Jen Campbell

Modern fairy tales of magic, outsiders and lost souls. 'WHAT A BOOK. IT'S SO STRANGE AND MAGICAL AND THE WRITING IS JUST BEAUTIFUL. I LOVED IT.' Louise O'Neill 'ENCHANTING AND ILLUMINATING' Carys Bray, author of A Song For Issy Bradley 'LIKE WALKING THROUGH A MIRROR.' Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry 'THIS BOOK IS FULL OF CHARACTER AND MAGIC, AND I FOUND MYSELF MESMERISED' Claire Fuller, author of Our Endless Numbered Days 'A GEM OF A BOOK ... DEEPLY MOVING' Stylist Book Wars v THE BOOK OF DUST. 'THESE STORIES ARE WEAVED TOGETHER LIKE SILVERY FISHING NETS. LIKE SHIMMERING, JEWEL-BRIGHT WORLDS' Helen McClory 'These days, you can find anything you need at the click of a button. That's why I bought her heart online.' Spirits in jam jars, mini-apocalypses, animal hearts and side shows. A girl runs a coffin hotel on a remote island. A boy is worried his sister has two souls. A couple are rewriting the history of the world. And mermaids are on display at the local aquarium. The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night is a collection of twelve haunting stories; modern fairy tales brimming with magic, outsiders and lost souls. 'I'm fascinated by storytelling, and particularly fairy tales. How humans have always tried to explain things that they can't possibly understand with, sometimes outrageous, stories' Jen Campbell From the author of Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops series and The Bookshop Book.

The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night

Denaiir

The collection was quite atmospheric with a that magical realism feel that I love. I enjoyed the fact that we were pushed into worlds that we knew nothing about and had to figure it out (Animals & Plum Pie. Zombie Green. Yellow Bee. Purple Monster)
The prose was generally great, with very distinct voices to the characters in the different stories. 
The first story was a gem.
Overall if I had to sum it up in one word I would say whimsical.

- 'Animals' (5 stars): I found the story and world so original, and I loved how we had to figure out how this world worked by ourselves. For me, the best story in this collection.
- 'Jacob' (3 stars): The voice of the little boy was very specific to him and it really felt like a naive child was writing the letter, I really enjoyed it.
- 'Plum Pie. Zombie Green. Yellow Bee. Purple Monster' (4 stars): great atmospheric story, even though I would have liked to see a little more of the characters. Loved the ending.
- 'In the Dark' (2 stars): this one had no context and I guess some readers will like that, but it fell flat for me.
- 'Margaret and Mary and the End of the World' (3.5 stars): I liked the way the author used understatements to make us understand what was going on, and the overall atmosphere was great, even though I didn't click with the characters.
- 'Little Deaths' (4.5 stars): I loved the idea, it was very original and I liked how it was executed. I would have loved to read more.
- 'The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night' (2 stars): I really don't like play formats and the character of Evelyn was really childish and annoying, I didn't like this one at all.
- 'Pebbles' (2 stars): I didn't get the point of this one, it didn't have a clear story line and no atmosphere.
- 'Aunt Libby's Coffin Hotel' (3 stars): Again I really didn't like the characters and how they took advantage of people. The idea was original, I enjoyed it.
- 'Sea Devils' (1 star): Again odious characters who take advantage of others, and are cruel to animals. This struck a nerve and thus I couldn't wait for this one to be over (and hopefully for one character to kill the other).
- 'Human Satellites' (4 stars): Humanity's reaction to the discovery of a new planet was atmospheric, and also funny.
- 'Bright White Hearts' (2.5 stars): This clearly touched upon a topic dear to the author (disfigurement) but for me it was clouded by the fact that it was going against my own convictions of animal conservation (it was set in an aquarium, which was used as a disco (!) and the main character joked that her fingers looked strange because they had been eaten by sharks (sharks are not evil nor aggressive, and this perpetuates wrong beliefs)). I tried to set that aside and I think without those personal issues I would have given it 3.5.

Savindi Jinasena

2.5-3 Stars from me

The world is a strange place, isn't it, Ms. Winter? I hope we get to enjoy it for a long, long time.

I read Jen Campbell's Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores and enjoyed it so much and I was looking forward to enjoying this book as well. Unfortunately I was disappointed in this book. I didn't quite connect with most of the short stories in this collection. Animals was such a creepy yet good read as was Jacob which was beautiful in its innocence. Sadly the rest of the stories didn't resonate with me. I don't have a lot of experience reading short stories and perhaps that led to my lack of enjoyment of this collection, but I guess my problem was there wasn't enough time to really connect with the characters in most stories or I didn't understand what they were trying to convey. 

Overall The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night was a mediocre read with a lot of great fantastical elements. It just didn't hit the mark for me.

Sonja H

Jen Campbell kenne ich nicht nur von ihren wirklich lustigen Büchern aus der Serie „Kuriose Kundenfragen in Buchhandlungen“, ich bewundere sie zudem als sehr kompetente und belesene YouTuberin, die immer eine interessante Anekdote zu erzählen weiß.

Nun ist ihr neuestes Werk für Erwachsene erschienen: eine Kurzgeschichtensammlung, inspiriert von Sagen und Märchen.
Ich bin eigentlich kein Fan von Short Stories und ging ein wenig skeptisch an die Lektüre heran. Aber schon die erste Geschichte hat mich komplett in ihren Bann gezogen.

Es sind so wundervolle skurrile, ungewöhnliche, poetische Erzählungen – ich wünschte, es wären noch viele mehr gewesen! Es ist tatsächlich ein sehr außergewöhnliches Buch, das sich nur schwer mit etwas Bekanntem vergleichen lässt.
Ich glaube nicht, dass ich alle Handlungen komplett verstanden habe (dazu sind sie zu „anders“), aber ich liebe jede einzelne!

Momentan besitze ich „The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night“ nur als eBook, aber ich werde mir zu Weihnachten das Druckwerk selbst schenken, so schön finde ich es.

Ein wundervolles Buch, das ich jedem ans Herz legen möchte, der ungewöhnliche Geschichten liebt.

Imie Kent-Muller

I was given an eBook copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

When you look at the cover (and blurb) for this book, you are immediately intrigued by its peculiarity. When I saw it was on NetGalley I thought I’d give it a go and see what I thought. 
Campbell makes an interesting collection of short stories wrapped in magical realism; however, some were not my cup of coffee and I’m still trying to figure out if it’s a ‘it’s not you it’s me’ situation, or if there needs to be some editing.

Overall, this book is a clever idea but not completely fulfilling its potential. With exception to three stories, I was not that enthralled with the book. However, the three stories I did enjoy - I want to read over and over again.

For the full review please see my blog post.

Dearna Mulvaney

4.5*

This collection was really everything I was expecting from Jen Campbell. If you don't know Jen is a booktuber who loved all things fairytales. Her writing still contains the rhythm and melody of her poetry. The best thing about this collection is huge variation of structure. We get a script (The Beginning of the World of the Middle of the Night), a letter (Jacob), flash fiction (Little Deaths) and stories that include coding (Plum Pie. Zombie Green. Yellow Bee. Purple Monster.). These 12 stories are a collection of haunting mix of magical realism and fairytales for the modern day adults filled with all the magic, horror, hope, lost souls, humour and love. My favourite stories were Animals, Little Deaths, Aunt Libby's Coffin Hotel, Jacob and the title story. These stories are firmly latched onto my heart and are ones I will return to again and again.

The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night

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