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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
2.5? 2.75?
When I found this book at my library, I was pleasantly surprised. The title was interesting, I like to support new authors, and I love short story collections (which I don't feel that I see many of nowadays).
I will say that there was obvious effort put into "Dead Girls." There was a lot of research done here: quotes, works reminiscent of each other, winding timelines and much to keep track of.
However, having death feature so often in each story made the book grow monotonous. In the literary world, death is best when it's shocking, when it hurts. And maybe I wasn't expecting what should have been expected from a book literally titled "Dead Girls and Other Stories" but. It just all melded together.
I'm also into stories about ghosts, but now I might have to rescind that. There were times that ghosts were mentioned so often that the word "ghost" stopped becoming a word.
I found Geminder's writing style repetitive and heavyhanded. There were many statements that seemed as though they were trying to mean something, but fell short to me.
There was a lot of effort put into this book, though, and I kinda feel bad about writing this review. "Your Village Has Been Bombed" was my favourite story. I wouldn't recommend this book, but I'm sure some will enjoy it.
When I found this book at my library, I was pleasantly surprised. The title was interesting, I like to support new authors, and I love short story collections (which I don't feel that I see many of nowadays).
I will say that there was obvious effort put into "Dead Girls." There was a lot of research done here: quotes, works reminiscent of each other, winding timelines and much to keep track of.
However, having death feature so often in each story made the book grow monotonous. In the literary world, death is best when it's shocking, when it hurts. And maybe I wasn't expecting what should have been expected from a book literally titled "Dead Girls and Other Stories" but. It just all melded together.
I'm also into stories about ghosts, but now I might have to rescind that. There were times that ghosts were mentioned so often that the word "ghost" stopped becoming a word.
I found Geminder's writing style repetitive and heavyhanded. There were many statements that seemed as though they were trying to mean something, but fell short to me.
There was a lot of effort put into this book, though, and I kinda feel bad about writing this review. "Your Village Has Been Bombed" was my favourite story. I wouldn't recommend this book, but I'm sure some will enjoy it.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A really solid set of stories, written well and unique. There's a darker side to this collection, which made it a little difficult for me personally to pay attention at times (dissociation?), so I had to do a lot of re-reading. That being said, the author deals deftly with the darker parts of girlhood and relationships.
Recommend for those who enjoy female focused stories that don't shy away from the trauma of growing up as a girl.
Recommend for those who enjoy female focused stories that don't shy away from the trauma of growing up as a girl.
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape
This book fully captures why I love short story collections.
Geminder is first of all, a brilliantly lyrical and magnetic writer. I couldn't help but be drawn in to her writing every time my eyes hit the page.
With stories weaving together themes about gender, identity, politics, trauma, and more, the focus of the book is on perception and the self: how the world sees us versus how we see ourselves and what comes of those perceptions. Sometimes reality wavers or is more gauzy as in the strange ghostliness of "1-800-FAT-GIRL", and sometimes the harshness of it comes right in your face, like in the more journalistic stories set in other countries.
Each story offers something new that I really had to think about and sit with. This isn't the type of collection you can just breeze through, and you won't want to either. There are so many beautiful sentences to contemplate and savor—a true joy to read.
Favorite stories: "Houses," "1-800-FAT-GIRL," "Coming to," "Edie," and "Dead Girls." And yes, that's half of them! They are so good. It's hard to choose.
My thanks to Dzanc Books for sending me a copy of this one.
Geminder is first of all, a brilliantly lyrical and magnetic writer. I couldn't help but be drawn in to her writing every time my eyes hit the page.
With stories weaving together themes about gender, identity, politics, trauma, and more, the focus of the book is on perception and the self: how the world sees us versus how we see ourselves and what comes of those perceptions. Sometimes reality wavers or is more gauzy as in the strange ghostliness of "1-800-FAT-GIRL", and sometimes the harshness of it comes right in your face, like in the more journalistic stories set in other countries.
Each story offers something new that I really had to think about and sit with. This isn't the type of collection you can just breeze through, and you won't want to either. There are so many beautiful sentences to contemplate and savor—a true joy to read.
Favorite stories: "Houses," "1-800-FAT-GIRL," "Coming to," "Edie," and "Dead Girls." And yes, that's half of them! They are so good. It's hard to choose.
My thanks to Dzanc Books for sending me a copy of this one.
I think there are certain horrors that can only be described with experimental poetry; they defy the rules of regular grammar and logic. Geminder's searing collection isn't experimental poetry, exactly, but she writes about violence and madness and genocide from a deeply interior place in braided stories that pull in bits of history and literary criticism. One of my favorites is "Edie," a haunting story about a childhood friendship that ebbs and flows as the girls grow older; it's also partly about the Lindbergh kidnapping. "Choreograph" examines a stepsister's mental illness alongside Vaslav Nijinsky's diaries. Geminder understands that some experiences are so ephemeral and so intense that they can't be entered head on. Her stories are spiraling and curious and precise.
I'm not sure exactly how to describe Emily Geminder's prose - dreamlike, in both its pacing and its attention to detail. Why is it that we always remember the strangest details after dreams? This book, it seems to me, is a narrative of erasure, detailing the things that erase us and our attempts to stop them. Geminder experiments with form, with narrator, even writing from the elusive "we." A phenomenal collection of stories.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
The first two stories were really special, but I lost touch with the writing moving forward. There were some really beautiful worded lines scattered about that I took note of. Edie would be my favorite of this collection. I thought I’d connect more with the final story Dead Girls but it didn’t hit affect me in the way I thought it would, even if some of the scenarios were relatable.
This book probably is a 3.5.
Short stories are my absolute favorite to read. I love how much can be conveyed in so little. I love the challenge of what can go unsaid and still create a full world. So when I entered this collection, starting off with such a strong first short story, I was hooked. The writing was beautiful and lyrical. The main character instantly came alive for me. The choice of details was enticing as the work truly drew me in and made me want to be there, be with the girl. The story was a bit long and meandered at times but I was smitten.
Then as I moved to the next short story, I was entranced. The words still floated around making me feel like there was some mystery all around. It was captivating! I was hoping the pace and the beauty could survive the whole book.
Somewhere along the way, it didn't though. The words and the pace and the sentences stayed a bit too much the same. One of the things I hope to find in a short story collection is a chance to see a breadth of talent; show me how you can bounce between narrators, how you can use tempo to create a new feel, let me see you explore and manipulate the language. This fell quite shy of that. The stories were all exceptionally biographical which dragged on far too long. There was nothing new in any of the stories and it became a bit slow death.
As the book continued, there is nothing new, there is nothing building. It is simply the same girl, the same trauma, the same story over and over and over. I understand authors writing to work their way through a trauma but that should have ended with two short stories, not this entire book.
Short stories are my absolute favorite to read. I love how much can be conveyed in so little. I love the challenge of what can go unsaid and still create a full world. So when I entered this collection, starting off with such a strong first short story, I was hooked. The writing was beautiful and lyrical. The main character instantly came alive for me. The choice of details was enticing as the work truly drew me in and made me want to be there, be with the girl. The story was a bit long and meandered at times but I was smitten.
Then as I moved to the next short story, I was entranced. The words still floated around making me feel like there was some mystery all around. It was captivating! I was hoping the pace and the beauty could survive the whole book.
Somewhere along the way, it didn't though. The words and the pace and the sentences stayed a bit too much the same. One of the things I hope to find in a short story collection is a chance to see a breadth of talent; show me how you can bounce between narrators, how you can use tempo to create a new feel, let me see you explore and manipulate the language. This fell quite shy of that. The stories were all exceptionally biographical which dragged on far too long. There was nothing new in any of the stories and it became a bit slow death.
As the book continued, there is nothing new, there is nothing building. It is simply the same girl, the same trauma, the same story over and over and over. I understand authors writing to work their way through a trauma but that should have ended with two short stories, not this entire book.
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Geminder's prose is lyric and at times breathtaking. Each story feels half a poem, digging deep into human nature, the beauty of the everyday and the way tragedy feels prosaic from too close.
"1-800-Fat-Girl" is as surreal and delightful as the title made me hope it would be, and really about female friendship, which is a consistent theme throughout the collection.
"Edie" is the story that most closely examines friendship, following two girls through playground best-friendship through troubled high school years, with threat and disfunction simmering on the edges of reality like Edie's insistence that she's an alien. (Obviously, you're always going to get me with the promise of an alien best friend.)
"Your Village Has Been Bombed" was haunting with its absurdity and meta-fictive feel.
"Choreograph" ties a story of a sister struggling with mental illness with the history of a famous dancer, and this blend of interesting fact and present fiction works throughout the collection.
I especially loved the relationship with a distant mentor in "Nausicaa" and now I want to read Ulysses for the first time.
"1-800-Fat-Girl" is as surreal and delightful as the title made me hope it would be, and really about female friendship, which is a consistent theme throughout the collection.
"Edie" is the story that most closely examines friendship, following two girls through playground best-friendship through troubled high school years, with threat and disfunction simmering on the edges of reality like Edie's insistence that she's an alien. (Obviously, you're always going to get me with the promise of an alien best friend.)
"Your Village Has Been Bombed" was haunting with its absurdity and meta-fictive feel.
"Choreograph" ties a story of a sister struggling with mental illness with the history of a famous dancer, and this blend of interesting fact and present fiction works throughout the collection.
I especially loved the relationship with a distant mentor in "Nausicaa" and now I want to read Ulysses for the first time.
challenging
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, War, Classism