The Tulipped Girl

As a weird girl myself I take immense pride in being able to curate book selection dedicated to my fellow literary weirdos. I have 3 books that come to mind when thinking of recommending books that are whimsical, gothic and strange, ones which I hold near and dear to my heart. 

So follow me to get some books to add to your library, TBR list (don’t worry mine is long too & a new book never hurt anybody) or to find a gift for that special weirdo in your life.

Starve Acre

Written by Andrew Micheal Hurley, To describe Starve Acre the first word that comes to mind is disturbing and then maybe uncomfortable, in a good way of course. Grief, and how to deal with it is still quite a mystery to us mortals but the metaphysical and spiritual routes are something that one of our main characters, Juliette, mother of Ewan seems to find no issue in dabbling in. While her husband Richard on the other hand, a history & archeology professor, grounds himself to a more scientific view on life and death. 

Resentment and regret looms in Juliette’s heart towards herself and others over the unexpected death of her five year old son Ewan and she doesn’t know how to deal with it. But when strange occurrences take place just outside of their house and makes its way inside Juliette might come to regret leaving room for this spirituality in her home, that she herself may never truly be able to understand. This book follows the Willoughby’s pre and post their son’s death offering us an insight to the happenings of Starve Acre, and left me questioning if some of what I even read was really true. Almost as if the strange occurrences couldn’t be placed at a certain time. Then and only then could I come to understand why Juliette’s regret was so palpable. Could they have stopped it, their son’s death, or is there nothing you can do when at Starve Acre?

The Turn of The Screw

A classic (literally) gothic horror, written by Henry James, The Turn of the Screw, takes place in the 1900s at the Bly house, a remote country home in which a governess is hired to take care of two small children Miles and Flora, two very odd, very weird and eerily not talkative children. As their relationship grows, her caution of the young brother and sister grows along with it. As she continues to live in the house and the more strange and haunting figures she sees, the more consumed by fear she is, she’s now convinced that the house is possessed by ghosts. Those being Quint and Miss Jessel who are former inhabitants of the house, she claims to see them in and around the house but fearfully finds out have long been dead. 

Our governess grows scared of the evil lurking just outside the house and even worse, every day and every night the figures get closer, so close that she now understands what they want…the children, Miles and Flora whom she’s been hired to care for. Afraid and alert, she vows to keep them safe from the creatures outside the house, becoming rigid and strict in her care of them. She vows to keep them from the monsters who have clear intentions to possess their small minds, their bodies, and most enticing, their souls.

Yet strangely, she comes to realize that the children are not afraid in the slightest of the danger that looms outside, which she simply can’t understand. Why is it that these children (as odd as they are) desire to be consumed by the dead just as bad as the dead would like them? Will she be able to keep her vows to protect the children and can she come to understand their lack of fear. Apathy that she doubts they understand could leave them dead? But our narrator, the governess is mentally unstable and has found herself in a mental institution more than once. So with this are we able to fully trust her claims of what sees and can we back her course of action as response?

Tender Is The Flesh

Written by Agustina Bazterrica, the international phenomenon Tender Is The Flesh takes place in a dystopian world where animals have contracted a virus deadly to humans. A “Transition” takes place to benefit the public. People need to eat, children need their protein to grow and trusted medical professionals along with the government have told the public that this change is safe and that well… There is no other way. The alternative meat is tender just like pork and lean just like chicken and full of protein akin to that of beef, but it’s nothing like being a vegetarian. It’s a special meat they call it, it’s human beings.

Our main character Marco’s wife has left him, his father is stuck in a nursing home and his relationship with his sister is nearly non-existent yet, he feels nothing. He gets up, smokes a cigarette and goes to work as if nothing has changed. At the processing plant he oversees he witnesses daily the stunning, carving, cleaning and packaging of carcasses to be sold. Careful so that they are able to use every part because the people must eat and children must stay fed. There’s an aloofness to the storytelling so far and distant from this world we as the reader can’t even begin to understand how it all seems so normal. But what can some like Marcos do as the second in charge besides solve their problems, meet with vendors and carry on. So much so that you come to question if what has been lost in him can ever be resolved. Or if a new life of empathy that he could lead with- even just for a second can change him, to handle his father, mend things with his sister and fix things with his wife or must the flesh and bones remain out of sight out of mind to keep things right and stable?