Deadpan ... It should by now be obvious that Keating isn’t just a prose Goth. Her stories draw on another powerful tributary—specifically, feminist arguments about the fates of the female body under patriarchy. The ghost, in Oddbody, sounds like depression—and the story works beautifully as a dark and funny account of that state ... Keating riffs on this surrealist insight to tell startling, funny, alarming stories about what happens to our feelings when they collide with the social world, and about how that social world can mould our feelings, especially if we are women ... The stories in Oddbody are superbly crafted—though they might perhaps best be read one at a time (a certain sameness is detectable if you read them one after the other). The prose is confident, witty and perceptive. These are sharp and memorable horror stories about the most ordinary horrors: having a body; having a heart; being a woman in the 21st-century West.
Keating’s debut is aptly named. It is fantastically odd, and it is all about bodies, specifically the ways they can be contorted and transformed. Ten short stories unfurl in tales of body horror that are not for the faint of heart ... Keating’s female-driven cast is ripped open and prodded over and over, a reflection of how women are scrutinized in everyday life ... Weird, bold, and violent, this collection is for horror readers who don’t mind being uncomfortable in their own skin.
Compassionate, gross, deeply compelling. A must-read ... Exuberantly disgusting ... In these unflinching stories, Keating builds a macabre world in which her characters are utterly free even within their various compulsions, constraints, and grotesque circumstances.
The search for love and fulfillment takes bizarre turns in Irish writer Keating’s fearless debut collection ... Amusing and eerie ... While some stories feel thematically repetitive, Keating’s assured voice and vivid imagery carry the day. The collection especially shines when it’s grounded in the characters’ desperate bids for connection, even at their own expense ... Not only are these stories delightfully weird, but they offer a deeply empathetic exploration of shame, desire, and loneliness.
