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The Beauty
Nominated for the Shirley Jackson and Saboteur awards.
Somewhere away from the cities and towns, in the Valley of the Rocks, a society of men and boys gather around the fire each night to listen to their history recounted by Nate, the storyteller. Requested most often by the group is the tale of the death of all women.
They are the last generation.
One evening, Nate brings back new secrets from the woods; peculiar mushrooms are growing from the ground where the women’s bodies lie buried. These are the first signs of a strange and insidious presence unlike anything ever known before…
Discover the Beauty.
------------------
Titan editions include the short story Peace, Pipe.
Somewhere away from the cities and towns, in the Valley of the Rocks, a society of men and boys gather around the fire each night to listen to their history recounted by Nate, the storyteller. Requested most often by the group is the tale of the death of all women.
They are the last generation.
One evening, Nate brings back new secrets from the woods; peculiar mushrooms are growing from the ground where the women’s bodies lie buried. These are the first signs of a strange and insidious presence unlike anything ever known before…
Discover the Beauty.
------------------
Titan editions include the short story Peace, Pipe.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 763 reviews
August 20, 2014
A mixture of 'disturbing' and 'brilliant' -- that's right, it's brillurbing.
October 14, 2020
I'm still wondering where the horror of the story was supposed to lie. This was as much of a chore as The Power was: an "ohhh, what if men suddenly weren't the dominant gender?? What if we FLIPPED it??" thinking exercise that's predictable as hell.
I may have missed something with The Beauty, because the novella has excellent reviews and I'm here like "......What?", especially considering this book was supposed to be horror. Was I supposed to be grossed out and horrified by the "pregnant" men, or the men having sex with the mushroom women, or what? Because I was more disgusted by how the only "women" in the story are submissive, faceless, sex maniacs whose only purpose in life is to be ~loved~ by men.
I suppose the above paragraph may be a "missing the point" moment, because I'm pretty sure that the entire point of the novella is a "be careful what you wish for" scenario: the men get the perfect partners (again, completely submissive and devoted to them, sex maniacs, faceless but still with vaguely attractive bodies- I don't even know what this is trying to say about men, that they'd fuck anything with hips and boobs or what?) and they're not happy, except for our delusional protagonist, who thinks this is the best thing ever since sliced bread.
So, where exactly is the horror of this novella? The body horror imagery (getting pregnant, slowly losing their dick and balls, getting penetrated during sex, having to "breastfeed") and having to live with the Beauties slowly emasculates the men, and that's supposed to be the source of horror. How is that horrifying to a woman? All those things happen to us anyway. Is it supposed to be a "let's give the men a taste of what happens to us, let's hold up a mirror to the world!" scenario? How is that horrifying for a woman reading the novella? I seriously don't understand.
Or are we supposed to be grossed out by the protagonist's "slow descent into madness" (another way to interpret the story), or his blatant mommy issues, him talking about how his mushroom woman resembled his mother and then fucking her all the time?
Even if we take away the horror at all, let's say it depends on the person whether they're horrified by this or not. Even as a dystopia/ post apocalyptic book, there's nothing here. There's no worldbuilding, there's no explanation of what happened that killed all the women, where the Beauties are coming from, if there are any other men left, or maybe even other women; we never venture outside the village, it's very possible that the rest of the world is fine. The narration is more interested in the 578th description of the Beauties all huddled together humming and how that was sooo soothing for the men.
Look, I seriously don't know what to take away from this. What was the novella's message or point? What was the source of all the horror that every other reviewer is talking about? I'm not saying this like "Ohhh, I'm so tough, I didn't care about the body horror at all" It's just that I.... don't get it? Was there anything to get at all? I'm very disappointed. It felt like Aliya Whiteley read The Power and some Junji Ito and decided to combine them both into something mediocre.
I may have missed something with The Beauty, because the novella has excellent reviews and I'm here like "......What?", especially considering this book was supposed to be horror. Was I supposed to be grossed out and horrified by the "pregnant" men, or the men having sex with the mushroom women, or what? Because I was more disgusted by how the only "women" in the story are submissive, faceless, sex maniacs whose only purpose in life is to be ~loved~ by men.
I suppose the above paragraph may be a "missing the point" moment, because I'm pretty sure that the entire point of the novella is a "be careful what you wish for" scenario: the men get the perfect partners (again, completely submissive and devoted to them, sex maniacs, faceless but still with vaguely attractive bodies- I don't even know what this is trying to say about men, that they'd fuck anything with hips and boobs or what?) and they're not happy, except for our delusional protagonist, who thinks this is the best thing ever since sliced bread.
So, where exactly is the horror of this novella? The body horror imagery (getting pregnant, slowly losing their dick and balls, getting penetrated during sex, having to "breastfeed") and having to live with the Beauties slowly emasculates the men, and that's supposed to be the source of horror. How is that horrifying to a woman? All those things happen to us anyway. Is it supposed to be a "let's give the men a taste of what happens to us, let's hold up a mirror to the world!" scenario? How is that horrifying for a woman reading the novella? I seriously don't understand.
Or are we supposed to be grossed out by the protagonist's "slow descent into madness" (another way to interpret the story), or his blatant mommy issues, him talking about how his mushroom woman resembled his mother and then fucking her all the time?
Even if we take away the horror at all, let's say it depends on the person whether they're horrified by this or not. Even as a dystopia/ post apocalyptic book, there's nothing here. There's no worldbuilding, there's no explanation of what happened that killed all the women, where the Beauties are coming from, if there are any other men left, or maybe even other women; we never venture outside the village, it's very possible that the rest of the world is fine. The narration is more interested in the 578th description of the Beauties all huddled together humming and how that was sooo soothing for the men.
Look, I seriously don't know what to take away from this. What was the novella's message or point? What was the source of all the horror that every other reviewer is talking about? I'm not saying this like "Ohhh, I'm so tough, I didn't care about the body horror at all" It's just that I.... don't get it? Was there anything to get at all? I'm very disappointed. It felt like Aliya Whiteley read The Power and some Junji Ito and decided to combine them both into something mediocre.
July 21, 2021
fulfilling my 2021 goal to read one book each month by an author i have never read despite owning more than one of their books.
September 16, 2018
Um.
I don't even know how to rate this.
This is just one fkn WEIRD book okay.
Also it's two stories so that was completely unexpected.
The Beauty
The actual, titular story, which I thought was the entire novel. Super weird. Basically there's no women left because they all died from some nasty womb disease so there's just this little band of lonely men. I thought this was going to be a thought-provoking, feminist-type horror story about how hopeless men are without women but instead we get mushroom women with insatiable sexual appetites. I don't even know how to unravel all the hidden meanings in this. Straight up not smart enough for this horrific little story. I mean, I didn't hate it, but I also absolutely DID NOT GET IT.
Peace, Pipe
Actually probably preferred this story, even if it's entirely not what I signed up for. This time we've got some random in a cell who messed up an alien interaction on another planet and is now in quarantine thinking about his/her mistakes. Huh. I'm just now realising I assumed the entire time that the narrator was female but I don't recall anything indicating that. Just projecting my own gender I suppose! Anyway, this is quite an insightful commentary on language and all its nuances which I found completely fascinating. Definitely got the old wheels turning upstairs.
But then there's also that totally weird element of our protagonist talking to a pipe that might be an alien life form but might also be imagination/delirium taking liberties with noisy plumbing.
Both stories have a super-weird surface with lots of unfathomable depths of hidden meaning. It's all very confusing and if you're super smart when it comes to subtext you'll likely rate this one pretty high. Me, I'm way too dull to unravel this mess.
Weird, creepy and thought-provoking, but ultimately went waaaaaaaaaay over my head.
I don't even know how to rate this.
This is just one fkn WEIRD book okay.
Also it's two stories so that was completely unexpected.
The Beauty
The actual, titular story, which I thought was the entire novel. Super weird. Basically there's no women left because they all died from some nasty womb disease so there's just this little band of lonely men. I thought this was going to be a thought-provoking, feminist-type horror story about how hopeless men are without women but instead we get mushroom women with insatiable sexual appetites. I don't even know how to unravel all the hidden meanings in this. Straight up not smart enough for this horrific little story. I mean, I didn't hate it, but I also absolutely DID NOT GET IT.
Peace, Pipe
Actually probably preferred this story, even if it's entirely not what I signed up for. This time we've got some random in a cell who messed up an alien interaction on another planet and is now in quarantine thinking about his/her mistakes. Huh. I'm just now realising I assumed the entire time that the narrator was female but I don't recall anything indicating that. Just projecting my own gender I suppose! Anyway, this is quite an insightful commentary on language and all its nuances which I found completely fascinating. Definitely got the old wheels turning upstairs.
But then there's also that totally weird element of our protagonist talking to a pipe that might be an alien life form but might also be imagination/delirium taking liberties with noisy plumbing.
Both stories have a super-weird surface with lots of unfathomable depths of hidden meaning. It's all very confusing and if you're super smart when it comes to subtext you'll likely rate this one pretty high. Me, I'm way too dull to unravel this mess.
Weird, creepy and thought-provoking, but ultimately went waaaaaaaaaay over my head.
October 4, 2015
A fabulous metaphorical delight! What happens when impossible beauty ideals become a fungus that infects women and brainwashes men? More than a commentary on gender roles, this disturbing little tale places blame squarely on the society that sets, perpetuates, and prioritizes physical female beauty over human love and shared responsibility. Fantastic truncated paragraph style, too. Nice and rhythmic.
July 8, 2020
By the premise alone I anticipated something delightfully weird and fantastic. Instead I got a whole lot of TERF bullshit.
To recap: women are women, and men are men, and men need women (because I guess fuck off to anyone who isn't a heterosexual?) and mushroom women neeeed men. The mushroom people (the titular Beauty) impregnate cis men, which is Horrifying, and the cis men essentially lose their penises and balls, which is Also Horrifying, and the mushroom women grow penises they use to fuck the men, which is Even More Horrifying, oh no to be forcibly transitioned; but in the end it's okay (but you the reader are meant to be Horrified and Yet Also Intrigued By These Deliciously Deviant Oddities).
I've seen this tale celebrated as feminist, but it is a weak and exclusionary feminism that has no place for trans women or for women who love other women.
As a lesbian, lmfaoooooo this suck'd.
The prose is insufficient.
To recap: women are women, and men are men, and men need women (because I guess fuck off to anyone who isn't a heterosexual?) and mushroom women neeeed men. The mushroom people (the titular Beauty) impregnate cis men, which is Horrifying, and the cis men essentially lose their penises and balls, which is Also Horrifying, and the mushroom women grow penises they use to fuck the men, which is Even More Horrifying, oh no to be forcibly transitioned; but in the end it's okay (but you the reader are meant to be Horrified and Yet Also Intrigued By These Deliciously Deviant Oddities).
I've seen this tale celebrated as feminist, but it is a weak and exclusionary feminism that has no place for trans women or for women who love other women.
As a lesbian, lmfaoooooo this suck'd.
The prose is insufficient.
April 20, 2023
Thank to my wonderful friend Colt @offbeatbookreviews for recommending this brilliant, deliciously off putting horror book!
I found THE BEAUTY by Aliya Whitely on the Libby app. Check for your local library on the app and read great books for free!📚
In THE BEAUTY, a cultish, post-apocalyptic society made entirely of men lives in peace and tranquility for its final generations. Then one of the men discovers in the woods a strange fungus that resembles in some deeply striking way--his own dead wife. The fungus responds to him, and he of course brings it home, tells everyone his wife has returned. And she is only the first. The men refer to the new women as a collective, The Beauty. The Beauty become useful in countless unexpected ways, but the men soon realize the great changes they will need to make, the sacrifices, to keep The Beauty and all they bring to the doomed society. Some of the men find it easier to make decisions than to make changes.
This book, omg. First, the body horror is delicious. I mean it's so creatively conceived and beautifully written, that its impact has the potential to overshadow the truly brilliant narrative and literary skill at work here. When I think about this book (and I do still think about it) I don't think about the shape of the story and how hard I had to wonder where the narrator and Whitely herself come down on women's rights. (This is a legit femme positive horror piece, by the way. What makes it scary af is that icey, academic tone.) I don't really think about that really great ending and how well it resolves some of the really big story questions. I love how understated the ending is. Whiteley really could have milked the scene, described great gendered violence for shock value, but this story was not about that. It was about this body horror at the middle of the story, which is what I think about when this book comes to mind.
Obviously an unforgettable, moving piece of horror lit. I would say everyone should read this, but it's not for the squeamish.
Trigger warnings below
Rating: 🍄🍄🍄🍄.5 / 5
Recommend? Definitely!
Finished: April 4 2023
Read this if you like:
🧟♀️ Monster women
🏚 Post apocalypse stories
♀️ Feminist horror
👶🏻 Monster babies
🫀 Body horror
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Triggers: violence against women, SA, transantagonism
I found THE BEAUTY by Aliya Whitely on the Libby app. Check for your local library on the app and read great books for free!📚
In THE BEAUTY, a cultish, post-apocalyptic society made entirely of men lives in peace and tranquility for its final generations. Then one of the men discovers in the woods a strange fungus that resembles in some deeply striking way--his own dead wife. The fungus responds to him, and he of course brings it home, tells everyone his wife has returned. And she is only the first. The men refer to the new women as a collective, The Beauty. The Beauty become useful in countless unexpected ways, but the men soon realize the great changes they will need to make, the sacrifices, to keep The Beauty and all they bring to the doomed society. Some of the men find it easier to make decisions than to make changes.
This book, omg. First, the body horror is delicious. I mean it's so creatively conceived and beautifully written, that its impact has the potential to overshadow the truly brilliant narrative and literary skill at work here. When I think about this book (and I do still think about it) I don't think about the shape of the story and how hard I had to wonder where the narrator and Whitely herself come down on women's rights. (This is a legit femme positive horror piece, by the way. What makes it scary af is that icey, academic tone.) I don't really think about that really great ending and how well it resolves some of the really big story questions. I love how understated the ending is. Whiteley really could have milked the scene, described great gendered violence for shock value, but this story was not about that. It was about this body horror at the middle of the story, which is what I think about when this book comes to mind.
Obviously an unforgettable, moving piece of horror lit. I would say everyone should read this, but it's not for the squeamish.
Trigger warnings below
Rating: 🍄🍄🍄🍄.5 / 5
Recommend? Definitely!
Finished: April 4 2023
Read this if you like:
🧟♀️ Monster women
🏚 Post apocalypse stories
♀️ Feminist horror
👶🏻 Monster babies
🫀 Body horror
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Triggers: violence against women, SA, transantagonism
February 8, 2023
Wow. Equally unsettling as it is weird. Some aspects disturbed me, but mostly made me feel uncomfortable just picturing the imagery 😅 you know that one Chuck Pahlinuik story with the CPR doll? Same gross feelings, very different stories.
November 13, 2018
This is the most bizarre thing I have read in my entire life!
August 22, 2018
I really don't want to give away too much of this story. It's unique and somewhat disturbing. I realized that I'm so used to typical gender roles that a number of things that happen in this book made me really uncomfortable. And that's incredibly disappointing to me. Gender, now more than ever, is becoming less of an issue in society, but when you take the typical male and female roles and completely switch them, it's amazing how quickly I became uncomfortable. That tells me that perhaps society (and definitely me personally) still has a long way to go before we are able to fully embrace and understand gender and how not everyone identifies with the gender they were assigned, let alone a single gender or any gender.
In a small village called The Valley of the Rocks, the men try to go about life as a normal society, even though a few years ago all of the women on the planet died. Nate, the storyteller of the group, keeps the memories of the women fresh in the minds of the men. They are the last generation, and they know once they die there will be no one to tell their stories. And then strange mushrooms start growing over the graves of the lost women, and the men will never be the same.
That's all I'm going to say about the plot. I will say that Whiteley boldly took this story in a direction that had previously never occurred to me. This is a horror novel that explores gender roles with sci-fi and fantasy elements. Whiteley unflinchingly explores body reversals too, and I think it's those instances that my brain wanted to reject the most. This book is something that will never happen in the real world, but it still holds a mirror up to society's views on gender. This is a story that is going to stay with me for a long time. It's an extreme case of gender reversal, but one that should be studied as an example of how society is still locked into certain "gender norms".
My edition of this novella also included a short story called Peace, Pipe. This story is mostly science fiction, and I found it just as fascinating as the novella. This story explores a lot of themes, but I think the two most important are isolation and communication. I'm not going to say anything further about it, because there is no explanation on the book, so I went into it knowing absolutely nothing, and I think you should too. Both the novella and the short story are unique and thought-provoking, and I highly recommend them both.
In a small village called The Valley of the Rocks, the men try to go about life as a normal society, even though a few years ago all of the women on the planet died. Nate, the storyteller of the group, keeps the memories of the women fresh in the minds of the men. They are the last generation, and they know once they die there will be no one to tell their stories. And then strange mushrooms start growing over the graves of the lost women, and the men will never be the same.
That's all I'm going to say about the plot. I will say that Whiteley boldly took this story in a direction that had previously never occurred to me. This is a horror novel that explores gender roles with sci-fi and fantasy elements. Whiteley unflinchingly explores body reversals too, and I think it's those instances that my brain wanted to reject the most. This book is something that will never happen in the real world, but it still holds a mirror up to society's views on gender. This is a story that is going to stay with me for a long time. It's an extreme case of gender reversal, but one that should be studied as an example of how society is still locked into certain "gender norms".
My edition of this novella also included a short story called Peace, Pipe. This story is mostly science fiction, and I found it just as fascinating as the novella. This story explores a lot of themes, but I think the two most important are isolation and communication. I'm not going to say anything further about it, because there is no explanation on the book, so I went into it knowing absolutely nothing, and I think you should too. Both the novella and the short story are unique and thought-provoking, and I highly recommend them both.
November 14, 2016
I was very much looking forward to this book but it let me down hard--I really liked Whiteley's The Arrival of Missives and was hoping for more like that. The idea here is so cool: all the women in the world contract a strange fungus-based illness and die. After their death, mushrooms start growing on their graves and eventually turn into weird sentient mushroom-women. I HATE mushrooms really passionately (are you a plant? an animal?! make up your damn mind!) so this was particularly horrifying for me.
But overall this novella was all shock and no substance. It's obviously supposed to be an allegory for gender relations, roles, and expectations but it seems very heavy-handed. Maybe I'm missing something because this has great reviews, but I found the messages trite. Yes indeed, rape culture and forced motherhood and toxic masculinity are bad things, I don't need a book to tell me that. Not only that, but the delivery is just... strange. This is not magical realism or fantasy, it's horror. Really extreme body horror. Which is actually a genre I love, but I feel like all of the gross-out moments were included just to make the reader uncomfortable. So we can look at our own ideas of gender, I'm sure, and ~deconstruct~ why we find these scenes so upsetting. But let's be honest, they're upsetting because they are gross as hell and overly violent for no reason. It doesn't really serve the plot, no that there's much of one. Super disappointed by this and I kind of wish I hadn't read it.
But overall this novella was all shock and no substance. It's obviously supposed to be an allegory for gender relations, roles, and expectations but it seems very heavy-handed. Maybe I'm missing something because this has great reviews, but I found the messages trite. Yes indeed, rape culture and forced motherhood and toxic masculinity are bad things, I don't need a book to tell me that. Not only that, but the delivery is just... strange. This is not magical realism or fantasy, it's horror. Really extreme body horror. Which is actually a genre I love, but I feel like all of the gross-out moments were included just to make the reader uncomfortable. So we can look at our own ideas of gender, I'm sure, and ~deconstruct~ why we find these scenes so upsetting. But let's be honest, they're upsetting because they are gross as hell and overly violent for no reason. It doesn't really serve the plot, no that there's much of one. Super disappointed by this and I kind of wish I hadn't read it.
July 23, 2019
Quiet and intense at the same time, this is the story of a small, isolated post-apocalyotic society, in a world where all women are gone, and eventually replaced by... something.
It definetly challenges gender norms. There is a sort of flip - the roles have been inverted, but not in an angry "let's see how you like it!" kind of way, atleast that's not all, there's more depth too it than that. It's rather something that changes your identity, and not everyone manages to adapt to the new order.
It's also sparse, and although we do learn some things, the central mystery is preserved, which makes the story more powerful in my opinion.
It definetly challenges gender norms. There is a sort of flip - the roles have been inverted, but not in an angry "let's see how you like it!" kind of way, atleast that's not all, there's more depth too it than that. It's rather something that changes your identity, and not everyone manages to adapt to the new order.
It's also sparse, and although we do learn some things, the central mystery is preserved, which makes the story more powerful in my opinion.
October 8, 2017
Like tripping on mushrooms (or having sex with them).
Literally, that's the whole plot. It's brilliant, wise and messed-up.
***Update: I just discovered the iconic artist Georgia O'Keeffe and I think that her paintings, especially the ones with the huge flowers, should be on the cover of this book. Her paintings represent exactly the theme and the feeling of the book.
Literally, that's the whole plot. It's brilliant, wise and messed-up.
***Update: I just discovered the iconic artist Georgia O'Keeffe and I think that her paintings, especially the ones with the huge flowers, should be on the cover of this book. Her paintings represent exactly the theme and the feeling of the book.
November 3, 2022
4 stars--I really liked it.
This is Weird fiction (capitalization mine for emphasis) with lots of body horror. It's about women becoming fungi, men becoming women, violence, sex, childbirth, the end of the world... all in about 100 pages. Pretty sure some of it flew over my head but I enjoyed the experience.
This is Weird fiction (capitalization mine for emphasis) with lots of body horror. It's about women becoming fungi, men becoming women, violence, sex, childbirth, the end of the world... all in about 100 pages. Pretty sure some of it flew over my head but I enjoyed the experience.
July 31, 2018
What is beautiful? Repulsive? Are you attracted to it? Are you beautiful, or unloved? These question resonate as one reads "The Beauty."
Aliya Whiteley's THE BEAUTY offers a compact dose of weird fiction, body horror specifically, in which humanity is evolving into mushrooms. Expect a mashup of William Golding's 1954 Lord of the Flies and P. D. James' 1992 novel The Children of Men: a cluster of men survive in a dystopian future where all the women are dead (no hope for reproduction). The Beauty is saturated with philosophy on "what is beautiful?" and "what is humanity?".
Bob Milne's Beauty in Ruins Book Reviews led me to this wonderful story. This edition has two parts, the first half is the titular story, and the other half is a bonus shorty story called "Peace, Pipe."
Some may think 100 pages is too short, but for a weird fiction shorter is often better. Each sentence of "The Beauty" is packed with meaning. Don't expect any fluffy filler. This style is not suited for mega-tome page epic-fiction! Instead, it begs to be read aloud, like a poem... as the protagonist would tell a story. The best way to communicate the style is with Excerpts (see below). No worries, I left out any mushroom/human romance.
Elizabeth the Mushroom
- Form Software's Dark Souls 3
Don't let the intellectual narrative fool you, there is plenty of action. Each section ramps up the tension dramatically as Nate and the other men are confronted with fungal manifestations of women, and they struggle with repulsion and attraction. With the future of humanity on the line, and the desire to reproduce, there is much at stake. Jealously and murder ensue. Incidentally, my son and I are playing Dark Souls 1 (remastered) and Dark Souls 3, and the vision of the Parent/Child Mushrooms from Darktoot Garden and Ash Lake were evoked. Imagine if you were encouraged to start a family with those!
In summary, The Beauty offered everything I expected and desired: a mysterious adventure, evocative prose, and unique storytelling. It is deep, but thrilling.
PEACE, PIPE, is a bonus story that is 50% of this book. An alien diplomat chronicles its exploits (having accidentally started a war on Demeter) while quarantined and communicating to a pipe (which speaks as water flows through it, and evokes the sounds of a flushing toilet). Again, the themes of storytelling and communication are foundations, as well as an invitation to the reader to change perspectives on different cultures. No body horror in this one.
Excerpts from "The Beauty":
"There are signs, I don't care what William says. There are signs of change, of regeneration, and I saw the first mushrooms in the graveyard on the morning after I ripped up the photograph of my mother's face and threw the pieces over the cliff, into the fat swallowing folds of the sea..."
My name is Nathan, just twenty-three and given to the curation of stories.I listen, retain, then polish and release them over the fire at night, when the others hush and lean forward in their desire to hear of the past. They crave romance, particularly when autumn sets in and cold nights await them, and so I speak of Alice, and Bethany, and Sarah, and Val, and other dead women who all once had lustrous hair and never a bad word on their plump limps...Language is changing, like the earth, like the sea. We live in a lonely, fateful flux, outnumbered and outgrown."
"When [William] told me of his journey, that was how he finished it--he fitted there. I find this to the strangest of expressions--how does one fit in with other people, all edges erased, making a seamless life from the sharp corners of discontent? I don't find anything that fits in such a way. Certainly not in nature. Nothing real is meant to tessellate like a triangle, top-bottom bottom-top. The sheep will never munch the grass in straight lines."
"[Doctor Ben] told me diseases were like people. They fight and fight and throw themselves around to escape the walls of tighter and tighter boxes."
"They were found in the graveyard, springing from the decaying bodies of the women deep in the ground, and they were found in the woods, spreading themselves like a rug over the wet earth. The Beauty were small at first but they grew and took the best qualities of the dead. They sucked up through the soil all the softness, serenity, hope, and happiness of womankind. They made themselves into a new form, a new north, shaped from the clay of the world and designed only to bring pleasure to man.
But the Beauty knew form the many experiences of the women that had gone before, that men did not always love what was good for them. Men could attack, hurt, main and murder the things that came too fast, too suddenly, like love...."
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July 16, 2021La reseña completa en https://inthenevernever.blogspot.com/...
«Hoy el mundo avanza, y debo encontrar nuevas formas de convertir la verdad en historias».
Si en 2013, cuando empecé este blog para compartir mis lecturas, alguien me hubiese dicho que desde una editorial a la que me encanta leer me pedirían que escribiese el prólogo de uno de sus libros no lo habría creído. Por eso me hace especial ilusión hablarles de una historia que tuve la oportunidad de disfrutar antes de su publicación para hacer una pequeña presentación (una que espero que esté a la altura). Se trata de La belleza, de Aliya Whiteley, una novela corta adictiva e inquietante ambientada en un futuro en el que todas las mujeres han muerto. Una obra nominada a los premios Shirley Jackson y Saboteur, y que llega a las librerías españolas con la excelente traducción de José Ángel de Dios García.
«Hoy el mundo avanza, y debo encontrar nuevas formas de convertir la verdad en historias».
Si en 2013, cuando empecé este blog para compartir mis lecturas, alguien me hubiese dicho que desde una editorial a la que me encanta leer me pedirían que escribiese el prólogo de uno de sus libros no lo habría creído. Por eso me hace especial ilusión hablarles de una historia que tuve la oportunidad de disfrutar antes de su publicación para hacer una pequeña presentación (una que espero que esté a la altura). Se trata de La belleza, de Aliya Whiteley, una novela corta adictiva e inquietante ambientada en un futuro en el que todas las mujeres han muerto. Una obra nominada a los premios Shirley Jackson y Saboteur, y que llega a las librerías españolas con la excelente traducción de José Ángel de Dios García.
February 9, 2020
This novella is a look at gender roles and norms, and it is unsettling, creepy, and disturbing, which is, I think, the point. The setting is a dystopian future where all the women have died and a group of men form a small society. Then ‘The Beauty’ come - a group of mushroom-like creatures that reshape the new society and flip gender roles on their head. The writing was very good, and I would look for more from this author.
February 7, 2018
I have to be missing something. A metaphor, allegory, symbolism, something. I just can't understand why mushroom-human sexual relations is so compelling for people.
August 23, 2020
Distance. I don’t know why, but I felt distance from this story. Remoteness. But at the same time, closeness. Strange, right? Beautiful? Maybe, but you’ll have to read the story. Stories around a communal fire lead to a crashing evolution and purpose (ulterior motive?) of said stories. Interpretation. Fear. Freedom. Future. Life. Strength. Community. Solitude. Evolution. Fulfillment. These words stream through me, circle around, become. This is an odd story. A good one. Sit by the fire and read. You may find the same words circle around you, become you. I’m not sure. Are you?
Some of us are born to be free on the wings of imagination and some of us are held down by the chains of reality.
I feel the inspiration of it. Glorious revolution. The schoolbooks talked of it, heads chopped off and crowds baying, and yet all the stability of my world only needed a few words to be wiped away. It didn't even need a story.
Thoughts fly if you breathe too hard. The rules are a shout, but the story is a sigh. This way they do not scatter. They keep their shape, and only bend in the breeze.
Also included here is the story Peace, Pipe. This one is about language and friendship and the mind. It's subtle and strange and futuristic. I really wasn't feeling it at first, but it's short so I kept on. I'm glad I did. In all it's oddness and hard-to-understandness, it unexpectedly finished as one of those stories where you close the book at the end and stare into nothing, satisfied.
If everything is joined, within one body, why would you need to express an opposition to otherness?
Four stars for The Beauty. Five stars for Peace, Pipe.
Some of us are born to be free on the wings of imagination and some of us are held down by the chains of reality.
I feel the inspiration of it. Glorious revolution. The schoolbooks talked of it, heads chopped off and crowds baying, and yet all the stability of my world only needed a few words to be wiped away. It didn't even need a story.
Thoughts fly if you breathe too hard. The rules are a shout, but the story is a sigh. This way they do not scatter. They keep their shape, and only bend in the breeze.
Also included here is the story Peace, Pipe. This one is about language and friendship and the mind. It's subtle and strange and futuristic. I really wasn't feeling it at first, but it's short so I kept on. I'm glad I did. In all it's oddness and hard-to-understandness, it unexpectedly finished as one of those stories where you close the book at the end and stare into nothing, satisfied.
If everything is joined, within one body, why would you need to express an opposition to otherness?
Four stars for The Beauty. Five stars for Peace, Pipe.
December 28, 2021
Podría afirmar tranquilamente que es uno de los libros más raros que leí en términos de ficción. Una historia de lo más extraña y misteriosa donde lo weird y lo distópico se combinan para crear algo de lo más bizarro y divertido.
February 22, 2018
Originally published at Risingshadow.
Aliya Whiteley's The Beauty is the first book that I've reviewed twice, because I feel that it deserves a second review due to the fact that this new edition (published by Titan Books) contains an additional story that is excellent and worth reading.
I consider Aliya Whiteley's The Beauty to be one of the utmost best and most original weird fiction books ever published, because it's a masterpiece of modern weird fiction and imaginative storytelling. In this book, beauty and frailty interlink with terror and perversion in a unique way. I applaud the author for her bravery to write speculative fiction that is boldly different, deeply unsettling and strikingly original. She's one of the few authors who dare to explore difficult themes in a transgressive and thought-provoking way.
The title story, "The Beauty", tells of a post-apocalyptic society of men and boys where all women have died because of a fungus plague. The members of the society gather around the fire each night and listen to tales recounted by their storyteller, Nate. Nate's stories keep alive the memories of what has happened. Nate has witnessed signs of change and regeneration in the graveyard where the women's bodies lie beneath the soil, because mushrooms form outlines of the buried women. One day Nathan meets a strange yellow, spongy and limbed thing in the woods. This strange creature has the shape of a woman.
Nate is a fascinating protagonist, because he tells stories to his fellow men. His stories reveal what has happened and how things have changed since the women died of the plague. The other characters are also interesting and the author writes fluently about their actions.
In my opinion, Aliya Whiteley's vision of a post-apocalyptic world is fascinatingly harrowing and haunting. As the events begin to unfold, the author steers her story towards enticing heights of strangeness that are often left unexplored. She examines metamorphoses, parasitic fungi, gender roles, social dynamics and leadership issues in a mesmerising way.
"The Beauty" can be seen as the ultimate reading experience in fungal horror fiction, because it's a an unsettling story about a strange fungal presence. It's totally different from normal horror fiction due to its unapologetic way of chilling the reader's heart and mind with brilliantly disturbing imagery.
The additional story, "Peace, Pipe", which is exclusive to this edition of The Beauty, is an excellent story about communication between a human being and an alien being. It demonstrates the author's versatility as a writer, because it's different from "The Beauty", but has a few connections to the themes explored in it.
In this novelette, the unnamed narrator has been quarantined after a space mission and starts to hear an alien voice coming from behind the wall. The voice belongs to a being called Pipe, a mysterious water-based life form. Pipe is unlike any other alien species the narrator has come across, because it learns fast and is highly intelligent. The narrator is intrigued about Pipe and the mystery that surrounds it.
I was fascinated by this novelette, because the author explores how human beings could establish communication with different life forms and how they could come to understand them. I like the author's way of addressing the difficulties involved in reaching a sufficient level of understanding, because she does it well.
What makes "Peace, Pipe" unique is that Aliya Whiteley plays intriguingly with the idea that Pipe may not be an alien being after all, but merely a gurgling water pipe making strange sounds. This impressed me, because the possibility of everything being only imagination adds a brilliant touch of strangeness to the story.
Aliya Whiteley's literary prose will entice everybody who appreciates beautiful storytelling and literary fiction. Her prose is not merely subtly beautiful and wonderfully nuanced, but also emotional and heartbreaking. She writes captivatingly about strange happenings and delves deep into hidden wells of weirdness that are seldom explored by speculative fiction authors. I admire her writing skills, because she effortlessly evokes a sense of strangeness and pays attention to creating an unsettling atmosphere. Her fiction has a harrowing and unsettling edge to it that will impress readers.
The Beauty is a prime example of why speculative fiction is a powerful force to reckon with and should not be overlooked by anybody. It contains bold ideas and unforgettable imagery that you will never find in mainstream fiction, and what's best, it's filled with beautiful literary prose that highlights the strange happenings.
If you yearn to read something amazing, unsettling and heartbreaking, I advise you to take a look at Aliya Whiteley's The Beauty, because it's a unique masterpiece of literary weirdness from a gifted author with a stunning and original voice of her own. This book belongs to everybody's bookshelf who loves the darker and weirder side of speculative fiction, because the title story is simply amazing. The additional story, "Peace, Pipe" serves as a wonderful counterbalance to the strangeness of the title story, because it's fascinating and heartbreaking in a different way. Trust me when I say that literary weird fiction doesn't get any better than this, so make sure that you'll read this book as soon as possible.
Very highly recommended!
--- --- ---
The original review:
Originally published at Risingshadow.
Aliya Whiteley's The Beauty is one of the best and most fascinating novellas I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Considering the vast amount of speculative fiction being written nowadays, it's wonderful to read beautifully written and original novellas like this that truly stand out from the dull and grey mass and fully capture the reader's imagination with strange happenings.
The Beauty is a strangely captivating and unsettling novella filled with melancholy darkness and wistfulness. It's possible that this novella may be quite a disturbing reading experience to those who are not used to reading thought-provoking speculative fiction and literary dark fiction, but I'm sure that it will permanently impress everyone who reads it, because it's boldy different from other speculative fiction stories. It will amaze, enchant and shock readers in equal measure.
The Beauty contains many New Weird and dark fantasy elements. These elements form a powerful and vibrant combination that pulses with stunning originality. Depending on the reader, this novella can either be classified as New Weird or literary strange fiction.
Here's a bit of information about the story:
- The story is divided into four parts.
- The events take place years after all the women have died. Only men have survived (they seem to be unaffected by the fungus plague that has killed the women).
- A young man called Nathan, who lives in a remote and isolated commune, has witnessed signs of change and regeneration in the graveyard where the women are buried. Mushrooms form outlines of the women who have been buried beneath the soil. One day Nathan meets a strange yellow, spongy and limbed thing in the woods. This strange creature has the shape of a woman...
This is all I'll write about the story, because it wouldn't be fair to give away too many details about its amazing and unsettling wonders, because the author has plenty of surprises in store for her readers.
Nate is a fascinating protagonist who tells stories each night to his fellow men. His stories keep alive the memories of what has happened and reveal how things have changed since the women passed away. They also shape the lives of the men by giving voice and meaning to the strange occurrences.
Aliya Whiteley's vision of a post-apocalyptic world has quiet and unsettling power that grows into enticing heights of strangeness as the events begin to unfold. The frictions, dynamics and leadership issues between the different men are handled vividly.
It was interesting for me to read about how the men had to deal with an unexpected deconstruction of gender roles, because they faced certain events that shook their lives. I liked the way the author wrote about this, because she created a sophisticatedly unsettling atmosphere and let the story unfold at its own speed.
The Beauty is a well-constructed story about change. When the creatures, the Beauty, enter the men's lives, everything begins to change. Some of the changes are unsettlingly strange and cause the men to think about their lives, community and survival. Besides being a story about change, it's also a story about weird metamorphosis and parasitic fungi.
One of the most important reasons why I find this novella fascinating is that it has an intriguing sense of myth and strangeness to it. This is not often found in modern literary strange fiction. It also have a feel of William Golding's Lord of the Flies to it, but the author steers the story towards New Weird.
Aliya Whiteley is an exceptionally gifted speculative fiction author whose writing abilities I admire. Her subtle prose is beautiful and eloquent. She has the ability to create thought-provoking, mesmerising and distubing images in the reader's mind by writing boldly about challenging and mature themes. Her story is a brilliant combination of wondrous and disturbing elements.
Based on this novella, I can say that Aliya Whitley is an author who deserves to be read and praised. I intend to read her next novella, The Arrival of Missives (Unsung Stories, 2016), as soon as possible.
The Beauty is a stunning feast of originality and will impress readers who appreciate beautiful prose, sophisticated storytelling, new weird elements and literary strange fiction. It's speculative fiction at its utmost best and most imaginative. I recommend it to fans of the darker and weirder side of speculative fiction, because its dark beauty beckons to be explored by speculative fiction readers. I can guarantee that once you've read this novella, you won't easily forget it.
Highly recommended!
Aliya Whiteley's The Beauty is the first book that I've reviewed twice, because I feel that it deserves a second review due to the fact that this new edition (published by Titan Books) contains an additional story that is excellent and worth reading.
I consider Aliya Whiteley's The Beauty to be one of the utmost best and most original weird fiction books ever published, because it's a masterpiece of modern weird fiction and imaginative storytelling. In this book, beauty and frailty interlink with terror and perversion in a unique way. I applaud the author for her bravery to write speculative fiction that is boldly different, deeply unsettling and strikingly original. She's one of the few authors who dare to explore difficult themes in a transgressive and thought-provoking way.
The title story, "The Beauty", tells of a post-apocalyptic society of men and boys where all women have died because of a fungus plague. The members of the society gather around the fire each night and listen to tales recounted by their storyteller, Nate. Nate's stories keep alive the memories of what has happened. Nate has witnessed signs of change and regeneration in the graveyard where the women's bodies lie beneath the soil, because mushrooms form outlines of the buried women. One day Nathan meets a strange yellow, spongy and limbed thing in the woods. This strange creature has the shape of a woman.
Nate is a fascinating protagonist, because he tells stories to his fellow men. His stories reveal what has happened and how things have changed since the women died of the plague. The other characters are also interesting and the author writes fluently about their actions.
In my opinion, Aliya Whiteley's vision of a post-apocalyptic world is fascinatingly harrowing and haunting. As the events begin to unfold, the author steers her story towards enticing heights of strangeness that are often left unexplored. She examines metamorphoses, parasitic fungi, gender roles, social dynamics and leadership issues in a mesmerising way.
"The Beauty" can be seen as the ultimate reading experience in fungal horror fiction, because it's a an unsettling story about a strange fungal presence. It's totally different from normal horror fiction due to its unapologetic way of chilling the reader's heart and mind with brilliantly disturbing imagery.
The additional story, "Peace, Pipe", which is exclusive to this edition of The Beauty, is an excellent story about communication between a human being and an alien being. It demonstrates the author's versatility as a writer, because it's different from "The Beauty", but has a few connections to the themes explored in it.
In this novelette, the unnamed narrator has been quarantined after a space mission and starts to hear an alien voice coming from behind the wall. The voice belongs to a being called Pipe, a mysterious water-based life form. Pipe is unlike any other alien species the narrator has come across, because it learns fast and is highly intelligent. The narrator is intrigued about Pipe and the mystery that surrounds it.
I was fascinated by this novelette, because the author explores how human beings could establish communication with different life forms and how they could come to understand them. I like the author's way of addressing the difficulties involved in reaching a sufficient level of understanding, because she does it well.
What makes "Peace, Pipe" unique is that Aliya Whiteley plays intriguingly with the idea that Pipe may not be an alien being after all, but merely a gurgling water pipe making strange sounds. This impressed me, because the possibility of everything being only imagination adds a brilliant touch of strangeness to the story.
Aliya Whiteley's literary prose will entice everybody who appreciates beautiful storytelling and literary fiction. Her prose is not merely subtly beautiful and wonderfully nuanced, but also emotional and heartbreaking. She writes captivatingly about strange happenings and delves deep into hidden wells of weirdness that are seldom explored by speculative fiction authors. I admire her writing skills, because she effortlessly evokes a sense of strangeness and pays attention to creating an unsettling atmosphere. Her fiction has a harrowing and unsettling edge to it that will impress readers.
The Beauty is a prime example of why speculative fiction is a powerful force to reckon with and should not be overlooked by anybody. It contains bold ideas and unforgettable imagery that you will never find in mainstream fiction, and what's best, it's filled with beautiful literary prose that highlights the strange happenings.
If you yearn to read something amazing, unsettling and heartbreaking, I advise you to take a look at Aliya Whiteley's The Beauty, because it's a unique masterpiece of literary weirdness from a gifted author with a stunning and original voice of her own. This book belongs to everybody's bookshelf who loves the darker and weirder side of speculative fiction, because the title story is simply amazing. The additional story, "Peace, Pipe" serves as a wonderful counterbalance to the strangeness of the title story, because it's fascinating and heartbreaking in a different way. Trust me when I say that literary weird fiction doesn't get any better than this, so make sure that you'll read this book as soon as possible.
Very highly recommended!
--- --- ---
The original review:
Originally published at Risingshadow.
Aliya Whiteley's The Beauty is one of the best and most fascinating novellas I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Considering the vast amount of speculative fiction being written nowadays, it's wonderful to read beautifully written and original novellas like this that truly stand out from the dull and grey mass and fully capture the reader's imagination with strange happenings.
The Beauty is a strangely captivating and unsettling novella filled with melancholy darkness and wistfulness. It's possible that this novella may be quite a disturbing reading experience to those who are not used to reading thought-provoking speculative fiction and literary dark fiction, but I'm sure that it will permanently impress everyone who reads it, because it's boldy different from other speculative fiction stories. It will amaze, enchant and shock readers in equal measure.
The Beauty contains many New Weird and dark fantasy elements. These elements form a powerful and vibrant combination that pulses with stunning originality. Depending on the reader, this novella can either be classified as New Weird or literary strange fiction.
Here's a bit of information about the story:
- The story is divided into four parts.
- The events take place years after all the women have died. Only men have survived (they seem to be unaffected by the fungus plague that has killed the women).
- A young man called Nathan, who lives in a remote and isolated commune, has witnessed signs of change and regeneration in the graveyard where the women are buried. Mushrooms form outlines of the women who have been buried beneath the soil. One day Nathan meets a strange yellow, spongy and limbed thing in the woods. This strange creature has the shape of a woman...
This is all I'll write about the story, because it wouldn't be fair to give away too many details about its amazing and unsettling wonders, because the author has plenty of surprises in store for her readers.
Nate is a fascinating protagonist who tells stories each night to his fellow men. His stories keep alive the memories of what has happened and reveal how things have changed since the women passed away. They also shape the lives of the men by giving voice and meaning to the strange occurrences.
Aliya Whiteley's vision of a post-apocalyptic world has quiet and unsettling power that grows into enticing heights of strangeness as the events begin to unfold. The frictions, dynamics and leadership issues between the different men are handled vividly.
It was interesting for me to read about how the men had to deal with an unexpected deconstruction of gender roles, because they faced certain events that shook their lives. I liked the way the author wrote about this, because she created a sophisticatedly unsettling atmosphere and let the story unfold at its own speed.
The Beauty is a well-constructed story about change. When the creatures, the Beauty, enter the men's lives, everything begins to change. Some of the changes are unsettlingly strange and cause the men to think about their lives, community and survival. Besides being a story about change, it's also a story about weird metamorphosis and parasitic fungi.
One of the most important reasons why I find this novella fascinating is that it has an intriguing sense of myth and strangeness to it. This is not often found in modern literary strange fiction. It also have a feel of William Golding's Lord of the Flies to it, but the author steers the story towards New Weird.
Aliya Whiteley is an exceptionally gifted speculative fiction author whose writing abilities I admire. Her subtle prose is beautiful and eloquent. She has the ability to create thought-provoking, mesmerising and distubing images in the reader's mind by writing boldly about challenging and mature themes. Her story is a brilliant combination of wondrous and disturbing elements.
Based on this novella, I can say that Aliya Whitley is an author who deserves to be read and praised. I intend to read her next novella, The Arrival of Missives (Unsung Stories, 2016), as soon as possible.
The Beauty is a stunning feast of originality and will impress readers who appreciate beautiful prose, sophisticated storytelling, new weird elements and literary strange fiction. It's speculative fiction at its utmost best and most imaginative. I recommend it to fans of the darker and weirder side of speculative fiction, because its dark beauty beckons to be explored by speculative fiction readers. I can guarantee that once you've read this novella, you won't easily forget it.
Highly recommended!
September 12, 2023
No rating for now. I just don’t know what Im supposed to take away from this. It feels like it was trying to say something about gender roles or societal influence or love & relationships but I just can’t grasp what exactly.
We have an epidemic where all the women (with a vagina, from birth) catch this disease/fungus thing that grows out of themselves and kills them. Men are grouped into settlements and believe themselves to be the end of humanity, until human sized mushroom women start coming out of the ground that the dead were buried, with a seemingly sole mission to soothe the men left over and serve all their needs. There is clear mommy issue talk, specifically by our main character who will talk about missing the comfort of a mother in the same sentence as talking of the warmth of having his c*ck inside this mushroom being. Some of the men start getting pregnant, some start wearing dresses, some are super pissed off that their way of life has been overrun by these giant mushrooms and want to get rid of them. Tensions soar, things happen, and I am absolutely lost on what it all meant. 🫠
I have read some reviews saying this is a tale of feminism, I’ve also read some reviews saying it’s non inclusive to trans and queer people. I feel like both opinions are probably right but this book was so weird I can’t tell if I’m reading it as the author intended it to mean 🤯🤷🏻♀️
We have an epidemic where all the women (with a vagina, from birth) catch this disease/fungus thing that grows out of themselves and kills them. Men are grouped into settlements and believe themselves to be the end of humanity, until human sized mushroom women start coming out of the ground that the dead were buried, with a seemingly sole mission to soothe the men left over and serve all their needs. There is clear mommy issue talk, specifically by our main character who will talk about missing the comfort of a mother in the same sentence as talking of the warmth of having his c*ck inside this mushroom being. Some of the men start getting pregnant, some start wearing dresses, some are super pissed off that their way of life has been overrun by these giant mushrooms and want to get rid of them. Tensions soar, things happen, and I am absolutely lost on what it all meant. 🫠
I have read some reviews saying this is a tale of feminism, I’ve also read some reviews saying it’s non inclusive to trans and queer people. I feel like both opinions are probably right but this book was so weird I can’t tell if I’m reading it as the author intended it to mean 🤯🤷🏻♀️
December 4, 2020
3.75
«Beauty is a word that has a different meaning for me now and I am delighted to have reclaimed it.»
The Beauty es por lejos uno de los libros más bizarros que he leído en mucho tiempo, y si no fuera por la habilidad de la autora para narrar de un modo que por momentos es hasta poético, la historia sería repugnante. O mejor dicho, la idea de la historia es retorcida y desagradable, pero gracias a lo bien escrito que está, eso pasa a segundo plano.
Éste es un mundo postapocalíptico donde por culpa de una espantosa enfermedad nacida en los úteros, las mujeres se extinguieron. No se dice abiertamente, pero es obvio que la humanidad tiene los días contados, y los hombres que quedan recuerdan a las mujeres que amaron con una nostalgia que roza el misticismo.
Pero un día ocurre algo inesperado (y perturbador) en la comunidad cerrada en la que se desarrolla la historia. De las tumbas de las mujeres comienzan a crecer hongos amarillos que pronto se transforman en cabezas femeninas sin facciones y posteriormente en cuerpos completos. Estoshongos hongas cobrarán vida y tratarán por todos los medios de acercarse a los hombres, con una mezcla de pasividad, seducción y maternalidad que muchos no van a poder resistir. Algo así como un complejo de Edipo pero más, er, micótico, al que no pude dejar de encontrarle un cierto aire (retorcido) a Adán y Eva.
El protagonista es Nate, un hombre joven aunque de edad indefinida que es el encargado de contar historias y mantener vivo el recuerdo de las mujeres. Nate va a ser secuestrado por una de las hongas, y precisamente por su rol de "bardo" será uno de los principales motores del cambio que se va a obrar en la comunidad.
De todos modos aunque Nate es el narrador, la historia no gira completamente en torno a él sino que muchas veces es algo así como un espectador pasivo que observa pero no se involucra, y que oscilará entre el horror y la fascinación.
Estoy muy sorprendida con esta historia. Alcanza unos niveles de bizarrismo increíbles, aún cuando parece que ya el argumento no puede ser más extraño. Hay muchas escenas muy bien armadas que son escalofriantes y de algún modo hacen que se sienta cierta suciedad al leerlas, y a pesar de todo, con la habilidad de la autora, muchos de esos momentos altamente perturbadores están inexplicablemente rodeados de párrafos muy poéticos y resulta una experiencia casi agradable. Casi.
Me gustó especialmente el desarrollo psicológico de los personajes. Las hongas serán llamadas «La Belleza», por su aspecto femenino y cuerpo deseable, y sin embargo a causa de su falta de rostro, piel amarillenta y textura esponjosa nunca dejarán de nombrarlas como eso (no los culpo realmente).
Teniendo en cuenta que es un libro de pocas páginas, todo aquel personaje que es importante para la historia tiene su espacio y vemos su evolución –o quizás involución– con la aparición de La Belleza.
The Beauty es una mezcla extraña que por momentos produce tanta repulsión como interés con sus giros inesperados y bizarros, y esa es claramente la intención. A pesar de todo aún no se bien qué pensar sobre el final, no me decido sobre si me pareció abrupto o si simplemente me hubiera gustado que siguiera un poco más.
Ésta no es una lectura cómoda, pero no por eso deja de ser buena e interesante.
Reseña de Libros junto al mar
«Beauty is a word that has a different meaning for me now and I am delighted to have reclaimed it.»
The Beauty es por lejos uno de los libros más bizarros que he leído en mucho tiempo, y si no fuera por la habilidad de la autora para narrar de un modo que por momentos es hasta poético, la historia sería repugnante. O mejor dicho, la idea de la historia es retorcida y desagradable, pero gracias a lo bien escrito que está, eso pasa a segundo plano.
Éste es un mundo postapocalíptico donde por culpa de una espantosa enfermedad nacida en los úteros, las mujeres se extinguieron. No se dice abiertamente, pero es obvio que la humanidad tiene los días contados, y los hombres que quedan recuerdan a las mujeres que amaron con una nostalgia que roza el misticismo.
Pero un día ocurre algo inesperado (y perturbador) en la comunidad cerrada en la que se desarrolla la historia. De las tumbas de las mujeres comienzan a crecer hongos amarillos que pronto se transforman en cabezas femeninas sin facciones y posteriormente en cuerpos completos. Estos
El protagonista es Nate, un hombre joven aunque de edad indefinida que es el encargado de contar historias y mantener vivo el recuerdo de las mujeres. Nate va a ser secuestrado por una de las hongas, y precisamente por su rol de "bardo" será uno de los principales motores del cambio que se va a obrar en la comunidad.
De todos modos aunque Nate es el narrador, la historia no gira completamente en torno a él sino que muchas veces es algo así como un espectador pasivo que observa pero no se involucra, y que oscilará entre el horror y la fascinación.
Estoy muy sorprendida con esta historia. Alcanza unos niveles de bizarrismo increíbles, aún cuando parece que ya el argumento no puede ser más extraño. Hay muchas escenas muy bien armadas que son escalofriantes y de algún modo hacen que se sienta cierta suciedad al leerlas, y a pesar de todo, con la habilidad de la autora, muchos de esos momentos altamente perturbadores están inexplicablemente rodeados de párrafos muy poéticos y resulta una experiencia casi agradable. Casi.
Me gustó especialmente el desarrollo psicológico de los personajes. Las hongas serán llamadas «La Belleza», por su aspecto femenino y cuerpo deseable, y sin embargo a causa de su falta de rostro, piel amarillenta y textura esponjosa nunca dejarán de nombrarlas como eso (no los culpo realmente).
Teniendo en cuenta que es un libro de pocas páginas, todo aquel personaje que es importante para la historia tiene su espacio y vemos su evolución –o quizás involución– con la aparición de La Belleza.
The Beauty es una mezcla extraña que por momentos produce tanta repulsión como interés con sus giros inesperados y bizarros, y esa es claramente la intención. A pesar de todo aún no se bien qué pensar sobre el final, no me decido sobre si me pareció abrupto o si simplemente me hubiera gustado que siguiera un poco más.
Ésta no es una lectura cómoda, pero no por eso deja de ser buena e interesante.
Reseña de Libros junto al mar
May 13, 2024
Por fin leí esta gran pero graaan recomendación de @orfeo.entreletras Gracias por darme a conocer esta joya, es un libro que te hace reflexionar mucho sobre qué pasaría si...todas las mujeres del mundo murieran...
Es una distopía en la que vive un grupo de hombres y niños, ellos escuchan la historia de cómo surgió su comunidad y te das cuenta cómo se puede adaptar la palabra a la situación a la que le convenga al narrador...
Es un viaje a un mundo fuera de lo común, sin género, muy pero muy weird.
*✒️Recomiendo leerlo.
Es una distopía en la que vive un grupo de hombres y niños, ellos escuchan la historia de cómo surgió su comunidad y te das cuenta cómo se puede adaptar la palabra a la situación a la que le convenga al narrador...
Es un viaje a un mundo fuera de lo común, sin género, muy pero muy weird.
*✒️Recomiendo leerlo.
Shelved as 'abandoned-for-now'
June 26, 2023DNF at 70 pages. The writing style wasn't particularly appealing; also I think I'm kinda over those kinds of "gender plague" dystopian novels in general, and this one felt especially gender-essentialist/ terfy. Also, just plain boring, considering it's supposed to be a fungal horror story (which I usually love). I'd much rather reread Annihilation.
July 25, 2015
Errr .... what the hell?! There wasn't really anything I liked about this book, but I was very grateful that it was only 99 pages long. Oh dear.
June 12, 2022
… I don’t even know where to start!
This book came as a recommendation due to how weird and disturbing it was and I have to say… I was pleasantly surprised.
This is the story of the Group, a civilization made up of only men due to their women dying off from an illness that only affects them. Nate, the Group’s storyteller, discovers mushrooms have been growing from the graves of women, and later discovers the Beauty, mushrooms that embody women and their… characteristics.
I went into this book semi blind, and it is not normally the type of book I would read of and immediately want to read. I normally go to shocking, gross, disturbing horror. Although this book does not look like it would contain those categories.. it does! This book GOES THERE. 10/10 would recommend.
P.S. this book contains tons of metaphors that would be fun to unpack with book clubs!
This book came as a recommendation due to how weird and disturbing it was and I have to say… I was pleasantly surprised.
This is the story of the Group, a civilization made up of only men due to their women dying off from an illness that only affects them. Nate, the Group’s storyteller, discovers mushrooms have been growing from the graves of women, and later discovers the Beauty, mushrooms that embody women and their… characteristics.
I went into this book semi blind, and it is not normally the type of book I would read of and immediately want to read. I normally go to shocking, gross, disturbing horror. Although this book does not look like it would contain those categories.. it does! This book GOES THERE. 10/10 would recommend.
P.S. this book contains tons of metaphors that would be fun to unpack with book clubs!
February 27, 2020
Recensione per Leggere distopico 😎
http://www.leggeredistopico.com/2020/...
http://www.leggeredistopico.com/2020/...
November 17, 2014
This review originally appeared on my blog, Books Without Any Pictures: http://bookswithoutanypictures.com/20...
3.5 stars.
One of the great things about being a book blogger is that you are introduced to books that you otherwise would never have heard of or considered reading. I received a review request from a small speculative fiction publisher based out of the UK called Unsung Stories for a novella called The Beauty, which is quite possibly one of the most bizarre books I’ve ever read.
The Beauty is a post-apocalyptic horror story set in a world without women. A disease managed to wipe out every female human on the planet, and the surviving men know that they’re the last of their kind before their inevitable extinction. Nate is a storyteller for a community of men who have moved away from the city and are living off the land. His stories help them to remember the past and to come to terms with the future.
One day, strange mushrooms begin growing on the ground where the corpses of the women were buried. The mushrooms had strange properties that would forever change the fate of mankind. *cue ominous music* It’s hard to write the rest of this review without entering into spoiler territory, but I will do my best.
Reading The Beauty required a certain suspension of disbelief from readers. There are currently approximately 7 billion people on the planet. That means that there are approximately 3.5 billion women, give or take. There’s enough genetic diversity in the human population that I don’t think all 3.5 billion women would be susceptible to the same disease. It would be a bit more believable if there were at least a few survivors. I understand the necessity of the lack of women for the plot, but I felt like killing them all off is in and of itself a bit of a stretch.
That being said, the lack of women is what enables Whitely to create a commentary on the fluidity of gender roles and the degree to which they are determined by societal pressure versus inherent nature. When there are no women, men don’t feel the need to be as “manly”, and people seem to sort themselves out according to their own whims, which can be mutable over time. This becomes especially evident after the arrival of the Beauty, which create a social incentive for the men to take on roles that were traditionally female.
Nate uses his stories to interpret the changes in society, but many of the men in the community are resistant to change. It’s not like they had any choice in the matter. I see Nate’s stories as being ideologically driven. He’s trying to rewrite the past and the present to create a better (or at least different) world, and I get the sense that for him it’s a coping mechanism and a way of reassuring himself that maybe he isn’t as doomed as he thinks he is. It’s a way to cling to hope, no matter how thin it might be, and in order for anyone to survive, each person needs to let go of their own identities and allow themselves to be reshaped into something new and alien to their prior experiences.
The Beauty isn’t among my favorites, but it is a curious piece of work. Nate’s voice is quite strong, even if I found some of the setup a bit weak. The book’s surreal and nightmarish quality has haunted my thoughts for the past week, and I feel as if it will leave a lasting impression.
3.5 stars.
One of the great things about being a book blogger is that you are introduced to books that you otherwise would never have heard of or considered reading. I received a review request from a small speculative fiction publisher based out of the UK called Unsung Stories for a novella called The Beauty, which is quite possibly one of the most bizarre books I’ve ever read.
The Beauty is a post-apocalyptic horror story set in a world without women. A disease managed to wipe out every female human on the planet, and the surviving men know that they’re the last of their kind before their inevitable extinction. Nate is a storyteller for a community of men who have moved away from the city and are living off the land. His stories help them to remember the past and to come to terms with the future.
One day, strange mushrooms begin growing on the ground where the corpses of the women were buried. The mushrooms had strange properties that would forever change the fate of mankind. *cue ominous music* It’s hard to write the rest of this review without entering into spoiler territory, but I will do my best.
Reading The Beauty required a certain suspension of disbelief from readers. There are currently approximately 7 billion people on the planet. That means that there are approximately 3.5 billion women, give or take. There’s enough genetic diversity in the human population that I don’t think all 3.5 billion women would be susceptible to the same disease. It would be a bit more believable if there were at least a few survivors. I understand the necessity of the lack of women for the plot, but I felt like killing them all off is in and of itself a bit of a stretch.
That being said, the lack of women is what enables Whitely to create a commentary on the fluidity of gender roles and the degree to which they are determined by societal pressure versus inherent nature. When there are no women, men don’t feel the need to be as “manly”, and people seem to sort themselves out according to their own whims, which can be mutable over time. This becomes especially evident after the arrival of the Beauty, which create a social incentive for the men to take on roles that were traditionally female.
Nate uses his stories to interpret the changes in society, but many of the men in the community are resistant to change. It’s not like they had any choice in the matter. I see Nate’s stories as being ideologically driven. He’s trying to rewrite the past and the present to create a better (or at least different) world, and I get the sense that for him it’s a coping mechanism and a way of reassuring himself that maybe he isn’t as doomed as he thinks he is. It’s a way to cling to hope, no matter how thin it might be, and in order for anyone to survive, each person needs to let go of their own identities and allow themselves to be reshaped into something new and alien to their prior experiences.
The Beauty isn’t among my favorites, but it is a curious piece of work. Nate’s voice is quite strong, even if I found some of the setup a bit weak. The book’s surreal and nightmarish quality has haunted my thoughts for the past week, and I feel as if it will leave a lasting impression.
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