The Merry Spinster
by Daniel M. Lavery
3.5 *
Horror isn't my cup of tea, but Lavery (formerly Ortberg) is really good at leaving weird spaces that play with your assumptions and creating an atmosphere of dread.
I think my favorite was "The Thankless Child," vaguely sketched sci fi dystopia with lots of intriguing detail, about salt and a godmother. Wish it ended differently, but, horror. My second favorite was "The Daughter Cells," because of the worldbuilding but also, honestly, because Lavery really captures the archetype of The Prince in fairy stories, and he sucks.
Loved the strong current of genderfuckery running throughout the book---male daughters who owe the world their beauty, brothers named Sylvia and sisters named Paul, the discussion in the salt/stepmother story about who should be the husband and who the wife.