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A review by porge_grewe
Zombie Sharks with Metal Teeth by Stephen Graham Jones
5.0
Absolutely brilliant! This short story collection is the fourth Stephen Graham Jones book I have read and it is easily the wildest.
The stories collected here touch on various facets of the bizarre, from cyber-lobster-noir (The Sea of Intranqulity), to dream-like slices of life (This is Not What I Meant), to one of the best takes on zombie fiction I have seen in any medium (The Age of Hasty Retreats). Through all these genres, subgenres, and oddities, Jones' creativity sets him apart and keeps this collection of very short fiction (stories range from 1-10 pages) moving along from idea to idea like it's swinging along on monkey bars.
Much more than his creativity, though, two other of Jones' skills elevate this collection: his honesty, and his ability to tell a story. On the former point, Jones brings to these stories the same depth of understanding and acceptance of humanity (brought home brutally in the aforementioned Age of Hasty Retreats and particularly in The Case Against Humanity) which serve him so well in his novels. Even the strangest concepts are peopled and told in a way which makes them intensely human, often painfully relatable. The notes by Jones on each of the stories at the back of the collection, entertaining in their own right, also provide that bit more insight into each story - Where they came from, what they mean to the writer.
The other point, Jones' skill as a storyteller, stops this collection having the incomplete feeling common to many similar collections, where the length of the stories work against them - Either feeling like they are trying to make too much of a concept which does not sustain a full story, or like we are reading an extract from a larger, more satisfying story, an issue I found most recently with a few of the stories in Helen Oyeyemi's What is Not Yours is Not Yours, and Marian Enriquez' The Dangers of Smoking in Bed. Each of Jones's stories, no matter their length, feel complete. They do what they came here to do, say their piece, and leave.
This is how short stories should be. This is how weird fiction should be. This book is excellent, and the rest of Jones' back catalogue cannot get published in the UK soon enough.
The stories collected here touch on various facets of the bizarre, from cyber-lobster-noir (The Sea of Intranqulity), to dream-like slices of life (This is Not What I Meant), to one of the best takes on zombie fiction I have seen in any medium (The Age of Hasty Retreats). Through all these genres, subgenres, and oddities, Jones' creativity sets him apart and keeps this collection of very short fiction (stories range from 1-10 pages) moving along from idea to idea like it's swinging along on monkey bars.
Much more than his creativity, though, two other of Jones' skills elevate this collection: his honesty, and his ability to tell a story. On the former point, Jones brings to these stories the same depth of understanding and acceptance of humanity (brought home brutally in the aforementioned Age of Hasty Retreats and particularly in The Case Against Humanity) which serve him so well in his novels. Even the strangest concepts are peopled and told in a way which makes them intensely human, often painfully relatable. The notes by Jones on each of the stories at the back of the collection, entertaining in their own right, also provide that bit more insight into each story - Where they came from, what they mean to the writer.
The other point, Jones' skill as a storyteller, stops this collection having the incomplete feeling common to many similar collections, where the length of the stories work against them - Either feeling like they are trying to make too much of a concept which does not sustain a full story, or like we are reading an extract from a larger, more satisfying story, an issue I found most recently with a few of the stories in Helen Oyeyemi's What is Not Yours is Not Yours, and Marian Enriquez' The Dangers of Smoking in Bed. Each of Jones's stories, no matter their length, feel complete. They do what they came here to do, say their piece, and leave.
This is how short stories should be. This is how weird fiction should be. This book is excellent, and the rest of Jones' back catalogue cannot get published in the UK soon enough.