Prickly Pears is a vivid and haunting collection of short stories that explores the fragile edges of humanity. Author Isabelle B.L moves through memory, war, love, loss, and womanhood with language that cuts and soothes at the same time. The stories drift from Sicily’s sunlit hills to modern kitchens, from whispering ghosts to restless children. Each piece feels like a dream you only half remember but can’t shake off. Her characters are bruised but alive, her settings rich with scent and sound. The book opens with wartime childhood and stretches into surreal, delicate tales that merge body and mind, reality and metaphor, until they blur into one another.

I kept stopping to reread sentences because they were too beautiful to move past. The author’s writing is fearless, raw, poetic, and weird in the best way. She doesn’t write to please, she writes to uncover. Sometimes I caught myself holding my breath, especially in pieces like “Marigold Dawns” and “The Jam Jar,” where ordinary acts, making tea, making jam, turn into rituals of grief and rebirth. The way she ties emotion to physical texture made me ache.

The darkness doesn’t just lurk in the corners; it sits right in the middle of the page. Some stories felt like confessions. Yet I kept reading because of how relatable it all was. There’s an honesty that burns. I could sense the author’s compassion even when her characters were cruel or broken. The rhythm of her writing carried me through it. It’s lyrical but never soft. It reminded me that pain and beauty often live in the same place, and she isn’t afraid to show that.

Prickly Pears isn’t a book for comfort; it’s a book for feeling. It’s for readers who like language that stings a little, who aren’t afraid of stories that leave scratches. I’d recommend it to anyone who loves short fiction. If you enjoy authors like Carmen Maria Machado or Clarice Lispector, you’ll find something electric here.

Pages: 205 | ASIN: B0C8841Q2C