Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devastations is a fantastic debut short story collection by Carina Bissett. The collection includes a wide range of stories that blend horror and the fantastical in order to explore the ways in which women can reclaim their power.
In the titular “Dead Girl, Driving,” a girl is murdered by a local boy—only to resurrected by Godmother Death, who wishes to give her a second chance a life. But as she grows older, the girl becomes increasingly frustrated with her own seeming immortality and so continues to place herself in danger, with unexpected consequences.
In “Twice in the Telling,” a young ogress is accused of killing her human sister. So, she leans into her monstrousness for the sake of revenge.
In “Water Like Broken Glass,” a drowned women transformed into a watermeid, a birch bride bound to the river and capable of drowning passersby. She is drawn out of her solitude by a red-haired woman, who carries her own burdens and seeks a bloody retribution.
And these are just a few of the beautiful tales that can be found in this book. So many of these stories are powerful and moving and so wonderful.