Cruelty - Roald Dahl

11/43/18

❤❤❤❤❤/5

Genre: Short Stories / Gothic
Published: 1986
How long did it take me to read: Still in process

I'm sure you can see from above that I am still currently reading this book. What warrents a review or it then? How can you have already given it five stars? Simply, I am already in love with it. This book has already stolen my heart. Also, it isn't your average read, it is a collection of short stories which I am able to pick up and put down at my own accord. If you read my Book Haul a couple of weeks ago, you will already know that this book is part of an eight-part series of books by the author Roald Dahl. In this series, there are books by the names of War, Lust, Deception, Madness, Innocence, Trickery, Fear and finally, Cruelty. Dahl died in 1990 and these collection of books surfaced in 2013, seperating all the well-know and well- loved Dahl stories into seperate novels. At the begninning of each story, they state what date it was written and what collection it was orginally featured into, to help stay true to Roald Dahl.
Isn't seperating all these old stories into new collections just a money making move?  I would say yes and no. Yes because clearly, these stories have been out for a while and these novels haven't been put together by Dahl himself. This was the mindset I had before I only half willingly shelled out £8.99 for this book.
After reading the first few stories, so of which I had never encountered before, I fell in love with the idea of collecting all of these books and having a matching set. So in short, I am still super on the fence about it.
Another thing that really sold this book too me was the fact that 10% of all the author royalites from the sale of this book are donated to the Roald Dahl Charites. Before Roald Dahl passed, he was known for helping out young, sick children across the UK. So when he died in 1990, The Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity came together and decided to carry on Dahls legacy.  I will link them below just in case you want to learn more for yourself.

One of my favourite tales in this collection is Skin. If you don't like gothic, scary tales. Stop reading now.

Skin features a young man by the name Drioli and is set in Paris. To summarise the story shortly, after making a good sale, Drioli becomes very drunk and chooses to get a large tattoo of the women he loved on his back. Soon after, the woman Drioli loved passed away and he lost his business, which meant he became very poor and begun pan-handling. Later on in the story, Drioli enters an art gallery and shows off his tattoo, which everyone thinks is amazing. People begin offering him money for the tattoo that is one his back. Two men however, offer for him to live in their hotel and act almost like a model for his tattoo. He would just show guests this extraordinary work. They offer him a lot of money and in turn, he leaves with them. The narrator never says exactly what happened, although we later find out that there was no hotel and funnily enough, a heavily varnished painting matchin the description of Drioli's tattoo turned up for sale at an auction in Beunos Aires a few weeks later.

Bet you can guess why it's called Skin now.

The classic gruesome Dahl stories are mesmorising and in a weird way, enchanting to read. Overall, I gave this book five hearts out of five. So far, it has been amazing. I would highly recommend to it anyone who likes horror. But this book is definetly not for the faint hearted. 

For now though, keep reading. 

The Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity