![]() ![]() It’s one heck of an opener, and it really sets the tone for the rest of Her Body And Other Parties. You know the one, the woman who marries a man but won’t tell him why she always wears a green ribbon around her neck, until she finally lets him remove it and her head falls off? The thrust of Machado’s version is much the same: basically, we screw women over by denying them self-determination. It’s a reimagination of an old and oft-retold spooky story (borrowed from a French folktale of unknown origin) The Green Ribbon. The first story of the collection is possibly Machado’s best-known work: The Husband Stitch. The stories aren’t linked by character or plot or even style, but they all address similar themes: sex, death, queerness, vulnerability, women, and their bodies (as the title might suggest). ![]() As much as the stories vary, they make sense next to each other, forming a complete and cohesive collection that somehow leaves you (selfishly) wanting more. ![]() Machado ricochets from magical realism to horror to science fiction to comedy to fantasy to epistolary, so fast that the genres and tropes are pureed together into a very delicious pulp. Her Body And Other Parties is a collection of eight short stories, all wildly different. (I’ll throw a little party of my own if you happen to use one of these affiliate links to buy this fantastic book!) ![]()
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