{"id":3498,"date":"2014-11-03T13:07:01","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=3498"},"modified":"2014-11-03T13:07:01","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:07:01","slug":"book-review-jagannath-by-karin-tidbeck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-jagannath-by-karin-tidbeck\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Jagannath:Stories<\/em><\/a> by Karin Tidbeck<\/p>\n

Cheeky Frawg Books, 2012<\/p>\n

Kindle Edition<\/p>\n

ISBN-13:\u00a0978-0-9857904-2-4<\/p>\n

Available: New<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jagannath<\/em> is a collection of short stories by Swedish author Karin Tidbeck. Several of the stories were collected in the original Swedish in Vem \u00e4r Arvid Pekon?<\/em>, and some have appeared in translation in magazines and anthologies, but this is Tidbeck\u2019s first full-length collection in English. It\u2019s no surprise that the collection is published by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer\u2019s imprint.<\/p>\n

The stories in Jagannath<\/em> are a little hard to categorize, but are best described as \u201cweird tales\u201d. \u201dWho is Arvid Pekon? \u201d, evokes a Philip K. Dick-like feeling of empty, absurd bureaucracy (and the resulting existential anxieties). Elsewhere, stories such as \u201cAugusta Prima\u201d and \u201cAunts\u201d use a warped fairy tale landscape to unsettle the reader. \u201cAunts\u201d, particularly, is a rather disturbing tale that uses grotesque imagery to great effect.<\/p>\n

My favorite stories in the book are the ones that make clever use of Swedish geography and tradition. \u201cBrita\u2019s Holiday Village\u201d and \u201cReindeer Mountain\u201d are the clearest examples of this. However, in my opinion, the strongest story of the entire book is \u201cPyret\u201d, which blends unsettling, weird, fictional folklore with an unconventional narrative technique. Interestingly, Tidbeck translated her stories herself, and the book includes an afterword by the author on the process of translation. This is an added bonus and enhances enjoyment of the collection. Highly recommended for fans of the weird tale, ages 12 to adult.<\/p>\n

Contains: some sexual references, some violence, cannibalism<\/p>\n

Reviewed by Hannah Kate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Jagannath:Stories by Karin Tidbeck Cheeky Frawg Books, 2012 Kindle Edition ISBN-13:\u00a0978-0-9857904-2-4 Available: New   Jagannath is a collection of short stories by Swedish author Karin Tidbeck. Several of the stories were collected in the original Swedish in Vem \u00e4r Arvid Pekon?, and some have appeared in translation in magazines and anthologies, but this is<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[129,645,83,2303,2302,1526,495,1070,1882],"class_list":["post-3498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-reviews","tag-horror-book-reviews","tag-horror-fiction","tag-jagannath-stories","tag-karin-tidbeck","tag-short-stories","tag-short-story-collections","tag-weird-fiction","tag-weird-tales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3498"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3502,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3498\/revisions\/3502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}