Adult, ARC review, book review

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird: Stories by Agustina Bazterrica (ARC Review)

Title: Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird
Author: Agustina Bazterrica
Translator: Sarah Moses
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Horror, Short Stories
Publisher: Scribner
Published: June 20, 2023

A complimentary physical copy of this book was kindly provided by Simon & Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review.

From celebrated author Agustina Bazterricathis collection of nineteen brutal, darkly funny short stories takes into our deepest fears and through our most disturbing fantasies. Through stories about violence, alienation, and dystopia, Bazterrica’s vision of the human experience emerges in complex, unexpected ways—often unsettling, sometimes thrilling, and always profound. In “Roberto,” a girl claims to have a rabbit between her legs. A woman’s neighbor jumps to his death in “A Light, Swift, and Monstrous Sound,” and in “Candy Pink,” a woman fails to contend with a difficult breakup in five easy steps.

Written in Bazterrica’s signature clever, vivid style, these stories question love, friendship, family relationships, and unspeakable desires.

⤖ My Review ⬻

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica is a collection of short stories that explores the darker side of human nature. Unlike many other readers, I didn’t read Bazterrica’s Tender is the Flesh prior to reading these short stories, so I had no idea what to expect beyond having a feeling that the horror would be intense.

The stories in the book are all disturbing in their own way, and many of them explore themes of violence, death, and decay. I also really enjoyed the dark humour throughout the collection. I enjoyed that Bazterrica also did’t hold back and that things got creepy and gross…and just unsettling.

There were a few stories in Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird that I found to be a bit confusing or difficult to follow, but even in those cases, I still appreciated the quality of the writing. Bazterrica has a way of crafting sentences that are both beautiful while sending shivers down my spine.

Overall, I would highly recommend Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird to anyone who is a fan of horror or dark fiction. I enjoyed Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird as a whole, and read most of it in one day—I couldn’t put it down despite some of the stories giving me the creeps! I’m now definitely a fan of Bazterrica and plan to read Tender is the Flesh in the near future.

⤖ About the Author ⬻

Agustina Bazterrica is an Argentinian novelist and short story writer. She is a central figure in the Buenos Aires literary scene. She won the prestigious Premio Clarin Novela for her second novel, Tender Is the Flesh, which has been translated into twenty-three languages. Several of the stories in Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird have also won awards, including First Prize in the 2004/2005 City of Buenos Aires Awards for Unpublished Stories and First Prize in the Edmundo Valadés Awards for the Latin American Short Story, among others.

⤖ Places to Purchase the Book ⬻

⤖ Let's Chat ⬻

Thank you for reading my review! Have you read this book? What did you think? And if you haven’t read it yet, do you plan to? Let me know in the comments!

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