Book Review: Salt Slow by Julia Armfield

Wow. Wow wow wow. This book blew me away! If you’re a fan of dark, weird, macabre, beautifully written stories, then you need to read Salt Slow, a collection of nine distinct tales about womanhood. But these stories focus on unruly women, the best kind.

“The sky is gory with stars, like the insides of a gutted night.”

What I love most about these stories is that they are rooted in the mundane, but then Armfield introduces these details that elevate the stories from everyday humdrum scenarios to the weird and unusual. And it’s all executed in such a gorgeously vivid haunting way. I was obsessed from the very first story.

Each of the 9 stories are unique and memorable. We have women obsessed with creating the perfect man in the form of a Frankenstein-like monster, a girl who has a wolf as a stepsister, a woman’s girlfriend who claws out of her grave to visit her former lover, an all-female band who’s fans turn violent... the scope and imagination that Armfield demonstrates is amazing!

I loved every single story, but the one that REALLY stood out for me was The Great Awake, wherein a city begins to suffer from insomnia as sleep becomes a shadow-like form that leaves their bodies. These people are able to remain awake without needing rest, but not everyone loses their “sleep”. I need a NOVEL about this, please. It was fascinating.

Easily one of the best short story collections I’ve ever read. And the queer representation is on point too - multiple f/f relationships. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to sit here and twiddle my thumbs, waiting on what Armfield does next...

Thanks to @ab_reads for gifting this to me! I’m not sure I would have picked it up on my own!

Johann