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Reviews
The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories by Brenna Yovanoff, Tessa Gratton, Maggie Stiefvater
kasspierce's review against another edition
5.0
The best thing about the Merry Fates Anthologies: their stories are just so full of creative spark and magic that they make me want to write stories of my own. They inspire as well as entertain.
brandysith's review against another edition
4.0
A really wonderful and fun idea. Three authors compiling stories and commenting on them. This seemed like such a fun project and I was very glad to have read through it.
As I said before, I really want each story to be a full length feature.
As I said before, I really want each story to be a full length feature.
trin_ney18's review against another edition
5.0
I gotta say, I loved every single story in this book. I'll be recommending it to everyone who even comes close to me. I don't know how I'm supposed to read other books and not look towards the margins for little notes from other authors. Actually I wish that some books did that. Maybe I should do that
ginnikin's review against another edition
I have no idea how to rate an anthology. I did read every story in this one, which is unusual for me. I'm a [a:Maggie Stiefvater|1330292|Maggie Stiefvater|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1384827512p2/1330292.jpg] fan, but I enjoyed all of the stories.
kysmith's review against another edition
5.0
I love Brenna Yovanoff.
I loved The Replacement and The Space Between, those are definitly two of my favorite books. I've been waiting for our town's library to get Paper Valentine. I could've just went and bought the book, but, I decided to read this instead. I have to admit I don't really like short stories that much, but I love this book. I loved the creativity of the stories and I liked how they weren't all extremely similar. I'm defiantly going to read some of the books Maggie Stiefvater and Tessa Gratton wrote now.
I loved The Replacement and The Space Between, those are definitly two of my favorite books. I've been waiting for our town's library to get Paper Valentine. I could've just went and bought the book, but, I decided to read this instead. I have to admit I don't really like short stories that much, but I love this book. I loved the creativity of the stories and I liked how they weren't all extremely similar. I'm defiantly going to read some of the books Maggie Stiefvater and Tessa Gratton wrote now.
nkkapalabro's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Love love love. I reread the whole thing once or twice a year. The annotations and doodles make it feel like you’re reading it with them.
beaniedorman's review against another edition
5.0
As a loyal fan of Maggie Stiefvater, I had to read this one, even though I've never read anything by Tessa Gratton or Brenna Yovanoff (but now I will, soon). I very much enjoyed this collection of short stories, and the comments on writing processes that came with them. Each of the stories were different in their own way, and all of them were interesting and fun to read, and the entire book was an excellent mix of many different genres. I will be buying this book in the future.
julianfromme's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
i mostly read this for maggie, and it wasn’t necessarily bad, but you can tell the writers are still figuring out their identities. i’m also realizing that i could never read short story romance; slow burn or nothing.
thetomatowriter's review against another edition
5.0
I picked this up from the library because I haven't read anything by Maggie Stiefvater that I haven't liked, and I have been meaning to read Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff for some time. I expected to read some interesting, probably a little bit magical stories. Which I did. But the reason I loved this book went beyond that.
See, a few years ago, Stiefvater, Gratton, and Yovanoff, three YA authors who happen to be good friends and critique partners, had a blog called The Merry Sisters of Fate, where they each posted a short story once a week that was in some way challenging to them. They gave each other feedback and the blog, while they posted their stories, showed the way they all grew as writers from writing with each other. Eventually, they stopped the blog (the archives are still up, you should check it out), but they published two collections containing several of the stories.
Each story is prefaced with a little blurb from the author and usually one of the critique partners, explaining the reason they wrote that story or what they liked about it, what it said about their writing, and any other interesting tidbit. But that's not all! There are little handwritten notes throughout the book from each of the authors. It's like a director's commentary to The Merry Fates, but better than that, it's a look into the creative process and into the wild but so encouraging world of writer friendships.
This book made me feel so motivated to write, in a way that I've been struggling to feel for most of this year (I've still been writing, because you can't just wait for it to feel right, but it helps when it DOES). I wasn't even finished before I got a few friends together and we started talking about doing a similar project. And as someone who has many writer friends and loves them as dearly as the merry sisters of fate love each other, I would recommend this book. It's very interesting, the stories are wonderful of course, and it's just fun.
See, a few years ago, Stiefvater, Gratton, and Yovanoff, three YA authors who happen to be good friends and critique partners, had a blog called The Merry Sisters of Fate, where they each posted a short story once a week that was in some way challenging to them. They gave each other feedback and the blog, while they posted their stories, showed the way they all grew as writers from writing with each other. Eventually, they stopped the blog (the archives are still up, you should check it out), but they published two collections containing several of the stories.
Each story is prefaced with a little blurb from the author and usually one of the critique partners, explaining the reason they wrote that story or what they liked about it, what it said about their writing, and any other interesting tidbit. But that's not all! There are little handwritten notes throughout the book from each of the authors. It's like a director's commentary to The Merry Fates, but better than that, it's a look into the creative process and into the wild but so encouraging world of writer friendships.
This book made me feel so motivated to write, in a way that I've been struggling to feel for most of this year (I've still been writing, because you can't just wait for it to feel right, but it helps when it DOES). I wasn't even finished before I got a few friends together and we started talking about doing a similar project. And as someone who has many writer friends and loves them as dearly as the merry sisters of fate love each other, I would recommend this book. It's very interesting, the stories are wonderful of course, and it's just fun.
cyan_altaria's review
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
4.5
The mood and atmosphere of all the stories was amazing. They were all dark and macabre, but the brevity of the stories kept them from getting stale. The author's notes at the beginning enhanced the story that followed, and seeing the authors make comments during the stories had a nice touch. Some of the stories were a miss, but the book moved so fast I didn't mind.