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The Sea Beast Takes a Lover
The Sea Beast Takes a Lover: Stories | Michael Andreasen
8 posts | 9 read | 8 to read
An astonishing fiction debut from a UC Irvine MFA graduate and recent contributor to The New Yorker Bewitching and playful, with its feet only slightly tethered to the world we know, The Sea Beast Takes a Lover explores hope, love, and loss across a series of surreal landscapes and wild metamorphoses. Just because Jenny was born without a head doesn't mean she isn't still annoying to her older brother, and just because the Man of the Future's carefully planned extramarital affair ends in alien abduction and network fame doesn't mean he can't still pine for his absent wife. Romping through the fantastic with big-hearted ease, these stories cut to the core of what it means to navigate family, faith, and longing, whether in the form of a lovesick kraken slowly dragging a ship of sailors into the sea, a small town euthanizing its grandfathers in a time-honored ritual, or a third-grade field trip learning that time travel is even more wondrous--and more perilous--than they might imagine. Andreasen's stories are simultaneously daring and deeply familiar, unfolding in wildly inventive worlds that convey our common yearning for connection and understanding. With a captivating new voice from an incredible author, The Sea Beast Takes a Lover uses the supernatural and extraordinary to expose us at our most human.
LibraryThing
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Conservio
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8 likes1 stack add
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LeafingThroughLife
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Bailedbailed

And I‘m ending my May #bookspinbonanza with another bail. This is one of those short story collections that makes me remember why I disliked short story collections for so long for being too intentionally obscure. I really disliked the first story about euthanizing grandfathers but liked the title story about a ship trapped in the amorous clutches of a sea monster, which was enough to give me hope for the rest. That hope was misplaced.

TheAromaofBooks Sorry this one didn't play out for you! I never seem to get along with short story collections. 4y
18 likes1 comment
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LeafingThroughLife
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Tackling my #bookspinbonanza 5 and 6 picks concurrently since I‘m not a big fan of just sitting and reading a short story collection straight through. I‘m enjoying The Given Day a lot but the jury‘s still out on The Sea Beast. I haaaaated the first story but the second one wasn‘t so bad, the third might be the deciding factor on whether I bail on it or not. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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mdemanatee
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Haven‘t been getting a whole lotta physical reading because of exhaustion and play responses but I am in the homestretch and bribing myself with short stories.

15 likes1 stack add
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avalinah
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Mehso-so

Why are short story collections almost always SO odd? This one had a few truly genius stories, but the vast majority was just waaaay too out there for me. Read my full review here: https://goo.gl/xopPD7

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Allietaylor16
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Pickpick

Wow! What a collection of short stories! Captivating and wonderfully bizarre, I could not put this down!

Booksnchill I mean, with that title had to stack it! 7y
35 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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PJPeski
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Pickpick

The title story and several others (Our Fathers at Sea, and Rainstorm/Sandstorm, and Blunderbuss) totally captivated me. The others in this collection were all worthy and enchanting and funny. Andreasen's writings are surreal and capture the full gamut of the existence of being. From a lonely sea monster in heat to a time travel experiment which develops a leak. Enjoy a step into the fantastical.