Book Review: "Angela Carter's Book of Wayward Girls and Wicked Women" by Angela Carter et al

Angela Carter is one of the great writers of the 20th century whom I believe, is highly underrated. Someone I used to work with noted that 'The Bloody Chamber' was her favourite book of all time and honestly, though it is not mine, I can definitely understand why. Known for her rich, descriptive prose and feminist themes alongside her folklorish concepts, Angela Carter is perhaps best known for her works on fairy tale-based horror. Whilst she lived in Japan, she was influenced to write her dark 'The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman' and ultimately, she would write another set of stories called 'Wise Children'.

Her collection 'Angela Carter's Book of Wayward Girls and Wicked Women' is an anthology where each author is introduced by Carter and has maintained its popularity over the years because of its sprawl of authors who write in her style. The bold and unconventional female voices colour the wonderful stories of the plight of women everywhere.

One of the stories I enjoyed was called Debutante and it was by Leonora Carrington. A very short story compared to the one preceding it yes, but it was so good. It is about a girl who likes hanging out with animals instead of other people and one day, her mother comes to tell her that she must have a debutante's ball - she starts to panic because she doesn't want to go. She spends her days hanging out with the animals and teaching a hyena how to speak French.

After this, she suggests to the hyena that the hyena go to the ball dressed as her and she stays put. The hyena explains that everyone will know it is not her, however she states that nobody apart from her mother will know what she looks like so they won't. Whilst our main character is upset at the prospect of a ball, our hyena is looking forward to nice food - the night is agreed. When it comes to the ending however, something twisted happens and now, we can no longer trust our perceptions of the world or any of the characters in this book.

Another story I liked was called The Feminist Fables which details three very short stories based on fairy tales. The first one is to do with wolves and how a girl is sent to a shrink but the ending is hazy as to whether things have really helped at all. The second one is based on the tale of Bluebeard and is also a parody of A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. The last one is like a take on The Little Mermaid in which scientists take a she-monster on to land to vicisect her only to find out her body carries toxic fumes. The ending is actually really upsetting so please be warned. The writing is so skilfully stripped back that these endings look more meaningful and plausible. They almost come to an abrupt stop and I think the writer is very skilfull for including that.

Another story I enjoyed was called The Loves of Lady Purple which of course, is by Angela Carter herself. About a young girl who works in a theatre show with an older man called 'The Professor', this story is quite terrifying. I think that the Professor thinks he is treating her well, in fact I would call this child abuse. There is some implication that the child cannot age and that is what he loves about her. But I have to say that my favourite thing about this story was the ending because for the moments it seems happy and then right at the end, there is something that makes it seem not so happy anymore. I'm not going to tell you what it is apart from the fact that it involves a lot of fire.

As you can see that just from three stories, this anthology is definitely worth the read. I can tell you that if you like folk horror, if you enjoy social critiques of really abstract concepts to do with feminism - then this book is quite rightly for you. Angela Carter has created something very special here and the writers are people we can read off afterwards for more inspiration into the topic. I certainly enjoyed it a lot.