“Sometimes we let our truths rot in darkness to preserve the lies we tell in the light,” (“A Cure for Fear of Screaming,” Varghese 147).
Varghese’s debut short story collection Chrysalis has gotten a lot of hype surrounded around it and it is deserved each and every one of them (including the numerous awards it has won). I love how Varghese balances horror, fairy tale, surreal, and contemporary fiction all so neatly in this collection. The stories are all so different from one another but communicate a lot of similar themes. It is unapologetically queer and at it’s heart shows the ways that women of colour fight to find power for themselves. The stories in this collection were brilliant and I can’t wait to see what Varghese has in store for us next!
Here are my thoughts on each of the stories in this collection:
Bhupati – 4 stars: A man’s shrine to the goddess Lakshmi keeps getting struck by lightning. This was an excellent story to start the collection with, it builds gradually with a great ending line!
The Vetala’s Song – 4 stars: A vetala remembers her now dead lover. Heartbreaking and full of yearning, the love between the two characters was so clearly felt and I loved the spirituality threaded through it.
Dreams of Drowning Girls – 3 stars: Meena dreams of drowning throughout her different relationships. This one didn’t hold my attention as much as the others, but I enjoyed the writing and what it was trying to show.
In the Bone Fields – 4 stars: Two sisters live in a rural farmhouse that isn’t what it seems. This felt like something out of Grimm’s Fairytales, I loved the dark vibes of the farm, the relationship of the characters, and waiting to see what would happen next. There were also some excellent twists that I wasn’t expecting!
Remembrance – 4 stars: A motel across from a gas station is haunted. This story almost felt like a campfire story, intimate and personal and knew exactly how to keep the reader enticed as everything was revealed.
Milk – 3.5 stars: A girl’s bully torments her by spilling spoiled milk on her. This one confused me a bit, but I loved the darkness and threatening feel throughout.
Cherry Blossom Fever – 4 stars: Marjan loves Talia, but Talia has secrets. This story offers a lot of different perspectives to a relationship and juggles each brilliantly. The story didn’t go where I thought it would and I loved it for that!
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe – 2 stars: Probably the weakest of the collection. I understand what Varghese was trying to do but it just felt too childish compared to the brilliance in so many of the other stories.
Stories in the Language of the Fist – 4 stars: Farrah is ready to make a presentation at work and hopefully become a manager after impressing the white management team. I feel many readers will relate to the protagonist of this story and I think Varghese did an amazing job at communicating this to all readers.
Night Zoo – 3 stars: A family moves to a small town to avoid the dangers of the city. One of the shorter stories in the collection and a bizarre one at that, but also strangely fun?
Arvind – 3.5 stars: A young couple remembers their first child and the decisions they took to live the lives they do now. There was so much heart in this story, you can’t help but feel so much when you reach that ending!
Chitra (Or: A Meteor Hit the Mall and Chitra Danced in the Flames – 3 stars: I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I thought I would. I do think it’s a very clever and well-done adaptation of Cinderella, but I just couldn’t get into it as much as I wanted to be.
A Cure for Fear of Screaming – 4 stars: Veer wants his partner Jhanvi to scream when she orgasms, and Jhanvi goes through many methods to learn how to scream. Absolutely loved the feel of this one and the writing. It felt like I was holding my breath the whole time, trying to find my scream with the protagonists.
Midnight at the Oasis – 4 stars: A transwoman reflects on her relationship with her family and the fullness of her life. Fun fact, I used to chew the hands flat on mine and my sister’s Barbies! Similar to the protagonists sister, she was also displeased with my unprovoked violence. Fantastic story though, filled with so much heart and love.
Chrysalis – 4 stars: A woman has an affair, travelling between her lovers from Montreal and Toronto on the train. The titular story feels almost cinematic in the way it’s written. I could clearly see the different settings Varghese shifts through and felt close enough to the protagonist so that even if I didn’t understand the choices she made I cared about them.
Publisher: Astoria
Pages: 192 (Library)
Source: Library
Genre: Fiction, Canadian, Short Stories, Horror, Fairy Tale, Queer
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤⛤
Summary:
Genre-blending stories of transformation and belonging that centre women of colour and explore queerness, family, and community.
A couple in a crumbling marriage faces divine intervention. A woman dies in her dreams again and again until she finds salvation in an unexpected source. A teenage misfit discovers a darkness lurking just beyond the borders of her suburban home. The stories in Chrysalis, Anuja Varghese’s debut collection, are by turns poignant and chilling, blurring the lines between the monstrous and the mundane.
Poetic, sensual, and surreal, Varghese’s stories delve into complex intersections of family, community, sexuality, and cultural expectation through an unapologetically feminist lens. Drawing on folklore, fairy tale, and magical realism, they take aim at the ways in which racialized women are robbed of power and revel in the strange and dangerous journeys they undertake to reclaim it.
Sarah O'Connor 