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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
don't bother with any of the stories in here besides
*Chivalry
*The Price
*Shoggoth's Old Peculiar
*Murder Mysteries
*Chivalry
*The Price
*Shoggoth's Old Peculiar
*Murder Mysteries
I'm so behind on my reading challenge because apparently, you can't work out a lot and read a lot at the same time hahahahaha but there's nothing like a quick Neil Gaiman to get you out of a reading slump. Yay! :)
I usually ADORE Neil Gaiman stories, but this collection was a mish mash of random stories and poems that were either a total waste of my time or that had potential but never quite made it as a sufficient story. UGH. What a bummer because I get so excited when I fall upon a new book of his. Just don't bother, seriously.
I still love Neil Gaiman, but I only liked this book overall. I loved a few of the stories, and then there were some that I just didn't "get" or that didn't do much for me. I very much appreciated the introduction that Gaiman wrote, explaining how each story came to be as it was a helpful resource when I finished a story and thought, "Wait...what??"
A 3.5, but not the round up-able kind. I love Gaiman. Especially his audiobooks which he narrates himself. The story about the old lady finding the Holy Grail in a thrift shop is delightful. The one about the cat doing nightly battle with the devil was told in the first person and for most of it I thought it was a true story. It was a little hard to follow the more poem-y ones while driving. Fairy tales become horror stories. And finally, a content warning for sex. Not being a prude, it was just weird having him be the narrator of it. Like a famous person reading Penthouse Forum out loud to you….
I'm not a huge fan of short stories, but there were a few gems in here. There were a few... not so gem-like creations, but some of these were published in adult mags, so I wasn't expecting a lot. Worthwhile getting the audio because he's such a fantastic narrator.
4.5
Quotes:
"Mirrors are wonderful things. They appear to tell the truth, to reflect life back out at us; but set a mirror correctly and it will lie so convincingly you'll believe that something has vanished into thin air, that a box filled with doves and flags and spiders is actually empty, that people hidden in the wings or the pit are floating ghosts upon the stage. Angle it right and a mirror becomes a magic casement; it can show you anything you can imagine and maybe a few things you can't.
(The smoke blurs the edges of things.)"
"Fairy tales, as G.K. Chesterton once said, are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated."
"I loved her gray eyes, and her fine light brown hair, and her gawky way of walking (like a fawn just learning to walk which sounds really dumb, for which I apologize)."
Quotes:
"Mirrors are wonderful things. They appear to tell the truth, to reflect life back out at us; but set a mirror correctly and it will lie so convincingly you'll believe that something has vanished into thin air, that a box filled with doves and flags and spiders is actually empty, that people hidden in the wings or the pit are floating ghosts upon the stage. Angle it right and a mirror becomes a magic casement; it can show you anything you can imagine and maybe a few things you can't.
(The smoke blurs the edges of things.)"
"Fairy tales, as G.K. Chesterton once said, are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated."
"I loved her gray eyes, and her fine light brown hair, and her gawky way of walking (like a fawn just learning to walk which sounds really dumb, for which I apologize)."
Some really high highs. I loved the Goldfish Pond so much. Simulateously made me nostalgic for LA and reminded me why I don't like living here. Also, the intersecting complimentary metaphors... so beautifully done.
Not gonna lie though, I never really "got" the poems. Besides Cold Colors. And a lot of these were really dependent on source material I'm just not familiar with, so didn't quite resonate.
Not gonna lie though, I never really "got" the poems. Besides Cold Colors. And a lot of these were really dependent on source material I'm just not familiar with, so didn't quite resonate.
Yet another attempt to get into short stories. I love practically everyting that Gaiman does and so I figured I'd like his short stories... and I enjoyed a few of them. out of the 20 or so in this story only 7 of them were interesting to me. The rest ranged from "true dislike" to "I can't remember anything about this story"
The Wedding Gift - This was hidden in the intro (which honestly was some of the better parts of the book. I like the how and why Gaiman explains for his stories a lot.) It was an interesting story
Christmas Card paragraph about Santa, - very very short but fun
Chivalry, - My favorite
The Price, - Reminded me of when I would stay over at my friend Luke's house and his father would tell us bedtime stories of our guardian angels and all that crap we put them through.
Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar, - A lot of fun. I like how people use Lovecraftian ideas a lot more than I like how Lovecraft used his ideas.
We Can Get Them For You Wholesale, - Funny, well executed idea.
Murder Mysteries - Just an interesting story
I'm gonna be done with short stories for a while. The only book of them that I truly loved was Ken Liu's "Paper Menagerie, and Other Stories"
The Wedding Gift - This was hidden in the intro (which honestly was some of the better parts of the book. I like the how and why Gaiman explains for his stories a lot.) It was an interesting story
Christmas Card paragraph about Santa, - very very short but fun
Chivalry, - My favorite
The Price, - Reminded me of when I would stay over at my friend Luke's house and his father would tell us bedtime stories of our guardian angels and all that crap we put them through.
Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar, - A lot of fun. I like how people use Lovecraftian ideas a lot more than I like how Lovecraft used his ideas.
We Can Get Them For You Wholesale, - Funny, well executed idea.
Murder Mysteries - Just an interesting story
I'm gonna be done with short stories for a while. The only book of them that I truly loved was Ken Liu's "Paper Menagerie, and Other Stories"