FICTION REVIEW: THIS HOUSE OF WOUNDS BY GEORGINA BRUCE

This House of Wounds is the debut collection from award winning author Georgina Bruce. Published by Undertow books you expect a beautiful book (which is delivered by the striking cover art of Catrin Welz-Stein, and the cover design by Vince Haig), and quality stories (which are certainly provided by the extremely talented Georgina Bruce). This House of Wounds not only has some of Georgina’s best known work, including her BFS award winning short story “White Rabbit”. It also contains four new stories, original to the collection.
 
Georgina Bruce’s writing can be difficult to categorise, but her strong story-telling means her tales can sit easily amongst many genres, and her previous work has appeared in both “Best British Horror” and “The Best British Fantasy” anthologies. Georgina’s writing has an almost poetic beauty to it that belies the darkness underneath, and her stories often don’t sit comfortably with the reader (This is one of the few books that after reading it, gave me nightmares). With the underlying themes covering subjects as varied as human trafficking “Cat World”, dementia “White Rabbit”, and the dangers of consumerism “Wake up, Phil”. The stories within This House of Wounds can all be read as separate entities, but there do tend to be linking themes in language and characters. There is a strong sense of loss of identity throughout the collection, most notably in her re-occurring characters of The Dreemy Peeps. The very human robots/androids which are routinely dehumanised by those around them. With this loss of identity for her characters there also comes a loss of control and disassociation. Resulting in her character’s battles, both physical and mental, to decide whether it is better to regain that control or to relinquish it and to embrace the loss and the madness that protects them.
 
This collection may not be an easy read, but it is an enjoyable one, and I think it is an important one too, both in a social and literary context. Georgina’s skill at her craft is astounding, her debut collection may not be a comfortable read, but it takes you out of your humdrum life and makes you think, and what more could you ask from an author than that. 
 
Georgina Bruce is a writer and teacher currently living in Edinburgh. Her short stories have been widely published in magazines and anthologies, and have been longlisted for the Bridport and Mslexia short story prizes. In 2017, her story White Rabbit won the British Fantasy Award for Short Fiction. This House of Wounds is her debut fiction collection.
 
You can find Georgina (when she isn’t writing) at Twitter @monster_soup or at her website http://www.georginabruce.com and you can read our interview with Georgina Bruce here 

This House of Wounds

The devastating debut short story collection from British Fantasy Award-winning author Georgina Bruce. Haunting and visceral tales for the lost and the lonely. An emotional and riveting debut.

Advance praise for Georgina Bruce's 'This House of Wounds.'

"An astonishing, totally absorbing debut collection. Edgy, disturbing and delicious in equal parts. Georgina Bruce plays with myth and horror beautifully."
-Kerry Hadley-Pryce, Author of Gamble, and The Black Country

"The stories in This House of Wounds strike me as both an emotional and intellectual examination of pain, from how it spreads and is passed on to others to how it can easily turn us into different, crueller creatures. Each act formed in pain leads to another, then another, and this makes for twisted, beautiful reading. Georgina Bruce is a courageous and compelling writer."
-Aliya Whiteley, Author of The Loosening Skin, and The Beauty

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