; I liked the theme of Muckracker (a woman dating widowed men) but she kept talking about so many different men it got confusing.

Actually maybe Harridan was my favourite, I really loved the story of this one (although it being set in Covid did throw me a bit), it was written very realistically and the feud between the neighbours was interesting; Warrior is definitely not the sort of thing I would usually read about (tribes fighting each other) but it was still quite interesting.

Wench was quite strangely written but that actually made it pretty interesting and unexpected; strangely Hussy was potentially my favourite - I really liked the main character and despite it literally being about porn stars it felt quite naturally and realistically written and also pretty interesting; Vituperator I literally can hardly remember, that was a very nothing one for me.

Here's my thoughts on them all: Siren was slightly strange and had a very odd perspective, it was quirky but just not particularly my cup of tea; Virago was really quite interesting although a little confusing as to who the patient really was with a slightly unsatisfactory ending; I quite liked Churail and the fear of the father; Termagant was the first one first one I read and I liked the main character in this one.

I had to read some of the short stories in this for my creative writing module. As I had already read about half I decided to just finish the entire thing. Honestly, a lot of them were very mid and not particularly exciting. As they were short stories this didn't pose too much of a problem as I could get through them quickly enough anyway - I also liked being able to read like one a day.

"some thing must suffer so that another thing can have comfort"

"there's a measure of satisfaction in the fact that if she dies lonely it won't be for want of trying."

"there were four miscarriages before i came along, and after the second doctors advised against further pregnancies. my mother talked of adoption, but my father was insistent that he must have a son of his own blood, and the universe responded as it does when men refuse to understand what nature is trying to tell them: it gave him the wrong kind of child, and it took away his wife."