Scan barcode
disastrouspenguin's review
4.0
So interesting and unlike anything else I've ever read. Bonnie is awesome.
readingbrb's review
challenging
reflective
tense
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism
Minor: Sexual assault
monasterymonochrome's review
5.0
A stunning collection. Campbell sets most of these stories in her home state of Michigan, particularly its blink-and-you'll-miss-it towns and endless expanses of rural nothingness, and as a native of one of these very places, I found them all too relatable. Many of her characters struggle with their circumstances and the feeling of being stuck in an eternally unsatisfying existence, and she nails this sense of malaise and apathy so well that it's downright chilling and more than a little depressing - especially for a reader who has experienced such feelings, in all their geographic specificity, herself. At the same time, Campbell often allows her characters small victories: the light at the end of the tunnel remains distant, but it's still visible. Her subtle sense of humor also adds a touch of levity, and she has a talent for convincingly writing from the perspective of anyone from a cynical twelve-year-old girl to a diet-obsessed housewife and from a teenage boy who stalks his crush to a taciturn middle-aged divorced man. Her prose throughout remains easy and unfussy, as natural and no-nonsense as the people she writes about. My overall highlights: "Circus Matinee," "Gorilla Girl," "Eating Aunt Victoria," "The Fishing Dog," "Sleeping Sickness," and "Bringing Home the Bones."
izabela's review
4.0
Now this was a great short story collection -- the stories were interesting and they were told well. The stories were also really focused, and even though nothing much happens in some of the stories, they were all interesting.
My favorite story is 'The Fishing Dog' in which a girl lives alone in a house right by the river. She has no money and can only get around by rowing on the river. Her growth as a character is really beautiful; she transforms from a untrusting rough girl to a woman who begins to trust the men around her.
Every story is worth reading, and probably re-reading.
My favorite story is 'The Fishing Dog' in which a girl lives alone in a house right by the river. She has no money and can only get around by rowing on the river. Her growth as a character is really beautiful; she transforms from a untrusting rough girl to a woman who begins to trust the men around her.
Every story is worth reading, and probably re-reading.
More...