I was deeply disturbed (in a good way!) by Agustina Bazterrica’s other book, Tender is the Flesh, so when I saw she was releasing a collection of short stories, I was ecstatic.
Originally written in Spanish, this English translation of twenty stories touches on dark, arcane, and cringe-worthy topics. The first story in the lineup, A Light, Swift, and Monstrous Sound, is at the top of my favorites. It’s so... so strange. Other stories in this collection will take you on a tale of a man trying to watch a football (soccer) game with an annoying cat that his Ex had left behind. A woman feels that Manhattan’s lights have perforated her brain. A man thinks his girlfriend isn’t human. I liked some more than others. I wish I could talk about all of them, but I don’t want to spoil anything!
These stories require imagination. They aren’t the kind of scary stories where the whole entire plot is laid out in clear form for you to follow with a clean, wrapped-up ending. Bazterrica’s writing style isn’t for everyone, but it works for me. It forces me to look deeper and allow myself to feel the uncomfortable and strangeness of what each story's purpose.
I’m excited for this to come out!

Thank you to the author Agustina Bazterrica, publishers Scribner and Simon & Schuster, and as always NetGalley, for an advance digital copy of NINETEEN CLAWS AND A BLACK BIRD.

I actually read this collection twice. My first time through, I knew it was smart, creative, and I really liked it. But I also just didn't know how to review it as a collection. So the second time through, I took some notes. My aim: to minimally review each of the stories within the book to give you, potential read, maximum exposure to its spectrum of subject and brilliance.

1. "A Light, Swift, and Monstrous Sound"
This one is a little hard to follow, but it's a fable (sort-of) about gossip. What's the difference between a suicide and someone falling to their death on the balcony two storeys down? A nosy neighbor.

2. "Roberto"
I'll never look at small rodents or metaphors for genitals the same way ever again. This story is one of my top 3!

3. "Unamuno's Boxes"
The form of this story holds up the narrative, maximizes the suspense and brilliant irony. The punchline: Better off dead than old.

4. "Candy Pink"
I love when writers write suicide as an actual characteristic rather than a trashy trope or plot device. Bazterrica has a bad habit of this, so it's nice to see she's got the range for both.

5. "Anita It Happens"
There is only one woman in the world for Pablo? Sometimes the narrative structure of these stories dilutes the meaning a little.

6. "Dishwasher"
This story about stigma and keeping up pretenses brilliantly uses subtext to make its point. "Jane never would have imagined that machines could panic."

7. "Earth"
The trajectory of this tragedy stole my breath away. It is a story about a child and her mother, half of which is, by necessity, below average.

8. "Perfect Symmetry"
'He knew that no woman was cheap and that every dish was delicious. The secret was in the particulars that made them unique.' p50

9. "The Wolf's Breath"
Another linguistic puzzle or word game.

10. "Teicher vs. Nietzsche" This story appears to be a private joke for existential philosophers. For readers who aren't familiar with the theories and theorists at hand, the piece could be inaccessible.

11. "The Dead" Told from the perspective of a vengeful and angry young person, a little convoluted, though the theme of domestic violence is certainly clear.

12. "Elena-Marie Sandoz"
This story has an incredibly inventive oroboros shaped logic, which results in a circular form. Stories like this are usually a trip, but I loathe when authors use suicide as a plot device.

13. "The Slowness of Pleasure"
Wow, I've been doing art museums all wrong! I love this eerie tale about the connection between a piece of art, the object of the painting, and a woman admiring the painting. This piece is spooky, sensual, and powerful! Top three!

14. "No Tears"
It's a funeral, and I mean *anybody's* funeral, and this sweet lady will cry because she wants to!

15. "The Continuous Equality of the Circumfrence"
Several of the stories in this collection are linguistic puzzles, or word games. This is another one, and it's quite creepy fun, as the main character is fixatedon the shape of her body. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Bazterrica became distracted by the centralidea of this story on day, and wrote this just to work out the -- is it geometry? anatomy? anametry? Whatever, great story.

16. "A Hole Hides a House"
A surreal and heart-rending story about child wives and how they live. Trigger warnings galore for this one.

17. "Hell"
A very sad, surreal story about the keeping of wild species as pets. Trigger warning for animal cruelty and death.

18. "Architecture"
I'm not too sure about this one. It's definitely about architecture.

19. "Mary Carmium"
This very freaky story appears to be about cults and cult abduction and indoctrination. One of the best things about it is the pervasive sense of absurdity and preposterous. The narrator knows everything that's happening is ridiculous, but he's as much an observer as we are! This story is one of my Top 3!

20. "The Solitary Ones"
A fantastic classic scary story, complete with a twist ending!

Rating: 🐇🐇🐇🐇.5 / 5 inuendos
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: June 2 2023
Format: Digital, Kindle, NetGalley

weird stories are one of my favorite genres, but they always run the risk of crossing over some unspecified line that I can’t put into words. i don’t have specific requirements - they don’t always need to have a point or a theme or a vibe or an ick factor or fill in whatever blank, but they need to have at least one of those things. I can’t explain why certain collections do it for me and others don’t. Things we lost in the fire? Check. Cursed bunny? G2g. Mouthful of birds? Didn’t do it for me. Nineteen claws and a black bird was closer to the latter than the former, unfortunately. Certain stories were exceptions, I loved the last two stories (deliciouslyyy creepy), and a few others were good, but overall I found myself finishing each story with a sense of “…ok?” and not in a fun way.

I hoped for so much more, given my (unhealthy?) devotion to Tender is the Flesh, but this just wasn’t it for me.

Nonetheless, this was a very fun experience to be able to read such an anticipated read in translation early thanks to a netgalley arc & the publisher.

I got an ARC from NetGalley and was very excited! I loved Tender Is The Flesh, and so I was excited to get to read more from this author.

I guess I wasn't too sure what I was getting into because the stories didn't really make me care much as I was going through the books. These "musings" on the human condition aren't particularly terrifying, and some of them I would even argue were quite shallow. I'm not sure if there's anything lost in translation, but these stories were fairly just ok. Guess I'm just not a fan of this book.

Like most anthologies that I read, I think there were some interesting stories and some that didn't really hit the mark. There's a good mix of weird, bizarre, strange, and dark stories which kept it interesting. I love weird books, but I couldn't follow some of these stories because of how strange they were. My favorite stories were probably Mary Carminimum and The Solitary Ones.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC!

"Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird" is a remarkable collection of strange and haunting tales that defies easy categorization. Within its pages, author Agustina Bazterrica masterfully weaves together unusual situations and vivid prose, presenting readers with a collection that is both beautiful and unsettling.

After reading Tender is the Flesh, I knew I wanted to read more from Agustina Bazterrica. I bought the Spanish version because I couldn't wait to read it. I was also given the English version for review. I read and enjoyed both.

There were definitely hits and misses for me but overall I liked the collection of stories. The stories deal with dark topics ranging from abuse, murder, suicide, self mutilation, cults, etc. Proceed at your own risk. Although I'm sure if you're coming from reading Tender is the Flesh, you have an idea of what you're in for.

Bazterrica's writing is at times haunting, disturbing, and surreal. Some of these stories are strange little tales. My favorite stories from this collection: Roberto, Earth, The Continuous Equality of the Circumference, A Hole Hides a House, Mary Carminum, and The Solitary Ones.

Just like Tender is the Flesh, these stories will stay with me (Roberto and Earth especially because I found them disturbing). I'd highly recommend if you enjoyed her previous work or if you enjoy macabre stories.

Thank you to Scribner, Pushkin Press, and the author for providing me with an ARC for review.

I have a love/hate relationship with this book. About half of the short stories I truly enjoyed, so I am rating the book a 3.5 star read. For those looking for a dark, horrific, short story collection, this would be an honest recommendation to give. It explores the darkest parts of our minds, fears, and compulsions. The author writers frequently of death, especially a form of suicide (whether intentional, accidental, or circumstantial), limb removal, entrapment, loss, obsession, assault… the list goes on and on. Based on this alone, it falls in line with what I expected from the author based on Tender Is The Flesh. Generally, a very dark and interesting read.

What I enjoyed most is being in the mind of those with compulsion and obsession, as well as the final 2 short stories at the end. Roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of the stories didn’t feel necessary to me, or just felt overly descriptive to the point where I wasn’t sure exactly what the premise was for that story. Despite that, the author has quite a specific way of describing feelings, acts, and the environment of the character, which is refreshing compared to other authors.

One or two of the stories in this collection will be memorable, and worth recommending to others who would be interested in such a macabre style of literature.

I will be very interested when Bazterrica releases another novel, an hoping it is representative of the short stories I enjoyed the most from this collection.


Thank you Netgalley and Scribner for providing me an ARC of this book.

Tender is the Flesh is one of my favorite books of all time, so I was so stoked when I knew there would be another book translated in English from this author coming out. I have to say- this one was just not for me. The stories did not keep my interest as I expected they would. I think there were some good foundations and beginnings of profound work, but they never made it over the crest to keep me intrigued. I do think there's a lot of powerful emotion in this book related to sexual trauma; however, I was looking for something more sinister and apathetic like Tender is the Flesh, as I gravitate more towards those themes and mostly stick to reading the horror genre. I won't be discouraged from reading future works from this author, but sometimes authors are better at novels than short stories, and this is the case for me and this book.

Book : Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird
Author : Agustina Bazterrica
Pub Date: 20 Jun 2023

Thank you Net Galley, Scribner and the author of this book for an opportunity to review this ARC.

This book was amazing. I LOVE Augustina’s writing and I love short stories!!! Tender Is The Flesh is one of my all time favorite books. I read through these many times! Dark short stories are my comfort. I loved all of these little stories. Short and packing a creepy dark punch to them. Perfect for anytime as far as I’m concerned but would be perfect to set on your coffee table for the fall time for a little aesthetic reading.

This is quite possibly a top favorite true short story book and I will be telling all of my book besties about this one. It needs to be on your TBR.

Gripping and disturbing, and the stories are short enough that you keep telling yourself "Okay, one more." I read through the whole collection in one evening. https://omaha.bibliocommons.com/v2/comment/2316210438

A fun twist on some very dark topics.

When I started reading this book I really didn't know what to expect. But from the rave reviews I'd read about Tender Is the Flesh, I was excited. The range of stories included in Nineteen Claws and a Blackbird definitely kept me turning the pages, intrigued what the next one would reveal. They were short and entertaining, and the pace was steady. Her descriptions are vivid and occasionally very disturbing, as I discovered in Roberto. A story about a young girl who has a rabbit between her legs. Even though the topics were dark, the author's voice brought a sense of levity to certain scenes. Like in Teicher vs. Nietzche, a man dealing with his ex-girlfriend's cat is surprised to learn it has murderous intentions. There were a couple of stories I found to be on the slower side, but overall this is an enjoyable book, and definitely one to pick up when you want a change of pace.

3/5⭐️⭐️⭐️

For readers who want something unique and surprising, a glimpse into darkness with a twist of humor.

A fantastic collection of weird, funny and almost perfect short stories. I loved every single one.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

In any collection of literary works, some are of more interest and/or appeal than others. These short stories are all dark and unusual; many have children as the viewpoint character. The disturbing and unsettling topics covered in the stories are presented in vivid and precise language that draws the reader into the scene.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the e-ARC of this book.
I really had to push through this one to finish. I was so excited to get an ARC of this book, but it was a bit of a disappointment. A few of the stories were a bit creepy, but out of twenty only a few I will remember. Sadly, only a 2.5 star. I will read this author again, but this one just did not hit the mark.

This was my first Agustina Bazterrica book, and I was pleasantly surprised. The stories are dark, and bizarre. It’s unique and imaginative, and I actually really enjoyed reading this book.

This was a different type of read for me. Not sure it’s my cup of tea. It was more of weird fiction short stories and not really horror. I’m sure it had an audience that would love it.

I loved Tender is the Flesh and couldn’t not put it down. With this book it was the opposite. I had to force myself to finish it. I just wasn’t connected to the stories and maybe it’s because I was expecting stories as gruesome as Tender is the Flesh.

The writing was wonderful and melodic at times. I will definitely try again, now that I know what to expect.

This is a cleverly written collection that will speak to a very diverse audience. Did it speak to me personally? It did more often than not and that surprised me. Thankfully.

Wow, this collection of short stories went really dark! I totally wasn't expecting to feel so unsettled after reading them but there is something so unique about the style of writing, and the way that the stories are pushed so close to the point of too much, before pulling you right back. If I had to pick a favourite it would have to be The Solitary Ones - I haven't been able to stop thinking about this one. It was such a creepy idea and the fact that it was set on a train and in the subway gave an added layer of claustrophobia to an already tense story. I also think it would make an amazing film, the atmosphere created (even when they were plunged into complete darkness) was just incredible!