Reviews

Thunderstruck: & Other Stories by Elizabeth McCracken

ngerharter's review against another edition

4.0

Brutally honest and slicingly sharp, right to the heart of the human condition.
I'd forgotten that it's hard to listen to short stories - you want to listen to each piece in their entirety.
---
2019 Extreme Book Nerd Challenge - Book with an author or title with Elizabeth, Eliza, Liza, or Liz.

aschoonover's review against another edition

5.0

One-Sentence Take: Incisive and difficult, this book deftly explores the many forms loss can take.

Recommended for: People in a weird and sad mood looking for a book to match.

For my full review, see my blog https://inmatterandinmode.wordpress.com/.

beth_p_w's review against another edition

5.0

These stories are wonderfully written -- unsettling, examining the resonances of disaster past, present, and future. Many of the stories, if not all, lack a complete resolution; the precipitating event of the story drops like a stone into a pond, and the effects ripple outward.

knittingandreading's review against another edition

5.0

I loved this collection of stories. Such beautiful writing. I don't really have the words for how or why; but I have reread so many of them.

ewf's review against another edition

4.0

Like all collections of short stories, a slightly mixed bag. One I could not stay focused on long enough to finish; another that was very moving. Generally, a writer I enjoy spending time with. She has an interesting cast of characters residing in her head.

sophierayton's review against another edition

4.0

Masterful! I enjoyed this collection even more than the novel I've read by this author (Bowlaway). Very impressive.

jdgcreates's review against another edition

3.0

Sadly this was not as engrossing and brilliant as I had expected it to be, though a I did enjoy the stories. After the genius of The Giant's House, though, I had hoped a repetition of her magic storytelling.

alittlebitheather's review against another edition

5.0

Elizabeth McCracken's collection of stories is one that I've been wanting to read for a long time. I had heard many great things about it, and after I finished, I know it's for good reason that I've been hearing all these wonderful things. She has so many fantastic lines, but one in particular resonated with me long after I had read the story. From "Property," : "The weight of Pamela's bag was like the stones in a suicide's pocket."

If you read one collection of short stories this year, let it be this one.

sdbecque's review against another edition

4.0

God, these stories are good. Most of them left me struck by a moment, perfectly rendered and described and many of them haunted by grief in various forms. If you haven't read anything else by McCracken, I highly recommend her novel [b:The Giant's House|136216|The Giant's House|Elizabeth McCracken|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389405421s/136216.jpg|374973] and her memoir [b:An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination|3291844|An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination|Elizabeth McCracken|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400337163s/3291844.jpg|3328337]. I can't pick a favorite, so don't make me. Sometimes I get discombobulated by short story collections, after a while I get tired and they blur together, but not this one. In each one I felt fully immersed and I wanted there to be more story there. I am pleased to realize I have another McCracken short story collection and another novel to tear though still.

wtb_michael's review against another edition

4.0

These stories are tragically luminous. Or luminously tragic. Either way they're sad and haunting, shot through with moments of humour and pathos, but overwhelmingly, achingly, sad. They're about loss, tragedy, grief and mourning and how events can rip us out of our lives and leave us unable to re-find the tracks we thought we were on. The title story is the standout, but it's a consistently excellent collection.