Furies: Stories of the wicked, wild and untamed - feminist tales from 16 bestselling, award-winning authors

The pre-ordered book arrived on time but has a slash mark on the back. It is likely that it was cut by the boxcutter when opening the initial box. I rarely buy new books, settling for used and varied conditions but splurged as I love the authors in this anthology. Due to the condition of the book and paying full price, I wish I had just held out for a used copy, got the same roughed-up text, but paid less for it.

Compilations of short stories are always hit and miss I find. This one is definitely more hit than miss.Furies is a selection of short stories that represent aspects of feminism from a range of authors. Each story takes the theme of a specific anti-feminist slur and runs with it, exploring the different facets of womanhood and gender and the strengths they hold.The opening story is instantly gripping, and it stays strong from there. There is perhaps one story near the end that I personally couldn't get into - I found it slow and uninteresting, but other than that they were all very good and each with a completely unique style and perspective.If someone had tried to sell this to me as an anthology of feminist short stories, I doubt I would have been too intrigued, but the content is genuinely fantastic. One story in particular stood out to me - the powerful telling of a female rebellion in Poland against the Nazis during WW2.Definitely worth a try!

Inégal comme tout recueil de nouvelles mais une lecture plaisir. Je suis particulièrement fan de la nouvelle Churail.

I bought this volume of stories on the strength of Margaret Atwood’s name on the cover. As an avid fan of hers, I was not disappointed by her contribution, which opened this quirky collection of pieces by some of the most prominent women writers working in the field today.Atwood’s story, “Siren,” about an uproarious Liminal Beings Knitting Circle meeting, sets the tone for the rest of the stories. The members of this knitting circle include Scylla, the many-headed sea monster, among other mythical females, such as Grendel’s mother and Arachne.And in a sense, the stories in this collection are an assemblage of themes and concerns about women and how they navigate the world, as it changes rapidly, but remain somewhat the same, and become even more regressive, in the way it treats them.If words are weapons, and name-calling a cruel way to subjugate, humiliate and ostracise, the titles of these stories leverage their power and overturn their intended meanings to bestow power and might to these women who just refuse fall into place.“Hussy”, “Spitfire”, “Dragon”, and even “Tigress”, are some of the titles and in these stories the writers variously celebrate the mother whose tiger mom instincts literally transforms her into the animal to protect her children, the porn star past her prime and trying to make her way in the world who runs into an ex-colleague, a woman who contemplates how menopause is changing her, and the other transformative stages of a woman’s life.The stories are however, neither preachy nor misanthropic, and they are varied in scope and set in different times and cultures. Wondrously addictive, they also introduced me to some rather fine writing of authors whose names I have encountered but not read, and whose works I am now keen to explore.

Rating a short stories volume is always tough. The first half was definitely the strongest, but I found something to enjoy in every single one. The intro by Sandi Toksvig was a delight in itself!Overall a fantastic collection and I looked forward each time I started a new story to see how the next author would tackle the theme.