Cover of Willful Creatures

Willful Creatures

"Contemporary fairy tales, cushioned by goofy humor and a deep tenderness for her characters, that aren't always as dark or as sinister as they initially appear." —The New York Times Book Review

Read more

Aimee Bender s Willful Creatures conjures a fantastical world in which authentic love blooms. This is a place where a boy with keys for fingers is a hero, a woman's children are potatoes, and a little boy with an iron for a head is born to a family of pumpkin heads. With her singular mix of surrealism, musical prose, and keenly felt emotion, Bender once again proves herself to be a masterful chronicler of the human condition.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 208 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Willful Creatures? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Willful Creatures. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. A Guide to Being Born: Stories Shares short stories, magical realism, fiction
  2. Flying Leap Shares short stories, fiction, magical realism
  3. St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves Shares short stories, magical realism, fiction
  4. Things that Fall from the Sky Shares short stories, fiction, stories

“People who read Willful Creatures tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Mothers & Other Monsters: Stories
  2. Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories
  3. Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls
  4. Magic for Beginners

“If you want more of the same (magical realism about women), start with these.”

  1. Don't Try This at Home
  2. The Unfinished World: And Other Stories
  3. The Knife Thrower and Other Stories
  4. May We Shed These Human Bodies

“If it was the short stories that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Vampires in the Lemon Grove
  2. What is Not Yours is Not Yours
  3. Sweet Home
  4. The View from the Seventh Layer

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The Early Stories of Truman Capote
  2. Storybound
  3. Great Catch
  4. Appetites: On the Search for True Nourishment