3.5
Januaries
ByPublisher Description
An instant USA Today bestseller!
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes Januaries, a stunning collection of short fiction featuring fourteen magical ruminations on life, death, and the love—or desire for revenge—that outlasts both
*This hardcover edition includes beautiful interior illustrations and special illustrated endpapers from artist Polarts.*
Once upon a time in a land far, far away, a wish-granting spirit rapidly approaches burnout. Meanwhile, a banished fairy answers a Craigslist ad, a Victorian orphan navigates an occult situationship, and a multiverse assassin contemplates the one who got away.
With both iconic fan-favorite stories and entirely original pieces, Januaries features modified fairy tales, contemporary heists, absurdist poetry, and at least one set of actual wedding vows. Escape the slow trudge of mortality by diving into these enchanting new worlds with a master of imagination.
Also by Olivie Blake
The Atlas Six
The Atlas Paradox
The Atlas Complex
Alone with You in the Ether
One for My Enemy
Masters of Death
Gifted & Talented
As Alexene Farol Follmuth
Twelfth Knight
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesJanuaries Reviews
3.5
“I liked all stories in the first half of the book . In autumn and winter , not all but I can't say they were bad”
“I wrote individual reviews for these so you can have them. Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the short story format; this was I think my first short story collection and I liked getting something new every time I picked it up. Still, I think it did do a disservice to a lot of the stories themselves, or maybe just my enjoyment of them. I don’t think I will especially remember any in the future, maybe other than the first one. There were a couple of stories that I genuinely liked parts of, but all of them had something that I actively didn’t like. Im left with a sort of… yeah alright we’re done now feeling.
The Wish Bridge: 3.5 stars.
My immediate instinct is that I like short stories way more than I thought I would. I was pleasantly surprised by this little snippet; the concept was intriguing, but I didn’t feel like it needed to be more than a concept, so the format worked for it. I liked the character of Nile, and would have liked to see a bit more of the relationship between him and Lilac, but I didn’t feel like the story tried to convince me they were more in love than they should have been, so I wasn’t too fussed. It felt like dipping my toe in a fun concept.
The Audit: 2.5 stars
Not a fan of the main character or writing style on this one, and especially didn’t like how it discussed mental health. However did relate to the paralysing fear of time wasting away, and thought the structure was interesting if not well executed. Weirdly I feel like the narrative voice will be replicated by my own thoughts tomorrow.
Sucker for Pain: 3 stars
Liked the concept and atmosphere here, but the relationships needed significant more development and queerness (vampires are inherently gay, and you have the opportunity for sapphics literally right there, but make her kiss the boy? No).
The Animation Games: 3.5 stars
I had fun with the concept of this one, and I enjoyed the dynamic between the characters. It follows two betrothed characters who keep coming back to life to kill each other. I just wanted a bit more out of it, not necessarily in length but in depth.
The House: unrated.
You know those tiktoks about how grown ass men will have a thought that all girls had at like six years old and present it like they are Plato presenting his Forms? This… essay(? Not story certainly) felt like that. Like sure, marriage is agreeing to a forever with someone even though it is uncertain and you will change over time, but is also nice. Like you’re right. But also like… okay, and?
To Make a Man: 2.5 stars
Cassandra from Greek myth is sent to save a demigod from dying in a year. Seeing the future is the less fun version of time travel but with a lower chance of being completely egregious, and this was both not egregious and not fun. It also structurally played with time, jumping back and forth, but I don’t really think that added to the story. I’m also starting to realise a problem with short stories is there’s not really enough time to show us much about the characters, so it relies on telling us instead.
Pre-existing Condition: 3 stars
Cool premise, poor execution. This could have leant itself SO nicely to the ‘I hate you so much I need you because I don’t know who I am if I don’t hate you’ and that’s what it was trying to be but I didn’t believe it or the characters for a second. I didn’t enjoy the narrative voice, and thought the pacing was off (slow start, rushed middle and end).
Monsterlove: 2 stars
So obviously that was a metaphor for postpartum depression but at the same time what the fuck was that? I can’t parse the intention of this, at all; are we supposed to feel sorry for the mother who… what, hit the kid?.. because she’s a ‘monster’? I also think it’s really hard to do this writing style effectively (where there’s whole paragraphs of the same word over and over again), and I don’t think this did.
How to Dispel Friends and Curse People: 1.5 stars
Wow. That was really quite bad actually. Verse structure, which I can often enjoy, and I did not hear, it was not very good unfortunately. Just leave the witch alone, stalker. Half a star for the ‘he’s an idiot but he’s my idiot’ trope.
Fates and Consequences: 3 stars
Amusing version of Hell, unamusing depictions of Hades and Persephone. Concept interesting, actual story relatively boring.
Sous vide: 3 stars
Really liked the vibes, kind of reminded me of parts of Spirited Away, but hated that there were no speech marks and also some of the general writing style.
Sensual Tales for Carnal Pleasures: 3.5 stars
Read this too tired, but cool and fun concept. I think this is the first one that properly didn’t feel suited to a short story, this needed to be longer, with heaps more character development.
Chaos Theory: 3.5 stars
One of my favourites so far, I really like the parallel universes, and thought the characterisation was well done. The different versions of our mc have really different narrative voices but you can see a through line. I did think the pacing was off, as it took me a while to get into it and I started off thinking this would be one of my least favourites. I appreciate the lesbians, but am put off by the fact that we’ve seen so many love stories and only two have been queer, both sapphic tragedies centring men.
A Year in January: 2 stars
I hate when authors use emojis in prose. You can’t describe her facial expression? That’s literally your job. This felt kind of like reading one of those 2000/10s YA books except one of the panic pixie dream girls is actually a pixie but it only shows itself in a weird pseudo-autism with only the social difficulties. Didn’t enjoy the discussion of mental health in the same way I didn’t in those books too.
Pins and Needles: 3 stars
This really nearly got me, I liked their dynamic and that she was proper putting him in his place, and then it ruins it at the end by having him to like a weird rapey ritual to force her to love him I hate that. I thought he was enjoying being told off not that he had an evil plot to get her back in the worst way.”
About Olivie Blake
Olivie Blake is the New York Times bestselling author of speculative fiction for adults, including The Atlas Six trilogy, Alone with You in the Ether, Masters of Death, the short story collection Januaries, and her novel, Girl Dinner. With Little Chmura, she is the co-creator of the graphic series Clara and the Devil. As Alexene Farol Follmuth, she is also the author of the young adult novels My Mechanical Romance and Twelfth Knight. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.
Other books by Olivie Blake
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