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kmarion's review against another edition
5.0
Wow, I am highly impressed! Shirley Jackson is on a good route to become one of my favourite authors, that woman was a genious. Every single short story here is a little masterpiece, and the atmosphere is unbelievable - that uneasy, pressing feeling of something bad is coming, but it is all the same anyway?.. Genious.
librarianinthewoods's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars rounded up.
I love short stories and I love Shirley Jackson. This collection of short stories was no disappointment. As odd and queer as I anticipated published posthumously with a couple lectures towards the end. In the foreword, Laura Miller writes “The impression that menace lurks in life’s most familiar precincts, that intimate relations are filled with mortal peril, is the defining mood in the stories collected here.” She also wrote, “The twentieth century’s great art of domesticity and it’s terror, her persistent theme was the unspoken and unanticipated prices we pay to belong, whether to a family or to a community.”
Not unlike most short story collections, there are stories that you are pulled to more than others. A couple I wasn’t as interested in, but that’s not bad for 14 short stories and two lectures. The characters are so well drawn and stay in your head and sometimes in the queerest ways. My favorite ones in this collection were “The Summer People,” “The Rock,” “A Day in the Jungle,” “The Little House,” of course “The Lottery,” and her two lectures.
This collection contained her best known short story “The Lottery.” I remember being stunned by it in high school and have read it several times since. This and “The Yellow Wallpaper” are like no other short story. Both haunting. In the two lectures included, one is titled “Biography of a Story,” about the largely negative response to “The Lottery” published in The New Yorker in 1948. She received hundreds of letters forwarded from the magazine with many readers demanding why she’d write such a story and even wanted to know where these lotteries were held or could they go there and watch. Watch! She even wrote “Judging from these letters, people who read stories are gullible, rude, frequently illiterate, and horribly afraid at being laughed at.”
I have read We Have Always Lived in the Castle and definitely plan to read more of her work.
I love short stories and I love Shirley Jackson. This collection of short stories was no disappointment. As odd and queer as I anticipated published posthumously with a couple lectures towards the end. In the foreword, Laura Miller writes “The impression that menace lurks in life’s most familiar precincts, that intimate relations are filled with mortal peril, is the defining mood in the stories collected here.” She also wrote, “The twentieth century’s great art of domesticity and it’s terror, her persistent theme was the unspoken and unanticipated prices we pay to belong, whether to a family or to a community.”
Not unlike most short story collections, there are stories that you are pulled to more than others. A couple I wasn’t as interested in, but that’s not bad for 14 short stories and two lectures. The characters are so well drawn and stay in your head and sometimes in the queerest ways. My favorite ones in this collection were “The Summer People,” “The Rock,” “A Day in the Jungle,” “The Little House,” of course “The Lottery,” and her two lectures.
This collection contained her best known short story “The Lottery.” I remember being stunned by it in high school and have read it several times since. This and “The Yellow Wallpaper” are like no other short story. Both haunting. In the two lectures included, one is titled “Biography of a Story,” about the largely negative response to “The Lottery” published in The New Yorker in 1948. She received hundreds of letters forwarded from the magazine with many readers demanding why she’d write such a story and even wanted to know where these lotteries were held or could they go there and watch. Watch! She even wrote “Judging from these letters, people who read stories are gullible, rude, frequently illiterate, and horribly afraid at being laughed at.”
I have read We Have Always Lived in the Castle and definitely plan to read more of her work.
vsbedford's review against another edition
4.0
The unfinished novel is compelling and the two lectures on writing are invaluable. I particularly liked the pieces on her family; "A Night in the Jungle," about her second child's first sleepover party, made me laugh out loud.
merricatzimmerle's review against another edition
5.0
Solid collection of writing from various parts of Jackson’s career with some really useful writing advice at the end.
edwardestlinoffical's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
bookishliz_'s review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
ickijones's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
oisin175's review against another edition
3.0
The unfinished novel piqued my interest, but I'm not sure where it would have been able to go for a satisfying novel, though I would have loved to see. For the short stories, the first few were hit or miss for me. I know that Shirley Jackson is not only a horror writer, but some of the short stories just seemed to be nothing more than a scene with no real conclusion. I like a number of the short stories, especially later in the book, and I've read some of her others. So I know she can write engaging short stories, but some of the ones that started out this collection did not seem to be her best work.
queerbillydeluxe's review against another edition
5.0
I love love loved the essay on the aftermath of writing "The Lottery." I do believe I am obsessed with Mrs. Jackson.