Salt Slow

Julia Armfield's electrifying debut, "Salt Slow," plunges readers into a series of unsettling and exquisitely crafted short stories that reimagine women's experiences through the lens of body horror, mythology, and contemporary surrealism. This collection explores the intricate and often terrifying transformations of the female form, both literal and metaphorical. From a city plagued by a collective insomnia where sleep detaches from its inhabitants, to a teenager whose body undergoes a monstrous metamorphosis, and fangirls evolving into something primal, Armfield masterfully blends the mundane with the macabre. Featuring tales of stepsisters — one human, one wolf — forming a dangerously close bond, and a pregnant woman discovering the creature within her is far from human, "Salt Slow" challenges perceptions of self, identity, and the female body in society. It's a provocative and darkly imaginative journey into the depths of human and inhuman nature, promising to dazzle and disturb in equal measure.