'Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century' by Kim Fu is a short story collection that delves into speculative fiction themes, often likened to the eerie and thought-provoking episodes of Black Mirror. The stories in the book explore modern humanity through a lens of scifi and horror, offering a blend of magical realism and Kafkaesque elements. Fu's writing style is described as mesmerizing, electric, and original, blurring the boundaries between reality and fantasy while providing intricate insights into human nature. The narratives navigate themes of death, technological consequence, guilt, and sexuality, presenting a mix of wildly imaginative tales and those closer to the real world.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include themes of technology-induced anxiety, existential dread, and exploration of darker aspects of humanity.
From The Publisher:
A TIME Top 10 Fiction Book of 2022
An NPR, Book Riot, Chicago Public Library, Tor.com, South China Morning Post,Ms. Magazine, and Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2022
Winner of the 2023 Pacific Northwest Book Prize, 2022 Shirley Jackson Award for Short Fiction & The 2023 Washington State Book Award in Fiction
A BuzzFeed, WIRED, LitHub, ALTA, and PureWow Best Book of Winter
"The strange and wonderful define Kim Fu's story collection, where the line between fantasy and reality fades in and out, elusive and beckoning." -The New York Times Book Review
In the twelve unforgettable tales of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, the strange is made familiar and the familiar strange, such that a girl growing wings on her legs feels like an ordinary rite of passage, while a bug-infested house becomes an impossible, Kafkaesque nightmare. Each story builds a new world all its own: a group of children steal a haunted doll; a runaway bride encounters a sea monster; a vendor sells toy boxes that seemingly control the passage of time; an insomniac is seduced by the Sandman. These visions of modern life wrestle with themes of death and technological consequence, guilt and sexuality, and unmask the contradictions that exist within all of us.
Mesmerizing, electric, and wholly original, Kim Fu's Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century blurs the boundaries of the real and fantastic, offering intricate and surprising insights into human nature.
Ratings (3)
Loved It (2) | |
It Was OK (1) |
Reader Stats (7):
Read It (3) | |
Want To Read (3) | |
Not Interested (1) |
2 comment(s)
Super fun!
pre-simulation consultation xf007867 - 5/5
liddy, first to fly - 4/5
time cubes - 4.5/5
#climbingnation - 3/5
sandman - 4.5/5
twenty hours - 5/5
the doll - 3/5
in this fantasy - 3/5
scissors - 2/5
june bugs - 4/5
bridezilla - 3.5/5
do you remember candy - 5/5
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