Red Spikes -- Margo Lanagan

Is that not the most gorgeous cover art* you've seen in some time?

Well, it's the most gorgeous cover art I've seen in some time, at any rate.  At first I thought it was kind of scary, but I later realized that the thorns aren't pushing into her skin -- according to the story that the illustration comes from, those red balls are berries.

Okay, it's still a little scary.  But also gorgeous.

Red Spikes is Margo Lanagan's third collection of short fiction.  Over the course of ten stories, she visits Purgatory and a boys' school and she writes from the perspective of a ghostly parakeet and a monkey.  The worlds -- all of them -- she introduced me to were familiar but different. 

She made me think of Ray Bradbury, in that her worlds can be sometimes brutal and harsh but then, a page later -- sometimes within the same story -- there is warmth and tenderness.

My favorites:

Baby Jane:  A boy has to deliver the baby of a warrior queen while dealing with her manservant and a bear, all who happen to be miniatures come to life (and suddenly life-sized).

Hero Vale:  This is the one set in the boys' school.  It was my very favorite story in the book.  I liked it so much that even if you aren't planning on reading the whole book, I'd suggest that you, at the very least, read this one.

Under Hell, Over Heaven:  This is the Purgatory story.  (Ooo, that kind of rhymes.)

Also, the story Winkie (about Wee Willie Winkie) scared the bejebus out of me.  Actually, so did Monkey's Paternoster, but in a very different way.

Many of these stories are not for the faint of heart.  Along with the dark atmosphere, you can tick the box next to pretty much every single entry on your handy list of Things People Find Offensive in YA fiction.  In Red Spikes, you'll find sex, violence, witchcraft, and, as at least two of the stories deal with the afterlife, well, those are bound to offend someone out there.  I don't remember profanity, but that doesn't mean there isn't any.

For those of you aren't scared off by that, it's a good read.  I really appreciated the Acknowledgments section, in which she describes her inspiration behind the stories.  I read Black Juice some time ago -- never wrote it up, apparently -- and I'm planning on digging that out again and also finding a copy of White Time. 

*The artist is Jeremy Caniglia.

Comments

[Kelly Fineman]

I remember someone talking about this earlier, maybe for the SBBT or Under the Radar tour, and they said that Winkie scared the daylights out of them as well. Sounds like good reading!

[Leila]

Yeah, she's really good. Really different, too. She won't be to everyone's taste, but she'll be a real treat for some.

[Brian F.]

I've had her recommended to me a couple times. Where do you suggest I start?

[Jenna]

I've read Black Juice and White Time and loved them both. White Time is a novel about a girl who goes to the antarctic. Nothing I could describe would do it justice - just go read it. But if you're just starting out, her short story collections (Black Juice and now Red Spikes) are a delicious way to start.

[Colleen]

In my review I said Winkie freaked me out - I'm still freaked out. Was that the best possible rewrite of a fairy tale ever or what? Overall the collection was a bit uneven to me...but then again I think they pretty much always are. Everyone always ends up with favorites. "Hero Vale" was really really good though and I will certainly keep looking for more of her work; the one thing about Lanagan is that there really is no one else writing anything like her for YAs today.

[Margo Lanagan]

Oops, Jenna, I think you might be thinking of Nikki Gemmell's novel SHIVER? WHITE TIME is short stories - people go to some strange places in them, but not Antarctica. I have written a couple of YA novels, but they are only published in Australia (by Allen & Unwin): THE BEST THING and TOUCHING EARTH LIGHTLY. Both set in Sydney - no ice in them except in drinks.

Oh, and there will be a novel out, I hope, by this time next year. I don't know whether it will come out as adult or YA in the US. It's called TENDER MORSELS and Knopf is publishing it. I'm doing the revisions now. It's fantasy. Dark-ish.

Thanks for the review, Leila, and sorry if my commenting unnerves you. You made me laugh with the paragraph about 'your handy list of Things People Find Offensive in YA fiction'.

Best,
Margo.

[Leila]

Brian, I'd try "Singing My Sister Down" from Black Juice or "Hero Vale" or "Winkie" from Red Spikes.

Winkie's one of those stories that gets creepier and creepier. I'm more creeped out by it now than I was while I was reading it.

Jenna's description made me think of The White Darkness, but I haven't read Shiver. (The White Darkness is fabbity fab fab and you should all go read it right now.)

Margo Lanagan, you can comment wherever you want to! I'll be watching for Tender Morsels, regardless of what age range Knopf decides to target.

[Lauren]

Ghostly parakeet!?

[Margo Lanagan]

Budgerigar. :)