review

THE WORD OF FLESH AND SOUL – RUTHANNA EMRYS

The Word of Flesh and SoulThe Word of Flesh and Soul by Ruthanna Emrys
My rating: 3/5 cats
One StarOne StarOne Star

I try to feel the word: not just the velveteen shapes on my floor, but how they’d have sat in the minds of the speakers. Someone carved those bright letters in dark stone, almost four thousand years ago. Someone struggled over their sentences, just as I do when I strive to say what I mean, and nothing else, explanations chipped out word by word.

i suppose this story isn’t precisely lovecraftian, but it is lovecraft-adjacent, and that’s close enough for me to politely excuse myself from reviewing it, since this is such an obvious case of ‘it’s not you, it’s me.’ or, rather—‘it’s not you, it’s your influences.’

i like a lot of the writing, and the story started off holding my interest, but then its focus slid quickly into nooooot fooooor meeeee toooown, enough so that despite my so far/so good 2018 commitment to reviewing all of these free tor shorts, however briefly, immediately after reading them instead of letting them pile up on my virtual ‘review-pending’ shelf until years have passed and i can’t even remember the foggiest detail, i put off reviewing this for a week—a week during which thanksgiving happened, gravy-wiping my memory of anything except turkey and root vegetables and regret.

so now, all i can remember is that i really wanted to like this one, and it had good bones, as they say, but while the style and the shape around those bones will appeal to many readers, they do not, unfortunately, appeal to this jackass.

read it for yourself here:

https://www.tor.com/2018/11/14/the-wo…

read my book reviews on goodreads

previous
next
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Amazon Disclaimer

Bloggycomelately.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon properties including but not limited to, amazon.com, or endless.com, MYHABIT.com, SmallParts.com, or AmazonWireless.com.

Donate

this feels gauche, but when i announced i was starting a blog, everyone assured me this is a thing that is done. i’m not on facebook, i’ve never had a cellphone or listened to a podcast; so many common experiences of modern life are foreign to me, but i’m certainly struggling financially, so if this is how the world works now, i’d be foolish to pass it up. any support will be received with equal parts gratitude and bewilderment.

To Top