The Sea Gives Up the Dead : Stories - Molly Olgun

The Sea Gives Up the Dead

Stories

By: Molly Olgun

Paperback | 29 April 2025

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $25.29

$24.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $6.19 with

Ships in 7 to 10 business days

INDIES INTRODUCE SELECTION

DEBUT AUTHOR, MOLLY OLGUÍN brings us THE SEA GIVES UP THE DEAD, a collection of stories sprinkled into the soil of fairy tales, left to take root and grow wild there.

"A wunderkammer of beauty and sorrow."- Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House

“Witty, witchy, darkly brilliant”—Andrea Barrett, author of Natural History and Ship Fever

“Fantastical, queer, wildly inventive stories.”—Austin Carter, Pocket Books Shop

A lovesick nanny slays a dragon. The devil tries to save her mother. A girl drowns and becomes a saint. Three kids plot to blow up their dad, a grieving mother sails the sea to find her son's grave, a scientist brings a voice to life, and a mermaid falls into the power of a witch. Here, historical fiction, horror, and fantasy tangle together in a queer garden of love, grief, and longing.

Industry Reviews

"Olguíiacute;n brilliantly queers more traditional tales and the conventional roles that women often play in fiction...Olguín is a transporting writer whose stories are gripping from the opening sentences to the last lines. Stories that affirm the value of truly being alive."
-Kirkus Reviews 

"This debut short story collection bears echoes of Angela Carter and Shirley Jackson, with its dark, occasionally surreal fantasies that interweave elements of history, sci-fi and horror, fairy tales and advice columns. Dragons and mermaids, those picturebook stalwarts, make appearances in some of these stories but, then, so does a pervasive sense of dread and horror that's rather less suited to the library storytime set. This slim volume contains multitudes, in other words."

Colin Dwyer, NPR

“I could not be more excited by this haunting, lush, genre-leaping collection—reading it, I am reminded of how I felt when I first encountered Karen Russell's St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. Gorgeously written, imaginative, startling—The Sea Gives Up the Dead is a wunderkammer of beauty and sorrow.”
Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House 

“Witty, witchy, darkly brilliant, Molly Olguín's metamorphic tales radiate insight and intelligence, exploding into visions as fresh and surprising as those of Angela Carter or Octavia Butler, Jeanette Winterson or Kirstin Valdez Quade.”
Andrea Barrett, author of Natural History and Ship Fever 

“A fantastical collection of stories that mix the wildness of fairy tales with horror to create otherworldly stories about love, grief, and yearning in a different way. So good!”
Kim Brock, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH

“A mouthwatering ride of interesting twists and explosive characters. The Sea Gives Up The Dead has just the right amount of intrigue to suck you in further with each story you read.”
Desirae Wilkerson, Paper Boat Booksellers, Seattle, WA

The Sea Gives Up the Dead offers readers a delectable assortment of fantastical, queer, wildly inventive stories with much to say about the intersections of gender and race. If you’ve been looking for a jewel box of tales a la Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, then this is for you!”
Austin Carter, Pocket Books Shop, Lancaster, PA

“There is no getting away from death here. However, there’s a subtlety that resonates throughout the wonderfully smooth and lithe prose that makes these tales a joy to read. Absolutely fantastic!”
Randy Schiller, Left Bank Books, St. Louis, MO

More in Short Stories

The Land of Sweet Forever - Harper Lee

RRP $49.99

$34.95

30%
OFF
Nine Authentic Ghost Stories

RRP $26.99

$24.75

Annapurna's Bounty : Indian Food Legends Retold - Veena Gokhale

RRP $29.99

$26.75

11%
OFF
Arcanum Unbounded : The Cosmere Collection - Brandon Sanderson

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
Flock : First Nations Stories Then and Now - Ellen van Neerven

RRP $32.99

$26.99

18%
OFF
One Piece : Heroines, Vol. 2 - Eiichiro Oda

RRP $15.99

$15.75

Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales : Leather-bound Classics - The Brothers Grimm

RRP $49.99

$38.75

22%
OFF
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes : Painted Editions - Arthur Conan Doyle
The Yellow Wallpaper & Herland : Collins Classics - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Like a House on Fire - Cate Kennedy

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF
Pictures of You : Collected Stories - Tony Birch

RRP $45.00

$35.75

21%
OFF
The Bachman Books - Richard Bachman

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
Too Good To Be True - Ann Cleeves

$14.75

White Nights : Penguin Little Black Classics - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov

Paperback

RRP $22.99

$18.75

18%
OFF
The Life of Chuck : Now a major film - Stephen King

RRP $34.99

$28.75

18%
OFF