That is how I feel about this short story collection I just finished reading, Unnatural Creatures with stories selected by Neil Gaiman. This was one of those random buys, it was sitting on a shelf in the wrong section, just tossed there by somebody who had changed there mind, and for some reason, without even looking at the title I put in my to buy pile. I cracked this book open and immediately fell into some of the best short stories ever, so so so many awesome, different, amazing, cool, funny, weird, scary, stories. The theme of this book is creatures who should only exist in ones imagination. Lucky for us that is a pretty broad theme and the stories in this collection push this idea to the very edges (think living coat hangers). There is talk of the Museum for Unnatural History and the creatures that may inhabit it sets the stage for our stories. I could seriously go on and on and on about this book, but instead I'm going to try (and this is going to be pretty impossible) to give you a quick taste of my favorites (favorite being relative because every single story in here was awesome in its own way).
**__** by Gahan Wilson-Ok so the story I start with has an impossible title as it is more of an inkblot then words, but that totally goes along with this story of a spot that grows and moves anytime one is not watching it. This story is only 15 pages long and is both hilarious and creepy, perfect start to this book.
The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees by E. Lily Yu-This story pretty much has everything one could want from a short story. There is politics, power struggles, war, genetic breeding, cartography, anarchy, and oh yeah it all plays out between the bees and wasps. After reading this I will never look at those black and yellow insects the same way again.
Gabriel-Ernest by Saki-This is a super short, super horrific, super awesome werewolf/untamed beast story that will give you more chills per page then anything I have read in a while
The Flight of the Horse by Larry Niven-This story cracked my up. I loved the whole premise of it, I loved the scifi element of it, I LOVED the humor of it...just so much to love. Pay close attention when you read this story and you may "learn" where some of our own myths and legends come from.
The Smile on the Face by Nalo Hopkinson-This story really got to me. It is in the voice of a teenage girl trying to find a way to accept herself and it is a story any human can relate to. Our girl finally finds her inner hamadryad and learns to accept it. If I were a teacher, I might be tempted to make this one required reading.
I think there is a two fold strength to this collection. The first being the selection of the authors from Diana Wynne Jones through Nalo Hopkinson to Larry Niven to so many more made this book truly one of many view points. The other strength is that the stories were taken from so many time periods, the oldest story in this collection was published in 1885 and the newest being first published in this anthology in 2013 so you not only get a variety of authors, but a huge variety of style and glimpses into other times and places and people. Ok I lied there is a third strength and that is the illustrations by Briony Morrow-Cribbs at the beginning of each story add the perfect touch to each creation. As an added bonus buying this book resulted in money being donated to 826DC which is a program works with the 6-18 crowd (and there teachers) to inspire the art of creative writing which is awesome and has the added benefit of making sure there are still decent authors around in my old age :-) I recommend this book to anybody and everybody, but especially you quirky people who love a good, twisty short story. This is without a doubt going on my favorites bookshelf, I give it 9 out of 10 Carnivorous Ink Blots.
What is your favorite unnatural creature? What constitutes an unnatural creature? Do reading stories like this make museums super scary (yet oddly thrilling)?
