Book Review: The Poison Eaters: and Other Stories by Holly Black

Release Date: February 23, 2010
Publisher: Big Mouth House
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 224

Summary:
In her debut collection, New York Times best-selling author Holly Black returns to the world of Tithe in two darkly exquisite new tales. Then Black takes readers on a tour of a faerie market and introduces a girl poisonous to the touch and another who challenges the devil to a competitive eating match. These stories have been published in anthologies such as 21 Proms, The Faery Reel, and The Restless Dead, and have been reprinted in many "Best of" anthologies. The Poison Eaters is Holly Black's much-anticipated first collection of stories, and her ability to stare into the void--and to find humanity and humor there--will speak to young adult and adult readers alike. (From the author's website)
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This book is like an odd and entertaining box of chocolates. I don't read many short story collections, but I picked up Holly Black's The Poison Eaters: and Other Stories because earlier this summer I tried her novel White Cat and loved it.

The tales contained in The Poison Eaters vary in length and subject, but are all wonderfully odd and beautifully written. Black displays a knack for creating vivid scenes and a perfect fairy tale tone. One tale in the anthology, "The Dog King," opens with a story about wolves who come down from mountains to attack villages:

Some say that they can rise up on two legs and speak as men, that nimble fingers can chip away at hinges, that their voices can call promises and pleas through keyholes, that they are not quite what they seem.

Shivery and well-done.

If you haven't guessed, "The Dog King" is a werewolf story. In addition to that, The Poison Eaters contains an interesting take on vampires, Greco-Roman mythology, faery tales, and even a unicorn. Two of the faery tales take place in the world of Black's Tithe books. I haven't read those, so I'm sure there's much I missed, but I was still able to enjoy the stories.

My favorite stories in the collection--what I also consider the two best reasons to track down a copy of The Poison Eaters--however, are "The Night Market," a tale of two sisters and an elf in the Philipines that reminds me of Christina Rossetti's poem "Goblin Market," and "Paper Cuts Scissors," a screamingly funny story about a library science student whose girlfriend (who is able to put things in books--cool, right?) became upset after a fight,

and put herself into a fat Russian novel.

What follows is a mingling of fictional characters both classic and contemporary and some very messed up storylines.

Bottom line? The Poison Eaters is a fun, often funny, collection of creepy and surprising stories. I wished a few of them were longer, I thought a few of them had some weak points, but all and all, it's a solid collection. I recommend it to fans of Black's other novels and anyone looking for a quick, quirky read.