mayblegrace's reviews
94 reviews

About as subtle as a brick to the face, but quite a rollicking read. Fast paced, with insufferable characters and some crippling political commentary. Worth a read if you like American literature and aren't too picky about how delicately an author uses allegory.

8 stories and 16 authors went into making this wonderful piece of inventive and unconventional work. I can't say that I fully understood every single one of these stories, because some of them were very slippery and enigmatic, but the writing quality was a real treat. The Grief Hour and Apricots were for me the best of the collection, mostly because they felt the most comprehensible to me, but also because they combined beauty and inventiveness with a more grounded feeling than some of the other tales. That being said, all of the stories had very memorable and affecting imagery, and lodged in the brain with notable persistence. A lovely collection that I'd certainly recommend to people who like well written literature that resists being nailed down. 

This collection recalls all the best things about contemporary poetry. The poems feel extremely specific and almost anecdotal, but they're written so precisely that the language never loses its poeticness. The collection is divided into two sections: Smoke and Fire. I'm not quite sure what the intention was with collating the poems that way, because both halves have a similar elevation of the mundane thing going on, but nonetheless, the imagery and narratives were well done throughout. Highly recommended. I loved Smoke, Ray at 14, and Figures. And obviously, The Shipfitter's Wife, which is the poem that prompted me to buy the entire collection in the first place.

Listen, I wouldn't say this was a badly written book or anything. In fact, it's written in this spare precise prose that is clear as water. But... it's weird. Really deeply weird. The story contains an incel and also a strange kind of interpretation of a woman who really really really loves her job. Some of the lines are incredibly disconcerting, like this one: "I stroked my sleeping nephew's cheek with my forefinger. It felt strangely soft, like stroking a blister." It's also a little dark in places. There's nothing natural about this book. It feels like being trapped in a shop in fluorescent lighting. It's certainly a quick read, which is good, because I think reading it over a longer period of time would have felt unpleasant. 

I think stories like this are always a little bit let down by their endings. In this case, I found the mystery that remained at the close of the novel a bit aggravating, but atmospherically, it fitted well. The writing is exquisite, of course. Susan Hill writes perfect gothic prose and she's got such a nice turn of phrase that the style is as addictive as the plot itself. I really enjoyed this book. A great autumn read - a little scary, multi layered, and a positive palimpsest of freakishly entwined frame narratives. 

Extremely well written, dark little children's book. Has some very unpleasant moments. Anne Fine on top form. 

Excellent, especially good if you enjoy being thrown in at the deep end.