Fortune Box Stories by Madeleine Swann


It sounds shallow but what first drew to this delightful little book was the cover. Look at it, it's so gorgeous I simply had to know what was inside! A book cover so cute my three year old daughter kept making off with it.



But eventually I found it hidden amongst her dollies and was able to finish, but since finishing it it has suspiciously disappeared again. Published by Eraserhead Press this is a little book containing 9 short stories of bizarro fiction. The characters all have one thing in common, they each receive a surprise package from Tower Ltd Surprise Packages which contain a very odd assortment of items that will change their lives.

It gets off to a really good start with Meera's tale, (This was one of my favourites.) who is a dissatisfied young woman who desperately wants to find her perfect date and is not the patient type. After a terrible first date she comes back to her flat to find a package has arrived, containing seeds and a tiny watering can.

For me this tale was my favourite as told from another perspective these stories would be seen as terrifyingly dark, but Madeleine Swann tells them with such charm that on the surface they appear charming and witty. I think if Madeleine chose to write straight up horror her stories would be deemed too scary to publish!

There's some great comic moments in this book which will really have you chuckling, especially the fifth story which feature the strangest love story I have ever come across. The ninth tale, another favourite, centred around Craig who has no luck when it comes to people, was really fun and shows off Madeleine's hilarious sense of humour and contains my favourite passage of the whole book, (page 96 in case you're wondering.You'll know it when you see it.) I've not shared it here as I would hate to spoil the moment for you.

I had so much fun reading this, its's such a great book.  I've had a sneak peak on her Goodreads page and there are some amazing sounding titles she has already released such as Rainbows Suck, The Filing Cabinet of Doom and my favourite, Taken Hard at the Magical Time Travel Sex Resort. I need to read all of these!

About the Author


Madeleine describes herself as a psychedelic flapper, weird fiction writer, creepy stuff lover and a hideous face puller. She has been published in numerous anthologies and has many other books out there including The Filing Cabinet of Doom, a collection of short stories from Burning Bulb Publishing.

You can find out more on her website here and also on twitter @MadeleineSwann

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Stone Road by G.R.Matthews

Image
I was introduced to this book as part of Fantasy Faction's Book Club where we all get together and discuss our favourite books. This time the administrator chose a title that had been self published. Out now via Amazon Now I'm going to let you in on a little secret, that yes of course there are a lot of really bad self published books out there, but there are also some really good ones. Since buying a kindle I've bought numerous self published titles for as little as 49p and have enjoyed most of them. Recently I read The Lady of the Helm by T.O.Munro and that was really very good. I'm going off track a bit here but if you love fantasy fiction and want to read really amazing self published fiction then head over to Mark Lawrence's site where he hosts the annual SPFBO - The Self Published Fantasy Blog-Off in which top bloggers read through the top 273 self published fantasy  novels to determine an overall winner. So back to  the Stone Road by G.R.Matthews.
Read more

Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste

Image
For fans of Mexican Gothic, from three-time Bram Stoker Award–winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a novel inspired by the untold stories of forgotten women in classic literature--from Lucy Westenra, a victim of Stoker’s Dracula, and Bertha Mason, from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre--as they band together to combat the toxic men bent on destroying their lives, set against the backdrop of the Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury, 1967. Reluctant Immortals  is a historical horror novel that looks at two men of classic literature, Dracula and Mr. Rochester, and the two women who survived them, Bertha and Lucy, who are now undead immortals residing in Los Angeles in 1967 when Dracula and Rochester make a shocking return in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. Combining elements of historical and gothic fiction with a modern perspective, in a tale of love and betrayal and coercion,  Reluctant Immortals  is the lyrical and harrowing journey of two women from classic literature as they brave
Read more

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

Image
This epic tale is a fictional memoir of Uhtred, son of Uhtred who's destiny was forged in battle between the pagan Viking warriors and the pious Christian Anglo-Saxons in 9th century Britain. "My name is Uhtred. I am the son of Uhtred, who was the son of Uhtred and his father was also called Uhtred. My father’s clerk, a priest called Beocca, spelt it Utred. I do not know if that was how my father would have written it, for he could neither read nor write, but I can do both and sometimes I take the old parchments from their wooden chest and I see the name spelled Uhtred or Utred or Ughtred or Ootred, and I look at the deeds which say that Uhtred, son of Uhtred, is the lawful and sole owner of the lands that are carefully marked by stones and by dykes, by oaks and by ash, by marsh and by sea, and I dream of those lands, wave-beaten and wild beneath the wind driven sky. I dream, and know that one day I will take back the land from those who stole it from me." (Taken from
Read more