The first book I read this year was Amelia Gray’s fantastic collection Gutshot.
Gutshot is a collection of short short stories, generally either gritty or strange, sometimes both.
There are 37 stories in this collection and they are almost all of uncommonly high quality. The stories I didn’t like where still good, it was just a matter of personal taste (sometimes you simply don’t like something and think it’s not good, here I didn’t like it but thought “This is quality, just not my cup of tea”).
Many stories though, were, in fact, some of the best I’ve read in a while. There is a couple who convince a call girl to climb into the vents in their home and crawl around, becoming, in effect, the heart of the house. A whale heart shows up in the house of a family that recently lost the mother. A couple attempt to concieve in a bloody and gruesome manner (almost reminiscent of Chuck Palahniuk’s notorious story Guts)
What struck me while reading the collection, apart from Amelia’s talent (which, I find I must point out, is amazing. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of her work before.) is her gift for strong first sentences.
Here are a few examples og Amelia’s talent for first sentences.
It had been a memorable date after such a long line of failures.
William was a puker.
The poet brought his people to the bay and waved for them to quiet.
The townspeople met at the graveyard at the agreed-upon time.
He showed me a bottle and said he could use some company.
The young inventor created a device that could predict the future within one-tenth of a percent of accuracy.
I think it’s a whale’s heart.
The gods decided that, once a year, they would have a weeklong contest and allow the one person who felt the most grief over the loss of a loved one to have that loved one return.
The sun beats the shit out of a dirty road called Raton Pass where the closest thing to a pair of matching earrings is a guy named Carl who punches you in the head with his fist.
This page was once plant material, crushed and sluiced and pressed through a machine in a warehouse, the process overseen by a man plagued with a skin infection.
I strongly recommend Gutshot for all fans of short fiction, especially if you like it dark and if the quality of the writing itself matters to you.
That last one sounds like something from a different era.
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