Reviews

Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions by Neil Gaiman

sabrinatheghost's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

emmalinegc's review against another edition

4.0

This is great! There's a wide selection of topics, but overall the feel of the book is a little dark. There are really great stories mixed in with so-so ones.

peachykeenjb's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

3.5

septan's review against another edition

3.0

I don't particularly enjoy short story collections as they tend to be a bit of a mixed bag and this was no different. Some were brilliant (Nicholas Was...) and others, like the one entirely about a man's penis, I did not like at all. Honestly what is it with this #menwriting.

khorsch926's review against another edition

challenging funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

maddie_reads_stuff's review against another edition

4.0

Gaiman plays with a huge variety of styles in this short story collection.

Ok, so as with every collection, there were some stories I really liked (Chivalry, Troll Bridge, Apple), some that really creeped me out (Babycakes, Eaten), and some I really wish I knew the source material better (The White Road, Shoggoth's Old Peculiar, One Life...). Even more varied than the genres were the writing styles--stylistic imitations, prose, free-form poems, and even a sestina (something I had promptly forgotten existed after high school English). All the stories were extremely well-written and thought-provoking, though I might skip some of the gorier ones on a re-read.

moshalala's review against another edition

Overdue

novaturient_bibliophile's review against another edition

4.0

Neil is just so relatable in that he’s a writer and has all of my writerly problems and feelings, which makes for some great quotes. There were a lot of good…I don’t know, galaxy brained (?) ideas throughout the book, which made the stories really fascinating and entertaining. However, some of the stories were kind of difficult to follow or seemed a bit redundant to me. Most of them were wonderful, though. Neil is very good at creating fluent images for readers, which I love. It’s also very satisfying to understand what he’s getting at, but I’m not gonna lie, the introduction was one of my favorite parts. There were just so many brilliant quotes. 
This reminded me of Charles Bukowski and Oscar Wilde’s writing (and obviously Neil’s other works).

dishuel's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Some of the stories are better than others but worth the read.

gemstonejasper's review against another edition

3.75

I think it's hard to review short story collections because in most cases, some stories are going to hit for you and some will miss. Overall, I think this was a good collection.

Some of my favorites that I thought about after finishing:
Nicholas Was... 
Troll Bridge 
The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories 
When We Went to See the End of the World by Dawnie Morningside, age 11¼ 
Murder Mysteries
Snow, Glass, Apples


The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories + Murder Mysteries were the two 5 star stories for me