Synopsis:
In Unshod, Cackling, and Naked a beauty pageant veteran appeases her mother by competing for one final crown, only to find herself trapped in a hand-sewn gown that cuts into her flesh. A journalist falls deeply in love with a mysterious woman but discovers his beloved can vanish and reappear hours later in the same spot, as if no time has passed at all. A cash-strapped college student agrees to work in a shop window as a mannequin but quickly learns she’s not free to break her pose. And what happens when the family pet decides it no longer wants to have ‘owners’?
In the grim and often horrific thirteen tales collected here, beauty is violent, and love and hate are the same feeling, laid bare by unbridled obsession. Entering worlds both strange and quotidian, and spanning horror landscapes both speculative and real, asks who among us is worthy of love and who deserves to die?
Edition:
Review copy provided by the publisher Unnerving
My Thoughts:
Unshod is such a fantastic collection of dark fiction pieces. It feels like a cohesive grouping of stories rather than just a bunch of disparate pieces the author collected into a book, which is nice – a lot of times collections from a single author are exactly that. Less a collection of like stories than just a collection. But there is a definite theme here. Each of these stories has a thread of Black, feminine empowerment to them.
Some of my favorites were:
Under the Crown: a daughter no longer wants to compete in beauty pageants.
The Bats: Imagine The Birds, but make it bats.
These Parts: Probably a good idea to just generally treat the women in your life better, no?
i will be glorious: Grieving and body horror intertwine in a way that really can only be described as glorious.
Angry Slash of Blood: This one is interesting, because it sort of hones in on the challenges one may face in a committed relationship when you find out that one of the people involved isn’t quite what they seem.
Mannequin Model: This is a really lovely, really strange story about dealing with trauma.
Honestly, there isn’t a story in this collection that I don’t think is worth reading. These were just the ones that resonated most with me when I read them. Thompson writes in a way that feels accessible and comforting to me. Although a lot of the stories center female rage, if you’ve been alive in this world for any amount of time, I’m sure you can understand where that might come from. It feels good to see it being expressed once in a while. I think we should all do that more. I mean, maybe not these ways (but also, maybe), but we should at least be able to yell once in a while without anyone claiming we’re crazy, or PMS-ing, or whatever. And this goes doubly for Black women (Women of Color in general, really, although Thompson’s book specifically centers Black women).
Rating:
Unshod is totally solid, and Thompson’s style is very engaging and enjoyable.
Unshod, Cackling, and Naked By Tamika Thompson Unnerving Published: January 24, 2023 ISBN: 9781989206980 Paperback, e-book 261 Pages
