Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart

And Other Stories

By: GennaRose Nethercott

Narrated by: GennaRose Nethercott, January LaVoy, Gabra Zackman, Max Meyers, Elena Rey

Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • From the author of the breakout novel Thistlefoot: a collection of dark fairytales and fractured folklore exploring how our passions can save us—or go monstrously wrong.

“Real magic, real delight, doled out generously in the shape of wistful, ferocious, this-world-but-better stories.”—Kelly Link, author of White Cat, Black Dog

The stories in Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart are about the abomination that resides within us all. That churning, clawing, ravenous yearning: the hunger to be held, and seen, and known. And the terror, too: to be loved too well, or not enough, or for long enough. To be laid bare before your sweetheart, to their horror. To be recognized as the monstrous thing you are.

Two teenage girls working at a sinister roadside attraction called the Eternal Staircase explore its secrets—and their own doomed summer love. A zombie rooster plays detective in a missing persons case. A woman moves into a new house with her acclaimed artist boyfriend—and finds her body slowly shifting into something specially constructed to accommodate his needs and whims. A pack of middle schoolers turn to the occult to rid themselves of a hated new classmate. And a pair of outcasts, a vampire and a goat woman, find solace in each other, even as the world's lack of understanding might bring about its own end.

In these lush, strange, beautifully written stories, GennaRose Nethercott explores human longing in all its diamond-dark facets to create a collection that will redefine what you see as a beast, and make you beg to have your heart broken.

©2024 GennaRose Nethercott (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

MOST ANTICIPATED: GOOD HOUSEKEEPING • LITERARY HUB • BOOK RIOT • GIZMODO • WBUR

“Nethercott is writing with old world style, but creating her own new world order. . . . If you love the richly magical work of Kelly Link, the uncategorizable tales of Helen Oyeyemi, stories by Aimee Bender, Neil Gaiman, Karen Russell—you will likely find much to enjoy here. . . . Nethercott writes briskly but vividly, lingering over her creations but sometimes slipping by the horrors so quickly that they take a moment to register. (They always do catch up.) . . . There’s a playfulness to Nethercott’s style, and especially in her wide use of forms: a venomous letter, a slippery transcribed memoir, a transformative bestiary, a calendar, a dictionary. . . . [These] tales . . . are restless, playful, wise, heartbroken and rich.”—Molly Templeton, Reactor

“Fans of Karen Russell will love these bizarre, absurdist stories that feel like twisted versions of the fairytales that dance around the edges of nightmares, and might just worm their way into yours.”—Lizz Schumer, Good Housekeeping, “12 Most-Anticipated Books Coming Out in 2024”

“All of you who love that strain of witty, wistful, enigmatic stories that runs from Kafka to Kelly Link: come read this book. GennaRose Nethercott draws from a magic well, bringing us tales that feel as old as time yet marvelously new.”—Sofia Samatar, author of Tender and Monster Portraits

Folklore for the Modern Age

Thank you Nethercott! This book was a pleasure to read and listen to.
The narrative was both whimsical and unpredictable, laying a fantastic lore and atmosphere right on top of our world that was so rich and creative it felt like I was walking through it while listening to the book.

I was lead here by the “Sleepy” podcast - I put it on to fall asleep but wound up keeping myself awake to see how it ended! And I was not disappointed.

Overall, I would say 4 of these stories are phenomenal and the rest are really, really good. 100% worth a listen if you’re someone who is interested in cryptids, a little spooky atmosphere, and frequently revisits fairy tales in their own imagination. Happy listening!