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Beautiful Sorrows

Mercedes M. Yardley

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Sep 12, 2019 Joe X Young rated it really liked it

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With my regular policy of being upfront about everything I can state that I move in such circles where her name is spoken with reverence, yet to date I have no connection with her and have never read any of her work. Obviously this is about to change, but I have concerns as I have read the foreword by P. Gardner Goldsmith. It gives such an over-the-top build-up of gushing praise to the stories and the author that I fear no one mortal could deliver on the promise. It’s the kind of stuff you’d exp With my regular policy of being upfront about everything I can state that I move in such circles where her name is spoken with reverence, yet to date I have no connection with her and have never read any of her work. Obviously this is about to change, but I have concerns as I have read the foreword by P. Gardner Goldsmith. It gives such an over-the-top build-up of gushing praise to the stories and the author that I fear no one mortal could deliver on the promise. It’s the kind of stuff you’d expect an over-enthusiastic stage-school mom to say about her little darling to anyone within earshot. Makes me wonder what I have let myself in for. Wish me luck

Well. I’ve now read the collection. It doesn’t fully deliver on the promise for reasons I’ll go into later, however, I believe it comes as close as anyone could. I only got five stories in and was already charmed by the simplicity and mastery of the storytelling. It’s not often that I can devour a book in one sitting but Beautiful Sorrows is hard to put down.

The first story in this collection is called “Broken”. At first, I was somewhat taken aback by the brevity of the story, which in all actuality is left mostly to your own making. I think the cool kids these days call it a “Flash” and this is one of the shorter ones. What it lacks in length it makes up for in the implications, how horrific they are is left up to you. It’s a fitting start to what has turned out to be a quite exceptional first collection of short stories. It didn’t leave all that much to go on as far as what Mercedes can do with longer tales, but “Black Mary” the second story in the collection, was more fully fleshed out. It’s a very familiar subject matter, that of an abducted girl dealing with the all-too-real horror of the situation. While the first story makes one think the rest out, this one has a very simple structure which although is nothing truly new, is absorbing, beautifully crafted and an indication of why Mercedes M Yardley is so highly praised. There are 27 stories in this collection, I won’t comment on all of them as it would be such an enormous task of not tripping into spoiler territory that I fear I couldn’t do it, especially when there are many stories here about which I could be wholly enthusiastic. Her reputation as a ‘Whimsical horror and urban fantasy’ writer is somewhat firmly established, many of the stories I wouldn’t class as horror, more as dipping a toe into the fantastical before plunging both legs in. I hasten to add that even staunch horror readers won’t be disappointed. It is becoming apparent that I need a thesaurus so I don’t use the word beautiful too often, but I have to face facts, the prose, even in the more horrific content, is beautiful. There’s a fairy-tale simplicity behind much of the work, no evidence of heavy-handedness or bending to public influence here, and whether it is humorous or tragic, horrific or enlightening, it all reads as if it is effortless and heartfelt.
Criticism time…

There are several stories in the collection which are just too damned short. There’s way too much good about the author’s handling of material that it’s practically shameful to see a lot of the stories not expanded upon. That’s not to say that the majority are not perfectly fine in of themselves, more that when the quality is so high the desire is to binge, indulge, let the greed take control as it’s not often enough that we get to see collections of such a calibre. Several of the stories could have been at the very least a novella, but that’s just my opinion, instead many of the stories echo the content of one of the most powerful tales ‘Show Your Bones’, as it’s what the book does, shows us the barest of truths in the most Spartan of styles in what is truly an exceptional collection.

If one’s only niggle is that the content is often too damned short then that’s about as good as it gets in a collection which is something of a privilege to have read. I am grateful for the opportunity and ability to see just what is possible with the written word at its finest.
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