I’ve been trying to read my way through Margaret Atwood, and I thought with the end of the year approaching, I would try out a collection of short stories. While I tend to prefer Atwood’s novels best, I do like the collections I’ve encountered thus far (admittedly, though, Atwood is an incredibly prolific writer, and I’ve only scratched the surface of her work). Moral Disorder is an interesting and engaging collection. Told from various vantage points, Moral Disorder connects the same timeline from various points […]
Am I Turning a Corner on My Feelings on Short Stories?
I know I’ve beaten the whole “I-hate-short-stories-unless-they-are-by-Neil-Gaiman” horse carcass before, BUT I may be turning a corner on short stories. Are they wearing me down? Or am I finally finading short story authors that more align with my tastes (or lack thereof)? Why not both! One word of gripe about this one, though, Russell doesn’t seem concerned with first impressions. The first story in the collection – Ava Wrestles the Alligator – flirted too much in that magical realism plan that I can never quite […]
A Collection of Misses with a Small Patch of Light in the Middle
Miranda July is an interesting case, isn’t she? Sometimes I don’t know what to make of her and her work, and I find that she can be pretty divisive. There are some that find her to be gentle, profound, unique, and have a strong voice, while others may find her to be too whimsical, awkward, etc. And I happen to be right in the middle. I absolutely adore some of her work, but other times I just can’t connect with it and think, “Okay… that’s […]
Most of these just need to be novels.
For a short story collection, this was pretty great. Garth Nix’s imagination can be a wonderful place, but also a scary one. Ugh, he is so creepy sometimes. The highlight was the first story, a novella set in the Old Kingdom from his Abhorsen series, which is one of my favorites. But there were also a couple of stories in here I loved, and would like to see more stories set in their respective worlds. Short reviews of each of the stories found below. “To Hold […]