Magic Can’t Save Us: Eighteen Tales of Likely Failure by Josh Denslow

I would like to thank TNBBC Publicity for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - University of New Orleans Press

Published – Out Now

Price – £15.03 paperback

Many relationships are doomed from the start. But what if there was a way to save them? The characters in Magic Can't Save Us think they may have the answers--why visit a human counselor when you could spend the night in a house haunted by a poltergeist that specializes in couples therapy? Others are ready to call it quits, like the pair that's torn apart, literally, by a bevy of belligerent harpies. Meanwhile, a scorned woman hires a dragon to guard her house from her cheating mate, a couple tries to combat the inertia of their marriage through the revitalizing charms of unicorn meat, and a centaur seduces a luckless man's girlfriend over a series of conference calls. In these eighteen tales of likely failure, when a magical creature shows up, you know things are only going to get worse from there.

Subverting the all-too-real emotions of romantic relationships with humor and iconoclastic takes on classic fantastical beings, Magic Can't Save Us makes us rethink the choices we have made in order to ask a harrowingly human question: Just what does it take to redeem a relationship?

Relationships can be magic but that can of course be both a force for good or bad. Sometimes they bring us joy and make us feel nothing is impossible. Sometimes we wish we could have some magic spells to make everything much better and sadly in the real world that is not going to happen. But what if it could? In Josh Denslow’s imaginative fantasy collection Magic Can’t Save Us – 18 Tales of Likely Failure the powers of myth and magic come into various couples lives’ with unexpected results to make an engaging short story collection.

In the first section of the book entitled Beginnings Are Fraught there are four stories exploring the beginning of love in unusual circumstances. In ‘Keening’ we meet a man who through his entire life has been haunted by a banshee. It’s a darkly comic tale of how everyone he meets finds the hovering ancient banshee next to him so is offputting from college roommates to potential dates. There is an unexpcted revelation and finally it all very neatly snaps the final jigsaw piece into place as to what may be going on. Sometimes love is about waiting for the right moment to act. The idea of timing being everything and in ‘Bingo’ two people in a coffee shop suddenly realise their Tinder-like app named Bingo has brought them together just as the apocalypse begins. It’s a set of short scenes where people suddenly click, realise they are right for each other and then the story asks can they actually even get to finish their date as the apocalypse begins. The dialogue is really well handled to convey all these first date emotions. But sometimes love fades and in ‘Infinite Possibilities Outside The Screen’ a man who rarely takes any chances finds his girlfriend seems infatuated with a new co-worker who may or may not be a centaur. It’s a person shocked into actually acting but his solution to chase down all people with the co-worker’s name isn’t really what the situation needed and I liked how this story explored how someone can be quite oblivious to the problems they are making for their ow relationship and instead their own imagination blames someone else for all the future break-ups they imagine. The final strange tale in the set is ‘Silence’ a young man goes through the dating rite of passage of meeting the partner’s family and finds her father is now a strange stone man figure that he must talk to or else cause great offence. Here love can be learning to work out what the relationship really needs you to do and how really listening is quite important.

The second suite of stories is entitled ‘The Middle Reveals Problems’  and in our first tale Where The Magic Is’ we meet a couple about to eat a slice of unicorn..yep! The reasons why they are doing this is where people desperately try to fix a relationship and do whatever they think it takes but there may always be consequences. How far would you go and would you accept the consequences to help love repair itself? An intriguing bittersweet tale. On a similar note in ‘Therapy’ a couple decide going into an actual haunted house may be what they need to repair things between them. As we find though the sniping and pain they cause each other may be more important to them than worrying how they will get out. Then in ‘Remnants’ a man goes to investigate a noise at the bins and discovers a Bigfoot who he discovers was partner’s ex. It’s a tale of suspicion and breakdown wrapped in that comical idea that works as the seriousness of their relationship comes out and reveals the fractures in it. Finally in ‘Waves’ a man decides to propose on the beach rocks to his girlfriend and promptly loses the wing attracting the attention of a mermaid. I’d love going the right thing or the performance of something? It’s a bittersweet section where characters find the magic makes them actually face reality.

The third section is No Such Things As Second Chances. In ‘The Lie’ a man finds a water spirit in his shower and this explored a lie he has told to save his partner’s feelings. But it has not made either of them happier and it’s a feeling things will not get any better with the next choice that appears. In ‘Classified’ we meet a couple that gave broken up and a man is still invited to visit her family. This then reveals a house that is more like an ancient quest. This asks if love is doing what people expect you to do or something different? I really liked ‘Court of Common Pleas’ a man cheated on his partner and is trying to still be useful to their son but finds a dragon now on the old family home. So if you really wanted a second chance how far would you push the multiverse to allow a success? It’s a really interesting story of a sesperste side to fix things.

The last section is The End is Nigh and in ‘Rescue Mission’ a couple on the verge of a break up are faced with a new problem when the man’s girlfriend is taken by a harpy. Are you always going to be the hero or do you know when to accept defeat? Overall this set didn’t feel for me the strangest though except for the final story aptly titled The End where Aman wakes up wanting to talk to his partner and discovers her and half the apartment block gone due to some calamity. Do you now give up or keep trying?

Overall hugely enjoyable and on their own each story works often very well and mixies wry humour with surrealism to give a poignant message. I do think at 18 tales the collection does has a few glimpses of the same themes repeating themselves just with different mythical characters and perhaps telling some from the girlfriends or even creatures viewpoint may have helped remove that feeling. It may be better to break this collection up into small chunks when reading but it is a very interesting collection to ponder. Worth a look!