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A review by abookgoblin
The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot
5.0
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
God this was amazing. This is exactly the type of atmosphere that I look for in creepy poetry collections or novels. I especially enjoyed the build-up towards the narrator's ultimate goal of becoming a taxidermist. The combination of grief and abandonment made this poetry collection incredibly moving.
Lottie is a girl who, in hindsight, has lost both her mother and her sister. To cope with their loss, she goes out and finds dead animals to keep in her room to watch as they turn to dust. Throughout the novel, we meet other characters such as her father, aunt Hilda and her grandmother, who all, except her father really, are opposed to Lottie's obsession with dead animals and taxidermy. Then there's also a boy in her school, Jeffrey, who turns out to be one of the few who isn't repelled by her interests.
As I said, the mix of life and death, of beauty and the macabre, turned out to be a really good match for me. However, do be aware that the author has used very vivid macabre imagery when describing the dead animals, so I'd say you need to be aware of this trigger warning while reading.
"It is only death.
It is not the end!
The dead are gone--
not forgotten.
We all die.
It's a part of life."
God this was amazing. This is exactly the type of atmosphere that I look for in creepy poetry collections or novels. I especially enjoyed the build-up towards the narrator's ultimate goal of becoming a taxidermist. The combination of grief and abandonment made this poetry collection incredibly moving.
Lottie is a girl who, in hindsight, has lost both her mother and her sister. To cope with their loss, she goes out and finds dead animals to keep in her room to watch as they turn to dust. Throughout the novel, we meet other characters such as her father, aunt Hilda and her grandmother, who all, except her father really, are opposed to Lottie's obsession with dead animals and taxidermy. Then there's also a boy in her school, Jeffrey, who turns out to be one of the few who isn't repelled by her interests.
As I said, the mix of life and death, of beauty and the macabre, turned out to be a really good match for me. However, do be aware that the author has used very vivid macabre imagery when describing the dead animals, so I'd say you need to be aware of this trigger warning while reading.