Pretty Monsters
No. of pages 416
Published: 2010
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This book has been graded for interest at 14 years.
There are 416 pages in this book.
It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.
This book was published in 2010 by Walker Books Ltd .
Kelly Link lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she and her husband, Gavin J. Grant, run Small Beer Press and publish the zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (www. lcrw. net).
This book features the following character:
Kelly Link
This book features the character Kelly Link.
A collection of nine first-rate short stories, all featuring an appealing quirkiness that is at times both wonderfully absurd and surreal. * Fantasy Book Review Online *
Links Narrative come complete with ghost and fairies - her stories have been labeled as part of the `New Weird' movement, but are no less human for that. * The Saturday Review Supplement *
Link's writing about relationships, whether between parents and children, friends, or young lovers, is sublime. The highlight is the Nebula award-winning "Magic for Beginners", about a group of friends hooked on a bizarre TV show set in a vast library. Like many others in the collection, it's a coming-of-age story written with a tender insight into the unstable emotional geography of the teenage mind. -- Eric Brown * The Guardian *
Link's tone is cleverly poised between genuine creepiness and off-the-wall humour. Eccentric and Unforgettable. * The Saturday Times Review Supplement *
Blending fairytale, fantasy, horror, myth and mischief in a delicious cocktail, Kelly Link creates a world like no other in Pretty Monsters, where ghosts of girlfriends past rub up against Scrabble-loving grandmothers with terrifying magic handbags, wizards sit alongside morbid babysitters, and we encounter a people-eating monster who claims to have a sense of humour. * Bookhugger Online *
... in Link I've found a writer of short stories who not only possesses a delightfully fresh approach to storytelling, but she has an incredible imagination to go with it. * RobAroundBooks Blog *
The stories are wryly funny, spine-chilling and occasionally outright frightening. * Read and Find Blog *
A unique brew of pirates and wizards, undead babysitters and duelling librarians, Kelly Link's new short-story collection is dark, sexy and hilarious... Link's trademark is a digressive blend of horror and humour. Her characterisation is acute, too, lucidly depicting teenage lives. These are tales that play with expectations, subverting what we think we know in order to reveal something sinister or sublime. -- Saher Hussain * New Statesman Magazine *
Matt Haig takes an original and witty approach to the supernatural genre in this quirky young adult novel. Cleverly balancing light and dark notes, this coming-of -age story with a difference is a refreshing alternative to the vampire theme. * Booktrust *
Almost defies definition... the author's style is so dry, witty and off beat that it could equally be classed as black humor... has plenty to tangle the imagination and leaves some endings tantalizingly hanging in the dark air * Daily Mail *
It's an exhausting roller coaster read which will need a switched on, tenacious reader to enjoy...but boy, will they be rewarded! * Books For Keeps *