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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
medium-paced
I will admit that I don’t get on well with short story collections. I feel that there is not enough room to develop the characters and the plot enough for any story to have a lasting impact. This book definitely suffered from that. There were definitely some creepy moments that I enjoyed and some elements of commentary were poignant but all of the characters fell flat, blending together and leaving the plot lifeless. The plots themselves felt like the author was chucking every weird thing they could think of into the mix to try and be engaging but with no time to develop any of this points further. This was not helped by what felt like a clunky translation. There were irritating inconsistencies throughout and the writing style felt dead. There were moments where I could see the authors skill coming through but it felt distanced, like something strong had been lost in translation. Overall, this left any commentary feeling shallow and me feeling confused. All this said, it did remain a fun read with some fun ideas. It was easy to keep turning the page, I just don’t think it’s anything that deep.
challenging
dark
tense
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
i grew up reading the brothers grimms’ fairy tales, and this book instantly brought me back to those warm feelings of nostalgia, longing, and sadness. i wasn’t really sure what to expect after the first two short stories (reminded me a lot of murata’s works), but i’m delighted i went in with an open mind. some of my favorite stories were “cursed bunny”, “snare”, “scars”, “ruler of the winds and sands”, and “reunion”.
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
I decided to read this book because of a Pinterest comment section endlessly arguing about whether it was good or not, and both the positive and negative reviews piqued my interest. I didn't find anything here especially groundbreaking (and some of the stories feel a bit overly simple), but for the most part I enjoyed the stories and the writing. Many of the stories are also incredibly sad, and if you dislike books where most people are just kind of awful, you probably won't like this.
This is a very small note, but sometimes I do get tired of stories that refuse to give characters names. I understand why, and it does give a lot of the stories a fairytale / fable feeling, but by the time I was done with this book I was really excited to pick up something else with names. Just a weird personal preference.
My favorites were probably Reunion, Cursed Bunny, and Home Sweet Home. I also really liked the ending of Scars, and Snare is pretty good. Ruler of the Winds and Sands was my least favorite, as it felt the most generic and kind of miserable.
This is a very small note, but sometimes I do get tired of stories that refuse to give characters names. I understand why, and it does give a lot of the stories a fairytale / fable feeling, but by the time I was done with this book I was really excited to pick up something else with names. Just a weird personal preference.
My favorites were probably Reunion, Cursed Bunny, and Home Sweet Home. I also really liked the ending of Scars, and Snare is pretty good. Ruler of the Winds and Sands was my least favorite, as it felt the most generic and kind of miserable.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Sadly, I thought I would like this a lot more than I did. Not to say that almost all of the stories weren’t good but I found myself wanting more out of this book. It really felt like the messages that would be in the stories would be in your face, and kinda…babied for the lack of a better word. It just kinda felt like “ok here’s the story, ok here’s the message.” I didn’t love that but I did find myself liking many of these little offbeat stories! My favorites were probably Reunion, Scars, and Cursed Bunny! I feel like this had a lot of potential, but sadly this one won’t be one I’ll come back to.