Originally published at Risingshadow.Aliya Whiteley's novella, The Arrival of Missives, is a delicate, intelligent and thought-provoking story filled with beautiful and insightful prose. It's a captivating account of a young woman's life and choices in rural England after the Great War.When I began to read this novella, I found myself deeply impressed by its freshness and uniqueness, because it was refreshingly different kind of speculative fiction. I consider it to be an excellent novella for r...

This was a strange little novella. I don't know where I heard of it now, but I found it on my Kindle wish list. Then I saw it was on Scribd, so I read it there.An idealistic young woman is in love with her teacher. She wants to break free of her village, get trained as a teacher, and marry the existing teacher and teach by his side. But there are Complications. The teacher was wounded in the war (WWI) in some strange, initially unspecified way. The young woman also has feelings for one of her pe...

I was so intrigued by this. Kept me guessing right up to the end. I loved the defiance of genre constraints and the refreshing voice of Shirley, who manages to be smart and mature as well as terribly naive. As for the central motif - that's an image you won't forget quickly.

The Arrival of Missives starts in a lyrical manner reminiscent of Hardy and Lawrence, depicting a rural world on the cusp of change after the First World War and a young woman who feels all the excitement of the modern and new. Then there's a twist, a big shift and the author takes us somewhere that reminded me a bit of Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End. This novella encompasses big themes about what we wish for from life and how far we will go to protect our own vision of the future--both our o...

I received a copy of Arrival Of Missives by Aliya Whiteley from its publishers, Unsung Stories, via Contemporary Small Press, in exchange for my honest review. The book is due to be published today (9th May 2016).Arrival Of Missives is set in a small village in the years following the First World War. The community is very traditional with the same families having worked the land for generations, and men and women keeping to their strictly defined roles. We meet our narrator, Shirley Fearn, when...

You can find my full review of The Arrival of Missives on my speculative fiction book blog.The Arrival of Missives is a novella set in a small rural village in post-WW1 England, where Shirley is a girl on the cusp of adulthood. Even though the main characters are youngsters, this is not a children's or YA story. I'm sure young people can read and enjoy it, but it's written for a mature audience, with some mature themes.Shirley is madly in love with the local teacher, a man whose wounds in battl...

Originally posted here.This is a really short and strange story. This is the second book by Aliya Whiteley that I have read, the first being The Beauty, which was so weird I had mixed feelings about it. However, I really love Aliya Whiteley's writing style and had heard good things about The Arrival of Missives.The story is about Shirley, a young girl in a country village just after World War 1, and she has a crush on one of her teachers who has come back from the war scarred and disfigured. Roc...

Reading weird and dark fiction at the rate that I normally do can sometimes inspire a kind of tunnel vision. While stories may differ greatly in subject matter, setting, or voice, the one element that has always remained the same in my experience is tone. Each story, no matter how diverse the prose, generally fluctuates between inspiring feelings of terror or awe. To put it another way, my resulting state of mind come the story’s end is generally the same. Weird is the weird fiction that doesn’t...

Open THE ARRIVAL OF MISSIVES at a random page and you would be forgiven for believing it is a straightforward coming of age drama set between the World Wars. Shirley Fearn, a 17 year old living in rural England, is torn between her private ambitions and the expectations of her community: between her wish to move to Taunton and train as a teacher and her father’s assumption that she will settle down in the role of a farmer’s wife. To complicate matters, she in love with her older, war-wounded tea...

This started out on track for a five star read, and then suddenly the characterization of nearly every person in this did a random, complete 180 about halfway through and it just...quickly went downhill from there. I know it's short but it was way too rushed. It's too bad because the premise was fantastic, but the execution was...not.

Prior to reading this novella I had read Aliya Whiteley’s other short novel The Beauty and a selection of her short stories; all of which deeply unsettled and disturbed me (The Beauty genuinely gave me nightmares). This is not a criticism, however, Whiteley’s writing is beautifully addictive and I was ready to read anything she wrote. I, therefore, instantly requested a copy of The Arrival of the Missives upon its release. For one reason or another, it took me a few months before I actually got

I think this one is going to haunt me for a while

A surprising mash-up, this tale's first person POV is firmly set just post WWI in rural England--so rural that electricity and the trains haven't made it there yet. Then, through a secondary character sci-fi tinges the story as a controlled glimpse of the far future--post-apocalyptic and off-Earth far into the future. Whiteley has a way of making things work that shouldn't as seen in her 2015 novella The Beauty.Shirley Fearn narrates the happenings [and exchange of missives] during her last year...

* I was sent this for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review *This is a 120pg novella which is quite peculiar, yet quite charming too. We follow a young imaginative girl called Shirley who lives in a very small village and is filled with fanciful ideas about escaping her life. Shirley has a passion and an infatuation with the new man in town, Mr. Tiller, who also happens to be her school teacher. She's bright and she's filled with life, but as she learns more about Mr. Tiller a...

Is there such a thing as science fiction magic realism? Is there a better word for it? This is so entirely its own thing that I feel like I need a term to grasp it. Uncanny and strange, this was a terrifying story with an amazing protagonist and such a strong, original voice. The style was lyrical and beautiful, and instantly bowled me over; and then the story turned and refused to take a predictable shape. I loved it. Highly recommended.

http://www.jerasjamboree.co.uk/2016/0...17 year old Shirley is the daughter of a landowner and her plans differ to that of her father. Life was changing after WW1 but it was still a patriarchal society and Shirley is a strong character who has no fear in challenging the old ways. She's partly estranged from her mother due to their divergent paths but there is one emotive moment which reminded me not to take everything at face value! 24 year old Mr Tiller has survived the war but his experiences

This is a strange, unique and quite enjoyable novella set in the time just after the Great War in a small English village. It is narrated by Shirley, just in her last few weeks at the small village school. She has a crush on her young teacher, 24 year old Mr Tiller who has recently returned from the war badly injured. Perhaps though also he has post traumatic stress. As Shirley tries to get close to him, and as she considers what to do after school, the village is preparing for its May Day festi...

The nitty-gritty: Sexism and feminism collide in a strange but likable tale about a grim message from the future and the young woman who is determined to try to make things right. It is beyond me to be calm, even though this is a ridiculous piece of whimsy that I did not care for just a mere week ago. But no. No, I cannot call if whimsy, now I am at the heart of it. There are deep roots to May Day, stretching back through the centuries. I find I have a taste for power in all its forms,...

A beautifully told story, quite strange and out there, but excellently crafted. If you like weird things, this is for you!

The Arrival of Missives, by Aliya Whiteley, is set in a small West of England village in the aftermath of the Great War. The families of the village have lived here for generations, each taking an interest in their neighbours’ lives and playing the role expected of them in occupation and village life.The protagoinist, Shirley Fearn, is the only child of an increasingly successful, landowning farmer. She has been raised to be of interest to someone who would be willing and able to take over the f...