The Gods in Small Doses
In Josh Bell’s short story collection The Gods in Small Doses, vibrant mythical and mundane characters face uncanny, darkly comic circumstances.
These eccentric, poignant stories oscillate between moods, settings, and genres. They evince distinct perspectives on childhood, family, and intimacy. They also brim with witches and ghouls, their supernatural elements haunting streets, schools, and grocery stores in eerily mundane American suburbia.
A house party is interrupted by vengeful Poseidon in “The Gods in Small Doses,” set in the Athens of Greek myth; the story follows a high school student who contends with his complicated adoration for his wild, beautiful, mind-reading cousin. All women disappear overnight from a small island society in “We Hadn’t Any Women,” forcing the remaining men to invest in unorthodox solutions. In “Death to the Daylight People,” the unwashed ranks of the night do battle against witches equipped with psychic powers.
Multiple tales concern the desperation and wonder of childhood. In some such gripping tales: an ageless supernatural orphan infiltrates a new family; an old woman captures a wild goat-eating boy; and a sister grapples with her violent desire for her brother’s magically regenerating body.
Told in sharp and haunting prose, the stories do a masterful job of blending the fantastical with the everyday, so that the supernatural feels both inevitable and intimate. Rich and infused with dark, delicate wit and charm, they explore the tensions between magic and mundanity, innocence and depravity, and devotion and violence, investigating how people make meaning and forge connections in states of crisis and disillusionment.
The compelling short stories in The Gods in Small Doses explore the forces lurking in the small, familiar worlds people inhabit.
Reviewed by
Bella Moses
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
