I recently read Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica, and I must say that it was a brilliant collection of short stories. Each of the nineteen stories in the book is a masterpiece in its own right, exploring the dark and disturbing aspects of the human psyche.

The stories in the book cover a range of themes, including violence, alienation, and dystopia. Bazterrica's writing is clever, vivid, and sometimes even darkly funny. The stories are a reflection of our deepest fears and disturbing fantasies, and they explore the complexities of the human experience in unexpected ways.

One thing that stood out to me was the author's ability to create vivid and fully realized characters in just a few pages. Each story has its own unique voice and perspective, and the characters are complex and often deeply flawed. The stories also raise important questions about love, friendship, family relationships, and unspeakable desires.

Overall, Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird is a brilliant collection of short stories that will leave you thinking long after you finish reading. The stories are unsettling, often thrilling, and always profound. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys dark and thought-provoking fiction.

From the author of one of my favorite dystopian horror novels, Tender is the Flesh, the short story collection, Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica is packed full of wild and horrific stories. Although I enjoyed this book cover to cover, the multiple stories that consist of children not fully understanding the situation that they’re in and not being able to ask for help hit me the hardest. Agustina Bazterrica is one of the most unique authors that I’ve ever read. The endings of all of her stories are unpredictable and outrageously entertaining. I recommend this collection to any fan of the macabre.

While I liked Tender if the Flesh, this book fell short for me. I really enjoy short stories but some of the stories felt like they had no point? They felt like they were just describing something instead of creating a story. I also don’t know if it was the translation, but I found the writing style to be kind of choppy and hard to get into. I would be open to reading another book by this author though!

This was spectacularly haunting. Each story was so visceral and engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories!

I think this author should stick to longer fictional pieces. This collection was interesting.

Some stories were good, some were okay and some were just bad.

After reading Tender is the Flesh and it being one of my top 3 reads of 2022 when I saw this I knew I needed to read anything by this author I could get my hands on. Typically I am not a short story reader because I want more time with the plots and characters. I found this entertaining, and yes found myself wanting more from some of these stories.

Sticking with the same style these stories are dark, shocking and bloody. Her writing style is so is haunting and will provide quite the ride to all readers looking for something different and shocking.

A big thank-you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for giving me a copy of this book for an unbiased review.

2/5 - It was okay.

Agustina Bazterrica excels in creating stories that are deeply atmospheric and disturbing, with a bizarre tinge to them that gets underneath the reader's skin and creeps one out in a subtle, nearly imperceptible way. This book consists of 20 extremely short (2-5 pages) stories which do exactly this. Which sounds spooky and fantastic for a horror line-up... but here comes the flaw: the stories are so stylized and atmospheric that they often sacrifice plot for feeling, ending up with narratives that range from fascinating and scary to bizarre to utterly incomprehensible. Unfortunately, the ones in this book tended towards the latter and for this reason, my reading experience was just okay. Readers with more of a preference towards ambiguity or spooky "vibes" may appreciate this book more.

I read this as a part of my "October spooky reads" challenge; while it fits that bill, this was mostly just a very strange vibe. I'm not a huge fan of short stories, but the novelty of the strange subject matters got me through this.

3/5 stars - Perhaps like most short story collections, the stories aren't all great. In fact, most of them were a bit too esoteric to fully get into, stymied by the phrasing and loftier literary verbiage. But some of them were great - perfectly succinct, strange, disturbing, visceral. If you're a fan of "Tender is the Flesh" and don't mind a short story, give it a shot and know that you can enjoy the ones you like and skim past the ones you don't.

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird is a thought-provoking, fascinating short story collection by Argentinian author Agustina Bazterrica, author of the shocking and unforgettable Tender is the Flesh. As with any collection, there were some stories that missed the mark (and that I've already forgotten) but there were several that completely dazzled me with their inventiveness, dark humor, and unsettling execution.

Some of my favorites were:

"A Light, Swift, and Monstrous Sound." Bazterrica starts the collection off strong with a deeply psychological story about a woman whose upstairs neighbor commits suicide on her patio. The imagery of falling dentures, followed by a falling body, will definitely stick in my mind.

"Roberto." A young girl is convinced she has a bunny hiding between her legs. She names him Roberto, and then makes the mistake of telling people about him. This story was so uncomfortable and disturbing, and the ending took me completely by surprise in a way that I loved.

"Candy Pink." A guide for getting over -- or failing to get over -- an ex-boyfriend. Bazterrica's ability to combine humor with serious, devastating subject matter is on full display here, and the actions of the woman in the story felt so authentic -- up to and including the explosive ending.

"Teicher vs. Nietzche." Teicher lives alone with only his ex-wife's cat, Nietzche, for company. After years of abuse at Teicher's hands, will Nietzche finally get his revenge? This story reminded me of that episode of The Twilight Zone where the man just wants to be alone to read, and then the world ends and his glasses break. It has that kind of dark, pleasing irony to it.

"The Continuous Equality of the Circumference." One of the wildest stories in the collection, and definitely my favorite, it's about a woman obsessed with turning herself into a circle -- doing whatever she has to in order to form her body into that shape. It's such a searing, visceral portrait of mental illness.

"Mary Carminum." A male chauvinist gets more than he bargained for when he goes on a blind date to a rock concert. It's giving Ari Aster vibes, and I'm here for it.

Overall, Nineteen Claws and a Blackbird is a great introduction to Bazterrica's writing -- I'd recommend reading this first if you're interested in Tender is the Flesh, since these short stories serve as a worthy introduction to the dark, shocking themes she writes about. This collection is also a great choice for both Hispanic Heritage Month and Spooky Season.

Unfortunately this collection fell a little flat for me. There were some stories I enjoyed, but most of them failed to hook me.

I loved Agustina Bazterrica's novel Tender Is The Flesh. But these short stories just didn't do it for me. I found myself bored almost immediately and had no interest in continuing with this one.

This was one of my most anticipated releases, after reading Agustina Bazterrica's novel Tender is the Flesh, and I was not disappointed! While I did enjoy some of the short stories more than others, the ones that I didn't LOVE were still really good. The only thing that I didn't enjoy is that I wanted some of the stories to be longer, but that's not a bad thing! I kept getting sucked in to the stories and didn't want them to end. I'll always read anything Bazterrica publishes and I'm sure I'll love it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Even though I usually don’t enjoy short story collections, I didn’t mind this one as a whole. There were some really dark and interesting stories included in this collection, including Unamuno’s Boxes (where a passenger imagines her taxi driver as a serial killer), Anita and Happiness (where a guy believes his girlfriend is an alien), and The Continuous Equality of the Circumference (where a woman’s ultimate goal is to become a circle).
A few of the stories I didn’t enjoy, mostly because I think they just went over my head in either the writing style or that it was too philosophical or metaphorical for me to fully understand the meaning or what was happening.
It was a super quick read at 176 pages and was recently released in June of this year. I’m very excited to read Tender is the Flesh by Augustina, as I’ve heard SUCH great things about it!

⭕️👽🍳

Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird is a collection of nineteen very strange stories from the author of the book Tender Is the Flesh. I read Tender Is the Flesh and thought it was very unique. But this short story collection was a little too weird for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

“Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird” share several stories that get under your skin. However, in comparison to “Tender is the Flesh,” this one barely scratches the surface.

I was anxiously anticipating this read and it just went a little under my expectations. However, I cannot wait to read whatever this author creates next!

I have heard such good things about Tender is the Flesh, that I was so excited to pick up this collection of stories. The prose was excellent and gripping. While I enjoyed the stories and the though provoking concepts, I did not find them very memorable. I would still recommend this.

This is a hard one to rate as a whole because it's a COLLECTION of short stories.

Some I really enjoyed and others I was not a fan of.

I absolutely LOVED "Tender is the Flesh" by this author, so as soon as I saw this book coming out I KNEW I had to read it. Though I didn't love every story in here and I did enjoy most of them.

Overall it is a good book and worth the read.

Usually I shy away from short stories but this cover grabbed me and most of the stories inside. Pain, horror, grief and fears of all kind. Sign me up. This is for everyone not just true horror fans. I even found authors I had never read before.

Thank you to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A LIGHT, SWIFT, AND MONSTROUS SOUND
Interesting opener written in second person, about a woman whose neighbor has jumped to his death and landed on her patio. The question of why he chose her patio is one she ponders as the remaining tenants swarm around her.

ROBERTO
Unexpectedly dark story here... with a not subtle metaphor. Glad it ended the way it did. Really not sure I can -- or want -- to say more than that.

UNAMUNO'S BOXES
A woman jumps to pretty wild conclusions based on her taxi driver's perfectly manicured nails. Loved the relatability factor; I'm sure most women (if not all) can cop to anxiously sorting through "what if?" scenarios when they're in vulnerable positions.

CANDY PINK
Well, that was brutal. Definitely make sure you check the trigger warnings on these before reading.

This one's told in second person POV again, though this time the speaker is a woman post-breakup lamenting her former relationship. She very quickly starts downward spiraling, landing in a pretty upsetting place. And yet, despite the upsetting nature, there are some darkly humorous moments laced in throughout.

ANITA AND HAPPINESS
Pablo is convinced his girlfriend, Anita, is an alien sent to Earth on a specific mission. However, what seems more likely is that he invented this narrative to explain the things he didn't understand - that frustrated him - about her. Either way, good for Anita and the postman. She deserves someone who's not torn between loving and hating her differences!

DISHWASHER
A woman seems to be experiencing a mental breakdown and no one in her life seems to notice (or care).

At this point, I'm not feeling entirely connected to Bazterrica's writing. Reading this was tedious and boring. Probably more of a "me" problem than anything, since so many people seem to really love her style!

EARTH
This one was less boring and tedious, but far more disturbing! It's told from the perspective of a child (though we don't necessarily know her age), whose complicated relationship with her mother stems from the abuse and tragedy they've concealed in their home.

For those triggered by certain subjects, this might be one to skip. Though it's not graphic, the implications are unpleasant.

PERFECT SYMMETRY
A man has been targeted by an enemy in prison (?) and spends his last moments making crepes and considering how he'll retaliate.

Again, these stories aren't really doing it for me. I saw someone else write something along the lines of "I didn't see the end coming!"...which was funny, given that we're told on the second page what the outcome will be.

THE WOLF'S BREATH
I'm reading another short story collection that has some extremely brief stories sprinkled in. And in that instance? The author pulls it off.

Not the case here. This was one page and the big takeaway was "people are vicious animals."

TEICHER VS. NIETZSCHE
Man vs. Cat would be a more appropriate title, but... you know, the reference is more attention-getting.

A man's ex-wife's cat ruins the sporting event he's trying to watch... and then some. Can't say I have a lot of additional thoughts or feelings here other than... this collection has fallen off.

THE DEAD
This is told from the perspective of a young child who has semi-recently lost her mother. She's grieving her mother's death alongside her father, who has found another woman to try and move forward with.

This is a premise that should ordinarily work for me, but there's something about Bazterrica's style/approach that I'm not a fan of. If I had to try and pinpoint what that something is, I'd say that it feels a little convoluted most of the time.

ELENA MARIE SANDOZ
Yeah, no. These aren't working for me at all.

DNF 56% - If you want to read a collection of horror stories, Bora Chung's Cursed Bunny is superior in every way.