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aashkevr's review
3.0
I loved the idea of Girls & Monsters. It was definitely the sort of collection I would have wanted to read in high school ... and - who am I kidding? - now as well.
" Girls & Monsters is for everyone who has ever been brave enough to confront their childhood fears...and lived to tell about it. "
Or so the blurb goes. But, I'm not positive that it is accurate. The sort of triumph that is suggested here is not delivered in all of the short stories, although it is definitely present in some. However, despair, mental illness, desolation, futility and hopelessness are also present. So, take the promises of the blurb with a grain of salt.
I will say that the stories progressively improve. The first was my least favorite, and the order continued, with perhaps story four being slightly preferable to (or at least on par with) five. Five was the best in terms of writing and development though.
I wonder if the order of the stories is the order in which they were written. If so, I think that I would very much like to read the next thing that Anne Michaud writes, because it is clear that her craft is improving.
All of the stories were interesting. The plots were intriguing and several of the characters were original. The ideas for each story were very good, and it is clear that the author has a lot of creativity.
Most of the stories were "too short" for what they tried to accomplish. But the stories weren't particularly short, as short stories go. The author needs to learn how to convey information in complete and succinct ways - to world-build without heaps of exposition. Early attempts to do this (the earlier stories, at least), tended to gloss important details, but by the final story, quick sentences gave rise to deep impressions. Patterns and characteristics were handily described with choice phrases. As the stories continued, there were less areas that were "glossed" and more that were "characterized". The distinction was important. I didn't have all of the details in "We Left at Night", but I also felt like I knew enough. Contrasted with "Death Song" where years were skipped where everything and nothing changed, or "A Blue Story" when a week that should have been drama-heavy goes by in a sentence, "Dust Bunnies" and "We Left at Night" had much better coverage. The narration also steadily improved.
Overall, I think that the creativity of the stories and the steady improvement in the crafting make the book worth reading. It would be especially useful to discussing the development of writing when read sequentially (if the earlier three stories did come before the last two chronologically as well as sequentially).
" Girls & Monsters is for everyone who has ever been brave enough to confront their childhood fears...and lived to tell about it. "
Or so the blurb goes. But, I'm not positive that it is accurate. The sort of triumph that is suggested here is not delivered in all of the short stories, although it is definitely present in some. However, despair, mental illness, desolation, futility and hopelessness are also present. So, take the promises of the blurb with a grain of salt.
I will say that the stories progressively improve. The first was my least favorite, and the order continued, with perhaps story four being slightly preferable to (or at least on par with) five. Five was the best in terms of writing and development though.
I wonder if the order of the stories is the order in which they were written. If so, I think that I would very much like to read the next thing that Anne Michaud writes, because it is clear that her craft is improving.
All of the stories were interesting. The plots were intriguing and several of the characters were original. The ideas for each story were very good, and it is clear that the author has a lot of creativity.
Most of the stories were "too short" for what they tried to accomplish. But the stories weren't particularly short, as short stories go. The author needs to learn how to convey information in complete and succinct ways - to world-build without heaps of exposition. Early attempts to do this (the earlier stories, at least), tended to gloss important details, but by the final story, quick sentences gave rise to deep impressions. Patterns and characteristics were handily described with choice phrases. As the stories continued, there were less areas that were "glossed" and more that were "characterized". The distinction was important. I didn't have all of the details in "We Left at Night", but I also felt like I knew enough. Contrasted with "Death Song" where years were skipped where everything and nothing changed, or "A Blue Story" when a week that should have been drama-heavy goes by in a sentence, "Dust Bunnies" and "We Left at Night" had much better coverage. The narration also steadily improved.
Overall, I think that the creativity of the stories and the steady improvement in the crafting make the book worth reading. It would be especially useful to discussing the development of writing when read sequentially (if the earlier three stories did come before the last two chronologically as well as sequentially).
thefictionaddictionblog's review
4.0
The strength of Anne Michaud's Girls & Monsters comes from blending dark and disturbing monsters with relatable, honest teenage moments. The first story of Girls & Monsters involves a flesh-hungry mermaid, but the weirdness of the premise is mitigated with the detailed believability of an unrequited teenage crush in a tiny tourist town. A story about a giant spider is mixed with a long-distance crush and sibling conflict, which is all suitably awkward and teenage. (Via Anne Michaud's 'Girls & Monsters' on Yahoo!)
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