i actually had no idea what i was checking out when i picked up julia elloitt's the wilds, because it was a blind date book! i had seen on the brooklyn library's instagram that they did a blind date books for valentine's day and shared it on my facebook. my friend rovia told me that the beale library in bakersfield was doing it as well and of course i went to check it out.
so cute right. i ended up picking up this book, because it was genre-bending!
and i wish the library had an actual dating service because i ended up enjoying this book. it's a collection of short stories that are dark and weird, kind of southern gothic meets sci-fi, but very interesting!
my favorite stories were:
"the rapture", the story of two popular girls whose parents (in an attempt to teach them a lesson on life) forced them to spend the night for a classmate's birthday party. the classmate was at the bottom of the social ladder and family was odd, an overly religious mother, a gay uncle who used to be a model, and grandmother who was religious but also
some sort of witch. their stay was filled with creepiness and ended with a blondie reference (the story is called "the rapture.")
"LIMBs" it's a beautiful store with some amazing technology from the future. a woman, elise mood, is in a nursing home, where she received treatment to help stimulate her memory which she is losing to alzheimer's. in addition to this, elise was also given "leg intuitive motion bionics" or limbs to help her walk around. while walking around the facility, an old flame ran into her. initially, she did not remember him but then things to start to come back, as does memories of her husband. elise and her husband had a rough life due to an injury he had and though he did cheat on him. in the end, elise realized her husband was in the nursing home too and one day she escaped the home with him.
"jaws" was a sad story of having to cope with our parents aging. it's tough realizing the people that cared for you all your life will start to grow old and need your help.
"organisms" was educational for me. i learned about a parasite that acts as the tongue of a fish (without the fish knowing) and how it lives by eating the food the fish catches. it's actually quite scary how parasite organisms take over a body. this story was like an episode of "the twilight zone" and would make an excellent movie! it was the story of three people but centered around an organism that is taking over the bodies of teens, the side effects are an appetite for junk food and long periods of electronic stimulation (ie video games and tv) sounds just like being a teen right? which makes it even more difficult
to stop!
"the love machine" reminded me of "her" and bj novak's short story, "sophia", was about a machine that loves. it's funny when love is broken down to science, it's interesting to see our behaviors when it comes to love is framed by our knowledge and stimuli around us.
all of the stories are interesting and wierd and dark. "feral" was about wild dogs that plague a town and a woman falling for a wild dogs expert. "the wilds"
was about a young girl that turns wild like a werewolf with a neighborhood boy. "regeneration at mukti" was about a resort where people go to cleanse their bodies and souls by having all of the horrible negativity and evils in their soul become manifested on their skin as warts and sores, etc. "caveman diet" poked fun at all or these trends to get back to some normal way of life by returning to primitive means. "end of the world" was about a band getting back together and a woman getting closure from an old relationship.
all in all, a great collection of short stories and i can't wait for my blind date next year!!!
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