Contents:
Icarus Dreams
Death of the Grapevine
His Birth
The Wife That Never Was
Umbilical
How to Honour a Beginning
Minotaur/Mindtour
Delphine as Daedalus
The Case of the High Pavement Ghosts
Girls’ Night Out
ATU334 the Wise
Our Lady of Flies
The Green Man
A Piece of Fabric the Size of a Pin
Machina in Deo
The Eyes of the Goddess Herself
A Survival Guide for the Contemporary Princess
This Little Piggy
Tough Love
The Sun is God
Star Making at Sellafield
The November Room or Leaving the Labyrinth
Dark bleatings, my lovelies! Today we have a review from one of our favourite Guest Goats. Take it away, Juliet!
This collection of short stories defies expectation and takes the reader on a wild journey. Smits is an amazing writer who knows how to create realistic and relatable characters. While her stories cross many genres from sci-fi to fantasy to horror and just about everything in between, her style is all her own. I particularly loved the short story Umbilical as I related to the feelings, having lost my own child to cancer. Smits proves there isn’t a genre or topic she can’t successfully tackle. Her brazenness in taking on each genre with consistency and thoroughness proves she is an author to watch.
As happens with short story collections, there were a few stories I couldn’t get in to, however, I suspect that is simply matter of personal taste. All were written well and felt complete. Some were intriguing enough, I wanted more and thought could be expanded into a novella or novel. At every point, I felt I was reading a well thought out and professional story. Smits is especially adept at setting a scene and inviting the reader to join the characters on their journeys. Well done!
Goat Leader here – thank you, Juliet! I have to echo Juliet’s sentiments about Teika’s writing too, she is wonderful. If you’d like to check out the book or the author, there are links below for you:
Happy Goat Horror 
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