Januaries by Olivie Blake

Book Review

Tor

It seemed like a good month to dive into Januaries, a short story collection by Olivie Blake. She is best known for her dark academia title The Atlas Six. Her other recent title, Girl Dinner, was also set firmly in the world of academia. Only one of these stories continues this theme – it’s the background to Sous Vide, where the protagonist is a starving academic embroiled in an affair with her professor. The other stories are mixed – some are set firmly in the nebulous lands of fairytales or Greek myth, others are urban fantasy.

The majority of these stories are dark romances. My favourite by far was Fates and Consequences, where the protagonist is accidentally sent to the Underworld. Unfortunately for him, both Hades and Persephone take a keen interest in his fate. This is a very black comedy in the way it portrays the Underworld/Hell, and I absolutely loved this take on the character of Persephone and her relationship with Hades.

My other favourite was The Animation Games, a tragic tale of two lovers who race to kill each other whenever they come back from the dead. It’s very macabre, but compelling and a lot of fun to read.

The best horror tale is Sucker for Pain. Protagonist Nora is kidnapped by the mother of a great magician, Edmund, to be his companion. She spends her life being treated as a pet rather than a person. Edmund feels like every exaggerated eye-roll worthy take at a ‘dark prince’ character, so I was pleasantly surprised when the story didn’t always go in his favour.

Some of the stories are in experimental styles. I enjoyed the poetic form of How to Dispel Friends and Curse People which is about a poet in love with the local wicked witch. However, I couldn’t get through Monsterlove, an overly-long metaphorical monologue about the all-consuming nature of motherhood.

Chaos Theory is an interesting premise about multiple selves across multiple universes, dragged on too long. A couple of other stories also felt overlong, but this one was the worst offender. It uses the same pain point as some of the other stories – killing or being forced to kill a lover. But in this story, the already repeating theme finally outstays its welcome – at least for me. Connoisseurs of dark romance are likely to be well within their element!

Across all stories, the writing is evocative, if not always as tight as it could be. But even the stories that were misses for me contained an interesting premise or form. Read Januaries if you’d like a collection of experimental and fantastical dark romances.