Januaries by Olivie Blake: A Review

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Genre: Fantasy (Short story collection)

Themes: Magical realism, gothic, love, lust, power

First of all, thank you so much to Tor Books / Pan Macmillan for sending me a gorgeous proof copy of Januaries in exchange for an honest review.

I am a Olivie Blake stan - I love her writing, I think she is so creative and has such an expansive imagination and she realllly shows that off in Januaries.

This is a collection of short stories is set out in the months of the year, starting with Spring and ending in Winter. Each story is very different but they all follow similar themes of love, desire, power, and lust. I also appreciated the touches of Greek mythology that we see in a couple of the stories, especially in To Make a Man.

It's a really interesting mix of stories set in a more typical fairytale setting, with a medieval feel, or others set in a more modern or futuristic world.

This truly is a modern (adult) version of a fairytale story book, that might have been the reason you fell in love with reading as a child, not only are the stories themselves beautiful, but in typical Olivie Blake fashion there are a number of stunning illustrations.

I had such a fun time with this book, its magical and mysterious and gets you thinking, a perfect Autumn/Winter read, that I know I'll go back to every year.

There were 1 or 2 stories that I wasn't as bothered about such as The House and Monsterlove. However, there were 12 other stories that I either loved or really enjoyed.

My top 5 were probably, The Wish Bridge, The Animation Games, Chaos Theory, To Make a Man and Sensual Tales for Carnal Pleasure.

If you love all things magical, things with a darker/gothic twist, or if you just love anything that Olivie Blake has written then please pick this up!

P.S. The Waterstones edition is stunning I had to get a copy!