I don’t normally pick up short story collections, but the premise of this one intrigued me enough to want to pick it up. The summary was as follows: a collection of stories sprinkled into fairy tales, left to take root and grow wild there. A lovesick nanny slays a dragon, the devil tries to save her mother, a girl drowns and becomes a saint, Three kids plot to blow up their dad, a grieving mother sails to the sea to find her son’s grave, a scientist brings a voice to life and a mermaid falls into the power of a witch. Here historical fiction, horror and fantasy tangle together in a queer garden of love, grief and longing.

You can see why I was drawn to it. I didn’t see the connection to fairy tales except for the very last story, which was a reversed take on The Little Mermaid, but the stories are across a wide range of genres all interconnected by the themes of relationships, grief and death.

Some stories were really good like “Seven Deaths” and “Devils also Believe” while other’s weren't as good such as “My Husband and Me” and “The Undertaker’s Dogs”, However, I still think this book is worth picking up because each story is unique, interesting and well written.

I recommended this book for people who like short story collections and books with emotionally resonant stories blending relationship dynamics with magical realism.

A wonderfully whimsical collection of stories. Beautiful imagery and interesting themes, mainly around grief and love. My favourites were the final four stories: 'captain america's missing fingers', 'esthet and the voice', 'the sea gives up the dead' and 'foam on the waves'. I'm definitely looking forward to more of molly olguins work!

Thanks to netgalley and red hen press for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. The sea gives up the dead is out on april 29!

Book Review The Sea Gives Up The Dead by Molly Olguin

Publication date: April 28/25

A dark and beautiful collection of short stories, all interconnected by the central themes of death, loss and grief. These stories expand our understanding of what death means - far beyond physical death, encompassing the loss one’s identity, name or gender. Olguin delves into the complexities of losing yourself and losing others, offering a multi-layered exploration of grief.

The writing is exquisite, with each story drawing you in, blending genres in unexpected but seamless ways. There’s a mix of historical fiction, fairytale elements, magical realism, horror, and even romance. This fusion of styles is well executed, and the result is cohesive and complete. The stories are diverse, with many featuring Mexican and queer protagonists, adding a richer layer to the narrative. I felt like the stories grew in depth as I progressed through the collection.

The stories range far and wide exploring everything from the loss of a sister to sainthood, to dragons and mermaids, and the way AI can be used to numb grief, to the idea of the dead punishing living from beyond the grave.

My favourites include:

Captain America’s Missing Fingers: A young girl trying to manage her fear about her father’s involvement in a war, when no one in her family will talk about it.

Esther and The Voice: After the death of her girlfriend, Esther immerses herself in her AI project, speaking constantly to the robotic voice she’s creating. Overtime, it eerily begins to sound like her lost love.

Foam on the Waves: A fresh take on the Little Mermaid! Need I say more.

This collection is a prime example of the power of short stories, with the genre-bending storytelling setting it apart from anything else I’ve read. It’s an essential read for anyone who enjoys darker, thought provoking short stories.

Oh wow, what an exciting new voice. The blurb from Carmen Maria Machado on Netgalley (and thanks very much to Netgalley, Red Hen Press, and the author for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review) and the gorgeous cover art/title combination drew me in, and then Molly Olguín’s words held me captive.

Across twelve stories, the author weaves an enthralling net of family drama, magical realism, love, grief, fable, folklore, and — as the title indicates — death.

There were a few stories that weren’t to my taste, but that’s inevitable in almost any collection. Although I appreciate the remarkable amount of character development it achieved in a short time, the animal abuse and death in “The Undertaker’s Dogs” was too graphic for me to do more than skim more of it. And Although I enjoyed the tone of “Devils Also Believe,” and “Esther and the Voice,” I didn’t find them as memorable as some of the other tales.

But the highlights are up there with the best short stories I’ve read recently. I loved “Clara Aguilera’s Holy Lungs” and its exploration of religious veneration in a time of climate dystopia. Written in the form of a Dear Abby letter, I read the unsettling messiness of “My Husband and Me” with bated breath.

And “Captain America’s Missing Fingers” and the title story “The Sea Gives Up the Dead” were nothing short of masterpieces to me in their ratios of richness to brevity, really demonstrating what a good short story is capable of in terms of creating a complex world and characters in only a few pages.

I’ll be eagerly awaiting the publication of this collection so that I can recommend it to friends, and equally anticipating Olguín’s future work.

I don’t usually read short story collections, but this book was a pleasant surprise. The length of each story felt just right, and none of them seemed incomplete, which has been an issue for me with other anthologies.

As the title suggests, death is a central theme in most of the stories, but each one approaches it in a unique and intriguing way. Not every story was my favorite, but I enjoyed the majority of them, especially the last one. Overall, it was an unexpectedly enjoyable read, and I was very satisfied with the experience.

An excellent collection of short stories with predominantly queer and/or Mexican-American protagonists in historical, modern-day and futuristic settings. The most common theme of all stories in here is love, death and grief.
I think the overall best feature of the book is the uniqueness of the narrative voice in each story, every single one is very distinct and one of a kind, which allows it to avoid a common pitfall of short-story collections: repetitiveness.
My least favourite thing doesn't actually has anything to do with the stories themselves, it's more of an organizational issue: I'm not quite satisfied with the order in which they appear in the book. As of right now the weakest stories are in the beginning and the best ones are towards the end, which might cause impatient readers to DNF the book.
I gave the collection as a whole a 4-star rating which is an average of the ratings I gave to the individual stories as follows:
Seven Deaths: 3 stars - definitely horrific, has a slight fairytale-esque vibe to it but wasn't quite detailed and/or long enough to make it really immersive.
Devils Also Believe: 2 stars - my least favourite in the entire book, I found it very confusing at multiple points, the setting was quite hard to visualize due to a lack of descriptive passages but the story itself is beautifully tragic with a lot of potential.
The Princess Wants For Company: 5 stars - sapphic magical realism with dragons behaving like naughty bears wandering in urban spaces, so in one word: yes!
The Undertaker's Dogs: 4 stars - just a little bit lacking in depth but a deliciously disturbing and painfully realistic story (the intrusive thoughts were way too real!)
honey from the rock: 4 stars - a little too short for me but it was an amazing Kafkaesque nightmare scenario
Clara Aguilera's Holy Lungs: 5 stars - this one explores a very very interesting scenario very very well, it's so good that it genuinely deserves to be worked into a full-length novel (also the first of three stories with more of a Black Mirror vibe than fairytale style)
My Husband and Me: 4 stars - love the epistolary style, it's a lovely change of pace in a collection, although it makes the story a bit one-sided. I also found the ending a little too abrupt and unresolved even though open endings usually don't bother me at all.
Small Monuments: 4 stars - this is the second story more reminiscent of a Black Mirror episode, not much horror in here or at least not the conventional kind but the story is very unique, really heart-rending and bittersweet.
Captain America's Missing Fingers: 4 stars - not in a million years would I have been able to divine what a title like that would unfold into but boy was it a ride! I loved having a little girl as the narrator, terrible things always seem so much more poignant through a child's eyes. The horror in here is very subtle, a lot of things go unsaid but implied and even if it is mentioned most of it is only half-understood by the kids.
Esther and The Voice: 5 stars - this is the third and final story with slight Black Mirror vibes and another one that is so very good it really deserves to be a standalone sci-fi novel.
The Sea Gives Up The Dead: 5 stars - the titular story definitely does a fair bit of heavylifting in the collection, it has everything I expected from the start: it's beautiful and horrifying and fairtale-esque and cathartic plus its protagonist is an older lady.
Foam on the Waves: 5 stars - another one that very much reflected my expectations: a dark but heartfelt mirror version of a well-known fairytale reminiscent of Angela Carter's dark retellings in The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories.
Many thanks to Red Hen Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is a short collection of stories surrounding the main theme of death, as mentioned in the title. Not every story here worked for me, but the ones that did really did (Asking for more of Esther and the Voice, please). What I liked most about this collection is the range of genres utilized. There is a story for everyone in here. Ultimately, though, these stories fell flat for me overall. Aside from the few I really liked, most of these stories didn't grab me. While they were interesting in premise, the execution wasn't there for me. I was never invested in the characters or what they were going through. Overall, I liked this collection, but I didn't love it.

I enjoyed the concepts of each short story, and the variety of the collection (spanning different subjects and timeframes), but some of the stories' endings felt rushed or unfinished. I liked the author's writing style, and the book was well-edited!

Thank you to Red Hen Press for the ARC.
Overall, I quite enjoyed these stories. I am always excited about women writers publishing short story collections; it gives me a good idea of the writer's range. There were some stories in this collection I really liked, and some I could have done without. There are a couple of shorter ones that did not pique my interest, but several were really well realized and executed. I liked particularly the title story, the drowning saint, and the final tale of the girl who wishes to be a mermaid. The prose in everything was very lovely. I also enjoyed an overarching theme that I noticed, which is that women, gender expectations, femininity, and the idea of "otherness" have always been intertwined. The different ways this is portrayed is so well done, I just think that some stories were more enticing than others.

The Sea Gives Up the Dead was an incredibly well done collection of short stories, featuring different forms of loss, death, and grief. It was an interesting blend of stories that had the style and cadence of a fairytale, with a more historical setting, with others leaning more modern sci-fi. Content warnings for: death of a child, loss of a parent, death of a partner, animal death

Rating and reviewing short story collections can be difficult, but I took my time reading through the stories not to get them too jumbled, and rated them individually:

Seven Deaths - 4⭐
Devils Also Believe - 4.5⭐
The Princess Wants for Company - 5⭐
The Undertaker's Dogs - 2.5⭐
Honey From the Rock - 3⭐
Clara Aguilera's Holy Lungs - 3.5⭐
My Husband and Me - 2.5⭐
Small Monuments - 4.5⭐
Captain America's Missing Fingers - 5⭐
Esther and the Voice - 4⭐
The Sea Gives Up the Dead - 4⭐
Foam on the Waves - 5⭐

Every story was well written, my differing ratings based solely on personal enjoyment. The themes were poignant without being too dark or heavy, and the incorporation of queer identities in many of the stories felt natural and well balanced. I would gladly read more from Molly Olguín in the future.

This work left no impression on me at all. That is such a disappointment as the summary sounds so interesting and exactly my tastes. Sometimes you cant judge a book by its summary.

at first i was weirded out by the "strangeness" of the stories, then i got used to it, then i was hit with a fresh new wave of a completely different kind of weird, and that's basically my experience with this book.
i'm not a big fan of magical realism but i can admit that these stories are EXTREMELY well written. a bit disturbing and horror-ish, yes, but that was the point (i think). even though i didn't like this book much, the stories still stuck to my brain and had me going "????" hours after i read them. honestly i respect an author who can haunt her readers.

3.5⭐️ not my cup of tea but good nonetheless

I really enjoyed reading these short stories, each one distinctive and captivating in its own way. They were haunting, often tinged with sadness, and left a lasting impression. The depth of emotion in each story was striking, and the atmosphere they created lingered after I’d finished. My favorite was The Sea Gives Up the Dead.

A quick reading selection of stories that combine fairy tales with heavy themes like death. Beautifully written and very dark, I'm still thinking about several of these short stories weeks later.

One of the ones that stuck with me the most is the story of the AI programmer who inadvertently gives her state of the art work project the voice and mannerisms of her dead girlfriend. As someone who really has qualms about the rise of artificial intelligence, this story was haunting as the scientist grapples with letting a spectre of her lost love go back out into the world.

The grieving five-star mother will also stick with me for a long time.

Olgin is a lyric storyteller for the ages.

I haven't read a book of short stories since high school. That was a looooong time ago. I believe the author, Molly Olguin, sparked something in me. She has composed quite the collection of unique short stories that were not quite what I expected. I received this as an advanced reader copy from (many thanks to) NetGalley, Molly Olguin and Red Hen Press. I have voluntarily provided this honest review.

The first story really grabbed my attention and kept me wanting more. It was a twist I was not expecting.. Then there was "the devil" and Lucia., an unlikely "friendship" that we can all relate to in some degree. While all of the stories hold the same underlying tone, they are all quite different and entertaining and I can understand why the author received the accolades she did. There was great character building in such a short amount of time and her descriptive writing made envisioning the environments that much easier. I look forward to the author's future projects!

I picked this up a) because of the stunning cover and b) because I saw it had been blurbed by the legendary Carmen Maria Machado, and I'm glad I did. For a debut author, Molly Olguin has written a beautifully rich and cohesive short story collection that handles all sorts of gruesome deaths and overwhelming grief with so much care. Like most short story collections, some of the stories were incredibly sharp and poignant, while others just kinda faded away once I turned the page. My favourites were: "The Sea Gives Up the Dead" and "Foam of the Waves".

Because the stories are quite short, it's difficult to comment on things like character development and pacing. I do feel that some of the characters lacked depth, and that some of the stories were slow to get through despite being so short, but what is lost in pace and character is made up for in prose and imagery, so I'm not necessarily complaining. I understand that it's rare to have it all when it comes to short fiction. Even though some of the hooks were a bit gimmicky, the magical realism elements were my favourite, and I really look forward to seeing what this author does next!

I am in a discord book club that reads one short story collection every two months, and I am going to suggest this as our July/August pick! If anything, I think there are so many important themes with open-ended questions brought up in this little book that would make for a fantastic discussion with friends.

This is a short story collection which delves into magic realism, fantasy, historical fiction, and realism. I noticed a couple of overarching topics throughout the stories, but the two that recurred the most were family dynamics and war. However, the stories also explore queerness, regret, and grief. Olguín presents complex family dynamics in which patriarchs are gone to war, work, dead, or are simply authoritative and overbearing. Most stories followed girls, young women, or mothers roughing out illness, money, and love. There was a lot of range in terms of plot and conflict like a story with a dangerous dragon on the loose, to an AI which eased a grieving sister, and the last story is a Little Mermaid retelling (Anderson’s not Disney’s).

I enjoyed most of the stories as a new-to-me author I can say that Olguín is a great storyteller. I found myself easily engaged with each plot, and the pacing is done well. I would pick up more from this author.

As much as I wanted to like this, none of the stories in the collection kept me engaged for very long, except for the first one. I just wasn't in the mood to read about sex robots and dragons devouring babies, I guess.

‘The Sea Gives Up the Dead’ is undeniably unique, with a dreamlike, almost unsettling quality to its storytelling. Each piece offers something different, from eerie encounters to introspective moments, yet there was something about the overall execution that didn’t quite resonate with me. While I can appreciate the creativity behind the stories, they often felt too odd or abstract for my personal taste.

Plot: ★★★☆☆
The stories themselves are certainly distinctive, offering a variety of intriguing premises. However, some felt more developed than others, and I often found myself wishing for a stronger sense of cohesion or resolution. There were moments of brilliance - glimpses of deep, atmospheric storytelling that truly drew me in - but just as quickly, the narratives would shift into something that left me feeling adrift. While I respect the unique nature of the collection, it ultimately wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.

Character: ★★★☆☆
The characters in this collection are undeniably compelling in their strangeness. Many of them feel enigmatic, existing somewhere between the surreal and the deeply human. While this ambiguity works in some cases, it also left me feeling disconnected. I often struggled to truly understand or empathise with them, which made it difficult to fully engage with their stories. That said, for readers who enjoy mysterious, almost otherworldly characters, there’s definitely something to appreciate here.

Setting: ★★☆☆☆
The settings in these stories didn’t quite land for me. While some had intriguing elements, they often felt underdeveloped, lacking the immersive depth that would have made them feel truly alive. I found myself craving more atmospheric descriptions - more detail to ground me in each new place. Instead, many locations felt like vague backdrops rather than fully realised spaces, which made it harder to connect with the world of each story.

Engagement: ★★★☆☆
There were moments when I was absolutely captivated, drawn in by the strange and haunting qualities of the storytelling. However, just as often, I found myself feeling detached, struggling to stay invested in narratives that felt too ambiguous or fragmented. Some stories kept my attention with their intrigue, while others left me feeling lost, unable to fully grasp what they were trying to convey.

Readability: ★★★★☆
The writing itself is beautifully crafted, with a lyrical and almost hypnotic quality. Olguin’s prose is undeniably strong, weaving together strange and evocative imagery that lingers in the mind. Even when I wasn’t fully engaged with the stories themselves, I could still appreciate the skill behind the words. For readers who enjoy rich, poetic writing, this collection has a lot to offer.

Enjoyment: ★★★☆☆
My enjoyment of this collection was mixed. While I could admire the artistry of the writing and the uniqueness of the stories, I found myself struggling to connect with them on a deeper level. Some moments felt truly magical, while others left me feeling like I was on the outside looking in. I think this collection will really shine for readers who love surreal, experimental storytelling, but for me, it was just a bit too strange and detached to fully love.

‘The Sea Gives Up the Dead’ is a fascinating and skillfully written collection, but it ultimately wasn’t quite my style. While I appreciated the creativity and uniqueness of the stories, I often found myself wishing for more depth in the settings and a stronger connection to the characters. That said, for readers who love the unusual, the abstract, and the dreamlike, this might be a perfect fit.

I selected this short story collection from new-to-me author author Molly Olguín simply based upon title and cover art. I was not disappointed; in fact, the stories became stronger and stronger as the collection progressed, until the final stories were simply home runs for me.

As the title should imply, there is a lot of death here, and loss and grief, so readers shouldn't come into this expecting a nice sea shanty and some crabby patties. Instead, there is a mix of genres - fantasy, historical, contemporary, magical realism - that incorporate the themes of water and death and loss. In no particular order, the ones that will stick with me for a long time are "Captain America's Missing Fingers," "The Sea Gives Up the Dead," and the final story, a reverse little mermaid story titled "Foam on the Waves." I also really enjoyed "Small Monuments," with its powerful opening line that made me sit up and reread it twice before I was sure I understood what was to come.

"The love of Maria’s life died and sent herself to an oven in Chicago where she was baked into a diamond.”

I also really, really enjoyed the story of the WWI Gold Star mother, who travels to France to locate the remains of her son Eddie, only to find something completely different and wonderful instead. It was beautifully done, I thought.

So, two thumbs up, and kudos to the author!