Celestial | Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other...

Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories

GennaRose Nethercott

Save to Your Books

100% of affiliate revenue supports Celestial

From the author of the breakout novel Thistlefoot: a collection of dark fairytales and fractured folklore exploring how our passions can save us—or go monstrously wrong.

The stories in Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart are about the abomination that resides within us all. That churning, clawing, ravenous yearning: the hunger to be held, and seen, and known. And the terror, too: to be loved too well, or not enough, or for long enough. To be laid bare before your sweetheart, to their horror. To be recognized as the monstrous thing you are.

Two teenage girls working at a sinister roadside attraction called the Eternal Staircase explore its secrets—and their own doomed summer love. A zombie rooster plays detective in a missing persons case. A woman moves into a new house with her acclaimed artist boyfriend—and finds her body slowly shifting into something specially constructed to accommodate his needs and whims. A pack of middle schoolers turn to the occult to rid themselves of a hated new classmate. And a pair of outcasts, a vampire and a goat woman, find solace in each other, even as the world's lack of understanding might bring about its own end.

In these lush, strange, beautifully written stories, GennaRose Nethercott explores human longing in all its diamond-dark facets to create a collection that will redefine what you see as a beast, and make you beg to have your heart broken.

Get the Bindery app

Posts about this title from Celestial

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Jun 29

💭 are you a chaotic gamer?

i’m way too nice while playing video games. this is for the people who are BEACONS OF CHAOS and always choose the responses that feel like they were dropped in as a weird joke?!?

📚 books mentioned: - Canon by Paige Lewis - Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado - Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott

👗💄: - eyeshadow is Blends Artistry Palette from Blend Bunny Cosmetics - eyeliner is Vegan Longwear Eyeliner (Minty) from Pacifica Beauty - mascara is B-Structural Volumizing Mascara from Haus Labs - lip combo is Suede Matte Lip Liner (OG Cold Brew) and Jelly Job Lip Gloss (Jelly Filled) from NYX Cosmetics

thank you to Viking Books and Random House/Vintage for the gifted copy!

#weirdbooks #fantasybooks #horrorbooks #nycinfluencer #bookstagram @vikingbooks @graywolfpress @ireadvintage @penguinrandomhouse @blendbunnycosmetics @hauslabs @nyxcosmetics

3 books

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Jun 20

🏳️‍🌈🔮look into my eyes …. i know what you want to read.

here are some mind reader queer book recs for pride!

📚 books mentioned: - Pet by Akwaeke Emezi - Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White - Fawn’s Blood by Hal Schrieve - The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson - Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir - Station Six by S.J. Klapecki - An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon - The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez - Somadina by Akwaeke Emezi - Dauntless by Elisa A. Bonnin - On Sundays She Picked Flowers by Yah-Yah Scholfield - This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone - In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado - The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez - Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino - Blood Orange by Yaffa As - Bless the Blood: A Cancer Memoir by Walela Nehanda - Death’s Country by R.M. Romero - Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott - Transmogrify!: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic: An LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fantasy Anthology of Unforgettable Adventures edited by g. haron davis - Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction edit by Joshua Whitehead

#pridemonth #pridemonthbookrecs #lgbtqbooks #nycinfluencer #bookstagram . queer books • queer book stack • Pride Month 2026 • books to read for pride • trans books • nonbinary books • sapphic books • achillean books • memoir book recs • literary fiction books recs • fantasy book recs • fantasy book recs • horror book recs • sci fi book recs • unique books • diverse books

21 books

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Dec 21 2024

second annual StarrySteph Book Awards!

drum roll please … welcome to the second annual StarrySteph Book Awards! they’re not even the most biased book awards out there!

📚 books mentioned: - Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino - I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones - The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong - The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei - Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi - Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by GennaRose Nethercott - The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djèlí Clark - Death’s Country by R. M. Romero - The Unfinished by Cheryl Isaacs - Sheine Lende by Darcie Little Badger - Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

#bestbooksof2024 #goodreadschoiceawards #starrystephbookawards #bestbooksoftheyear #2024books #horrorbooks #fantasybooks #scifibooks #starrysteph #nycinfluencer #booktok #IGShareYourPassion @fsgbooks @sagapressbooks @acebookspub @berkleypub @flatiron_books @riverheadbooks @vintageanchorbooks @tordotcompub @peachtreeteen @theshelfstuff @harpercollins @levinequerido

11 books

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Sep 21 2024

strange books for strange souls

my slightly broader version of weird books for weird girls! i love a good ole strange book.

4 books

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Sep 14 2024

three cheers for spooky sapphic september!!!

8 books

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Jul 20 2024

boots and a slick back ... book?

this trend makes me smile so much. i had to try it with a bookish spin! 💡: @maisieisobel_

6 books

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • May 12 2024

one star reviews of books i loved!

which one convinced you the most? 🤯 part ten of one star goodreads reviews of books i enjoyed!

7 books

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Feb 18 2024

recommending books i loved … based on their dedications!

do you typically notice dedications?

12 books

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Jan 31 2024

january reading wrap up

a ✨ hopefully delightfully long / listen while you do your skincare ✨ january monthly reading wrap up! i read 11 books this january, and here’s a bit about all of them. what was your favorite book from january?

8 books

Celestial\ \ Steph\ \ • Jan 19 2024

fifty beasts to break your heart

this review is really just a petition for more books featuring peculiar little illustrations (please please please)