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    The Beauty
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    The Beauty
    Unavailable
    The Beauty
    Ebook108 pages1 hour

    The Beauty

    By Aliya Whiteley

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Somewhere away from the cities and towns, a group of men and boys gather around the fire each night to listen to their stories in the Valley of the Rocks. For when the women are all gone the rest of your life is all there is for everyone. The men are waiting to pass into the night.

    The story shall be told to preserve the past. History has gone back to its aural roots and the power of words is strong. Meet Nate, the storyteller, and the new secrets he brings back from the darkness. William rules the group with youth and strength, but how long can that last? And what about Uncle Ted, who spends so much time out in the woods?

    Hear the tales, watch a myth be formed. For what can man hope to achieve in a world without women? When the past is only grief how long should you hold on to it? What secrets can the forest offer to change it all?

    Discover the Beauty.

    This is a bold and striking novella to shake up the New Weird and does contain strong imagery and events. The beautiful and the terrible exist side by side. Encompassing post-apocalyptic setting, science fiction and horror, this is a story you will never forget.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUnsung Stories
    Release dateAug 18, 2014
    ISBN9781907389252
    Unavailable
    The Beauty
    Author

    Aliya Whiteley

    Aliya Whiteley's writing has appeared in numerous places, including The Guardian, McSweeney's Internet Tendency and anthologies such as Unsung Stories: This Dreaming Isle and Lonely Planet's Better than Fiction I and II. Her novella for Unsung Stories, "The Beauty," was shortlisted for a Shirley Jackson Award. Her recent novel, The Loosening Skin, has been shortlisted for The Arthur C. Clarke Award.

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    Reviews for The Beauty

    3.5/5

    43 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Weird Fiction. Page Turner. I might have a new favorite author. Going to read all her other books.
    • 4/5
      Very imaginative, sometimes gruesome, extremely well-written. It manages to pack a lot of story in about 100 pages. Leaves you thinking about human nature and gender. Food for thought for those who can overcome the weirdness.
    • 1/5
      Worst book in existence, 0 stars, misogynistic homophobic transphobic gross bullshit
    • 5/5
      One of my favourites. Beautifully written and weird. One of the best mushroom horror books out there.
    • 4/5
      I can never eat mushrooms again, but I loved it
    • 3/5
      I guess this review is a consequence of expectations.

      I found out about this book through the internet. Everyone was saying how disturbing and somewhat scary this book was. I read about... *SPOILERS*...



      How the men had sex with these mushroom women and how doing so made them have their penises basically fall off and how the men slowly became women. This is all true in The Beauty, however, I was expecting a much more disturbing story. Something that would make me cringe in disgust and fear, and, even though the whole idea of men having sex with mushroom women is kind of disgusting, the way the author writes about it left me kind of... underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong, this book is good, and it’s fun and I liked it was short. I read it in one sitting (3 hours) but my expectations for the disturbing elements of this book where higher than what I got. Would i recommend it? Yeah, it’s a fun book, but I wouldn’t read it again in the near future.