Book 44: Weird Women, Wired Women

As I said a couple of days back in my journal, I think Kit Reed is an awesome writer who more people need to be familliar with. This collection of twenty short stories is a good retrospective of her work from 1958 to 1998.

All of the stories in this book are, on some level, creepy. Even when Reed’s being funny or satirical, that creepy factor is still there. Most particularly creepy are her stories dealing with motherhood, in particular “Chicken Soup”, in which devoted motherhood is taken to the extreme, “The Mothers of Shark Island”, and “Mommy Nearest.”

That being said, I love Reed when she’s making social commentary. “In Behalf of the Product” is a speech by a pageant winner that is just very, very not what you’d expect. “Like My Dress” is a nice commentary on the media and what people will do to get fame. “Cynosure” and “The New You” are also a bit satirical, but the twists at the end are the kind that make me rub my hands together with glee.

It says something for Reed that I zipped through all these short stories in only a matter of days, whereas the collection of the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror that I have out from the library has been languishing for months.

Reed is definitely an author to check out if you like weird stories!