The atmospheric mystery hooks you right off the top and the worldbuilding is just *Chef's Kiss* - magical, eerie and slightly terrifying - a deceptively short read which is a perfect cure for a slump!
a brisk and incredible read that happens to have a setting that is completely at the whims of the sea, a labyrinthine, infinite collection of corridors lined with ornate statues, inside of which an ocean is imprisoned. it’s a great evolution of borgesian magical realism with beautiful prose and a hook that sunk deep into me early on, i lamented closing the final page for weeks after
Magical realism/general spookiness is the perfect genre for short stories, mystery lends itself to brevity. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson (158 pages)
Our Wives Under the Sea - Julia Armfield (232 pages)
Annihilation - Jeff Vandermeer (195 pages)
Pirasesi by susanna clarke (245 pages)
The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter (200 pages)
(Or even short Angela Carter’s Love which is 120 pages)
A grotesque and brilliant collection of short stories. a good mix of sci-fi, spec fic, body horror and comedy. Clarke’s writing feels so visceral, she manages to make such surreal worlds feel very real.
I feel like as you get older, friendships require a lot more effort and intention - you have to commit to wanting to be someone’s friend because everyone else is also an adult with so much going on in their lives! so people can seems a bit hostile and unwilling to open themselves up, but I would say the best way to make new friends is being the one to risk it first. You might be surprised as to how many people are willing to also open up once they know they’re not going to be emotionally dismissed!
Melodrama is one of my favourite pop albums ever, and the tracking is PERFECT. The album closes on this bittersweet but ultimately highly compassionate and energetic song that synthesizes everything it’s like when you’re coming into your own and discovering who you are in a world that seems very, very vast. We can be alone and confused together 😎
