4.5 STARSThis quickly became one of my favorite short story collections with it's dark atmosphere and poetic nature. I loved the dark and modern twists on stories we've seen before in history and fairytales. I was in awe of Kat Howard's writing style and she has quickly become one of my favorites.

This collection is incredible. Inspired by myth and fairytales and often focusing on women who redefine their tales, I haven’t read something this beautiful since Angela Carter’s collection THE BLOODY CHAMBER. It reminds me why I love short stories. Each one here was perfect; I never skipped any of them, and they were always a length that meant I stayed engaged. The very final line - “The tree is split, and she stepping out of it” - is very clever, I feel. It summarises the whole collection. The...

My first book of the year a five star? Love that for me.

I love this book. Every single one of the stories within this collection pulls you in and doesn't let go. The stories leave you wanting more but I also think some of their power lies in the format. When I try to pick out my favorites I end up just naming almost all of them. It is a collection I find myself revisiting time and time again.EDIT: if i had to choose my favorites they would probably be The Saint of the Sidewalks, Translatio Corporis, Murdered Sleep, and Once, Future (of course)

Short story collections are tricky. These are all written beautifully--Kat Howard's prose is gripping and evocative. She's great at setting a mood and a tone in her novels, and that didn't change here. The quality of her writing kept me reading to the end of the book. Unfortunately, this collection just didn't do it for me. Either the stories ended too abruptly, or there wasn't enough substance for me to sink my teeth into.

From the Introduction: (unnumbered)"Writing, for me, is an act of faith. When I sit down to write, I have to believe in what I am writing. Any hesitation, any loss of faith, and the story breaks down, falls apart. I have words scribbled on pages - maybe even beautiful words - but without belief, they're not a story. And the faith doesn't end there. I have to believe that the story will find an audience. That somewhere out in the world, there is a reader who will also believe in that story, and i...

Be skeptical when a writer writers her own introduction to her short stories, especially when she uses the word "hagiography" in it and its last sentences are "Turn the page. I have miracles to offer you." I was skeptical, and for good reason. I was really shocked at the praises sung of this pretentious metafictive collection of short stories that explore faith and myth. I was alternately bored and annoyed with all of them. I'll just mention the opening story as an example. In "A Life in Fiction...

This was actually pretty close to 5 stars for me, but not quite. All of my top favorites are actually available to read online, so I recommend:"The Saint of the Sidewalks": http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/howar..."Translatio Corporis": https://uncannymagazine.com/article/t..."All of Our Past Places": http://www.unlikely-story.com/stories..."Painted Birds and Shivered Bones": https://subterraneanpress.com/magazin...

Kat Howard has constantly shown that she can ground fantastical elements in contemporary storytelling. This, along with wonderful prose and sharp characterization, is why her novels ROSES AND ROT and AN UNKINDNESS OF MAGICIANS work so well -- they blend those elements together without ever collapsing under the weight of either side. A CATHEDRAL OF MYTH AND BONE is a collection of stories -- myth retellings, essentially -- that follow suit. Most of these were previously published, but the biggest...

I loved the breadth of short stories in this collection, but I think my favorite has to be the Arthurian cycle. Kat Howard has an incredibly clever mind, and I'm glad we got to see her flex her skills in these stories.

I was so sure I was going to love this short story collection—modernized mythology is a conceit that excites me—but ultimately found it pretty one-note and heavy-handed. This is a YA collection in adult clothing, and I think it’s a shame that it wasn’t edited with a young adult audience in mind (characters are all adults but feel like teenagers, and a few passing references to sex are clearly made to age it up; it doesn’t work). Anyway, it leaves me in this awkward place where I don't like to cr...

More reviews up on my blog Inside My Library Mind “The story knows the way of its telling.” As a Whole... All of these stories revolve around myths and legends and thus have a common theme of storytelling interwoven throughout all of them. Every story is set in our world, but not quite. It’s our world but deconstructed and mixed with symbols and aspects of different stories.There’s also a common theme of a story being retold through time – always being the same, but also always changing...

Turn the page. I have miracles to offer you.—Introduction, p.xiI don't often say this, but... you can probably skip the Introduction of A Cathedral of Myth and Bone, at least if you find that concluding sentence as pretentious as I did.However, the stories are a different matter—the 16 tales collected in Kat Howard's A Cathedral of Myth and Bone are diverse, deliciously off-kilter and delightfully written, whether she's reimagining Camelot on a college campus (in the novella "Once, Future") or p...

“The tree is split, and she is stepping out of it”A Cathedral of Myth and Bone is a collection of short stories that deal with faith and spirituality, myth and legend and women reclaiming agency or carving their own path. Most of these are quite short (besides Once, Future and Painted Birds and Shivered Stones, respectively 100+ and 30~ pages), but they come together coherently to highlight a strong theme, as we see women redefine the same tales they have been trapped by before. In the first sto...

I love Kat Howard's short stories, so of course I also love this collection. I'd read many of the stories before, but a stand out new one for me was Once, Future, and Authurian retelling set on a modern college campus. It's so excellent. And then a favorite of mine that I'd already read is The Saint of the Sidewalks. I actually enjoyed it even more this time than the first.Kat Howard's stories are steeped in Catholicism, fairy tales, and female empowerment. You can tell she treats each story wit...

I'm not generally a fan of fairy tales and their retellings. However, Howard's prose is alluring, enchanting, sometimes harsh. There were times I would pause on a particular image or phrase or line of dialogue and just let it sink in and dissolve. Each of these stories is its own tale of reclamation, of freedom, of magic - but they weave together so brilliantly, twisting each individual narrative into a gleaming whole that leaves you immediately wanting whatever is next. Some of these are a litt...

An interesting collection of stories featuring twisted fairytales and the agency women have in their own lives. I would love to read more of Kat Howard in the future!

I had a difficult time deciding between 3 and 4 stars. I chose 4 because ultimately the great stories in this anthology outweighed the not so good. And none of the stories were bad, but I just didn't understand some of them because they were so unique and out there. Also, a few were good stories, but the subject matter wasnt interesting to me. For example, the main novella was about Camelot, which I have never been very interested in.I really loved the prose and magical imagery in these short st...

I read this because Neil Gaiman complimented the author and he was deeply correct about her. These were stories of women and magic, sometimes with weird religious stuff thrown in that I also liked. I’d read her work again.

a great collection ! lots of common themes; the author is def very concerned with and focused on mythology and retelling in the act of storytelling and furthering of narratives, enjoys playing with Arthurian legend, and explores the role women play in literature and life. Lots of stuff about creating and being art and what that means for women and mythological and religious and magical creatures. Reminds me of the lauded collection her body and other parties by machado except a little more juven...