The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night | Jen Campbell
The cover is what did me in. I bought this specifically for the cover. Also, I'm intrigued by short stories because I don't read a lot of those and it's a writer I haven't heard of before... So, there I was, happily putting this into my shopping cart and entering my card info... A month later it was on my doorstep. Then it sat on my bookshelf until autumn came 'cause I'm a basic bitch.
This book contains twelve stories, all different lengths and dealing with different matters. Now, the thing they have in common is that each seems to be derived from a fairytale or other, or are at least partially inspired by them. They are very moody and fantastical stories, some of them proving to be quite tedious to read, though. That is what I didn't like. There were a few stories that blew me away, I loved the premise and wished it could be developed a bit more, but the writing seemed pretentious at times and it was hard to follow.
My feelings on this one are completely jumbled. I am so unsure of what I actually took away from it. What annoyed me was how unfinished some stories were, as if they were just ideas that needed further developing into an actual story. I would read it but just could never get to the point of what I was being told. Still, I'll mention each of them and give my thoughts.
1) Animals
This is one of my favorites. It's a strange world where the world is suffering from a lack of love. It is possible to implant people with different hearts so that they could feel romantic emotions. This story follows a man who has bought a swan heart online to implant in his girlfriend/wife and the process he goes through. Some disturbing things are revealed in the end and it raises the questions of consent in relationships, as well.
"There isn't anything quite like holding love in your bare hands."
2) Jacob
This is a sweet story, though maybe a beet too sweet and overdone, about a boy writing a letter to the weather lady from the news, asking for some advice. Now, I believe this is a bit of a trope, the whole premise of the story, but I did like it, the way his innocence can be seen in his worldview and how he couldn't understand certain things.
"Sometimes having walls around you makes you feel safe."
3) Plum Pie. Zombie Green. Yellow Bee. Purple Monster.
There are people who have plants growing inside them. The question posed in the beginning is what would have happened in Jack ate the beans and they grew inside him, instead of planting them the traditional way? The protagonists here are teenagers, Fern, Rose, Poppy, Daisy, etc. They all come to a summer camp where they are taken care of and the doctors take clippings of their limbs in the end. But that summer Lily is missing, the most colorful of them all, the one who knew the hex codes to all the colors. She simply didn't show up. So the gang decides to find her...
"Forests aren't terrifying places. They just speak a different language."
4) In the Dark
This is definitely one I did not care for. A stranger walks into a woman's house in the middle of the night. He is wearing a uniform, so she assumes he is a soldier headed into the war everyone is talking about. She keeps babbling, she feeds him, he doesn't say a word and then he leaves. That's it. Not impressed.
"Brains can rationalize a lot of strange things. Memories are complicated, too."
5) Margaret and Mary and the End of the World
"Where is your beginning?" the story asks. It talks about the four horsemen of the apocalypse. It mentions a birthday cake, a museum and a painting. Dante Gabriel Rosetti's Ecce Ancilla Domini. (Look it up, it's beautiful, as is all of Rosetti's work.) It's a paining of Gabriel appearing to Mary, to tell her the good news. The protagonist, Margaret, sympathizes with her and mashes her own story (obesity, then an eating disorder, a pregnancy she did not want) with the story told on that painting. It does get a bit confusing, but I liked it overall, especially when you get to full picture.
"We look at the painting, at Mary shying away from someone she should trust."
6) Little Deaths
This could have been longer! This should have been longer. In a nutshell, a disease of the lungs is making people cough up ghosts, brightly colored pieces of themselves that are floating in the air. People are hunting them, selling them illegally or handing them to the government. The whole town the protagonist lives in is obsessed with death because of these ghosts they are birthing. It's a quirky story that definitely needed more room to breathe but I like it as a premise.
"Right now, we are ghost hotels."
7) The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night
The title story was not to my liking at all. It was written as a script, which was an interesting idea and it separates it from the other stories. Props for that. But the overall preachy nature and philosophizing of the story and the strangeness of the conversation is bizarre. The couple basically trades stories on their ideas on how the world began, all because the city should come to cut down a tree in their backyard that is bothering a neighbor. I don't know. There are some interesting things here, but it simply didn't work for me as a whole.
"The possibility of us, and of all life, was sleeping. And we emerged from a dream."
8) Pebbles
A woman goes to the Brighton Pride with her girlfriend. She thinks about the IRA and how romantic wars are because you can love whoever you want then, no one pays attention to that. She fantasizes about a redhead girlfriend from Belfast who would kiss both boys and girls and no one would care. Mentions the Skilled Veterans Corps, the retired Fukushima volunteers, as well for some reason. Strange and convoluted.
"If you put your head underwater then everything stops existing."
Aunt Libby has a hotel where people lay in coffins in preparation for death. She lives on an island, where many props are set up to make people believe in her nonsense. Her niece Ankaa is presented as a "death fairy", having come from the underworld, and she can communicate with the dead. The story follows Mr Henderson, a customer, who is touring the grounds in preparation for death, and the ways Libby and Ankaa trick him into believing his wife is haunting him. Weird but I did like it.
"There are different sorts of magic. There is hope, and there is suggestion, and there is listening to the hurt."
10) Sea Devils
A strange story of two girls hunting and killing actual crabs because a sister of one told them they are devil (obviously thinking about the pubic lice). Tabs wants to go to Hollywood, but she also preaches a lot about the devil and witches. Soon she begins hanging out with a boy who has a camera, and it is inferred that she is making porn. Weird story, the pacing, the writing...
"She's full of stories, she is. A tank full to the brim with hundreds of words that all mean different things."
11) Human Satellites
A new planet, The Hours, is discovered where all lost atoms go to retire, it is composed of snippets of time and space. People on Earth are panicking, fearing it would overtake and kill us all, the religious are calling it God, scientists are salivating at the chance to explore it, others think it's a conspiracy by the government to distract us from real issues. The title refers to PhD students who volunteer to orbit the planet in order to explore it. It feels a bit sci-fi but I like the idea - the existence of a planet like that, as well as some of the social commentary from our planet. Again, wish it was more developed.
"Some say the Hours is the Internet in physical form."
12) Bright White Hearts
This story seems to be close to the author's heart, because the main character is living with the same physical disability Ms Campbell is. I respect that, but the story is still... hm. Definitely my least favorite. It goes on about different facts, like I'm reading an encyclopedia about the aquatic world, and I just couldn't focus on what the story actually is. The girl works in an aquarium and loves fish. I just... don't know what else to say. I wish this was better executed because there is an important story to tell here.
"Because princess is beauty."
And there it is. All the stories in my own words. I am glad I read this. It wasn't a total bust, but it was not a completely enjoyable experience either. Still, an experience it was. If you've given this book a try, let me know your thoughts. I seem to be one of the few that did not enjoy it, at least according to Goodreads, so maybe the fault lies with me..
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